So, the Championship season has started **Spoilers**

We've won 7 of our last 8 and kept clean sheets in all of those wins. Too little, too late I fear. Was a massive ask after our terrible start to 2017 to get near the top half, now we look certain to finish there but short of the playoffs.
 
toshj said:
Comfortable win against Leeds tonight, could have been four or five to be honest. Good couple of games over the past few days. Off to Cardiff away on Saturday!
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You could have had 4/5, we could have had a few ourselves, not very good though. I'm not sure how many wins we can achieve from now until the end of the season, seriously in doubt for the play offs.
 
Andybtsn said:
You could have had 4/5, we could have had a few ourselves, not very good though. I'm not sure how many wins we can achieve from now until the end of the season, seriously in doubt for the play offs.
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A man of little faith... we're 5 points clear with 6 games remaining!

Yes we need to improve our game, but we can't win every game mate. Fulham and Wednesday still need to play each other and arguably they both have tougher run-ins then us (IMO).
 
We're either playing in form teams (Newcastle, Preston and Wolves) or ones fighting for their life Burton, Wigan. Norwich you never know with. Yeah I have no faith at all!
 
Penalty given, penalty scored. Penalty disallowed, free-kick given to Burton, and nobody knows why. **** this garbage league and everyone in it.
 
Andybtsn said:
You could have had 4/5, we could have had a few ourselves, not very good though. I'm not sure how many wins we can achieve from now until the end of the season, seriously in doubt for the play offs.
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Honestly, yours were mostly half chances. Strangely, the one attempt that was almost certainly going in - from Barrow I think - wasn't shown in the highlights as it was blocked outside the box. We had a clear view of it and it would have beaten Bentley in goal for sure.

We sold Hogan and signed a winger, deciding against bringing in a striker replacement, and since then:
  • We've the top scoring side in the top 7 divisions
  • We've secured 23 points from 13 games - play-off form
  • Vibe is the second top scorer in the division (since Hogan stopped playing for us and Vibe filled in up top - fixtures of 14th Jan)
  • Hogan has since scored once, I believe, for Villa
It's nuts. If we'd have had this settled a side for a larger part of the season, we'd have definitely given the play-off contenders a run for their money I reckon. We've got McEachran and McLeod to come back in to the side next season - Josh McEachran was in superb form before getting a whack against Wednesday. Also, the unthinkable has happened - Judge has signed a new contract! If we can add a couple of strong reinforcements this summer, and crucially we keep largely injury-free, then I think we'll have a right go next season!
 
Then you'll just sell your top players and be back to square one :p

Until you're out of the selling club ritual I can't see you ever having the stability to mount any serious challenge? You can't really predict anything, those in the play offs this year prior to this weeks games were all 13th and lower in the league last season.
 
Andybtsn said:
Then you'll just sell your top players and be back to square one :p

Until you're out of the selling club ritual I can't see you ever having the stability to mount any serious challenge? You can't really predict anything, those in the play offs this year prior to this weeks games were all 13th and lower in the league last season.
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We've got a very straight forward system. As the season ends, any player with 1 year left on their contract and who won't sign a new one, will get sold to the highest bidder. Last year we got rid of Bidwell and Button for around £4m, and brought in Bentley and Henry for £2.5m (rising). Both I'd say are better players, and both have significantly more potential than their predecessors. We've put them on long contracts, and have tied down a number of other key players to lengthy deals too - Woods, Canos, McEachran, Yennaris, Egan, etc. The idea is to hit a particular/specified season where everything is aligned: our young talented players have sufficient Championship experience, and are under contract so that we don't need to sell them, and will be reinforced by a bit of a spending increase. That''ll be the season we really go for it. It's a process which is being extremely well managed and structured from within our management ranks.

I was imagining it to be the season after next, but it could be next season with Judge signing on. The only real problem is that we'd likely have to sell Jota this summer if he opted not to sign, as his contract is up in 15 months. I reckon Harlee Dean will sign on. Also, this depends on keeping players injury free and/or having a sizeable and talented enough squad to withstand injury periods.

The thing is, every club is a selling club. The crucial element is what you do with those proceeds. We've now received ~£9.75m for Andre Gray, with a portion of that going to Luton. We placed him with Lasse Vibe for 1m EUR, and he's proven to be a better player for us. We've turned £2m in spending (Gray, Hogan and Tarkowski) into almost £30m in transfer receipts. I'd argue that we could only become a better side because we're a spending club, rather than we can't be a better club because we sell players. We sold Hogan and we're significantly better than when we had him. Sell £30m worth of players, replace them with younger ones for £5m combined and we're a better side for it. We have a bottom 5 wage budget in the league, but I think one year we'll have a proper pop at it.
 
toshj said:
We've got a very straight forward system. As the season ends, any player with 1 year left on their contract and who won't sign a new one, will get sold to the highest bidder. Last year we got rid of Bidwell and Button for around £4m, and brought in Bentley and Henry for £2.5m (rising). Both I'd say are better players, and both have significantly more potential than their predecessors. We've put them on long contracts, and have tied down a number of other key players to lengthy deals too - Woods, Canos, McEachran, Yennaris, Egan, etc. The idea is to hit a particular/specified season where everything is aligned: our young talented players have sufficient Championship experience, and are under contract so that we don't need to sell them, and will be reinforced by a bit of a spending increase. That''ll be the season we really go for it. It's a process which is being extremely well managed and structured from within our management ranks.

I was imagining it to be the season after next, but it could be next season with Judge signing on. The only real problem is that we'd likely have to sell Jota this summer if he opted not to sign, as his contract is up in 15 months. I reckon Harlee Dean will sign on. Also, this depends on keeping players injury free and/or having a sizeable and talented enough squad to withstand injury periods.

The thing is, every club is a selling club. The crucial element is what you do with those proceeds. We've now received ~£9.75m for Andre Gray, with a portion of that going to Luton. We placed him with Lasse Vibe for 1m EUR, and he's proven to be a better player for us. We've turned £2m in spending (Gray, Hogan and Tarkowski) into almost £30m in transfer receipts. I'd argue that we could only become a better side because we're a spending club, rather than we can't be a better club because we sell players. We sold Hogan and we're significantly better than when we had him. Sell £30m worth of players, replace them with younger ones for £5m combined and we're a better side for it. We have a bottom 5 wage budget in the league, but I think one year we'll have a proper pop at it.
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If Brentford can put in performances week in week out like the one that beat us the other night then I fully expect you to be pushing for POs next season.
 
Decent workmanlike win last night v QPR, superb free kick to win the game.

Can't see Huddersfield turning the deficit around, games are running out fast!
 
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