Division one things to forward to……..

[tmesis]

Am I right in thinking we’ve won two games by more than 1 goal in the last two years? Blackburn and Peterborough

Not quite. Blackburn, Huddersfield, Bristol City and Blackpool this year, but yes, only the Peterborough game last year.

And only scored 4 goals once in a league game in 3 years (4-2 at Blackburn). Can’t remember when Reading last scored more than 3 in a league at home.

4-4 v Swansea

[elrey]

Have you thought that maybe you're having to explain it constantly because it's a bad idea?

Two types of people. The emotional and the rational.

The emotional will say "we want to be in the Premier League, success is the only important thing"
The rational will look at everything and try and see what is what, see those clubs who have gone down and then come back stronger, see those who have gone down and never come back. See how the owner is, see how the academy is.

There will ALWAYS be those emotional people who think only about their emotions. So, it needs to be explained to them and they still won't listen. Reading were division three and really bad when I first started supporting them. When we went up to what is now the Championship we were minnows, but managed to make ourselves a Championship team, and still went down and came back up again.

It happens, that's football. Yes, teams like Bradford went down and inexplicably have never managed to make it back up even with huge crowds, and that could happen to us, but most likely next season we'll be play offs at worst. If we can build a team out of academy players, it won't cost us a fortune. It's doable in league one.

Ipswich finished 11th twice and 9th in league one before they're better season this time around. That could well happen to us.

Better than finishing 20th every season in the Championship. Or literally just waiting for the next season to get relegated anyway.

[Sutekh]

Not quite. Blackburn, Huddersfield, Bristol City and Blackpool this year, but yes, only the Peterborough game last year.

And only scored 4 goals once in a league game in 3 years (4-2 at Blackburn). Can’t remember when Reading last scored more than 3 in a league at home.

4-4 v Swansea

Oh yes

[tmesis]

Two types of people. The emotional and the rational.

The emotional will say "we want to be in the Premier League, success is the only important thing"
The rational will look at everything and try and see what is what, see those clubs who have gone down and then come back stronger, see those who have gone down and never come back. See how the owner is, see how the academy is.

There will ALWAYS be those emotional people who think only about their emotions. So, it needs to be explained to them and they still won't listen. Reading were division three and really bad when I first started supporting them. When we went up to what is now the Championship we were minnows, but managed to make ourselves a Championship team, and still went down and came back up again.

It happens, that's football. Yes, teams like Bradford went down and inexplicably have never managed to make it back up even with huge crowds, and that could happen to us, but most likely next season we'll be play offs at worst. If we can build a team out of academy players, it won't cost us a fortune. It's doable in league one.

Ipswich finished 11th twice and 9th in league one before they're better season this time around. That could well happen to us.

Better than finishing 20th every season in the Championship. Or literally just waiting for the next season to get relegated anyway.

We've done so badly in the championship because of the financial restrictions, and dreadful recruitment.

The financial restrictions won't be eased any further in League One, nor is there any reason to believe our recruitment will be better in that division.

[under the tin]

Clearly most of you have never experienced what its like in the lower divisions

I remember the playoff semi final win against Wigan, the draw at Brentford when we got promoted, a 3-0 away at win at Port Vale to win the division 4 title and beating Wolves 1-0 in the League Cup. Plus, many other great experiences.

However, other than seeing us get to a playoff final playing some of the most awful football I have ever seen (the game at home to Sunderland springs to mind) and the FA Cup semi final not a lot else springs to mind for years now.

Remember those days too, amongst my favourite memories following the club all these years. Newport away, etc.
Our first season as a PL side was a new and great experience, followed a year later by the reality that being a small fish in a big pond means that staff wages quickly become disproportionate against income, a lesson that hasn't been properly addressed to this day, as even in the Championship, we are competing against PL parachute money, and other clubs rolling the dice in the hope of promotion to the money-dominated busted flush that is our elite league.
League 1 wages will at the very least give the club the opportunity to match the wage bill to the club's income more realistically.
After all, it is from whence we came. SJM's brick on brick approach is what is now needed to salvage the club. The players who will be wearing the shirts are sadly the only legacy of his that remain, unlike the stadium, or the surrounding land.
Yeah, so attendances will drop early on, but that's no surprise. I remember we took 40 000+ to see us beat Luton at Wembley, then the following home fixture vs. Ipswich, the Simod cup was paraded in front of the 11 000 or so who bothered turning up. Fickle, our lot.

