Let's be clear

[JimmyConway]

after all the euphoria settles down this was by far the strongest squad with the biggest wage bill and a sizeable parachute income that it was going to be harder to fail than succeed. One of the worst standards of the Championship for sometime not to forget either. It is attritional no doubt but quality is lacking. Blackburn - Qpr - Boro - Huddersfield even Millwall on the periphery. Had we not gone up we would of probably had to look at a rebuild.

Marco Silva quite rightly should get praise for mission completed and in a very good style.

Plenty of debate will be had on who go's and who stay's.  Will be interesting to see how Marco works the transfer market but even if let's say for example we were in for Pope or Henderson being that both are English I would imagine they both come in at north of £25m?

[Tabby]

Dean Henderson is the English Areola. Has a big contract but with no way into the team. Doubt they'd end up charging 25 million.

[Oakeshott]

"One of the worst standards of the Championship"

In your opinion. I see no objective basis for that view. We had some golden games when we destroyed teams but also a lot of closer ones not to mention the defeats. I thought the general standard was decent and as Coventry, who may well not make the play offs, showed us, even middle table sides can play very well, though fortunately not as consistently so as us.

Yes, we had the advantage of the parachute payment, but also the demoralisation of last season to overcome. I think Marco and his team have done brilliantly to get us up so (relatively) comfortably.

And because we are promoted so early in the year, there is no excuse for not having the Premiership squad together in time for time to gel.

[Jim©]

I too agree with Oakeshott- how anyone can claim that this division is worse than any other is bizarre IMO.
There are plenty of clubs with parachute payments that have failed to trouble the promotion picture- West Brom, Sheff Utd and others that failed to either profit from them (if it's that simple) like Cardiff and Huddersfield.

Interestingly, the championship is home to many many international footballers, way more than 10 years ago which could be used in the debate about the quality of the division.

[Twig]

I too agree with Oakeshott- how anyone can claim that this division is worse than any other is bizarre IMO.
There are plenty of clubs with parachute payments that have failed to trouble the promotion picture- West Brom, Sheff Utd and others that failed to either profit from them (if it's that simple) like Cardiff and Huddersfield.

Interestingly, the championship is home to many many international footballers, way more than 10 years ago which could be used in the debate about the quality of the division.

Agree with you and Oakshott. I'm yet to read a convincing argument as to why this season's Championship is any worse or better than any others in recent seasons.

[bobby01]

I too agree with Oakeshott- how anyone can claim that this division is worse than any other is bizarre IMO.
There are plenty of clubs with parachute payments that have failed to trouble the promotion picture- West Brom, Sheff Utd and others that failed to either profit from them (if it's that simple) like Cardiff and Huddersfield.

Interestingly, the championship is home to many many international footballers, way more than 10 years ago which could be used in the debate about the quality of the division.

Agree with you and Oakshott. I'm yet to read a convincing argument as to why this season's Championship is any worse or better than any others in recent seasons.

:plus one: I see no evidence that being the case

[flyingfish]

Less than 24 hours later Normal service resumed in the Fulhamverse

[MickyAdamsFamily]

Didn't West Brom and Sheffield United both have the identical parachute payments? Didn't they both begin this season with highly regarded new managers, too? (both sacked) Seems we should give our manager, management and players some credit for their acheivements...

[Cookie6262]

While there is no objective way to measure how good the championship is this season compared to others the eye test suggests it was a little weaker than normal and the main argument for this would be COVID... without the the premier riches finances were definitely tighter and pretty sure finances show that transfer fees spent, wages and overall budgets were down this season.

[Lighthouse]

I think it is pretty obvious when a team or two dominate that the league is weaker than if there are loads of teams fighting for promotion at the top. We can only play what is in front of us but it was not a strong Championship this year.

There is also no doubt that this not the strongest Fulham team to have gained promotion. Lots of players need to come in for us to achieve more than a fleeting visit yet again to the Prem.

But dominate we did. A few odd results but by and large there were only two teams in it all season. Great going forward, questions at the back as usual. Lots of questions need to be answered but a great season and one that will live long in the memory. But as fans we should be able to see we were the best in an average Championship.

[rebel]

"One of the worst standards of the Championship"

In your opinion. I see no objective basis for that view. We had some golden games when we destroyed teams but also a lot of closer ones not to mention the defeats. I thought the general standard was decent and as Coventry, who may well not make the play offs, showed us, even middle table sides can play very well, though fortunately not as consistently so as us.

Yes, we had the advantage of the parachute payment, but also the demoralisation of last season to overcome. I think Marco and his team have done brilliantly to get us up so (relatively) comfortably.

And because we are promoted so early in the year, there is no excuse for not having the Premiership squad together in time for time to gel.

I agree, if you look at the number of teams fighting for play off places, then it's certainly has been competitive. There are teams with quality.

[toshes mate]

Whatever happened to the old adage that says 'you can only ever play what is front of you'?  Whatever happened to those stories about a certain young head coach who was provided with a team more than capable of automatic promotion but failed to deliver?  Whatever happened to the side that should have survived in the PL wth a decent coach but didn't?  Whatever happened with the guy who was recruited to coach a team of players selected by guys who never consulted him and yet made the playoffs twice and may have managed PL survival given a whole season?  The football is always of the standard you observe and not what you believe should be possible (unless you are a god).  The Championship had some cracking teams in it this season and has produced some wonderful games (ask Luton fans for example) and yet some people on here wish to diminish FFC's achievement for reasons I cannot fathom. 

