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Championship 2018/19


Robert

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So now we know, four new teams in next year's league, with Partick Thistle joining County, Ayr and Alloa.

We are hopefully in good shape to get off to a fast start, as realistically eight teams will feel they are in contention to win the league: us, Partick, County, Dundee United, Dunfermline, Falkirk, Morton and Queen of the South.

On top of that, Ayr or Alloa could surprise some of those teams too.

It looks like it should be a competitive, interesting season.

I can't wait!

 

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As I said elsewhere....despite what might be said publicly, there's not a club in the Championship who will be relishing the level of competition.  It's going to be a helluva league and potential for high level entertainment is huge.

ICTFC have shown that clubs are just as capable of having a bad season as a good one after being relegated, so I'm not buying into the "County & Partick will have relegation hangovers".  When you look at the list of teams and you can't single out ANY of them as favourites for relegation or promotion, then you know it's going to be tough.

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On the other hand, they will both have to undergo the upheaval and shock of adjusting to their reduced status. 

Hopefully, they will both deal with it as badly as we did whereas we are now familiar with the challenges of this division and in the last dozen games or began to get to grips with it and are in a position now to carry that into next season.

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Looking at the balance, Alloa  Athletic and Ayr United are probably and certainly look  better than Brechin and Dumbarton,  although Dumbarton on a good day can get a result.  The relegated teams from the Premiership, I wonder, neither I think are as good as St. Mirren , Livingston, I wish all the best too of course, where not really any better than us.

Hopefully we can enjoy a good season I see no reason not  to fear anybody, the extra revenue from hopefully two gates against Ross County will be useful.  Partick I have a lot of time for, but I don't think they are as good as St. Mirren

Lets go and win the league.   Also let us learn to run the clock down when winning with minutes to go. Coaches should be teaching short corners and short passes from free kicks,  No need to go gung ho when you are winning.

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Partick did not anticipate relegation. They performed very badly against Livingston because Livingston were the better side, and absolutely deserved to win.

Partick have lost Maxwell as their Chief Executive. They may dismiss Archibald who states :  ''We'll have to rebuild - I think we have 15 or 16 players out of contract; others in contract have clauses as well to protect the club financially. It's important that the club's protected first and foremost.'''

So with less than 8 weeks until the league cup starts regardless of parachute payment,  it seems highly unlikely that a virtually rebuilt Thistle will start the new season very well. 

We need a solid and steady start to assess the competition. 

 

 

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Is this the 1st time since the playoffs that 4 new teams have entered the championship through relegation/promotion.

That's nearly half the league replaced and should really freshen things up.

Here's hoping for a much much better start this year and put ourselves in a strong position before Xmas.

 

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An excellent point made by @hislopsoffsideagain on Twitter - 

2014/15 - Dundee Utd finish 5th with 56 points.  2015/16 - Dundee Utd relegated with 31 points.

2014/15 - ICT finish 3rd with 65 points.  2016/17 - ICT relegated with 34 points.

2015/16 - Ross County finish 6th with 48 points.  2017/18 Ross County relegated with 29 points.

2016/17 - Partick Thistle finish 6th with 42 points.  2017/18 Partick Thistle relegated with 33 points.

Four teams relegated in the last four seasons, all of whom were in the top six a year or two previously.  Two of those sides, us and County, won trophies in the two years before.  Dundee Utd reached the league cup final the season before they were relegated, and the Scottish cup final the year before that.

Scottish teams are on a knife edge - lose even one or two good players or make a poor managerial appointment and you can drop like a stone very quickly.

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Our winning the Scottish Cup was the culmination of a *5 year schedule of building, which could never be sustained; a club with our resources simply doesn't have the means to allow it to do so.  The fact that we managed to pull off a 5 year plan in the manner we did required a great deal of personal sacrifice by those off the park as well as those on it....and a large slice of good fortune.

Our board need to get their had out of their arse and realise that our greatest periods of success have come from investing in people....not just financially and not just on the park.  As I told them when I decided I could no longer be a part of the dismantling of everything good at the club (changes were needed, but the foundations were actually pretty solid).....

Respect is Earned, Honesty is Appreciated, Trust is Gained and Loyalty is Returned

.....that has been the recipe for success at ICTFC from day one and it has been almost entirely stripped from the club in the last 12 months.

 

*It could be argued that it was a 6 year schedule as the commitment from the board to back the fan's financial support with a £1 Million investment kick started the return to the premiership...the first piece of the jigsaw.

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2 hours ago, ictchris said:

Scottish teams are on a knife edge - lose even one or two good players or make a poor managerial appointment and you can drop like a stone very quickly.

Very true.  Equally you can rise  quickly too.  Success requires a group of players to work well as a team in doing what the manager wants them to do.  This requires good understandings between the players and trust in the manager.  It also requires luck.  Teams need to avoid significant disruption due to injuries and they need the rub of the green on match days from time to time.  Success is so often built on confidence and that can evaporate after a couple of unlucky defeats.  When the confidence goes then there is a risk that relationships break down and it can be difficult to mend bridges when that happens.  

