Quote Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee View Post
I don't have a problem with being questioned on it. It's a work in progress and anything constructive is welcomed.

Firstly, I haven't passed off such a list as being scientific. Mathematically correct for the criteria I used, but definitely not scientific, neither have I suggested such a table would be definitive. It's meant to be fun to some extent. There isn't a perfect method for calculating this and all ways have flaws to some degree.

The list is meant as an average position for each team for their time in the league. Wimbledon is a good example as already mentioned. For their relatively short spell in the league, they were a pretty successful club. Wigan, to a lesser extent, the same. On average, Wimbledon did better in the league than us, not much question about that.

If you want to talk cumulatively, then we have got more points and more better finishes in the league than them because we've been there longer. I wasn't interested in that. There are all-time points tables elsewhere on the net. I was interested solely in, first of all, what is Cardiff City's average end of season league position. Only one way to calculate that. Then I thought it would be interesting to compare ours with other clubs average league positions.

Obviously a cumulative points table, even weighted, gives some different results. Taking your suggestion on board, it only takes a couple of minutes in the spreadsheet and it's done. The only massive difference is that clubs that haven't been in the league for most of its duration are lower down. If you create averages of those weighted points tallies, there is little difference with my table, not saying that all teams are in the same place, but those in 1-10 are pretty much the same in both etc.

There are also flaws with points tallies. While there's a need for some weighting, here's a reason why it isn't always accurate. Derby won 11 points when they were relegated over 10 years ago. That would give them 44. Reading got promoted with 106 points around the same time, which would give them 318 points. Winning the Championship is a big achievement, but worth 7 times (in an extreme case like this) more than a side actually in the top flight that finishes bottom? Not for me.

All interesting stuff, nonetheless.
Thanks for the measured response, and glad to see that the internet has it's usual race of people clamouring to be offended on behalf of others. I don't think I dismissed your efforts as futile, and I reckon it is largely reflective. The problem with stats, though, is that there will always be outliers and I think Wimbledon are definitely an example. Saying that, if the question is "what is each team's average league finish" then you have answered that, but it still feels strange to have Wimbledon so high up. Maybe I was more taken by the fact that, for example, four teams are placed 22nd in the FL.

Sheffield Wednesday 21.6
Bolton Wanderers 22.0
Sheffield United 22.3
Leicester City 22.4

The point you make about weighting the points is a good one, in isolation it won't work as in your example. But, in saying that, Derby would have amassed a load of points the season before in getting promotion from the Championship.

Out of interest, when a team finished bottom in Div 3(N) and Div3(S) did they get the same ranking and what was it?

I'd have made their regionalised total something like ((Final Position * 2) - 1) (so a team finishing 1st in Div 3(N) and Div 3(S) would get 1, a team who finished 2nd would get 3, and so on).