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Season extended indefinitely

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  • @chairboyscentral said:
    Imagine how much we'd be hated if we went up on PPG.

    It'd be horrific, and great at the same time.

    What would take the shine off any promotion, is if we do stubbornly finish this season deep into traditional new season timelines, and they do some sort of massively watered down next season, maybe only 1 game each between teams instead of 2.

    But you'd have the problem of all that lost revenue. I don't envy anyone trying to sort it all out.

  • On another note, if we somehow restart the season and get promoted, can you imagine how epic Neil Harman's book would be?

  • I hear another option is to settle it using the Big Club Index, which would see Sunderland, Ipswich and Portsmouth promoted.

  • I’d feel absolutely sick if somehow we’re promoted without another ball being kicked (as unlikely as it is). Promotion to the Championship would arguably be our greatest ever achievement - to not be able to celebrate it properly would be dreadful, and I’m also not sure I’d ever shake the feeling that we didn’t properly earn it.

  • edited March 2020

    Indeed, @chairboyscentral Come on EFL, Go for straightforward PPG, you know it makes sense... Send us up in 3rd place, then stand back and watch the whole of Sunderland spontaneously combust. It really would be the funniest thing ever!

    “No-one likes us, we don’t care...”

  • @Last_Quarter said:
    I’d feel absolutely sick if somehow we’re promoted without another ball being kicked (as unlikely as it is). Promotion to the Championship would arguably be our greatest ever achievement - to not be able to celebrate it properly would be dreadful, and I’m also not sure I’d ever shake the feeling that we didn’t properly earn it.

    It would be totally unsatisfactory. I’d rather finish the season by losing all our remaining games than be promoted under PPG.

  • Embrace the hilarity!

    Actually, I’d like the EFL to announce it first thing next Wednesday. Listen to the ‘big boys’ splutter and spew their way through thousands of vile tweets, from the south coast right the way up to the north east, for a few hours. Then at midday the EFL can admit it was just a cruel hoax.

  • I’d rather embrace Hilary.

  • @Glenactico said:

    @Last_Quarter said:
    I’d feel absolutely sick if somehow we’re promoted without another ball being kicked (as unlikely as it is). Promotion to the Championship would arguably be our greatest ever achievement - to not be able to celebrate it properly would be dreadful, and I’m also not sure I’d ever shake the feeling that we didn’t properly earn it.

    It would be totally unsatisfactory. I’d rather finish the season by losing all our remaining games than be promoted under PPG.

    Deep down, I'd feel bad about going up that way - but not that bad!

  • @Glenactico said:

    @Last_Quarter said:
    I’d feel absolutely sick if somehow we’re promoted without another ball being kicked (as unlikely as it is). Promotion to the Championship would arguably be our greatest ever achievement - to not be able to celebrate it properly would be dreadful, and I’m also not sure I’d ever shake the feeling that we didn’t properly earn it.

    It would be totally unsatisfactory. I’d rather finish the season by losing all our remaining games than be promoted under PPG.

    I don’t understand this at all.

    If we get 3rd on PPG it will be entirely on merit.

    It’s not like it’s would be on something arbitrary like alphabetical order or the toss of a coin. We would be there as we would have achieved more points in the games available to us than all but 2 other teams.

    Besides, it would be karma for the O’Neill League One season where we were done over by the restructuring.

  • @Lloyd2084 said:

    If we get 3rd on PPG it will be entirely on merit.

    It’s not like it’s would be on something arbitrary like alphabetical order or the toss of a coin. We would be there as we would have achieved more points in the games available to us than all but 2 other teams.

    But it wouldn’t be entirely on merit as straight PPG doesn’t take into account if a team has played more home games than others, or if they’ve played more teams higher than them who might have a number of games to play against each other still.

    When these are taken into account I personally can’t see Wycombe finishing higher than 6th, which would have seen us with a playoff chance had the season progressed normally. If it restarts who knows how any team will do.

    So in my view void the season or use a proper adjustment to sort out positions and start a new season when it’s possible to play again.

  • @Lloyd2084 said:
    >
    It’s not like it’s would be on something arbitrary like alphabetical order or the toss of a coin.

    Maybe I'm overly anxious at the moment but they can't decide the season on alphabetical order can they? Can they? We go down and Wimbledon are in the Championship.

  • But PPG would cause less aggro than getting clubs to settle on a more advanced model - of which there isn't a universally accepted one. Anyway, we won't need it as the season will be completed eventually.

