Villa or Derby?

Villa for me but just happy Leeds fell apart again. Great advert for the Football League.

Top 6 club supporters are really missing out though and they’re too ‘armchair’ to even know it.

We should enjoy where we are but I do miss the Champ

 

Derby. I'm not ready to hear that m'lord nonsense again just yet.

 

Derby as I think they are the weaker of the two and will struggle to survive.

Norwich , Sheffield Utd and Derby would be a very weak set of promoted teams imo and I would think that they would all be amongst the favourites to go down.

 

Aston villa. Better stadium. Easier for me to get to.

 

Derby please ....but it will be Villa !

 

I fully agree with you... but it’s strange entering our 5th season in the prem that we still think about who will be the weaker team, at this stage it shouldn’t really matter to us!

 

The exact opposite of this for me.

 

Hope you're right and it's Derby then !

 

It's always nice to have as many weak teams in the premier league as possible imo!!!!

 

Derby for me, purely as I have a good mate who is a big Derby fan, he can't help it he was born there

 

At this stage in our premier league stint does it really matter anymore? Wolves are just about the strongest side you’re likely to see come out of the championship, yet we still beat them 2 out of 3 times.

There is an argument that we now want the strongest teams possible to come up, as they’re more likely to take points off of the teams we are actually now competing with.

 

Yes, I don't want to come across as an arrogant supporter of an established Premier League team.

But I see Norwich and Sheffield Utd more like Brighton. Decent team spirit and organisation but basically full of average players playing football that suits the Championship.

As Huddersfield and Brighton have shown, that can get you to survival in the first year but you need more to stay in the Premier League. I just don't see Norwich or Sheffield Utd having the finances or set up to do that in the long term.

We have definitely evolved our playing staff and playing style to play "Premier League" football after surviving the 1st year on hard graft and passion.

Wolves came up with a Premier League team playing Premier League football.

I think Leeds would have D) and Aston Villa could have the "brand" to attract the investment and players, like Newcastle, to survive longer.

But I guess we will just have to wait and see. I can't wait for the next season already!!!!!!

 

Good point. I guess I'm the cautious type still looking for survival as the first goal!

 

We’re Watford fans, it’s ingrained in us to be pesemistic! If we genuinely see ourselves as relegation candidates then we’d defintely want the weakest teams coming up. If we don’t think we’ll need to worry about relegation it’s completely swings and roundabouts as to who comes up, in my opinion of course.

 

Derby. My cycling bore in laws are Derby fans and I want to lord it over them.

 

I don't think we should be looking at ourselves beyond survival any season, until it becomes impossible.

The gap between 7th and bottom 3 is tiny. Burnley finished 7th and then flirted with relegation the following year. Leicester won the title fee, sandwiched between seasons in the bottom 5 or so.

We are only ever a bad start or an injury crisis away. Let's keep hoping for anything which tips the odds in our favour, be it weaker teams coming up or crackpot owners wrecking other more established clubs. We're here for a good time, not a long time.

 

You are being logical. We will be amongst the 6-8 favourites for relegation next season so the weaker the promoted the better. I doubt we will reach 50 points again. Both WBA and Stoke were relegated after strong showings the previous season.

 

I recall this.

The normal habitat for this species is the Islington/Hackney axis.

Must have gone feral.

 

To be fair to them, Brighton have survived their 2nd season as well. And sacked their manager for doing so after a late season lull in form.

They are following the Watford blueprint to success.

 

They have indeed.

Given this, I salivate at which herbert they will appoint next.

 

Norwich to me look very like Huddersfield when they came up - Young German manager with an unfancied bunch of misfit players mixed in with good youngsters, playing good football. They will need far more than that though and if they rest on their laurels they will get hammered out of the division IMO.

Sheff United will stand a decent chance because it’s a tough place to go and the crowd make it hostile. That’s a leveller against some PL teams. But Billy Sharp is ageing and falls in that gap between Championship and PL - certainly not a fearsome striker. They will need to strengthen for for sure.

Villa will be best equipped should they come up. Not sure what games you’ve watched (last nights aside!) but they do not play like Stoke! They have decent creative midfielders who are good on the ball and ball playing CB’s with a good striker in Abraham as well. If they could keep their loan players, as well as Grealish and add a couple more, they’ll do well I think.

Derby would struggle though. That I can agree with.

 

If we're still competing with Wolves next year then this isn't the case!

 

I'm of the opinion that it can't hurt to have weaker teams in the league, but I'm not exactly looking over my shoulder. Of course, we could get raided, then suffer a horrendous injury list and struggle, but I do think we'll probably be OK for next season at least. After that, well who knows?

 

At some point we lose Deeney, at some point we lose Doucoure, Capoue, Foster, Deulofeu, Pereyra, Cathcart. We've got experienced players elsewhere but we need to recycle the squad with more Deulofeus and less Zeeglars Navarros, Jurados and Niangs or we'll end up with a side like stoke when they went down.

 

We will do that naturally as we have done every season. Our natural trajectory has been up since the Pozzos bought us. Capoue cost £5m, if we sell Docoure it’s will be for £40m. Plenty more players out there like Capoue and Doucoure for £10/£20m. They won’t all work out, but there will be an increased chance they’ll be even better than who they will be replacing.

The Pozzos certainly buy some duds, thankfully they’re generally cheap punts and it doesn’t really matter. I do genuinely believe they are always looking 2-3 seasons ahead though, and they have a list of about 100 players ready to bring in to actually improve the squad when players leave, as has been the case every single season.

There will always be Zeeglars, Navaros, Jurados and Niangs, ask yourself how much any of those actually cost the club though? They’re cheap punts the owners will always continue to dabble with alongside genuine investement.

 

All good in theory but right now we have a bottom 7 squad which has been taken to the heights by Gracia. It is also the oldest in the division. If we sell Doucoure we have a bottom 5 squad.

We need as many weak teams as possible judging on recent transfer window efforts. Sema, Masina and Navarro are worse than what the promoted clubs have to offer.

 

With Saturday approaching i hark back to a fine day at Villa Park some 35 years ago abd would welcome that Stadium to a list of travels next season. Saying that I've a mate who's a Derby Fan so would love the opportunity to smash them in the Prem. This would also allow us to have a cheeky bid on Grealish.

 

Grealish to wfc? Not a chance.....

 

This is true.

I think with a change of manager they will change their style of play next year, if they can get the calibre of players to support it.

I think the fans (I know a few) could no longer stand the brand of football Houghton plays and, as the second half of the season showed, it's not sustainable in the long term.

Every team promoted has that little bit of energy and intensity in the first year. It can keep average teams with average players up. But it can't last beyond one year imo.

 

Derby for me. Stuck a few quid on them as outsiders before the playoffs, plus the away game is a 25 minute drive for me.

 

No one will buy Billy Blunt,he's about 47!
I don't really care as long as we beat them.

 

Derby.
Altogether a nicer club.

 

Be great to have Nugent in the Prem.

Yet another of the class of 12 May 2013 to make it.

 

So long as Grealish doesn’t go to Palarse.

Hearing Woy talking about Gweelish each week would be too much to bear.