Championship season 2025/26

[wild-saint]

3 hours ago, whelk said:

Wrexham valued at £475m. Mental

https://originalfootball.substack.com/p/wrexhams-475m-play-how-a-hollywood

No way anyone buyr that club for $475m. The only value in the club is the owner who leaves with the  sale of the club. 

[skintsaint]

Random Stats time....

[Saint86]

14 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Random Stats time....

Number of seasons missed because the victims couldn't behave themselves:

Edited June 20 by Saint86

[Charlie Wayman]

18 hours ago, wild-saint said:

No way anyone buyr that club for $475m. The only value in the club is the owner who leaves with the  sale of the club. 

Read it carefully and you will understand better what is being said.

Edited June 20 by Charlie Wayman

[Saint86]

21 hours ago, whelk said:

Wrexham valued at £475m. Mental

https://originalfootball.substack.com/p/wrexhams-475m-play-how-a-hollywood

$475M, which is about £350M. Not quite as high, but still a significant valuation for the actual size of the club and its infrastructure. Part of me wants to think that they'll find some investors in America willing to get on board at that price... but it does seem mad. I think they'll struggle a bit this season looking at their rumoured business, and that might quickly take the shine off and drop the price.

Edited June 20 by Saint86

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

On 19/06/2025 at 07:35, CB Fry said:

Where is "Lampard to Leicester" even coming from? I can't see any even wild speculation about it.

CB, you're right. I'm writing nonsense. You know how sometimes you think something and in your head it becomes reality without it really happening? It's one of those. And Saints win the Championship next year...there I go again!!

[SambaMaverick]

23 hours ago, wild-saint said:

No way anyone buyr that club for $475m. The only value in the club is the owner who leaves with the  sale of the club. 

More likely they sell portions off to private equity on a sliding scale up towards that valuation as and when they need money. Being involved with that club is surely a licence to print cash, at Championship level anyway

[Badger]

6 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Number of seasons missed because the victims couldn't behave themselves:

Amusing that Everton, who were probably at their prime during that period, missed out due to the actions of some scallies from their own city. 

[Give it to Ron]

Seems RVN about to be sacked by Leicester after 1st July -Dyche rumoured taking over 

[gurru991]

9 minutes ago, Give it to Ron said:

Seems RVN about to be sacked by Leicester after 1st July -Dyche rumoured taking over 

It's almost certain that RVN is done on July 1 but the owner has come out & said that he wants a manager who plays like Maresca.  That aint Dyche !!!

Lots of people think it will be Danny Rohl from Sheffield Wednesday.

[woodsaint1]

Are the players back in for pre season this week? Just under 7 weeks until the season starts

[Willo of Whiteley]

Aren’t Leicester going to have to cash in on a lot of players? Aren’t they also awaiting a points deduction? 

Surely the only selling point as a club is that they were recently a Premier League club?

[Doctoroncall]

8 hours ago, gurru991 said:

It's almost certain that RVN is done on July 1 but the owner has come out & said that he wants a manager who plays like Maresca.  That aint Dyche !!!

Lots of people think it will be Danny Rohl from Sheffield Wednesday.

Danny Rohl will be expensive to prise away from Wednesday - can Leicester afford the millions to payoff RvN and compensation to Wednesday?  Less to spend on the squad.

Rohl certainly hasn’t shown to be possession based tactically. 

[Football Special]

2 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Aren’t Leicester going to have to cash in on a lot of players? Aren’t they also awaiting a points deduction? 

Surely the only selling point as a club is that they were recently a Premier League club?

I've wasted too many hours of my life waiting for Leicester to have a points deduction, it never happens 

[AlexLaw76]

2 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Aren’t Leicester going to have to cash in on a lot of players? Aren’t they also awaiting a points deduction? 

Surely the only selling point as a club is that they were recently a Premier League club?

Been on the cards for a couple years...still not yet

[Kenilworthy59]

14 hours ago, Football Special said:

I've wasted too many hours of my life waiting for Leicester to have a points deduction, it never happens 

Saints will have a points deduction before Leicester

[skintsaint]

I'm looking at other teams' transfer business and going 'who'. Certainly not any signings I would be jealous of yet.

[Gloucester Saint]

10 hours ago, skintsaint said:

I'm looking at other teams' transfer business and going 'who'. Certainly not any signings I would be jealous of yet.

The only one where I thought ‘good signing’ was Harry Darling to Norwich but never thought ‘wish we’d signed him instead’. More that for a good centre back at this level on a free it was good business but he knows Liam Manning their new manager well.

