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Is relegation to League One a blessing in disguise?


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Wolves, Leicester, Leeds and Southampton have all been to League One and bounced back well, is relegation to this division a blessing in disguise?

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it was a blessing in disguise for us because we were shite in the years leading up to our eventual relegation.

I went in to more detail in another thread but it gave us a chance to get rid of all the deadwood and general crap in our squad. Gave us a chance to get some momentum back in to the team and get back to winning ways despite being in a lower league. Gave way to some fantastic away days too!

We've had some crazy moments since our relegation to League One though, all within 10 years! I'd be amazed if any other clubs have been as eventful as us?

2007-08 - reached the lowest point in our history, relegated to League One
2008-09 - stroll to promotion & winning League One
2009-10 - reach play-offs, get knocked out to Cardiff on penalties, helped by Kermogant trying a Panenka and it failing
2010-11 - Hire Sven Goran-Eriksson, have a lot of money pumped in to the club by new owners, ultimately failing to get anywhere
2011-12 - Sven sacked, the return of Nigel Pearson gets us to 9th
2012-13 - the ultimate heartbreak, worse than a few season ago, in the play-offs. Knockaert misses a penalty, Watford score. Dreams of promotion over.
2013-14 - win the Championship with ease, scoring 102 goals, only losing 6 games.
2014-15 - The Great Escape. Surviving in the Premier League after being bottom of the league at Christmas and in March.
2015-16 - winning the fucking Premier League. Enough said.
2016-17 - Sack Ranieri, reach Champions League quarter-finals, survive again after being in the bottom 3 in February. 

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Smiley's pretty much killed any point of a detailed post by making it straight forward as possible. All those clubs listed by Cannabis had good owners, a solid infrastructure and a good coaching setup that cold get the best out of their squads. That positive momentum would then carry over in to their return to The Championship.

You have some teams like Sheffield United and Preston North End who struggle but always remain near the top. Then you have teams like Coventry, Blackpool, Portsmouth and Plymouth who got themselves in to such a bad situation they couldn't do it.

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Using us as the most recent example, it gave a club and a team of players used to losing for years the chance to stop the rot against much weaker opposition. 

Of course, at board level we are still far from steady, and nobody knows which players will be kept under contract next year, but that stint in League One could have helped the club turn a corner. Next season is tricky to predict but I'm pretty sure there will be three weaker teams than us. It's a platform to build on after years of downward spiral.

I'm just delighted we didn't do a Sheffield United and end up stuck there for years. Although, they're my cheeky dark horses for playoffs next year. 

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Sometimes things getting really bad can be a catylist for change. So sometimes it can help. Other times it doesn't.

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I guess a relegation (to any division) can assist a club in terms of it being the necessary kick up the backside to flush out any dead wood, given the stark differences in budget allowance. That was certainly the philosophy my old flatmate – a Villa fan – took last season. He wanted the club to go down, since it seemed the only way to fix the club was to knock it all down and rebuild from the ashes, as it were. 

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On 2017-5-9 at 2:37 PM, Stan said:

it was a blessing in disguise for us because we were shite in the years leading up to our eventual relegation.

I went in to more detail in another thread but it gave us a chance to get rid of all the deadwood and general crap in our squad. Gave us a chance to get some momentum back in to the team and get back to winning ways despite being in a lower league. Gave way to some fantastic away days too!

We've had some crazy moments since our relegation to League One though, all within 10 years! I'd be amazed if any other clubs have been as eventful as us?

2007-08 - reached the lowest point in our history, relegated to League One
2008-09 - stroll to promotion & winning League One
2009-10 - reach play-offs, get knocked out to Cardiff on penalties, helped by Kermogant trying a Panenka and it failing
2010-11 - Hire Sven Goran-Eriksson, have a lot of money pumped in to the club by new owners, ultimately failing to get anywhere
2011-12 - Sven sacked, the return of Nigel Pearson gets us to 9th
2012-13 - the ultimate heartbreak, worse than a few season ago, in the play-offs. Knockaert misses a penalty, Watford score. Dreams of promotion over.
2013-14 - win the Championship with ease, scoring 102 goals, only losing 6 games.
2014-15 - The Great Escape. Surviving in the Premier League after being bottom of the league at Christmas and in March.
2015-16 - winning the fucking Premier League. Enough said.
2016-17 - Sack Ranieri, reach Champions League quarter-finals, survive again after being in the bottom 3 in February. 

You really have had a fucking mental 10 years. Absolute rollercoaster! 

I really can't see it being a blessing for us, we're fucked. Fucked untill the owners fuck off. Poisonous cunts.

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I don't see too many issues for Blackburn next season. League One is pretty weak. If I was a Blackburn fan I'd look at the positives.

It will actually be good for Blackburn to get a feel good factor back at the club by being at the top end of the division. No matter how pessimistic hey will feel, they should still be very competitive in that league, much like Bolton were.

They are a new team so other clubs will sell out home games to come watch them visit which is something the club hasn't been used to in recent times and make them feel like a big fish in a small pond. Conversely, it will be good for Blackburn to go to a lot more away games with a bigger away following getting behind a team when they are producing better results as well as the novelty of seeing new grounds.

They will have some new derbies to play like Bury, Rochdale and Oldham as well as possibly Blackpool which will make some away days interesting for their fans.