[Snowflake Royal]

Have you thought that maybe you're having to explain it constantly because it's a bad idea?

Two types of people. The emotional and the rational.

The emotional will say "we want to be in the Premier League, success is the only important thing"
The rational will look at everything and try and see what is what, see those clubs who have gone down and then come back stronger, see those who have gone down and never come back. See how the owner is, see how the academy is.

There will ALWAYS be those emotional people who think only about their emotions. So, it needs to be explained to them and they still won't listen. Reading were division three and really bad when I first started supporting them. When we went up to what is now the Championship we were minnows, but managed to make ourselves a Championship team, and still went down and came back up again.

It happens, that's football. Yes, teams like Bradford went down and inexplicably have never managed to make it back up even with huge crowds, and that could happen to us, but most likely next season we'll be play offs at worst. If we can build a team out of academy players, it won't cost us a fortune. It's doable in league one.

Ipswich finished 11th twice and 9th in league one before they're better season this time around. That could well happen to us.

Which would be a damn sight less depressing than 19th, 20th and 21st in the Championship.

[elrey]

Ipswich finished 11th twice and 9th in league one before they're better season this time around. That could well happen to us.

Better than finishing 20th every season in the Championship. Or literally just waiting for the next season to get relegated anyway.

We've done so badly in the championship because of the financial restrictions, and dreadful recruitment.

The financial restrictions won't be eased any further in League One, nor is there any reason to believe our recruitment will be better in that division.

Very true. However maybe we won't need to recruit so much, and can use the youth players more because the level will be easier for them.

[windermereROYAL]

Better than finishing 20th every season in the Championship. Or literally just waiting for the next season to get relegated anyway.

We've done so badly in the championship because of the financial restrictions, and dreadful recruitment.

The financial restrictions won't be eased any further in League One, nor is there any reason to believe our recruitment will be better in that division.

Very true. However maybe we won't need to recruit so much, and can use the youth players more because the level will be easier for them.

Nice to know some on here have inside knowledge of the financial restrictions for next season.

[Royal_jimmy]

Two types of people. The emotional and the rational.

The emotional will say "we want to be in the Premier League, success is the only important thing"
The rational will look at everything and try and see what is what, see those clubs who have gone down and then come back stronger, see those who have gone down and never come back. See how the owner is, see how the academy is.

There will ALWAYS be those emotional people who think only about their emotions. So, it needs to be explained to them and they still won't listen. Reading were division three and really bad when I first started supporting them. When we went up to what is now the Championship we were minnows, but managed to make ourselves a Championship team, and still went down and came back up again.

It happens, that's football. Yes, teams like Bradford went down and inexplicably have never managed to make it back up even with huge crowds, and that could happen to us, but most likely next season we'll be play offs at worst. If we can build a team out of academy players, it won't cost us a fortune. It's doable in league one.

Ipswich finished 11th twice and 9th in league one before they're better season this time around. That could well happen to us.

Which would be a damn sight less depressing than 19th, 20th and 21st in the Championship.

Losing to Stoke <<<<<<<<<<<< drawing with Port Vale

[tmesis]

We've done so badly in the championship because of the financial restrictions, and dreadful recruitment.

The financial restrictions won't be eased any further in League One, nor is there any reason to believe our recruitment will be better in that division.

Very true. However maybe we won't need to recruit so much, and can use the youth players more because the level will be easier for them.

Nice to know some on here have inside knowledge of the financial restrictions for next season.

We know we have to stick to a business plan again. That plan is unlikely to allow us to post huge losses.

I would suspect that plan will have to factor in possible relegation.

[Winston Biscuit]

Ipswich finished 11th twice and 9th in league one before they're better season this time around. That could well happen to us.

3 top half finishes then a promotion push? you know how appealing that sounds, right?!

[tmesis]

Ipswich finished 11th twice and 9th in league one before they're better season this time around. That could well happen to us.

3 top half finishes then a promotion push? you know how appealing that sounds, right?!

Getting 20,000+ every week probably helps. We'll do well to average half that if we are mid-table.

[Snowflake Royal]

Ipswich finished 11th twice and 9th in league one before they're better season this time around. That could well happen to us.

Which would be a damn sight less depressing than 19th, 20th and 21st in the Championship.