[AlexLaw76]

11 hours ago, skintsaint said:

I'm looking at other teams' transfer business and going 'who'. Certainly not any signings I would be jealous of yet.

Not seen many players linked away from Ipswich, who, Delap aside, look pretty strong 

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Not seen many players linked away from Ipswich, who, Delap aside, look pretty strong 

Including keeping their manager. I'd make them favourites as things stand 

[Polegategavin243]

3 hours ago, Football Special said:

Including keeping their manager. I'd make them favourites as things stand 

Although this time they will have the pressure of being the (or one of the) favourites and will they handle it. Last time they were the underdog with little pressure on them.

[Football Special]

16 minutes ago, Polegategavin243 said:

Although this time they will have the pressure of being the (or one of the) favourites and will they handle it. Last time they were the underdog with little pressure on them.

We kept waiting for them to drop off last time,  personally I think they have the basis of a good squad and a settled manager ,much less chaos than us and Leicester are dealing with 

[S-Clarke]

2 hours ago, Polegategavin243 said:

Although this time they will have the pressure of being the (or one of the) favourites and will they handle it. Last time they were the underdog with little pressure on them.

They actually built a really strong top end Championship team upon promotion to the PL.

The likes of Clarke, Szmodics, Palmer, Phiologene, Johnson, Ogbene, Greaves etc are all proven top end Champ players. Even without Delap, with Szmodics, Hirst as '9's and Phiolgene, Broadhead and Clarke linking in from wide, I'd say there are stacks and stacks of goals there.

Decent defence too at that level with Greaves, Wolfenden, Johnson, Davis and Dara O'Shea who are all still there.

Central Midfield I'm not too sure about, as their best CM last year was Cajuste, but he returned back to his parent club. Luongo and Morsy are a couple of years older now and may not be the same.

[UpweySaint]

Hard to see past Ipswich as favourites. As others have said they are a settled side with quality and a good manager. Plenty of us questioned their squad depth last time around but it didn’t seem to be a factor. They probably need a centre mid (or two) and possibly a striker but otherwise they look strong.

I’m confident we’ll challenge but if Ipswich fly out the blocks while rivals are still getting together- us included - they could be hard to stop.

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, UpweySaint said:

Hard to see past Ipswich as favourites. As others have said they are a settled side with quality and a good manager. Plenty of us questioned their squad depth last time around but it didn’t seem to be a factor. They probably need a centre mid (or two) and possibly a striker but otherwise they look strong.

I’m confident we’ll challenge but if Ipswich fly out the blocks while rivals are still getting together- us included - they could be hard to stop.

Ipswich are the obvious / lazy choice for sure. Only thing i would say is that their central midfield and keeper are pretty average for the league, but even with that, they'll have more than enough to blast through the overwhelming majority of sides. The only question over them for me will be whether they can turn around their morale and get back to winning ways quickly, that and how they replace Delap up top. At the end of the day, its a congested 46game season, fail to start well and its hard to catch up - and squad depth will be just as important as Ipswich's  first (admitted) 11 quality.
 

Personally think we'll be there or thereabouts for automatics - all the right noises coming out of the club and a real sense of optimism from all corners.... That isn't what you'd expect after just how poor this season went.

Edited June 23 by Saint86

[Gloucester Saint]

9 hours ago, Football Special said:

Including keeping their manager. I'd make them favourites as things stand 

Amazed Brentford didn’t try - or hard enough if they did - for McKenna. High probability that Ipswich and Brentford trading places in May.

[Saint86]

1 minute ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Amazed Brentford didn’t try - or hard enough if they did - for McKenna. High probability that Ipswich and Brentford trading places in May.

I love your optimism that one of the promoted sides is going to stay up. Reality is that its a 17team league, and the only chance one of them has is if one of the 17 has a complete implosion. PSR has closed the shop otherwise.

[Gloucester Saint]

3 minutes ago, Saint86 said:

I love your optimism that one of the promoted sides is going to stay up. Reality is that its a 17team league, and the only chance one of them has is if one of the 17 has a complete implosion. PSR has closed the shop otherwise.

Agree with this post overall but I reckon Frank and Mbeumo leaving not properly replaced will totally take the air out of Brentford’s tyres and they could be the implosion you cite. Leeds are the most likely to be able to take advantage but their recruitment has to be pitch perfect. We shouldn’t have gone down in 04/05 with Beattie, Phillips and Crouch but once a medium-sized PL’s club’s ambition is reckoned to be on the wane and the owner’s foot off the pedal and up on the dashboard, the wheels can really fall off.

