@floyd said:
Good common sense there @Commoner. My own feeling is that we'll finish in the top ten but miss out on the play-offs. Which would still count as our fourth or fifth best season in the football league.
It does sound like an exciting season to look forward to. Seems to me some are setting themselves up for annoyance by expecting promotion. I think top half is doable but as pointed out there are lots of teams who will think the same.
After all this talk of closed shop Super Leagues and this seasons experienced of a league heavily scewed by parachute payments and reputations won't it be great to be on a nearly level playing field with all 'Wycombe' things to give us an advantage.
Can't wait for the challenge and I've decided already to just ignore those who've already got us promoted next season. Life isn't like that.
There's certainly no guarantee that we'll challenge at the top end next season, but even if you take the loanees out of our squad and keep the rest, it's got to be stronger than the one that saw us promoted.
Fred and McCarthy, for two, have arguably had frustrating seasons in the main, but it's very easy to forget they are star player material in league 1, and won't be our best players either.
Once Saturday/last game have confirmed things for certain, we've a lot of reason for optimism.
Very true @Malone - and with both Fred and McCarthy, they have excelled as wing backs since we changed formation, even in the second tier. They will give defenders fits in L1.
Much to look forward to. Top ten realistic. Play-offs possible. Automatic unlikely. Great to be back in the stadium after the longest eighteen months in most of our lives.
mid-table (11-15) realistic
top ten possible
playoffs conceivable but unlikely
automatic highly unlikely
If GA leaves over the summer, I'd go back one further
relegation - unlikely
16-20 - realistic to possible
11-15 - realistic to possible
top ten - conceivable but unlikely
playoffs - highly unlikely
automatic - even more unlikely
Also not a formality that they go up either. Lincoln are 8 pts behind but with a game in hand, and they play Peterborough at the weekend. Win both and Lincoln go into the final day 2 pts behind.
I'm not sure why this team would suddenly be so poor and so many teams better than us after this season but we shall see. Imagine being 15th next season. I fear I would be blocking a lot of Gasroom posters simply for sanity's sake!
Not sure this proves much one way or the other but as I looked it up I thought I would share with you. Its subjective of course but I looked at what I see as the smallest clubs to have reached the championship and what happened after they returned to Lg1.
Format is
name,
number of seasons in champ,
first season back in lg1 placing,
number of Lg1 playoff appearances since,
number of years in lg1 or below until they next reached lg1 playoffs
number of promotions back to the Champ
I must admit I think expecting us to be challenging for the title is a tad optimistic (but then I’m not exactly an optimist when it comes to Wycombe matches). Personally I’d be more than happy with top ten and hope of the playoffs.
In terms of how smaller clubs have done since relegation @DevC, did you do any research on when they changed managers (before or after relegation).
(Also slightly subjective list or are Doncaster not one of the smallest clubs these days?)
Are we seriously getting excited about a possible mid table finish next season. I think we can do it again we’ll make a late charge into the playoffs and up we’ll go
League One is a really fascinating division @Shev. I can't wait. Was a shame last season wasn't completed, it was so close between so many teams. Bolton are back next year. Sunderland could well be, moody as ever. Fantastic
The contrast between WWFC and our old pig-f***er friends from Somerset is stark. At the same time we bulit new stadiums in the Conference, they over-spent whilst we made a profit from the move. They had no game plan when they got to the 2nd division. We are looking solid for years to come.
@DevC said:
Not sure this proves much one way or the other but as I looked it up I thought I would share with you. Its subjective of course but I looked at what I see as the smallest clubs to have reached the championship and what happened after they returned to Lg1.
Format is
name,
number of seasons in champ,
first season back in lg1 placing,
number of Lg1 playoff appearances since,
number of years in lg1 or below until they next reached lg1 playoffs
number of promotions back to the Champ
Comments
It does sound like an exciting season to look forward to. Seems to me some are setting themselves up for annoyance by expecting promotion. I think top half is doable but as pointed out there are lots of teams who will think the same.
After all this talk of closed shop Super Leagues and this seasons experienced of a league heavily scewed by parachute payments and reputations won't it be great to be on a nearly level playing field with all 'Wycombe' things to give us an advantage.
Can't wait for the challenge and I've decided already to just ignore those who've already got us promoted next season. Life isn't like that.
Who has us promoted @Right_in_the_Middle so I can ignore them as well,
I’ll miss the ‘poor, little old Wycombe’ narrative next season. Seems to have been such a big part of our identity the past few years.
