Freedom in relegation...

[SteveJonesLegend]

Decent read this... Offers some light at the end of the relegation tunnel.

https://www.football365.com/news/relegation-freedom-bournemouth-eddie-howe

 

[BoscombeCherry]

Decent read this... Offers some light at the end of the relegation tunnel.

https://www.football365.com/news/relegation-freedom-bournemouth-eddie-howe

Meant to share that earlier, worth a read.

 

[beds cherry]

Very good - and true tbh.

 

[London Cherry]

Excellent article. For all the wonder of the Premier League my favourite season by far was our Championship winning one. If we do go down I just hope we stabilise in the Championship and don’t plummet through the leagues.

 

[AFCBade]

As it states, the excitement is in the journey. Remembering thinking at the time that 9th in 16/17 maybe the best we ever get. I always wanted Eddie to leave before relegation.

 

[Toronto John]

Yeah, encouraging. The point made here and elsewhere about only winning 10-12 games a year really resonates ...... would be fun to be in a situation where every game could go either way.

 

[AFCBmattjamr]

As it states, the excitement is in the journey. Remembering thinking at the time that 9th in 16/17 maybe the best we ever get. I always wanted Eddie to leave before relegation.

Excitement is/was most definitely in the journey, I still get a semi when I think back to the sound of that mark Pugh shot hitting the net against Bolton

 

[fritter]

Exactly the discussion I was having when we went up. Fabulous. Brilliant. All those things. But after a couple of seasons it's about finishing 17th. Or become stoke or West bring ie focus on staying in the top division for it's own sake.

It's just boring.

 

[Red_Dez]

Excellent article, thanks for sharing it

 

[Silent AFCB]

Honestly makes it kind of exciting to see what our youngsters can do. Stacey, Mepham, Cook and Kelly I assume will be our starting back 4 next season which imo looks good enough for the Championship. Assuming we can afford to keep players like Danjuma and Lewis Cook, I think we could be in for quite an exciting year, but who knows.

I met a Pompey fan the other day who is mates with Ritchie and said he wants to move back down south, but I doubt he'd drop a division at the moment.

 

[davidwhitehead]

Exactly - we have the nucleus of a very exciting young team that would do well in the Championship. Get rid of the big egos, the overpaid "stars", bring in a few enthusiastic new faces and let's begin the journey again.

 

[davidwhitehead]

A lot of FL clubs must be in dire financial straits right now...must be a few useful players out there who we could pick up at a bargain price.

 

[JohnHold]

Unless Demin takes on a lot of financial liabilities, we will be in as much difficulty as anyone else

 

[SteveJonesLegend]

I met a Pompey fan the other day who is mates with Ritchie and said he wants to move back down south, but I doubt he'd drop a division at the moment.

I'm pretty sure that move back down south will take him back to Portsmouth... There was an article a while back where he said he'd love to go back there... maybe finish up there...

I'd love him back here next year, if the inevitable happens and we are a Champ side, but I reckon he'll end up further along the coast than Bournemouth...

 

[chillred]

"It is only by falling off the cliff edge into the void that they will learn to fly again."

Brilliant!

 

[Neil Dawson]

Totally agree and it is a great article. I’ve stopped enjoying watching us and started missing watching games. That’s only happenned twice before for me... Groves and Quinn.

Another year of this and I would be giving my season ticket out on a semi regular basis.

My irritation with the whole club is we’ve become that club we used to laugh at in the first three seasons up. Scared to attack, sitting deep, no confidence in their own ability.

Im bothered about becoming a football team again, not what division we are in.

 

[red_house]

Recall Swansea fans saying exactly the same, similar journey, stall, fall away. I guess another manager might have given us a few more seasons of mediocrity at this level but the writing was always on the wall.

Not a bad innings though, brilliant actually, some great memories.

 

[thegazzyb]

Not a bad innings though, brilliant actually, some great memories.

This is almost word for word what I said to my Dad when he was getting annoyed about our probable relegation. Five seasons was a very decent first innings and more than enough to have enjoyed the full PL experience. The last two seasons have been a bit 'meh' to be honest, but I'm still glad we managed the five seasons rather than just three - just in case we never make it to the PL again. A good innings indeed.

 

[Bitzer]

Spoke to a spurs fan yesterday who said that us staying in the Premier league for 5 years was a bigger achievement than Leicester winning the Premier league.

 

[Waz afcb]

What a brilliant article, sums up my feelings completely. Even if we plummet down to league 2, at least we have something to aim for again! It’s so true that the journey is better than the destination. The financial disparity in this league completely ruins it as a competitive spectacle, there will come a time in the not to distant future where every single club in this league will be funded by a multi billionaire owner. The tv money on offer will not even be relevant, we should just be grateful that we got to experience it when it was still attainable.