The *WHEN* we go down thread

[SirPercyHotspur]

One thing that people rarely talk about is that the Championship is a 46-game season. I haven't watched a Championship game in ages, but it used to be a rough league. Rough league means... injuries. Injuries means backup players. We already have a lot of injuries, which means we'd need a lot of backup players too.

As we've seen this season, you also need leaders on the pitch. Players who can rally their team-mates, but also players who can put their foot on the ball and help the team through a difficult time on the pitch (something we've been sorely lacking this season too). That means senior/experienced players.

Planning for a season in the Championship with a team of youngsters is madness in my opinion. We should have given more time and opportunities to our younger players over the past couple of seasons but, as usual, going from one extreme to the other is suicidal. Also, Maddison and Kulusevski - should they stay at the club - can be considered as injury-prone.

All that, to me, points to the team needing major investment, even in a lower league. Our problem isn't that the opposition is better than us; our problem is structural: the squad is unbalanced, with some profiles sorely lacking. Going down won't change that. Quite frankly, I'm not even sure that problem could be fixed in one window.

Agreed will we need experienced players and plenty won't be leaving Spurs as they will find it hard to find clubs willing to pay them what they are getting at Spurs.
Championship is tough but looking at two of our loans , Devine has had 41 appearances many the full 90 and has had no injuries, Phillips the same no injuries , 37 appearances.

 

[Yiddo.1882]

I don’t usually watch much championship football but Maresca’s Leicester won the league a couple of seasons ago using a system that is fairly similar to RDZ’s.

 

[Mr Gogolak]

Agreed will we need experienced players and plenty won't be leaving Spurs as they will find it hard to find clubs willing to pay them what they are getting at Spurs.
Championship is tough but looking at two of our loans , Devine has had 41 appearances many the full 90 and has had no injuries, Phillips the same no injuries , 37 appearances.

It's unclear whether our contracts have a relegation clause. I've read anything and everything on that matter and I'm just as clueless as I was before I did. I'd be surprised if those who are playing with prominent national teams agreed to a season in the Championship.

Even assuming nobody leaves, we would need a left midfielder/winger, at least two players who can pass the ball, a defensive midfielder and a goalkeeper (since Vicario appears to be leaving no matter what). Then you need backup for the positions where you don't have a good up and coming youngster.

Then you need to replace every player leaving, bar for the box to box midfielders.

That's five first-team starters plus a number of backup players. When was the last time we had that much incoming? Add to that the fact that we will need to integrate these players into the team as well as a new philosophy and it's not a given we would make a strong start to the season. But can we afford a slow start after such a miserable season? Not sure.

I really hope we don't go down, even that means keeping some of these players for one more year because I'm really not convinced we would go straight back up... but I hope I'm wrong, of course.

 

[DeanoAustin]

It's unclear whether our contracts have a relegation clause. I've read anything and everything on that matter and I'm just as clueless as I was before I did. I'd be surprised if those who are playing with prominent national teams agreed to a season in the Championship.

Even assuming nobody leaves, we would need a left midfielder/winger, at least two players who can pass the ball, a defensive midfielder and a goalkeeper (since Vicario appears to be leaving no matter what). Then you need backup for the positions where you don't have a good up and coming youngster.

Then you need to replace every player leaving, bar for the box to box midfielders.

That's five first-team starters plus a number of backup players. When was the last time we had that much incoming? Add to that the fact that we will need to integrate these players into the team as well as a new philosophy and it's not a given we would make a strong start to the season. But can we afford a slow start after such a miserable season? Not sure.

I really hope we don't go down, even that means keeping some of these players for one more year because I'm really not convinced we would go straight back up... but I hope I'm wrong, of course.

Relegation is a massive unknown. I've seen people say "we'll definitely come back up" and others say "we haven't a chance of coming back up".

None of us know because this situation is unprecedented. None of us know because we don't really yet know the financial implications of us going down. Relegation creates huge uncertainties while the only certainties I can see are negative.

Our reputation takes a massive hit that could see players more cautious about joining us if we did come back up. The side we'd have in the Championship would likely be off much poorer quality than the sides we've had that finished top 6 over the last 20 years. That means we'd probably have to reconstruct the squad when we go down and do a similar job if we did come back up - all that while we've had at least a year of our finances being decimated.

There is a seductive narrative about relegation but I just don't see it when you scratch the surface. If it happens, I'll look for some positives but, right now, I just see negatives and risk of other negatives.

 

[Legohamster]

Relegation is a massive unknown. I've seen people say "we'll definitely come back up" and others say "we haven't a chance of coming back up".

None of us know because this situation is unprecedented. None of us know because we don't really yet know the financial implications of us going down. Relegation creates huge uncertainties while the only certainties I can see are negative.

Our reputation takes a massive hit that could see players more cautious about joining us if we did come back up. The side we'd have in the Championship would likely be off much poorer quality than the sides we've had that finished top 6 over the last 20 years. That means we'd probably have to reconstruct the squad when we go down and do a similar job if we did come back up - all that while we've had at least a year of our finances being decimated.

There is a seductive narrative about relegation but I just don't see it when you scratch the surface. If it happens, I'll look for some positives but, right now, I just see negatives and risk of other negatives.

The thing is , we should come back up straight away, anyone relegated from the PL should really because even after 1 season in the PL you've got such a massive financial advantage over the rest it's not really fair.

Then you consider the players we will sell to bump the coffers, we could still sign players like Trafford for example.

We could cherry pick every Championship sides best player, that's how much of an advantage we will have.

The main issue we will have, is our recruitment is overseen by macarons.