It's a long way to top if you wanna rock and roll

The World Cup break nears as the lads stumble into it gratefully, but perhaps thoughts of better things should be far from our minds.

Many of us will feel this year is an ideal opportunity for us to get back to the top level for the first time since 2017, and while optimism maybe still be high for this the Championship is a brutal league that can swallow you up very quickly; a few wins and you’re near the top while a few defeats can see you spiral the other way.

This year the league does seem somewhat compact, with no stand-out team. Indeed, no side is currently averaging the fabled two points per game considered the hallmark for promotion - QPR are top on 30 points after seventeen games, which would equate to 86 points over a forty-six game season, whilst a play-off place is currently only worth 26 points with Millwall sitting in sixth. This would equate to just a shade under 75 points over a whole season. Bearing in mind last season we had to get 83 points to scrap the play-offs, the numbers make for interesting reading. It will be interesting to see whether the numbers either balance out as the season goes on, or the league stays as compact as it currently is.

Would a play-off/promotion challenge for us this year be realistic? I’m not sure that another one would be such a good thing at this point. That’s not to say I don’t think we aren’t capable, but we simply might be running before we can walk at this point. Off the pitch the club is saying and doing the right things that are good for long-term planning. Have they factored in another promotion so soon? Again I’m not so sure. The key word when Mowbray was installed was "stability", and that to me means we are set to first establishing ourselves at this level. Money is always the biggest thing in the football of today, as we know, and we wasted so much of it in the Premier League. Other than a few select buys we ultimately were no better off at the end of it. We got relegated, the money dried up and we all know what happened next!

The club wants to be financially stable, which is understandable since sustainability is the aim of the game for most football clubs, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Certainly, based on our recent history, that’s more than OK. I think we all at the beginning of the season were content to have a fairly boring season. After the first few games we were doing alright, and maybe we thought we could go up again since no one was outplaying us and we were competitive in every game. However, it’s a long season and we are finding the other side of the coin at the moment, so realignment of expectations has been tempered somewhat. It's not unusual to see teams get back-to-back promotions; Southampton and Norwich both did this not so long ago. I think though that the gap is so much bigger between the Premier League and the Championship now than it was then. Teams can yo-yo like Norwich and West Brom. Would we as fans be happy with that? Again, I’m not so sure, which is why I think evolution rather than revolution for us at the moment is important. 

Also what about the players we currently have? Would any of them be able to make that step up again? We mustn’t forget we still have most of the squad that got us out of League One last year, and they are just finding their feet at this level. Many of the younger core of the team have never even played at the top level.

This would leave us with another issue if we got promoted: how much loyalty would be attributed to these players, and how many would we need to recruit to even have a chance at the top flight? I don’t think we’d be in a position of mass recruitment, and so progressing at this level is the best thing for this young group currently.

Our recruitment is now very youth-focused, and if that is to carry on the way it is it might be too much to ask a younger group to adjust to the top level so soon.

I think overall we must be realistic at this stage in our rebirth as a football club. We’ve been scarred too much over the last few years to let it happen again so quickly. Enjoy the ride we are on at the moment, have faith in the process the club is in. I've no doubt the Premier League will come again for SAFC, but right now we might be doing more damage than good if we chase so much so quickly.