Let's be clear

[The Rational Fan]

Over the last seven seasons, we have gone from a club that i) looked like a club that would lose its EPL TV money (ie parchuate payments) in late 2018, ii) to becoming one of the weakest yo-yo clubs in 2020 and iii) to becoming one of the strongest yo-yo clubs in 2022. If I'm honest, then I still think we look more like a very strong yo-yo club than a club ready to take the premier league by storm, but provided we keep reinforcing the squad year on year, we should be able to be better in 2024 & 2026.

[Thailand Mick]

I want to say let all the other clubs and fans talk about our spending and wage bill because factually they are correct but when you look closer at our team that got promoted we didn't use all those resources to the full. Marco decided to stick with a core of about 17 players of which only about 15 of them played in a significant number of games. Among those players were many that didn't cost fortunes, loans and youth team.
Rodak    youth, Williams loan, Tosin £1.5m
Ream £2m, Robinson £2m,Wilson loan,
Carvalho youth, Kebano £4m,Cairney £4m
Add on Reed £8m and Mitro £20m and that team took to the field on many occasions. Even Mitro has been with us for 4 seasons so it's not like we've just bought him. I also think we have been the only team to have dominated the league consistently throughout where as Bournemouth had a great start but have not dominated for the last 25 games. What the most important thing for the championship to be is competitive which it has been with so many teams still in with a shout of promotion. If someone is judging the strength of the league by a couple of teams dominating then surely the Premier league is weaker now than before because Liverpool and Man City have completely dominated everything. I think that Marco and his coaches have done a fantastic job that they won't get full credit for because of our financial clout.

[jarv]

I watched a few championship games not involving Fulham and thought, overall, it was a good standard and saw a few players which would be great additions to Fulham (ok, on their day).

Fulham games, very entertaining, good football, with a few hiccups along the way.

I also watched a lot of premier games, too much tippy tappy football, sideways, backwards and not much tackling of note. As for VAR????  Bin it.

[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.

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.

You are very welcome to have an opinion on whatever topic you like, of course. But you explicitly stated your opinion as fact several times over, without even attempting to provide anything remotely factual as evidence. That was what made your post very unclear to me.

I still don't see how any of your arguments above supports the idea that this year's Championship is weaker (or stronger) than any other particular year. How does the fact that we are close to 100 goals and also loses to the bottom of the table (bottom because of points deduction however, not by quality) mean that the Championship as a whole is weaker than other years? All results in the Championship are measured against each other. Not against teams from other years, not against teams from other leagues. Thus, any results within the Championship should by definition not be able to determine the relative strenght compared to previous seasons. All teams could be better this year (with Fulham much better) just as well as all teams could be weaker or exactly the same.

What is a fact here is that we cannot know (unless we determine some more or less arbitrary criteria). Anybody can of course have a subjective opinion, it just annoys me when people try to present such opinions as superior by pretending they are based on facts when they clearly aren't. Maybe that was just an unfortunate choice of words on your end.

By the way, I haven't expressed an opinion stating that I believe this years Championship was very strong, and frankly I am not sure where you got that from. I do find it extremely likely though that the difference in overall quality between one year to another is quite small, but I would not be able to prove it.

[toshes mate]

Just as a matter of pure conjecture what would you prefer? 

A team that narrowly won all its games via controversial refereeing or a team that demonstrated typical football team form losing games form suggested they should win and winning games handsomely form suggested would be tight and probable losses?  If everything went to original form (i.e. before a ball is kicked there is no form) what would the final table look like? Would it not be all teams equal on 46 points with zero goals scored or was there an odd result that meant two teams had a blip - one winning the Championship and the other being relegated the only definite outcomes in the whole league?

When B&B raced away at the beginning of the season we had reasons to be nervous, but we all - deep down - know the Championship is a marathon and not a sprint.  At the moment we are just entering St James Park for the run in past Buckingham Palace and there are a couple of runners still threatening.  What does form suggest the final outcome will be and will that form prove true or false?  It is an unknown right up until that final whistle blows, it always has been and will be, and winning the race is always a great achievment no matter what.       