They will blood some youngsters who will emerge and come to the fore which is always pleasing to see.

This will be like wiping the slate clean. What Blackburn really need to do is think about where they see the club in 3-5 years time and realistically what they want to achieve. They could keep Tony Mowbray who did a fairly decent job of helping them fight and look for some stability under him but I'd only keep him if they realistically see him as being the manager in 3 years time. Otherwise I'd look for someone younger and up and coming to take them forward. There is plenty of talent in the lower leagues.

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In terms of the general topic of the benefits of relegation I certainly think it can do some clubs good. A few Bundesliga clubs have benefited from going down in recent years. Clubs like Hertha, Koln and Frieburg have used it to clear out the mercenaries and dead wood, and come back up with a stronger team and work ethic. But when a club with less money goes down, they often aren't seen again for a long time.

As an example, relegation was good for Newcastle, as they will almost certainly be a better team unit next season than they were last. But Villa, who are a sham and tried to buy the league were a sham.Middlesbrough who don't have the infrastructure of a Newcastle or Sunderland will likely struggle to come back up, but Sunderland will prpbably benefit in the mid term

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I think it definitely looked to be one in our case but to be honest I think if it was happening again now I'd be calling for drastic changes regardless of if we stayed up or not.

Nigel Pearson was the best thing to happen to this club since Martin O'Neill. He completely turned it around. We were an absolute nightmare to support back in 2004-2008. Absolutely rubbish. Every single year was just the same, consistently having no hope of getting even close to the top six, a team slowly but surely being decimated towards League One.

It was absolutely horrible how it happened though. The day itself sticks with me and I'll always enjoy getting one over on Stoke as a result. Coventry as well, the absolute shits, got stuffed 4-1 at a bang average Charlton side yet stayed up after we'd pushed a Stoke side on the verge of promotion (which they got) all the way.

But really it did us the world of good. It was sad because we were one of only nine clubs in England who had never played outside the top two tiers, and the other eight are significantly bigger than us, but it really did back us into complete reform and thankfully we picked the perfect man to do it. Pearson never gets the credit he deserves. In two spells he turned the club from a sinking ship that had dropped to League One to a side that would go on to win the Premier League eight years later. OK, he didn't win it himself, but he was the main architect in this squad. Without him we could quite conceivably have done a Sheff Utd.

I must also add from a personal level League One was a memorable season for me. I used to go to about 5 away games a season, if that, pre-League One, but my Dad started going to them again as the tickets were cheaper and we ended up doing most of them. I was one of thousands away at places like Oldham, Leyton Orient, Cheltenham, Hereford, Peterborough, Walsall etc... and it was great enjoyment. Yeah it's only smaller clubs but winning is a habit and when you're taking over these places it's great. Ever since that season I reckon I've gone to a good 90% of our away games.

We're a very good example of it being a good thing, but it isn't the relegation itself that's good, it's the handling of it, and like I say we couldn't have picked anyone better.

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On 5/9/2017 at 2:23 PM, Spike said:

What about the teams that haven't bounced back?

Only ones of note who haven't are Coventry, Portsmouth and Blackpool, and sadly I think Blackburn are nearer to those than the teams Cannabis mentioned.

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6 hours ago, Dan said:

Only ones of note who haven't are Coventry, Portsmouth and Blackpool, and sadly I think Blackburn are nearer to those than the teams Cannabis mentioned.

I disagree there, if Mowbray stays I think they'll bounce straight back. Got some good players.

Obviously it's all hypothetical now, but if they'd brought him in a month sooner I don't think they'd be going down.

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9 hours ago, Lucas said:

I don't see too many issues for Blackburn next season. League One is pretty weak. If I was a Blackburn fan I'd look at the positives.

It will actually be good for Blackburn to get a feel good factor back at the club by being at the top end of the division. No matter how pessimistic hey will feel, they should still be very competitive in that league, much like Bolton were.

They are a new team so other clubs will sell out home games to come watch them visit which is something the club hasn't been used to in recent times and make them feel like a big fish in a small pond. Conversely, it will be good for Blackburn to go to a lot more away games with a bigger away following getting behind a team when they are producing better results as well as the novelty of seeing new grounds.

They will have some new derbies to play like Bury, Rochdale and Oldham as well as possibly Blackpool which will make some away days interesting for their fans.

They will blood some youngsters who will emerge and come to the fore which is always pleasing to see.

This will be like wiping the slate clean. What Blackburn really need to do is think about where they see the club in 3-5 years time and realistically what they want to achieve. They could keep Tony Mowbray who did a fairly decent job of helping them fight and look for some stability under him but I'd only keep him if they realistically see him as being the manager in 3 years time. Otherwise I'd look for someone younger and up and coming to take them forward. There is plenty of talent in the lower leagues.

The only problem I can see is if Blackburn are successful Venkys could see their awful ownership as being successful and continue to strain the club. I believe someone argued a similar thing for Coventry and unfortunately it's a possibility. The best thing I could see happening for Rovers is they find a new owner to clear their debts. I'd suggest a takeover from the supporters in a similar vein to what Wycombe and Portsmouth have, but I really can't see them taking off once more with the financial burdens Venkys have placed on them.

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