Have we got any chance to reach Premiership in next 5 years?

[BedsFFC]

I'm a glass half full kinda guy but I think the realisation is just hitting me that we have got a sustained period of mediocrity ahead.

Exciting new manager aside, I think circumstance is against us. Being a long standing premiership team that gets relegated is a major disadvantage against clubs that have a brief stint in the promised land.

Having had those woeful 2 years before we went down, I really was looking forward to the championship as I'd missed winning and winning well. I naively assumed that our 13 years had catapulted us to obvious top status in the championship.

FFP is not a bad thing per se but it is for us. On reflection, I can see why qpr did what they did to go straight back up. Some of me wishes we did the same. Aston Villa are going down. Historically, fanbase, players and status would mean that they would come straight back up. Villa are a strange team for me as I have no ill feeling to them at all. If they go down, I fear for them. As I now see it, they have one shot at getting straight back up and that is ignoring FFP and using the obvious funds they will have.

We took the seemingly sensible option, which has decimated the team and we still fell foul of FFP.

Talking of having no ill feeling towards a team. QPR, having taken the risky option and then being relegated appear absolutely (6 letter word starting with f and ending in ucked)

They are yet to be dealt their fate from the league but one would imagine it would leave them unable to mount any sort of challenge for quite a while.

Then you look at the Burnley's, Hull's, Boro's, Norwich's et al and you begin to see that FFP leaves club like that in a far stronger position. With the best will in the world, they are not going to become premiership mainstays and that will work in their favour as they won't need huge overhauls when they come down.

So, coming back to my original point, where does this leave us?

Last parachute payment due, our major starlet (Roberts) gone, our next 2 starlets (Hyndman & Dembele) apparently want out, our one true special player and guarantee of 20 goals apparently also wants offski, a transfer window that we are not really involved in but apparently we can sign Sidwell. I love old Sidders but he aint going to get us promoted. Looking at things, if/when Bournemouth get relegated, they are also in major trouble.

Fast forward 5 months....championship now has Boro, derby, Hull, Villa, Bournemouth, Sunderland, ipswich, Birmingham, cardiff, newcastle & swansea (delete 3 of these)

We are in June, we have probably lost Dembele, Hyndman and maybe Ross, we have a billionaire owner who can't really spend any money.

Please, someone make me a little more happy. How can we realistically look at going up next season?

[malc]

No

[BestOfBrede]

I think so but it will have to be soon (next couple of seasons) or I fear the worse.

[west kowloon white]

Yes-Watford managed it.

[mitimo]

I don't really care if we get promoted or not, I just want to see Fulham play good attractive football where we win more often than not, if that is in the Championship, where all games seem to be competitive, then all well and good.  Not sure I want the 'roller-coaster' of watching us struggle against the likes of Man City, Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea or Spurs.  If we do get up I hope we get to play the sort of game that the current Watford, Leicester and even Stoke play.

[colinwhite]

Good post Beds.
I think part of our problem in trying to bounce straight back into the premiership was that we had an ageing side (which Roy put together) ,that never got updated with young solid signings of the type that would have done well in the championship. We actually kept most of the players most likely to succeed in the championship ,Hugo ;Ruiz and even Parker were all reasonable bets to be top players in this league last year.
The problem was (and still is ) that our team did not have the spine of solid younger players (and leaders ) to take over the mantle .
We all Know the mistakes taken by the leadership compounded previous mistakes.
I am optimistic as long as Jokanovic identifies the type of players we need to sign - I feel pretty sure that that is exactly what he intends to do . The loan players we get in will give us an inclination of how the summer signings will look . I dont expect any more good attacking players that cant tackle, pressurise or defend .
Keep the faith we are in good hands in Jokanovic .

[Mince n Tatties]

5 years...I was hoping we would Win the
Champions League by then... :022:

[HV71]

Great and thought provoking post Beds FFC - my first reaction was to reach for the hemlock as I fear your analysis is likely to be true. I stopped however as this is football and ( almost ) anything can happen. Fans live on hope and I want to believe that the owner will come good and that Jokanovic will return us , over time , to winning ways and that we will eventually regain our place in the first tier of the game.

Wine is a better choice than hemlock

[Carborundum]

We have a fair chance.  Won't happen this year, so there will be four opportunities.  I'd estimate that as things stand today (rich owner, youngish squad open to improvement, respected manager) we would have a 20% chance in each of the following four seasons which my calculator suggests represents a 59% chance of it happening in one of those four years. 

But I might be pressing the wrong buttons.

[H4usuallysitting]

Yes, if they re-name the Premiership the Championship......therefore we are currently in the Premiership....or is that the Championship....what was the question

[MJG]

We have another two years of Parachute payments after this season.

[HatterDon]

yes, we do




thanks for asking

[Staffs White]

Great post Beds, History says yes, but it also says that we could also end up back in Division 3. That's the joy of being a Fulham Fan, you never know what will happen next. For what it's worth I'm of a similar opinion to minimo as long as we are playing attractive football and win more than we lose I'm happy......Over to you Mr Jocanovic

[RaySmith]

Yes, we do have a chance of going up - though staying there might be an even bigger challenge.

All we have to do is win enough games!

[JDH101]

Very good post indeed. Only this morning on my drive in to work it hit me that this summer we sold Roberts, had a parachute payment and signed Cairney. Everything else was pretty much a freebie right? And yet we still fell short of FFP? How depressing is that? So basically, we fall short of FFP just by existing as us.

[kevin]

i think Jokanovich is the right person to have in charge and he has a clear vision of what he wants to achieve ...its just if he is allowed to do it. Restrained by the embargo now and the clubs vision going forward

[Sgt Fulham]

I would very much like to see so, but I just can't imagine Fulham winning the majority of their games home and away consistently enough to get promoted. Would certainly be a nice change of pace. Beyond my imagination though, and looking at it more objectively, I think that we do have a fairly good chance of promotion in the next 5 years, but more so in the next 2-3 years. I see so many teams in this division that I think have no chance in hell of gaining promotion in the near future given their current and intrinsic circumstances (such as PNE, Huddersfield, Rotherham etc.) and Fulham does not feature in this list.

[ScalleysDad]

Good read and some very valid points all round.

No.

[MJG]

Very good post indeed. Only this morning on my drive in to work it hit me that this summer we sold Roberts, had a parachute payment and signed Cairney. Everything else was pretty much a freebie right? And yet we still fell short of FFP? How depressing is that? So basically, we fall short of FFP just by existing as us.

Roberts,  Cairney etc all this season,  FFP embargo is based on last season.

[Adi-ffc]

Of course we do.

It depends entirely on the manager's vision and the backing he receives down the line. Jokanovic has done it before and can do it again.

It's the first time in years I have felt optimistic.