Edited June 23 by Gloucester Saint

[Lee On Solent Saint]

On 21/06/2025 at 23:24, gurru991 said:

It's almost certain that RVN is done on July 1 but the owner has come out & said that he wants a manager who plays like Maresca.  That aint Dyche !!!

Lots of people think it will be Danny Rohl from Sheffield Wednesday.

There will be an absolute meltdown on here from some posters if Rohl does end up with you guys.

[S-Clarke]

On 23/06/2025 at 22:27, Lee On Solent Saint said:

There will be an absolute meltdown on here from some posters if Rohl does end up with you guys.

I dunno, I think most of us have gotten the Rohl thing out of our system. 

We've gone with a pretty solid choice ourselves in my eyes. If we'd missed out on Rohl and appointed Rusk I'd be more inclined to agree with you, but I don't see there being much of a meltdown.

Edited Wednesday at 19:04 by S-Clarke

[Gloucester Saint]

9 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I dunno, I think most of us have gotten the Rohl thing out of our system. 

We've gone with a pretty solid choice ourselves in my eyes. If we'd missed out on Rohl and appointed Rusk I'd be more inclined to agree with you, but I don't see there being much of a meltdown.

Quite, and Rohl’s compo situation means that he will have less time to implement his pressing game onto a squad schooled in Maresca-ball. He will be behind Still in preparation time - whether that proves significant time will tell. But people would’ve been stressing about it on here.

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Quite, and Rohl’s compo situation means that he will have less time to implement his pressing game onto a squad schooled in Maresca-ball. He will be behind Still in preparation time - whether that proves significant time will tell. But people would’ve been stressing about it on here.

The whole situation at Leicester feels a bit odd, it's like they're just frozen in time unable to do anything. They're not able to buy, they're not selling, they've got a manager who they don't want.

Pre-season starts in a week or so and they're no where near. It's a weird situation. Good for us for sure.

Edited Wednesday at 19:21 by S-Clarke

[Pamplemousse]

Given their squad you'd expect them to be up there but it does feel a bit doom and gloom at Leicester. Compared with us and Ipswich for instance.

[Gloucester Saint]

3 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

The whole situation at Leicester feels a bit odd, it's like they're just frozen in time unable to do anything. They're not able to buy, they're not selling, they've got a manager who they don't want.

Pre-season starts in a week or so and they're no where near. It's a weird situation. Good for us for sure.

Ndidi £9m release clause on relegation as well apparently. 

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Given their squad you'd expect them to be up there but it does feel a bit doom and gloom at Leicester. Compared with us and Ipswich for instance.

On paper they still have the players, but I think once they sort out their manager direction they'll start moving a few on. They simply have to financially. 

It all feels quite quiet at the moment, I'm still fully expecting ourselves to lose a really big chunk of our quality too - but we have the flexibility of being able to act in advance for a change, whereas Leicester will have to sell first.

[Gloucester Saint]

4 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

On paper they still have the players, but I think once they sort out their manager direction they'll start moving a few on. They simply have to financially. 

It all feels quite quiet at the moment, I'm still fully expecting ourselves to lose a really big chunk of our quality too - but we have the flexibility of being able to act in advance for a change, whereas Leicester will have to sell first.

If the Sulemana sale happens that wouldn’t hurt either.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

3 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I dunno, I think most of us have gotten the Rohl thing out of our system. 

We've gone with a pretty solid choice ourselves in my eyes. If we'd missed out on Rohl and appointed Rusk I'd be more inclined to agree with you, but I don't see there being much of a meltdown.

All if's and but's granted, but if Rohl does end up there and starts like an express train and we stutter and stumble on with Will, we  might see it differently.

[sockeye]

Spud Bros, a Lancashire firm selling jacket potatoes, are Preston’s front of shirt sponsor this season. I just think it’s neat when local business partners with local clubs, much like P&O’s link to Southampton and their position as our front of shirt sponsor.

[skintsaint]

More good news for Sheff Weds fans...

https://www.swfc.co.uk/news/2025/june/26/club-update-from-the-chairman/

Owner not going anywhere......for now. 

[gurru991]

On 25/06/2025 at 13:20, S-Clarke said:

The whole situation at Leicester feels a bit odd, it's like they're just frozen in time unable to do anything. They're not able to buy, they're not selling, they've got a manager who they don't want.

Pre-season starts in a week or so and they're no where near. It's a weird situation. Good for us for sure.

