Quote Originally Posted by Trigger View Post
How do you reset your finances when the club will make far far less on almost everything? Given our debt levels, impending court cases, with a fan base that in the main feels quite meh at the moment it seems to me it could be quite damaging. Personally think it would take a fair while to correct.

Are we stagnating? We have come down what two three seasons ago? Since our promotion to this level we have mostly had some form of success or excitement at least, even this season, it's not exactly a boring mid table run, plenty to moan about. In the short term I see your point but it's not as if we have struggled for a number of seasons and nothing is happening.

Relegation to me just means more young fans lost to whoever looks good on Sky at the time they are growing up. We have no divine right but with the stadium and facilities the club has built up since our 2003 promotion I think it would be a massive shame for the club to head back down there.

I'd still go down but the thought of us struggling in league 1 with sub 10k crowds would be dreadful compared to where the club could have been. Is what it is I suppose.
What I mean is that some big clubs come down from the premiership, or linger in the championship and build up huge wage bills. Relegation, whilst far from desirable means you can probably shed a lot of that and start again with the added bonus of having good crowds. Notable that Norwich, Southampton and Leicester all went down to League 1 in recent seasons and went on to bright things.

Doesn't always happen and crowds would be the key issue for City, but if we kept decent crowds of 15,000+ or so I don't think it need be a total disaster long term. I bet if Sunderland go up this year they will thrive in the championship next year. Momentum can be a powerful force.

The alternative is Bolton or Pompey of course, and you get stuck down there and the club drifts back to where we were around 2001.