[rebel]

I watched a few championship games not involving Fulham and thought, overall, it was a good standard and saw a few players which would be great additions to Fulham (ok, on their day).

Fulham games, very entertaining, good football, with a few hiccups along the way.

I also watched a lot of premier games, too much tippy tappy football, sideways, backwards and not much tackling of note. As for VAR????  Bin it.

In the Premiership you have Klopp and Pep, arguably very, very good managers. Other managers in the Premiership aspire to be just like them, they try to copy elements of what they do.

The Championship is so different, managers do their thing, that's why there is so much competition in the Championship. This is definitely a stronger Championship.

[Tabby]

Wouldn't say it seems much stronger or weaker than other years. Both Fulham and Bournemouth have ridiculous squads by Championship standards though.

Feel a lot more confident about our Prem chances this time around than the last 2 times.

[Woolly Mammoth]

I watched a few championship games not involving Fulham and thought, overall, it was a good standard and saw a few players which would be great additions to Fulham (ok, on their day).

Fulham games, very entertaining, good football, with a few hiccups along the way.

I also watched a lot of premier games, too much tippy tappy football, sideways, backwards and not much tackling of note. As for VAR????  Bin it.

In the Premiership you have Klopp and Pep, arguably very, very good managers. Other managers in the Premiership aspire to be just like them, they try to copy elements of what they do.

The Championship is so different, managers do their thing, that's why there is so much competition in the Championship. This is definitely a stronger Championship.

In the Premiership you can pick the ball up and run with it, but apart from the Goalkeepers i never saw any of that, so i deduce you mean the Premier League.

Even Rebels without a cause should endeavour to keep up with such issues.

[simplyfulham]

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.

Yeah it's this bit of the argument that doesn't really add up.

The Premier League has been dominated almost exclusively by two teams for the last 5 seasons. Does that mean the Premier league is the weakest it's been too?

Better then that, the top 4 highest points tallies ever achieved in the Premier League have been accrued by two teams all in the last 4 seasons.

Beyond that, Bayern have won the German league 9 times in a row. Juventus have dominated Serie A for the last decade, with the odd exception. Ditto PSG in France and Spain is still pretty much dominated by the two big clubs despite Atletico's best efforts..

So are all of the top 5 leagues in Europe weak?

[gang]

I take it that your glass is always half empty Jimmy Conway. Enjoy the moment and let next season look after itself.

[Cambridge Pete]

Just enjoy the present. Next season will be tougher. As an aside haven't teams like Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool, Man United and now Newcastle been able to out pay and out buy  the rest of the Premier teams?  Enjoy the ride and hope that under the Khan's and Marco and his team we can compete and beat a number of the other fourteen teams and on occasion get points off the "big guns"
We have been the best team in the division and hopefully we will prove it by winning the title.

[davew]

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.

Well said Woolly!!

[Whitesideup]

Wouldn't say it seems much stronger or weaker than other years. Both Fulham and Bournemouth have ridiculous squads by Championship standards though.

Feel a lot more confident about our Prem chances this time around than the last 2 times.

If this indeed true, that Fulham's and Bournemouth's squads are that good, does that not reflect good management?  Though the fact we had so many loanees may well have been instrumental in us not having a good season in the Premier, it may have meant that when we were relegated our costs came down and we did not have to have a fire-sale of players we needed if we were to re-establish ourselves in the Championship?

Question kind of asked above ... Why then did West Brom and Sheffield Utd not have a squad that matches that of Fulham, let alone the side that finished 6th in the Championship the year before?

[Stevieboy]

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.

:plus one: 049:gif :wine:

[filham]

A weak championship this season, tell that to the premier league teams that Boro met in the FA Cup.

[I Ronic]

Any team relegated from the Premiership is coming down with a high wage bill. So we weren't unique there. We came down with a lot of players who didn't get a look in last season and a manager who was sitting on the fence waiting for a better offer. The Chairman convinced Marco and his team to come in. They in turn transformed the squad into a positive, winning unit in a matter of weeks.