Because of FFP we cannot spend any money until July One. We will have to pay RVN a severance packag.e so we have to wait to hire & fire. Having said that we are an absolute mess due to the people who are running the club & I have no idea what to expect

[goodymatt]

 

[Willo of Whiteley]

Just in time for pre season

[skintsaint]

Dyche favourite to take over? 

[goodymatt]

11 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

Dyche favourite to take over? 

Telegraph saying not Dyche. Rohl seems to be their first choice. Quite how they can sit still on RvN all summer and then get our supposed first choice for free (if Rohl does negotiate an exit) is a bit confusing. I’m assuming Still became available and we didn’t want to wait around and Rohl had more potential options then. Like with Maresca, are Leicester getting our first choice target?

[S-Clarke]

3 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

Telegraph saying not Dyche. Rohl seems to be their first choice. Quite how they can sit still on RvN all summer and then get our supposed first choice for free (if Rohl does negotiate an exit) is a bit confusing. I’m assuming Still became available and we didn’t want to wait around and Rohl had more potential options then. Like with Maresca, are Leicester getting our first choice target?

I don't really care about Rohl anymore - I'm over that. Let them get on with it. I don't think there are such things as first/second choices either, it's whoever fits best at the moment. Rohl didn't.

I'm perfectly content with how we've ended up at this point. I'd be more nervous if we were in July and still had no manager in post.

Leicester have a lot of work and a lot of uncertainties to move through before they can start prepping for next season, whilst we're already at that stage.

[CB Fry]

4 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

Telegraph saying not Dyche. Rohl seems to be their first choice. Quite how they can sit still on RvN all summer and then get our supposed first choice for free (if Rohl does negotiate an exit) is a bit confusing. I’m assuming Still became available and we didn’t want to wait around and Rohl had more potential options then. Like with Maresca, are Leicester getting our first choice target?

How long are people on here going to push this message?

A club appoints a new manager for the new season in May and all we get is people making out he's some second choice. Will Still was appointed literally days after becoming available. We snapped him up. 

Just because we thought we might have been able to wrestle Rohl out of Sheffield Wednesday when we were in the Prem eight months ago does not mean that he becomes our first choice manager forever. Will Still, back then would not have been in that conversation. Rohl was because his position was clearly unstable, as it remains. 

It's amazing how early we can appoint someone who still gets written off as some second choice option.

[Lighthouse]

The timing does seem to coincide with the official changeover into next season at the end of June, so I wonder if there’s some contractural clause involved with their new bloke, like we had with the delay in appointing Martin last summer.

[goodymatt]

33 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

How long are people on here going to push this message?

A club appoints a new manager for the new season in May and all we get is people making out he's some second choice. Will Still was appointed literally days after becoming available. We snapped him up. 

Just because we thought we might have been able to wrestle Rohl out of Sheffield Wednesday when we were in the Prem eight months ago does not mean that he becomes our first choice manager forever. Will Still, back then would not have been in that conversation. Rohl was because his position was clearly unstable, as it remains. 

It's amazing how early we can appoint someone who still gets written off as some second choice option.

The media had Rohl as our first choice for some time and reaffirmed that post Juric sacking. He clearly ‘was’ our first choice. I agree that it is possible that when Still became available, we felt we had to go for it and it could have completely changed our direction. News reports suggested that we stepped away from Rohl due to high compensation fee, I doubt we envisaged he’d become available for nothing? So it does beg the question, who actually was our preferred target this summer. For what it’s worth I like the Still appointment, it’s just an observation really that Leicester seem to land on their feet and have beaten us to a few targets in the past, Maresca and Maddison being the big ones.

[hypochondriac]

30 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

The media had Rohl as our first choice for some time and reaffirmed that post Juric sacking. He clearly ‘was’ our first choice. I agree that it is possible that when Still became available, we felt we had to go for it and it could have completely changed our direction. News reports suggested that we stepped away from Rohl due to high compensation fee, I doubt we envisaged he’d become available for nothing? So it does beg the question, who actually was our preferred target this summer. For what it’s worth I like the Still appointment, it’s just an observation really that Leicester seem to land on their feet and have beaten us to a few targets in the past, Maresca and Maddison being the big ones.

I think Rohl was our first choice but the chairman made it difficult and we wanted things sorted early to capitalise on our early relegation. If Leicester do get him it will be really interesting to see how they get on. I haven't heard anything about points deductions as yet. 

[hypochondriac]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

The timing does seem to coincide with the official changeover into next season at the end of June, so I wonder if there’s some contractural clause involved with their new bloke, like we had with the delay in appointing Martin last summer.

I think it's more to do with compensation for rvn being stuck in this seasons accounts.