And that is why GA will leave this summer. It will break his heart not being able to bring that out every other game.*
(*I hope I’m not being serious)
There's certainly no guarantee that we'll challenge at the top end next season, but even if you take the loanees out of our squad and keep the rest, it's got to be stronger than the one that saw us promoted.
Fred and McCarthy, for two, have arguably had frustrating seasons in the main, but it's very easy to forget they are star player material in league 1, and won't be our best players either.
Once Saturday/last game have confirmed things for certain, we've a lot of reason for optimism.
Very true @Malone - and with both Fred and McCarthy, they have excelled as wing backs since we changed formation, even in the second tier. They will give defenders fits in L1.
Much to look forward to. Top ten realistic. Play-offs possible. Automatic unlikely. Great to be back in the stadium after the longest eighteen months in most of our lives.
A thumbs up for @micra and I'm fully in agreement!
I'd dial it back one from your assessment Micra.
mid-table (11-15) realistic
top ten possible
playoffs conceivable but unlikely
automatic highly unlikely
If GA leaves over the summer, I'd go back one further
relegation - unlikely
16-20 - realistic to possible
11-15 - realistic to possible
top ten - conceivable but unlikely
playoffs - highly unlikely
automatic - even more unlikely
Whoever has programmed the DevBot has got it spot on, fair play
Slightly negative spin on my words @DevC ! And no need to introduce alternatives sans GA. I really don’t believe he’s going anywhere next season.
Also not a formality that they go up either. Lincoln are 8 pts behind but with a game in hand, and they play Peterborough at the weekend. Win both and Lincoln go into the final day 2 pts behind.
I'm not sure why this team would suddenly be so poor and so many teams better than us after this season but we shall see. Imagine being 15th next season. I fear I would be blocking a lot of Gasroom posters simply for sanity's sake!
Don't really get the pessimism.
I fancy us to challenge for the title next season.
Me too. Rose-coloured glasses?
Not sure this proves much one way or the other but as I looked it up I thought I would share with you. Its subjective of course but I looked at what I see as the smallest clubs to have reached the championship and what happened after they returned to Lg1.
Format is
name,
number of seasons in champ,
first season back in lg1 placing,
number of Lg1 playoff appearances since,
number of years in lg1 or below until they next reached lg1 playoffs
number of promotions back to the Champ
Burton 2 9th 0 n/a 0
Col U 2 12th 0 n/a 0
Crewe 2 13th 0 n/a 0
Gillingham 1 14th 0 n/a 0
Scunthorpe 2 18th 2 6 0
Southend 1 6th 1 1 0
Yeovil 1 24th 0 n/a 0
What does this prove? Nothing really but it interested me!
I’d certainly have added Rotherham into that list...
I must admit I think expecting us to be challenging for the title is a tad optimistic (but then I’m not exactly an optimist when it comes to Wycombe matches). Personally I’d be more than happy with top ten and hope of the playoffs.
In terms of how smaller clubs have done since relegation @DevC, did you do any research on when they changed managers (before or after relegation).
(Also slightly subjective list or are Doncaster not one of the smallest clubs these days?)
Are we seriously getting excited about a possible mid table finish next season. I think we can do it again we’ll make a late charge into the playoffs and up we’ll go
As long as we don’t do a Yeovil, and drop like a stone out of the EFL after one season in the Championship, then I’ll be happy.
L1 is such a fascinating division, as it is where the rich meet the poor. Next season? Sheffield Wednesday and Cheltenham rubbing shoulders.
Me too
League One is a really fascinating division @Shev. I can't wait. Was a shame last season wasn't completed, it was so close between so many teams. Bolton are back next year. Sunderland could well be, moody as ever. Fantastic
As long as we don’t do a Yeovil and drop like a stone out of the EFL after one season in the Championship, then I’ll be happy.
Started repeating yourself @Stewie63 . I do that a lot now (or so I’m told) but I doubt whether I’m word perfect every time.
I know it would probably be a horrible game but I would still like to come up against a still languishing Peterborough and beat them home and away.
As long as we don’t do a Yeovil and drop like a stone out of the EFL after one season in the Championship, then I’ll be happy.
(Sorry!!)
Yeovil dropped like a stone but Burton consolidated. Better to make beer than gloves? Hopefully making chairs is better than either.
The contrast between WWFC and our old pig-f***er friends from Somerset is stark. At the same time we bulit new stadiums in the Conference, they over-spent whilst we made a profit from the move. They had no game plan when they got to the 2nd division. We are looking solid for years to come.
This certainly shows the scale of the task! It would be an incredible achievement to get back.
Apologies, I’ve no idea how or why I posted that twice.