I just hope we go up as Champions because it's not something that happens too often at FFC but I hope that isn't because too many of our supporters have an inferiority complex.  MS & Company and the team have had a great season and long may their success continue.

[Denver Fulham]

We've won 14 matches this season by 3+ goals. The other 23 teams have combined for 52 such victories (a bit more than two per club; Forest are second with seven).

I went into this season thinking the league wasn't that good -- the two other relegated teams didn't look great, and the three best teams got promoted last season -- and I still think that's accurate, but we've also mauled the division well beyond what was reasonable to expect.

You can have the best team and best players but still have to perform, and we've performed extremely well in about 90% of our matches. 100+ goals and 60+ GD are very likely, and that's very rare air in this division.

[Lighthouse]

I don't think it diminishes the success of a club by saying that the league wasn't the strongest it has ever been. Fulham pretty much dominated it with one other club. 100 goals will be reached. So it is just a fact that when one or two teams have dominated a league then the league isn't as strong. The play offs have teams competing but the argument is that none of them come close to the top two.  But still any team can beat any other team but consistency is the key.

So not diminishing by stating what to many is a fact.

[filham]

No Jimmy Conway I am not having that. Sure we may have been favourites and we may have had a squad of good players but this promotion had to be won, there were lots of obstacles and banana skins on the way and we could so easily have failed.
It was an achievement and full credit has to be given to the manager and the players.

[Cobh Fulham Fan]

I think Toshes Mate hit the nail on the head when he mentioned inferiority complex.  More that a few posters on here over recent weeks were expressing doubt that we would go up.  Now that we have been promoted and will probably win the league too, it now seems to be their next challenge to question whether we really are as good as the results and stats suggest, because the league this year hasnt measured up their standards.

I suppose they might also complain that Mitro's 40 goals this season wasnt really the achievement we all thought it was, because the goal keepers on the opposing teams were of a poor standard this season. And of course, if we beat Bournemouth on saturday, they will tell us it wasnt because we are better team, but because Parker mis-coached the opposition.

[Sting of the North]

I don't think it diminishes the success of a club by saying that the league wasn't the strongest it has ever been. Fulham pretty much dominated it with one other club. 100 goals will be reached. So it is just a fact that when one or two teams have dominated a league then the league isn't as strong. The play offs have teams competing but the argument is that none of them come close to the top two.  But still any team can beat any other team but consistency is the key.

So not diminishing by stating what to many is a fact.

This makes no sense at all to me. By your logic it is impossible to dominate the Championship unless the league as a whole is weaker than normal, no matter how good your team may be. Surely it is an equally possible explanation that the team dominating the league is just better than teams normally are in this division? How one explanation is more logical than the other is completely beyond me. Please feel free to elaborate if there is something I am missing here from your "facts", because I am very curious about how you reached this conclusion and advocate it with such certainty.

[Lighthouse]

I don't think it diminishes the success of a club by saying that the league wasn't the strongest it has ever been. Fulham pretty much dominated it with one other club. 100 goals will be reached. So it is just a fact that when one or two teams have dominated a league then the league isn't as strong. The play offs have teams competing but the argument is that none of them come close to the top two.  But still any team can beat any other team but consistency is the key.

So not diminishing by stating what to many is a fact.

This makes no sense at all to me. By your logic it is impossible to dominate the Championship unless the league as a whole is weaker than normal, no matter how good your team may be. Surely it is an equally possible explanation that the team dominating the league is just better than teams normally are in this division? How one explanation is more logical than the other is completely beyond me. Please feel free to elaborate if there is something I am missing here from your "facts", because I am very curious about how you reached this conclusion and advocate it with such certainty.

So we lose to the bottom of the table but are so superior that we can score a hundred goals in in a season. Our goal difference is double what the next team and  yet we are not yet clear of them to win the league. I know fans want to fight and think that their club is the best is the bestest league in the entire World. But the Championship was much of a muchness. But clearly you and others feel this league was very strong. Not sure I could convince you even if I gave a toss. Just stating an opinion.

[Woolly Mammoth]

We  dominated the Championship this season, and scorelines back that up because we out passed, out played, out classed teams and in most cases was easy on the eye and still dominated.
Not because the opponents were weaker than other seasons, because that is an insult to every team that turned up to play Fulham and also dis ingenious to a Fulham team that predominantly made opponents look second best.
Unless it is upside down The League table does not lie.
Why people have to try and shrink the achievements and improvements  Fulham have made just to look for any reason to take the shine off a great season shows they know nothing about football at any level and what makes teams of all structures tick.
The footballers are all human and not robots and they are neither immortal or frauds.
Despite the diet of dog end comments spouted on hear by the spoil sports just look again of the scenes of joy by everyone in the ground with a Fulham heart, player or supporter, so hang your head in shame for a futile attempt to rain on our parade.

[MickyAdamsFamily]

Precisely. It is your OPINION, to which you are welcome. It is by no means a fact. One doesn't have to look very far up the page to see where you claim it to be a fact....
I have seen zero factual evidence to support the opinion that this year's Championship is weaker than last year's, or any other season.