Forest will have a far greater chance of staying up than Huddersfield for me. Fulham have already lost Carvalho so they're on the back foot somewhat already. Bournemouth definitely need to invest as well.
About time we went to an 18 team league tbh. So much dross in the division that wouldn't be missed and would help with fixture congestion too.
Yeah you did set that up right in front of goal for a tap in. Good job Djenepo wasnt reading the forum as he’d have missed it…
Adam Armstrong tried to finish the joke before I'd even written the first word, and got it all wrong.
Joking aside though I do think there's a good argument for it. So many poor teams (and therefore poor matches) now and dropping 4 rounds of matches may allow for a better winter break. Would also mean less mid table sides so would reduce the amount of dead rubbers once you hit Spring. Genuinely don't see a bad side when looking at the overall picture (rather than how it would affect specific club/s)
From the point of view of the PL, your point is sound. It makes a lot of sense. But I'd be worried about the impact on the Championship. Yes the likes of Norwich and Fulham like to yo-yo, but there's still regularly sides who get one-off promotions (eg Brentford, Brighton, Huddersfield, Sheff Utd) or one-off season's in the play-offs (eg Barnsley, Luton, Bristol City). Basically there's enough variety to keep it both interesting and competitive. If you add a couple more PL teams into the Championship, my concern is that the yo-yo'ing increases, and the division turns into a bore fest.
Im not sure we really need an 18 team league. Fixture congeation is only really a problem for the top sides, so f*ck them as their resources more than cover it. As for the league staying competitive, 4 out of the last 5 seasons have seen the relegation fight go to the last day of the season. It is already a well balanced league.
Wouldn’t that be great …….always disliked Carra since that spitting episode…..,and Liam has always been a bit of a nob.
Yeah this a decent point and something I did consider but ultimately we're heading towards that anyway. We've got far more yo yo clubs than we did a decade ago and the parachute payments coupled with FFP hsve caused a huge divide in that league. That's something that needs addressing anyway imo and separately of anything else. Not that this would ever happen. You're never gonna get 8 clubs outside the top 6 vote for it.
Not for me tbh, I mean aside from the fact that it will just increase the gap between the remaining 18 and the EFL by corralling the wealth to a smaller group of clubs, frankly I couldn’t give a toss about fixture congestion and as a fan I don’t want a reduction in the number of games a season as it means less football for me to watch . Besides the clubs will just use those 4 extra games to throw in some money spinning friendlies anyway or in the case of the ‘big 6’ advocate for more CL games, fixture congestion has always just been a lazy excuse for the big boys to throw about. A 38 game league season is not the problem.
Two leagues of 18 teams each of equal quality. All 36 teams get drawn out of the hat in August to see if they'll be in League A or League B. The winners of each league play each other at the end to see who is overall champion. Two teams from A and two from B get relegated. Suggested this idea a few years ago and it's still a banger. Guaranteed to play different teams every season.
Raphina walking the pitch, on his knees in South American tradition of paying homage to his god for granting his wish.
Top 16 of the Championship. The first few seasons there would be a bit of a gulf in quality, but it would mean an extra 16 clubs getting the Premier League dosh, so it would even out eventually.