What 'Club' Are We?

On the verge of relegation to L1 for the first time in over 20 years, what 'club' are we?

Examples:

- Liverpool. Top 4 premier league club in a purple patch
- Man Utd. Top 4 premier league club significantly under achieving.

Sprinkled through the year we get the old "are we a bigger club than Derby/Sheff Wed/etc". So what club would you categorise us as?

For me, we are an underachieving top half championship club. Promotion is over achievement for us. Play offs would be stretched success. Top 10 acceptable. Anything lower unacceptable.

Following the last stint in the prem, we've finished 5th, 8th, 18th, 21st, 12th and sit in the 23rd spot at the time of writing. 4th year on the trot of underachievement for me. Relegation would be catastrophic under achievement and akin to a Newcastle/West Ham etc dropping out of the prem.....in my opinion.

For me, we'd be a 'big boy' in L1. I'm not saying we'll perform or walk the league, but a big club... there is a difference. I am also aware that relegation is earned and we're not 'too big' to go down, as we know with Bolton etc who seem to be trapped down there.


How would you categorise us as a club? I'm genuinely intrigued..

This comes along every now and then, my answer is we're a bog-standard Championship club.

Can't say we're any more than that, only two seasons in the top division in recent history and relegated both times.

Also can't say we're a third tier level club, because it's been 20+ years since we were there.

I put the likes of us, Bristol City, Swansea, QPR, Hull, Stoke, Watford etc all in the same bracket.

All clubs with potential to do more but haven't realised it. Most of them have had a taste of the PL without doing much there recently.

Obviously we're now heading down to League One unlike the others but worth remembering that the likes of Leeds, Sunderland, Southampton etc have all had to navigate time in the third tier in recent years.

We're not like clubs such as Leeds, Southampton, Sheffield United, Leicester etc who are yo-yo clubs now. We haven't spent enough seasons in the PL to be at that level.

Then you can come on to crowds. The bigger clubs get good crowds no matter how they're doing.

We only get decent crowds if we're doing well - too many just want to watch a winning team. If we're around the top of League One next season, we'll get good crowds for that reason.

But we're not a club who will get 25k every week, no matter the league or recent results - we know that from recent history.



So in summary, I'd say we're underperforming by being in League One. But our natural position is probably between the top six and midtable in the Championship.

I feel the club was heading in a good direction until the day Tan turned us red. Before that it felt like we mattered as fans when he turned us red I realised it’s not our club it’s Tans club and my passion wasn’t the same. He took the fun out of the club. I believe had he run us properly we would be near selling out the ground most weekends as we were growing. The damage he has done is massive fans that stop going realise there’s more to life and probably will hardly go to games again. Fans should be the number one priority to the owner but unfortunately it’s not the case he don’t care if we go or not. I can see us being like we were before Sam got involved. We have potential to be a big club but we have an owner that hates us and we are being punished . I hope I live to see the day he’s gone with his Malaysia bullshit too and the feel good factor comes back.

I’d say we are an average championship team.

You’ll always get some fans over estimating how big we are. You’ll also get those who believe we are awful.

We are a capital city but that means nothing, club size is based on support, past successes etc, not how many people live in a city.

Success wise we haven’t had much, we’ve had two seasons in the prem where we haven’t come back down, but other than winning the championship that one time, what success have we actually had? What have we actually won in the last 50 years that makes us a ‘big club’?

We are an average championship club that is being affected by the decisions made by our owner. Nothing more nothing less.

I believe we should be at minimum a team in and around play offs every season, as a club it has huge potential with a massive catchment area for fans.

Our facilities are a match for a lot of Premier League teams.

However, we have an owner and board members who I wouldn't trust to run a bath.

I would say we're a mid to top half championship team, just about where we've almost always spent our time. Except for the roaring 20s, 1920s that is.

In a nutshell we are a poorly run club and have been for years get the right people on board run the club properly and then ask the same question...

Division one probably by 5pm controlled by a Meglamaniac.

Who said we were a club we were 20 years ago now we are just a freak show shit owners no ambition that makes us far from a club a club is we’re u go to enjoy yourself even when we were promoted I’ve never really enjoyed myself ninian park that’s what u call enjoyment hasn’t been the same since it be even worse next season 10,000 in a stadium that’s 33,000 now that is fucked up