We Are Underperforming.

[flammableBen]

I worked out a few years ago that our average league position is around 5th in the third tier of english football. That only works if we have a little flaunt in the second tier now and again. So we are overdue. Big time. Just saying.

[joteddyred]

According to the reporter on ITV we have under achieved massively this season with the squad and budget that we had. This was said directly after he crowed about Yeovil getting to Wembley, so maybe he had a point?

[flammableBen]

We have definitely overspent this year. But for a club of our side we should have spent at least one season in div one (championship) this millennium.

[RedRag]

According to the reporter on ITV we have under achieved massively this season with the squad and budget that we had. This was said directly after he crowed about Yeovil getting to Wembley, so maybe he had a point?

I suspect that financially we have performed according to budget, ie playoffs. 

Given the 'Mbargos we have suffered, the kids on the subs bench - and everything else off the field - I think it would be unfair to say the squad has underachieved, if anything, the reverse applies.

Feeling a bit disorientated personally but I think we can be proud of the lads during 12-13 and that the media, like the FA, is full of **it.

[Reg Smeeton]

We have definitely overspent this year. But for a club of our side we should have spent at least one season in div one (championship) this millennium.

We did spend part of the 21st Century in Div 2...so not all bad.

[london_red]

I suspect that financially we have performed according to budget, ie playoffs. 

Given the 'Mbargos we have suffered, the kids on the subs bench - and everything else off the field - I think it would be unfair to say the squad has underachieved, if anything, the reverse applies.

Feeling a bit disorientated personally but I think we can be proud of the lads during 12-13 and that the media, like the FA, is full of **it.

I concur.

[Ardiles]

We did spend part of the 21st Century in Div 2...so not all bad.

Not true.  

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090209023234AAWBgGz

[dalumpimunki]

Take a look at the championship table now. All but 3 of the clubs have average attendances upwards of 13000. Millwall, Barnsley and Posh who all finished at the lower end of the table, with Posh relegated, art the only clubs of a comparable size to ours.

More and more over the last decade the top two divisions have stabilised into being largely the preserve of the bigger clubs. A smaller club makes it up every now and again, and if they're lucky they survive for a few seasons before they drop.

The clubs that have made the jump up the leagues and sustained themselves in the top 2 leagues over the last decade are those with a historically larger fan base that might have fallen on hard times but have been revived by the right investment in infrastructure and team (see Cardiff, Swansea, and all those Lancashire clubs beginning with B, we'll see but Brighton look like they might manage it as well).

The only exceptions I can think of, that is clubs that didn't have a traditionally large fan base or history in the higher leagues, but have built that through some decent investment are Hull and Reading.