  • @micra said:
    I’d rather embrace Hilary.

    Clinton?

  • @carrickblue said:

    @Lloyd2084 said:

    If we get 3rd on PPG it will be entirely on merit.

    It’s not like it’s would be on something arbitrary like alphabetical order or the toss of a coin. We would be there as we would have achieved more points in the games available to us than all but 2 other teams.

    But it wouldn’t be entirely on merit as straight PPG doesn’t take into account if a team has played more home games than others, or if they’ve played more teams higher than them who might have a number of games to play against each other still.

    When these are taken into account I personally can’t see Wycombe finishing higher than 6th, which would have seen us with a playoff chance had the season progressed normally. If it restarts who knows how any team will do.

    So in my view void the season or use a proper adjustment to sort out positions and start a new season when it’s possible to play again.

    I’m sure we had a couple of seasons early in the Ainsworth era we had more PPG away than at home.

    Also what about form, injuries, international call ups? All have some effect on the game, but there’s no way of quantifying it.

    The minute you start to add in these elements that have a non tangible effect on games then the whole thing will loses credibility, and the only winners are the lawyers.

    As @chairboyscentral suggests, let’s hope there is a way to finish the season properly to make this discussion moribund.

    Then again, I see a chunk of the Pompey team have the virus, meaning it’ll be harder for them to maintain / recover fitness so how do you factor that in?

    I’m glad I’m not making the decisions that’s for sure.

  • @chairboyscentral said:
    But PPG would cause less aggro than getting clubs to settle on a more advanced model - of which there isn't a universally accepted one. Anyway, we won't need it as the season will be completed eventually.

    You seem pretty adamant on this.

  • @Lloyd2084 said:

    @carrickblue said:

    @Lloyd2084 said:

    If we get 3rd on PPG it will be entirely on merit.

    It’s not like it’s would be on something arbitrary like alphabetical order or the toss of a coin. We would be there as we would have achieved more points in the games available to us than all but 2 other teams.

    But it wouldn’t be entirely on merit as straight PPG doesn’t take into account if a team has played more home games than others, or if they’ve played more teams higher than them who might have a number of games to play against each other still.

    When these are taken into account I personally can’t see Wycombe finishing higher than 6th, which would have seen us with a playoff chance had the season progressed normally. If it restarts who knows how any team will do.

    So in my view void the season or use a proper adjustment to sort out positions and start a new season when it’s possible to play again.

    I’m sure we had a couple of seasons early in the Ainsworth era we had more PPG away than at home.

    Also what about form, injuries, international call ups? All have some effect on the game, but there’s no way of quantifying it.

    The minute you start to add in these elements that have a non tangible effect on games then the whole thing will loses credibility, and the only winners are the lawyers.

    As @chairboyscentral suggests, let’s hope there is a way to finish the season properly to make this discussion moribund.

    Then again, I see a chunk of the Pompey team have the virus, meaning it’ll be harder for them to maintain / recover fitness so how do you factor that in?

    I’m glad I’m not making the decisions that’s for sure.

    The big worry is that this virus doesn't just go away through everyone staying in for a few weeks, it just delays it.

    The risk is that however far in the future, that some new wave infects rafts more people including players.

    We have to get settled back into normal life and get everything else on track.
    Football, and especially mass crowd football will be the last thing to put back in.

  • edited March 2020

    @Malone said:

    @chairboyscentral said:
    But PPG would cause less aggro than getting clubs to settle on a more advanced model - of which there isn't a universally accepted one. Anyway, we won't need it as the season will be completed eventually.

    You seem pretty adamant on this.

    I don't see why it wouldn't. The leagues want to complete it and the FA have pledged to give as much time as necessary. At first I thought voiding and waiting to start the next season would be the best solution, but that would cause untold aggro and legal challenges - plus next season will be disrupted whatever happens.

    Germany is the country to watch as they've already flattened their curve and should, if they keep making progress, be the first ones back to normal. That said, they've handled it far better than we have.

  • L> @mooneyman said:

    @micra said:
    I’d rather embrace Hilary.

    Clinton?

    Clinch. Certainly not Sir Edmund. Not even sure if it’s safe to give mrs micra a Gregory on the Once a Week.

  • @mooneyman said:

    @micra said:
    I’d rather embrace Hilary.

    Clinton?

    Benn??

