General 'Championship' Thread 2018 - 2021

There may be "many questions from their fans about what happened on May 29, 2020 when IEC rid itself of ownership to Next Leader Fund and what assets and liabilities were included in the deal." but there will be precious little from the EFL. The EFL do not even bother to mutter insincere phrases like 'lessons learnt'! The tests conducted to confirm potential owners are fit and proper to own a football club are obviously anything but....

I watched the highlights of the Brentford v Wigan game and whilst their forward line of Watkins, Benrahma and Mbeumo are scoring goals for fun and look like they can score from every attack the guy who really impressed me was Norgaard in Central Midfield. He controlled the game and everything goes through him. He is very commanding in the midfield and is someone that doesnt get the headlines but for me he is their most important player.

Apparently they signed him from Fiorentina for £2.8m on a 4 year contract in 2019 on the basis that he had played for Thomas Frank at youth level.

Yes Norgaard is certainly driving the play for Brentford. It is what QPR have missed since Ale departed. Eze is many things but he has yet to add the dominance and control side of his game in the centre of the pitch. The more appropriate candidate in the current side would be Amos or Cameron, as they link up the play between the defence and attack; but neither has that 'extra' that Norgaard possesses. 

It would be nice to think he was available on a free in a couple of weeks....

He is a fantastic manager at this level and Bristol City won't be afraid to back him, as we saw with their signing of Nahki Wells for big money.

This league is going to be incredibly tough in the top half next season.

It's looking increasingly likely that Norwich, Bournemouth and Villa will be coming down. Norwich always storm the Championship but just struggle in the top flight. Bournemouth are a well run club with a very good manager. Villa see themselves as big boys so won't like being down here again. So all 3 of them will be very tough propositions.

Then one of Leeds, West Brom and Brentford could still be here if whoever ends up in the play offs blows it. Even if they do all go up that still leaves us with the likes of Fulham, Nottingham Forest, Derby, Swansea and Cardiff to contend with.

The more years we have spent treading water in lower mid table the more difficult it is becoming to be a challenger.

I think the positive for QPR though is that there should be a lot of teams struggling next season. A lot will struggle financially and a lot will struggle on the pitch as a result.

Whoever survives from Luton, Barnsley, Middlesbrough, Hull and Charlton won't be too tough on paper.
Birmingham and Sheffield Wednesday are having off the field problems and of course if Wigan do survive they are in disarray.
Stoke have so many big earners that they are going to start struggling as their parachute payments reduce after so many seasons at this level. They spent big to go back up and have well and truly blown it.

Rotherham have come up but always struggle, they are the equivalent of West Brom or Norwich but just between Championship-League One. Wycombe if they do come up will have to punch well above their weight to compete, like Burton and Yeovil in recent times.

It is very early to say, and we are going to have to replace all the goals in our own team losing very key players, but mid-table looks a good bet again.

Apparently 2 bidders who were looking at taking over Wigan have been put off by their payroll which is reputed to be £19 million.

I'm not sure what the QPR payroll is these days but I remember it being reported in April 2019 that our wage bill for 2017/18 was £30 million and TF saying he wanted to reduce it to just £11 million. 

Preston's wage bill in 2017/18 was supposedly £14m and that proved in footballing terms that successful teams in the Championship didn't have pay huge salaries.