The Race to be Relegated with Wolves, 24/25 Thread

[jd1981]

Relegation is happening. Yesterday nailed that on for me, the worst possible result. The squad will be decimated, best we can hope is that GON goes and we have a Jorge led rebuild. Realistically I think we will do well to not repeat the double relegation.

I think we’ll hover between 7th-12th in the championship with an outside shot of the play offs.
This utopian attitude to championship football is actually comical.
I don’t even see the advantage of having 8 more matches. Just 8 more occasions to be pissed off.
Lots of away attendances below 1k.
Last night atmosphere wasn’t helped by Palace only bringing about 2k and having that big gap between the SB & JH stand.

 

[Dire Wolf]

I think when we go down, and I think it is almost certainly this season, I will just give up watching football altogether. I have no interest in watching Wolves stagnate in the Championship (or worse) for 20 more years.

 

[sycophantia]

I think when we go down, and I think it is almost certainly this season, I will just give up watching football altogether. I have no interest in watching Wolves stagnate in the Championship (or worse) for 20 more years.

That's pretty much what happened to me late 70s and 80s. Although a lot of that was to do with my personal circumstances too.
I got drawn back in when my then 8 year old wanted to go to a 'proper match' and also I was excited by Bully. Of course its much easier to watch games from afar now, even in the Championship.

 

[Tony Towner]

The thing that intrigues me about the Championship in a macabre way is what Shi does to pricing. A reasonable decrease would still see pricing at Sheff Wed and Leeds levels, I think you'd see 15k crowds often if that was the case. We'd be coming down after 7 years so there wouldn't be the excitement of say an Ipswich who've had a year and want more.

Those that say it’s a better product are kidding themselves. As has been discussed the quality is naff, we'd sell anyone decent and replace them with youngsters and as a bigger team we'd be kicking off on Friday nights and Saturday lunchtimes every week. The lack of VAR would be a blessing but that'll soon be forgotten as soon as we get a howler one way or another from the ref. Look at Bristol's goal yesterday for example

 

[jd1981]

Yeah can be a case of what’s there to look forward to? Immediate promotion wouldn’t bring anywhere near the level of excitement that it did say 2003, 2009 & 2018. I doubt we will though.
Since 2018 we’ve ticked most boxes that we can reasonably expect to achieve. 7th twice, Europe, Wembley visit beaten every sky super 6 side home and away and seen some great players turn out for us. Anything now would just seem small fry.
With ticketing it’s in their best interests to lower them to a reasonable price ie not one that prices out half the available fan base especially at championship level.
It should be the start of clawing back some of the fans and a degree of trust.
It’s ok to admit you got it wrong infact you’ll gain more respect for doing so.
Being proud and stubborn just makes you look arrogant and carefree.

 

[Tredman]

Best we can hope for is to be sold.

 

[NicholasG1973]

Best we can hope for is to be sold.

Either that or Thomas Tuchel takes Gaz as his assistant manager.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

The consequences of prioritising keeping GO over doing everything we could to avoid relegation will be very long-lasting. The value of the club will plummet so Fosun are highly unlikely to sell, much more likely is running it on a shoestring and not giving a toss about where the team ends up. Their approach of replacing established players with players that can’t actually get a start in a team that is utterly woeful means relegation is inevitable sooner than later so the way I feel at the moment is that the sooner it happens the closer we are to recovering under new owners. Incredible how we’ve plummeted post-Nuno.

 

[Tony Towner]

The consequences of prioritising keeping GO over doing everything we could to avoid relegation will be very long-lasting. The value of the club will plummet so Fosun are highly unlikely to sell, much more likely is running it on a shoestring and not giving a toss about where the team ends up. Their approach of replacing established players with players that can’t actually get a start in a team that is utterly woeful means relegation is inevitable sooner than later so the way I feel at the moment is that the sooner it happens the closer we are to recovering under new owners. Incredible how we’ve plummeted post-Nuno.

They could jack up the value of the club in the Championship, by selling players, but essentially the purchaser would just be buying money in the bank. They'd be over paying for the asset ignoring the cash, but wouldn't need to invest additional money in a transfer budget. It would be an unusual model they'd have to adopt.

