Quote:
Originally Posted by devo22
great to see that Southampton has survived. I'm sure Liverpools scouting department will be happy, too.
Swansea-Stoke-West Brom is not a trio I envisioned going down ahead of the season, but I can't say I'll really miss those teams. Swansea made horrific squad choices and West Brom has always been kind of meh. Stoke at least has been a landing spot for a few Austrian players, so it's a shame that Bauer and Wimmer will go down.
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Change is constant but for me Swansea and Stoke have always been lower division teams, not even Championship calibre. That said they both did impressive things on the field getting, and staying, up for quite a while. Huddersfield, Brighton, Burnley and Bournemouth are all also, for me lower div clubs. The strength of their playing squads are all OK at the current moment but eventually with the kind of crowds they can draw and their infrastructure, will head back down eventually when they lose their better players or sugar daddy.
Then again maybe I just need to accept its a new reality and with the TV money making attendance less important we'll see more Newcastle's Villa's Sheffield Wednesday and Leed's going and staying down. I hope not though. Watching a game at those small clubs pales in comparison to seeing 40k in voice at a proper premier league club. I'd like to see some of the bigger championship clubs coming back up soon, the league is worse off from an atmosphere perspective when you have one more away game at Bournemouth or Huddersfield every year vs a game at Villa Park, Hillsborough or Elland Road.
The Baggies have always seemed like a tweener PL/Championship club like Palace, Derby, Wolves, Middlesborough, Norwich etc. to me based on past performance. I think they might have touched the third tier once in their history.
Excited that Palace stayed up, crazy after losing 7 straight to start the year that they are in 11th now. Also am looking forward to the Championship playoffs, I think any of those 4 teams would be a good addition back to the PL.