On the management front one can look at County and say that Coyle was a poor appointment.  But he has a decent track record and it would be reasonable to have expected him to do well.  County had a solid enough start with Coyle but then lost games they should have won in December and any confidence and belief in the manager evaporated.  Had they got lucky in a couple of those games and had a couple of good wins, this would have swung things the other way and County could have been challenging for top six.  If you look at their squad you would say they should never have been relegated.  It really is a bit of a lottery and that means there is always hope for the un-fancied and less well resourced teams - like us!  It's going to be a very tough division next season and if we are going to do well it will be important to keep the togetherness going.  It could make all the difference.

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Look like the Championship will be a much more competitive league than the premier there should be a lot of good games and it is vital we get off to a good start , financially we cannot compete with some of the other teams in the league. County have uncle Roy  and Partick have a large following  (over 7000 at the game last night)  so we as fans have to be realistic as long as the team go out and play well even in defeat we need to back them.

We finished the season well beating the top teams so we have nothing to fear from that area and even the relegated clubs will find it difficult . It will be a very difficult league to win hopefully we can add another couple of players and have a real go at it

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Potentially a very competitive Championship : ICT, Arabs, Thistle, County, Dunfermline and Falkirk : all desperate to return to the top league (not discounting the others given Livi's back to back promotions).

As others have said, essential we get off to a strong start and are not left playing catch up again which cost us dearly this season.

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With a lower budget and more even and competitive teams than even last season there's no doubt its going to be tough. Wonder what the club strategy will ne next season if we fail to get promotion, if there is one as I'd expect more cut backs. The resounding mess last summer and not have our house in order may well come back to haunt us.

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This league will be pretty incredible. I cannot even start to guess to say who would be favourites or the positions. Lots of factors involved including teams recruitment and management squads. Looks like Utd will stick with csaba. Will Partick stick with Alan? Will Hartley get his recruitment right? Will Ayr do a Livi?

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4 hours ago, bdu98196 said:

With a lower budget and more even and competitive teams than even last season there's no doubt its going to be tough. Wonder what the club strategy will ne next season if we fail to get promotion, if there is one as I'd expect more cut backs. The resounding mess last summer and not have our house in order may well come back to haunt us.

True story that's why I couldn't understand the mentality of some fans on here that they never expected promotion chuffed with that season I was fckin gutted fully expected us to absolutely romp the league! Dangerous times don't wanna be down here to long not exactly awash with cash the championship no parachute payment every year I'm afraid

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8 hours ago, Biggin said:

Look like the Championship will be a much more competitive league than the premier there should be a lot of good games and it is vital we get off to a good start , financially we cannot compete with some of the other teams in the league. County have uncle Roy  and Partick have a large following  (over 7000 at the game last night)  so we as fans have to be realistic as long as the team go out and play well even in defeat we need to back them.

We finished the season well beating the top teams so we have nothing to fear from that area and even the relegated clubs will find it difficult . It will be a very difficult league to win hopefully we can add another couple of players and have a real go at it

Need to loose the small **** team mentality a lot of our fans seem to have that we should be grateful to compete with giants like Morton and Livi we were in the spl on merit and competed well every season until the foran disaster in our short existence wev done things most of these teams can only dream of Europe Scottish cup league cup final! We might not be as old as these clubs but wer defo more successful enough of the defeatist mentality wer the big dogs in this division time we showed it I'm defo gonna punt a tenner on us romping the league 

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5 hours ago, bdu98196 said:

With a lower budget and more even and competitive teams than even last season there's no doubt its going to be tough. Wonder what the club strategy will ne next season if we fail to get promotion, if there is one as I'd expect more cut backs. The resounding mess last summer and not have our house in order may well come back to haunt us.

True but if the league is as competitive as everyone hopes, then if we get off to a good start, hopefully this will lead to increased attendances negating some of the financial pressures. Not holding my breath on that though as it is quite likely Utd, County, Falkirk, Dunfermline and Partick will all have bigger attendances than us which is really sad. If Inverness truly wants a team at this or a higher level then they need to start showing support.

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4 minutes ago, Huisdean said:

True but if the league is as competitive as everyone hopes, then if we get off to a good start, hopefully this will lead to increased attendances negating some of the financial pressures. Not holding my breath on that though as it is quite likely Utd, County, Falkirk, Dunfermline and Partick will all have bigger attendances than us which is really sad. If Inverness truly wants a team at this or a higher level then they need to start showing support.

Look at the atmosphere at the Dunfermline game the ground was rocking the team start winning be the same again hopefully! Worse support than County I doubt that tho tbf they've a far better ground with the stands right on top of the pitch like a mini Tyne castle 

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Jim Spence described the Championship next season as a 'Bear Pit', which sums it up perfectly! 

Only one part time club (Alloa), I think this season (not sure about Ayr), both will be stronger than Brechin & , possibly, Dumbarton.

I think we'd have been screwed if it had been this season we went down! I could see Partick & County struggling at 1st - how many of their players, financial considerations aside, would actually fancy playing in the Championship? More County I'm thinking of here...can see various teams kicking them about on the park....

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Ayr are part time and didn't switch to full time status the last time they were promoted to the Championship. However, as Dumbarton proved last season, a well run and well coached part time team is perfectly capable of being competitive in this division.

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4 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

Ayr are part time and didn't switch to full time status the last time they were promoted to the Championship. However, as Dumbarton proved last season, a well run and well coached part time team is perfectly capable of being competitive in this division.

Ayr are full time, they didn't want to make the transition from PT to FT while in the Championship. Once they got relegated to League One they went full time. 

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