  • Time to weigh in on the debate. Unfortunately I can see no option but to void the current season. This lockdown will in my opinion continue for quite some time, the Italian government for example have drawn up plans to continue lockdown until mid August. Bearing in mind we lag behind Italy in the spread of the virus and that our peak is apparently still some time away it seems reasonable to assume that we will still be in either a lockdown or partial lockdown well into September and beyond.

    For those of you suggesting we do re-start the season at a given point in time, is it reasonable to expect a series of 9 or so games, which will take about a month to complete, and for there to be no new cases of coronavirus amongst the 92 clubs, for when just one new case is declared, the entire programme will grind to a halt again.

    The only way the fixtures could be completed in my opinion without an expectation of further disruption is when a vaccine has been provided and all 66 million of us living in the United Kingdom have either developed an immunity against it or been successfully vaccinated against it. That time seems to be a long long way in the futur

    As far as I have been led to believe, there are no provisions in the Premier League or Football League regulations for the early ending of an entire season, presumably because no one ever considered a scenario such as this unfolding. Therefore possibilities such as declaring the season finished at this point or settling the season on a points average is simply untenable.

    Of more concern to the players I suspect rather than when they might resume playing and in what format, is what happens to those whose contracts expire at the end of June. League clubs are all losing money at this current time. No club is going to re-sign players or offer contracts to potential new players if there is no prospect of a resumption which means many players will find themselves technically unemployed.

  • edited March 2020

    Where's the story on Italy drawing up plans for lockdown until August?

    At the end of the day, no one knows how long this is going to last. A couple of weeks ago, our peak was predicted to come in mid-May - mid-June, but now the deputy CMO is saying cases could start to fall within the next 2-3 weeks.

  • I have the feeling that they may choose to try and finish the season in late May/June behind closed doors,

    There will need to be much more effective testing processes in place but if they do come on-stream as suggested most teams should be in a position to put a team together. Unless the situation gets dramatically worse than predicted.

    A long way from ideal but probably the neatest solution.

    On a side note, I found the story about the portsmouth players who’ve contracted it simultaneously horrifying and reassuring. The majority had no idea there was anything wrong with them at all

  • To be fair, Hilary Benn is the only one of the suggestions offered which meet @Micra's stringent spelling requirements.

  • A summer of live-streamed, behind-closed-doors games would seem to be a likely scenario if there is a risk of another infection peak. But there'd have to be rigorous testing of every single player, official, camera operator etc, plus the need to factor in players' reduced fitness and subsequent proneness to injury.

    Alternatively, each team chooses a champion, like in ancient combat, for a knock-out arm-wrestling tournament. Or maybe weightlifting or British bulldog. Suggestions of who we might put forward welcome.

  • @chairboyscentral said:

    @Malone said:

    @chairboyscentral said:
    But PPG would cause less aggro than getting clubs to settle on a more advanced model - of which there isn't a universally accepted one. Anyway, we won't need it as the season will be completed eventually.

    You seem pretty adamant on this.

    I don't see why it wouldn't. The leagues want to complete it and the FA have pledged to give as much time as necessary. At first I thought voiding and waiting to start the next season would be the best solution, but that would cause untold aggro and legal challenges - plus next season will be disrupted whatever happens.

    Germany is the country to watch as they've already flattened their curve and should, if they keep making progress, be the first ones back to normal. That said, they've handled it far better than we have.

    The only thing we can be certain on, is that there is no certainty.

    But watching the other Euro leagues will indeed be telling. If they all start voiding their leagues and insisting on running to schedule next season, we certainly can't do our own thing, unless we don't enter Europe for a season.

  • Season voided from seventh tier down - understandable given the amount of strain some clubs must already be under, number of fixtures left for some of them, and the fact you're getting into amateur player territory.

  • What does 'records scrapped' mean? Surely appearances and goals are still on player records.

    Seems a massive waste of everyones efforts for the last 9 months. Still don't understand why we just can't wait. What are these leagues able to do now based on this decision. The start for next season isn't set and players have no timescale for training.

  • I would hope we finish season, restart later and they introduce one leg FA and League Cup games (with lower league teams getting to decide home or away) to cut down matches. Cannot be beyond the wit of PL/EFL man to devise something for one season can it? I'm sure when the dust has settled most fans would prefer to see the last few games and what they may bring and be willing to sacrifice some excitement next season.

  • @Right_in_the_Middle said:
    What does 'records scrapped' mean? Surely appearances and goals are still on player records.

    I assume everything gets scrapped as those games are treated as if they never happened.

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