Anyone else gonna miss the Championship?

[Riversider]

Saturday's game was part of The Championship,  if we all live to 100 The Premier League will never produce a day to rival the emotion of that day.


Having said all that, The Premier League every time for me 😉✊⚫⚪⚫⚪⚫⚪

[Sgt Fulham]

In a way, yes. Mostly no.

The championship is only good if you're good. It's boring if you're mid-table fodder and it sucks when you're rubbish. Fortunately we turned good and won a lot of games in the past 2 years. It became interesting because we were winning pretty much twice a week. But as interesting as it was, the interest was only maintained by the ultimate goal of getting promoted. I for one would not care for a season where we finished 7th or lost the Playoffs. If you're lucky its constant and antagonising anticipation to return to the big time.

The past few years have almost been like a frustrating cloud that needed to pass. The longer it went on for the darker the sky got and the more the rain poured. This season there was lightning on the horizon but luckily we beat the odds and the cloud was lifted. Now I get to watch every game on TV if I'm not there at the stadium. The vast majority of football fans will recognise the team I support and I will be able to hold conversations with most of them without saying "I haven't really been watching the Prem, how are *insert top 6 team here* doing then?"

We get to see top quality football and top quality players. We don't have to fear some fat baldie that's apparently 'class' as the main threat coming against us, but rather the legitimately good players like Aguero. As good as some victories felt, taking a 'scalp' such as Boro away will never compare to the feeling of beating Arsenal or Man Utd and watching their manager moan. I certainly won't miss Brentford, their smug fans and their annoying ability to catch us on our off days. I won't miss the ridiculous referees that think leg-breaking tackles are fine and dandy, but then again based on the PO Final referee maybe I won't have to. I won't miss taking stick from washed up club fans such as Sheffield Wednesday or Leeds. I wish I could say that I won't miss awful teams like Cardiff.

While the quality is better I actually feel like the bar for the Premier League is lower. In other words, it's a lot easier to stay up than to get promoted. You just have to be better than 3/20 teams, and there is usually at least one in management/financial/ownership crises. A season finishing 17th is more enjoyable than a season finishing 7th in the Championship. There's always the excitement of the transfer window too, although it can be excruciating as well.

We've effectively hit a reset button in terms of our finances. We can spend a lot more this season and acquire expensive assets. With the gulf in expenditure so vast between the two leagues it has never been easier to become a yo-yo club. Acquire talent, get relegated, sell your better players for loads, combined with parachute payments and then invested wisely you can buy instant promotion. I was so stressed about the idea that our parachute payments were out and our team would be robbed of talent, and subjected to a lifetime of mediocrity (ala Ipswich). It was so important to the future of our club that we won on Saturday, it's almost difficult to comprehend and makes the win (so unlike us) even more sweet.

[Shredhead]

I'll miss it, hopefully for a long time! I enjoyed the variety of clubs , games on a Saturday and its competitive nature. With fewer Saturday games, I'll be going to see Lewes FC more (managed by Darren Freeman).

[cmg]

For those already misty-eyed and nostalgic for the golden pewter age of the Championship, at 1.15 Sky Sports Football are offering our 1-2 defeat at Griffin Park in Nov 2014. Mercifully only 15 minutes long.

Interesting team: Betts, Stafy, Bod, Burns, Zverotic, Scotty, G.Williams, Bryan, LVC, Hugo, Ross. The venerable Kiraly on the bench overseeing a kindergarten of Roberts, Woodrow, Dembele and Hyndman.

The soon to join us (according to Charlie) Jota scored for our striped friends.

[MJG]

I don't know in truth. I certainly didn't miss the PL. Can't say I've watched a full 90 mins or a whole MOTD since we came down, and I can't recall even before that last time I did but even when we were there.
You play more games and you win more games, fact is in first year of championship we won as many as games (14) as we won in our best season in PL.
Depends what you want really from watching games. Is it all about winning, is it the better opposition you want to watch, is the game in some ways irrelevant and more about the event and who you share it with?
Ill miss the extra games for sure, I'll miss the competative games, we will see next tear how many teams in the best league in the world, just don't want to lose.
It's all a ride in the end and what league Fulham are in makes no difference to me, its in the blood and I'd watch in any league.