Losing to Stoke <<<<<<<<<<<< drawing with Port Vale

I agree that losing to Stoke is less good than drawing with Port Vale

Also 32% win rate is less good than 41% win rate. That's our current win rate vs Ipswich's 2020-21 win rate in 11th.

[Snowflake Royal]

Ipswich finished 11th twice and 9th in league one before they're better season this time around. That could well happen to us.

3 top half finishes then a promotion push? you know how appealing that sounds, right?!

Getting 20,000+ every week probably helps. We'll do well to average half that if we are mid-table.

We'll comfortably average 12k in L1 mid-table next season.

[Winston Biscuit]

Ipswich finished 11th twice and 9th in league one before they're better season this time around. That could well happen to us.

3 top half finishes then a promotion push? you know how appealing that sounds, right?!

Getting 20,000+ every week probably helps. We'll do well to average half that if we are mid-table.

then so be it. Its all just part of the competition. Once we get to the promotion push season the attendance will go right up

[tmesis]

3 top half finishes then a promotion push? you know how appealing that sounds, right?!

Getting 20,000+ every week probably helps. We'll do well to average half that if we are mid-table.

We'll comfortably average 12k in L1 mid-table next season.

Why? We were only about managing that when we were mid-table this season, because fans have pretty much given up on the club. We also only averaged a bit over than when we finished 3rd in 2001. There's nothing about relegation that will have fans thinking we now have a bright new future.

And even 8000 a game is probably around £5 million a year in budget terms. A club like Ipswich has more than double the budget of the average League One club. Even with 12k a week, with our recruitment record, we will probably blow any advantage we might have, and we'll be starting from a very poor starting point - having to rebuild a completely threadbare squad.

[Snowflake Royal]

Getting 20,000+ every week probably helps. We'll do well to average half that if we are mid-table.

We'll comfortably average 12k in L1 mid-table next season.

Why? We were only about managing that when we were mid-table this season, because fans have pretty much given up on the club. We also only averaged a bit over than when we finished 3rd in 2001. There's nothing about relegation that will have fans thinking we now have a bright new future.

And even 8000 a game is probably around £5 million a year in budget terms. A club like Ipswich has more than double the budget of the average League One club. Even with 12k a week, with our recruitment record, we will probably blow any advantage we might have, and we'll be starting from a very poor starting point - having to rebuild a completely threadbare squad.

Fans are sick of losing. Teams often gain a bit of support on relegation with the prospect of a new challenge and excitement. We've got 12k under those circumstances before.

We're not going to lose 4k fans over night.

[Winston Biscuit]

Getting 20,000+ every week probably helps. We'll do well to average half that if we are mid-table.

We'll comfortably average 12k in L1 mid-table next season.

Why? We were only about managing that when we were mid-table this season, because fans have pretty much given up on the club. We also only averaged a bit over than when we finished 3rd in 2001. There's nothing about relegation that will have fans thinking we now have a bright new future.

And even 8000 a game is probably around £5 million a year in budget terms. A club like Ipswich has more than double the budget of the average League One club. Even with 12k a week, with our recruitment record, we will probably blow any advantage we might have, and we'll be starting from a very poor starting point - having to rebuild a completely threadbare squad.

people are way too apocalyptic about relegation. I blame Sky Sports and their 'I fear for them' mantra that absolutely has to be repeated by every pundit about every club that could go down. The someone-is-about-to-die vibe they continually push is just there to ramp up the drama and pull on peoples emotions.

Its a sports competition. If you are one of those towards the back of the field then you have to enter a different competition the next year to try and get back into the previous competition. all part of the fun.

We need to find our level. The Champ has mostly been above our level in recent seasons, and this one it may be totally beyond our level. So lets find our level and see if we can watch our team get some wins

[Snowflake Royal]

To those who think we'll struggle to make 10k average in L1, how many clubs can you provide from the last ten years who lost ~20-25% of their support on relegation from the Championship to back that up?

[Hound]

To those who think we'll struggle to make 10k average in L1, how many clubs can you provide from the last ten years who lost ~20-25% of their support on relegation from the Championship to back that up?

Who do you think who is currently going now, when we are playing awfully and on a downward spiral will actually stop going when we are more competitive (hopefully) in the division below?

It’s not like the prem when you go to the game because you are also wanting to watch a Liverpool or an Arsenal etc

We’ll lose some of the way attendance. Otherwise not much I doubt