Championship - 2023/24

Poor Coventry, I do think if they hadn't gone on such an epic cup run, they might have made the top 6, they've been sluggish since the semi. Shades of us falling away from the European places after our own famous semi-final comeback, except they ended their cup run with their heads firmly held high!

 

Huddersfield intrigue me, how does such a bang average club come from nowhere to make the Premier League, stay up for a season, and then come within 90 minutes of doing it again, all while never coming anywhere close any other season in the last decade?

 

What a wonderful club Ipswich are. Properly owned and run, rather than us having lunatics in charge. Totally deserving of their impending promotion. Well done to them.

 

No doubt about it, they have done an incredible job with recruitment and McKenna has been a miracle worker to get them above two of the relegated clubs. But properly owned and run - well, they racked up a £20m loss in league one(!) last year, an astonishing figure really and comfortably a record for that level, and will surely post similar numbers again for this season. So, like most others in this division, they are running massively in the red and relying on their owners pumping in very large sums to fund it all. They remind me a bit of Saint Eddie's Bournemouth, minus the sh1thousery.

https://twitter.com/KieranMaguire/status/1771322350958518713

 

Exactly. A fairytale in name only. Scratch beneath the surface and it's just another club buying their way up the league. Nothing wrong with that particularly, and McKenna has still cobbled together a side that I'd say is more than the sum of it's parts, but I can't imagine their spending would be sustainable or within the rules if they somehow don't get promoted in the next 2-3 seasons (obviously most likely to happen in 3 days' time, in which case the gamble will have paid off).

 

True and I quite like Huddersfield as an away day, but not having to endure a Huddersfield home fixture will be a big positive.

 

This. Plus, great today, but where have they been playing their football for the last 15 years or so ?

 

Portman Road, I think... At least around half of their matches, anyway.

 

Yep, some seasons slightly more than half, some seasons slightly less depending on cup draws

 

They have done incredibly well this season. I think most would have had them as surviving comfortably since being promoted but they have far exceeded expectations.

As you say, Keiran McKenna is an incredibly astute football manager. It'll be interesting to see whether he stays with Ipswich or gets poached by a large Premier League team even with them on the cusp of automatic promotion.

 

That trend has been bucked quite a few times recently with teams even going on to win promotion - Middlesbrough in 2016, Villa in 2019, Brentford in 2021.

 

Wasn’t that the case with Forest? Cooper was understandably seen as a miracle worker when he got them from relegation candidates to promotion in the same season, but didn’t money play quite a part in that?

 

They famously spent the GDP of a small country while in the Prem, but how much did they spend in the Championship? I recall they started last season with very few players after all the loaners, free agents and players who were never realistically going to play in the Prem left them

 

See Leeds for details, relegated from the Prem in 2004, lost the play off final to us in 2006, relegated to League 1 in 2007.

 

Blackburn in danger with Plymouth and Sheff Wed winning. A Birmingham goal sends them down, unless they win at Leicester.

 

Brum huffing and puffing but hardly looking like scoring, not unlike Clev's first game in charge

 

They only need a draw at Leicester as they started 3 points clear of Brum

 

Good point!

 

I know they're safe in the top 6 as long as they don't get battered, but dear Lord, Norwich are playing crap today

 

Where would Blackburn be without Szmodics?

 

Ultimately not good enough from Brum this season, but what would the odds on all 4 teams in the relegation fight winning on the final day have been?

 

Find the goals if you've not seen them already - both on the counter with him running half the pitch to finish!

 

Good news that Brum have been relegated. Not the best start for their new owners!

 

7 out the bottom 8 teams won today (boo to Huddersfield), wouldve been a mental accumulator!

 

Cardiff have been on the beach for weeks, if not months, but who on earth saw Rotherham beating them 5-2?! Plymouth breathing a sigh of relief that Steve Evans didn't roll up to the New York Stadium a few months ago!

 

Eustace winning to relegate Brum

 

How depressing to finish on the same points as QPR after the opening day.