Bradford came up, Johnny. Nice place apparently, 'City of Dreams' according to the series on telly...

Didn't Norwich and Saints go down the route of blooding youngsters and compiling journeymen though?

If you look at the Premier league there must be 5 or 6 clubs which effectively went from div 1 to the prem in just a handful of seasons and many stayed there for a while........wigan, fulham, swansea, saints and norwich......didn't WBA do it in just a few years too, though with more yo-yoing?

“Anybody seeing any grounds for optimism that are not appearing in my almost compeletly empty glass?”

We won’t have to face Yeovil next season? That could have been one of the automatic spots taken before the season kicked off!

Cinci

It took us from 1993 to 2002 to get from Div 3 to Prem.

Incidently, the year WBA got out of Div 3, Soke went up as Champs, Bolton were runners up, Swansea finished 5th, Fulham finished 12th, Hull 20th and Wigan relegated in 23rd.

So, it can be done.

STOKE...

Stoke only got their act together once Moxey was booted out

Don't lets get above ourselves, we've been here before ... as have Man City, Leeds etc.

Good luck to Yeovil.

Ok so of all the teams in the prem now, how many have been in div 1 in recent times and what was the gap between the two?

" my fear is .......the team that runs out for our first game in August will be an unrecognizable collection of lower league journeymen"

My fear is that we will recognize these lower league journeymen all too well.

You didn't want to be playing on Yeovil's sloping pitch anyway. You've got enough of an uphill struggle as it is.

aries

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KLr7r0-f1WI/UYOhlPfML3I/AAAAAAAAJmM/YQy305JFVME/s1600/.0.jpg

Let the tescos enjoy enjoy theirselves while it lasts, they're in the bottom 3 on current form as it is.
We'll pass them on our way back up.

We are 14th on current form based on last 6 games, Wolfie...

.....and 8th on current form based on last 38 games.....

Would be interesting to look at the number of changes to the Norwich and Southamptons squads from arrival in League One to eventual promotion to Prem. My impression was that they kept a core of players together and cetainly didn't add dross when in League One. Smart buys with potential for growth followed by good coching perhaps?

would have no idea about norwich to be honest......i guess at the time holt and hoolahan etc were considered journeyman dross.
As for saints, they have always been proactive with youth development, schneiderlin, lallana were around back then and maybe bale was getting games then too?

forget bale, gone by then.........forgot oxlase chamberlain and lambert though.

Good point.
Saints line up on opening day of promotion season from L1

01 Kelvin Davis
15 Radhi Jaidi
12 Danny Butterfield
05 Ryan Dickson
06 Jose Fonte
03 Dan Harding (Lallana 65)
04 Morgan Schneiderlin
10 Jason Puncheon (Holmes 91)
14 Dean Hammond
09 Lee Barnard
22 David Connolly

Subs

20 Adam Lallana (Harding 65)
21 Lee Holmes (Puncheon 91)
26 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
24 Bartosz Bialkowski
18 Joseph Mills
16 Paul Wotton
19 Daniel Seaborne


Team on opening day of prem season

01 Kelvin Davis
13 Danny Fox 60
06 Jose Fonte
02 Nathaniel Clyne
05 Jos Hooiveld
04 Morgan Schneiderlin 87
20 Adam Lallana
16 James Ward-Prowse (Davis 65)
42 Jason Puncheon (Sharp 86)
21 Guilherme Do Prado
09 Jay Rodriguez (Lambert 55)

Subs

11 Billy Sharp (Puncheon 86)
12 Paulo Gazzaniga
22 Frazer Richardson
07 Rickie Lambert (Rodriguez 55)
08 Steven Davis (Ward-Prowse 65)
25 Daniel Seaborne
23 Luke Shaw

6 players made it from L1 to the Prem...(7 if you count AOC)...

thats good for season one, and then you begin to add to it......what odds they add plenty in the summer.

worth noting that 3 of the prem squad on day one were youth players........ward-prowse, shaw and clyne......all additions since league one

The problem they have, Cinci, is that the owners are at loggerheads with the management who want Champ League football!!!!!!

That means a MASSIVE cash input. Could go all wrong for them again.

yeah, been reading it, looks like cortese is staying put now though.
But champo league football is a little far fetched, the problem being that the cash cow who may have buckled through his love for the club, Liehbehr, is dead.

They could very well push for europa level though, thats an open market pretty much, any type of good season will open that door to someone, especially now everton will likely drop back into the pack leaving the top six in isolation.

The worst thing about Yeovil being promoted is that we will start the season bottom of the division again

Laudrup said on Friday that he needs to add 6 or 7 players just to maintain mid-table. These players will be of the bargain kind - like Michu, who cost only £2m.

He wants his business done under the radar and quickly, so that his squad is in place a month before kick-off.

Think he is over exagerating that assessment to be honest, i would say that is more a prod at the board to put finances forward. As all managers do the same thing.

But he is right to want to get it done early and he is right that you need to keep the squad fresh, something we know all too well after the last few years.