 

[Squeak]

Grief, so much negativity. The end is nigh.

 

[Kenny]

Grief, so much negativity. The end is nigh.

Can't think why people are in a negative mindset. You would think that 1 win in 20 PL games would have everyone dancing for joy and optimistic for the future.

 

[Derby Wolf]

Can't think why people are in a negative mindset. You would think that 1 win in 20 PL games would have everyone dancing for joy and optimistic for the future.

Mitty's gotta Mitty.

 

[Langers]

Grief, so much negativity. The end is nigh.

What positives are there though? Genuinely? I'm normally a very optimistic person but I'm struggling to think of much to be happy about with the club right now.

Is the Western a bit quieter pre-match? I suppose that would be a plus.

 

[Kenny]

What positives are there though? Genuinely?

- Championship is better
- No VAR (refs never make mistakes, like give corners when it's a goal for example)
- More games for your money
- Loads on TV



It's all leading to the promise land. Get a grip man.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

The end is nigh.

Yes, yes it is.

 

[Squeak]

We have been in far worse positions in our history. Relegation, while deserved based on how we are playing, is really not the be all and end all. It isn't the destruction of our club. Sure it's a set back but after seven years in the Prem, the reality is that clubs like ours really can't compete on a sustainable basis. The best we can hope for is 8th place and that's if everything goes well.

I get the gloom or doom , particularly with this numbskull as our Head Coach, but other teams have shown they can rebound. Always another season, always another game.

 

[The Bear]

Relegation wouldn't be the worst or most annoying thing about it. It's the fact we've sleepwalked and declined gradually into it after being in such a stable position with the squad and league positions for several consecutive seasons.

 

[Squeak]

Relegation wouldn't be the worst or most annoying thing about it. It's the fact we've sleepwalked and declined gradually into it after being in such a stable position with the squad and league positions for several consecutive seasons.

Absolutely 100% agree and yes, we can be annoyed and pissed off about it. But all the talk of a never ending downward spiral is premature and frankly, just as annoying.

 

[Stan Hullis]

Option 2 is obviously not the preferred one, but being in the Championship does not necessarily make a sale more difficult because less people are going to expect a buyer to pay a fee that may or may not be unrealistic right now.

Worst case scenario, Wolves becomes a ghost club like Swansea.

I worked with Trevor Birch when he was appointed CEO there. The owners didn't want to sell without getting their money back, and they also didn't want to invest anything at all. Birch said like it was: "between July 31 2017 and July 31 2018, we had a total turnover of £125m. By 2022, the turnover needs to be - and will be - £17m".

Instructions were clear: sell everything possible to sell (we we're lucky because manager Graham Potter had done a great job with some of the young players in the club), downsize the academy, only bring in players on loan or for free. Keep sustainable until a fluke promotion to the PL or some unlikely bidder showing up.

Their American owners still had to put in a little bit of money, despite being very reluctant to do so, in order to keep the club running. They're probably still doing that, But unlike in the Premier League, where only Brighton & Hove Albion is profitable and most clubs make severe losses, the amounts are not eye-watering. You can be a (nearly) ghost ship in the Championship and if you're very good at cutting costs, you can profit from the first year of parachute payments.

There is a bit of speculation from my part in these posts, but I can repeat what I know for certain: Fosun does not want to run a football club. They don't have the money, the expertise or the support from their lenders. They want to get out, but they don't want to sell it cheaply because there's a lot of people in China watching them and expecting them to sell their properties and assets at good value. And currently there's not much interest.

Another thing I know is that they've realised that the Wolves brand is a lot more valuable than sporting success. You could have eleven Joacim Bjorcklund and the club would still be worth £100-200m. Obviously this won't happen as they don't want the spotlight, which would be the case if Wolves ended up at the bottom of the league with no points. But the days were Fosun cared about what happened on the pitch, and the quality of the squad, are over.

This is mainly, I think, what people are worried about. Rightly so, in my opinion.

 

[Tony Towner]

Shouldn't have deleted Kenny, it was bang on.