I daren't even think - would be waaay too soon

Couldn't agree more, we need to have a couple of confidence boosting seasons in L1 for players and fans.

Not wishing to rake over the past Calypso but it is important to learn lessons from the past.

I think with hindsight we had in Evans (love him or hate him) a manager who had a high turnover of players to begin with. An astonishing number really. In his defence we went up after finishing fifth, and we probably did need to add to the squad after going up in consecutive seasons. Perhaps with hindsight we went too much down the route of bringing in players who had a track record of playing at Championship level. Unfortunately the only players we could afford on our budget who fit that description were probably past their best and/or injury prone and although they may have done their best they weren't up to it. It was difficult then to rebuild once things started to go wrong, and I suspect we had spent most of the kitty on high wages and signing on fees.

The way that Barnsley and Sheff Utd have gone about things has been a bit different. Barnsley have gone for young, talented and hungry players. It may not work for them this season because ultimately money is a big factor and they have a smaller budget than most but I suspect they won't cripple the club in trying. Of course outside investment may change the landscape for them. United have the size and platform to compete but seem to have a good mix of youth and experience and have added to the promotion winning team without demolishing it.

At the end of the day the way that money is in football now the gaps between all of the divisions are getting bigger, and going up and being competitive in the next league up will always be a challenge.

I agree that you have to aim as high as you can and if a chance to go up comes along you have to try and take it and then give it the best go you can but still try and plan for the medium to long term - not easy when fans judge you only on last weeks result/performance.

Has anyone seen the projected figures for Championship funding compared to that of League One over the next ten years? It is ridiculous. The 80% 12% 8% funding formula that was agreed back when the Prem Lg started is now well out of date. it didn't matter so much when the amounts were relatively small but now, as you can imagine, it is off the scale!

Essentially you are going to have The Championship as an EPL 2 meaning clubs coming up into the Champ from Lg 1 just can't compete.

The EFL are aware that this is happening and the problem is that voting for a new funding system would require the agreement of clubs in the Championship but why would they vote against the status quo when they are raking it in.

Anyway if you did go up I think you should look to keep Towell and Moore and look at someone like Sean Raggett at the back who is unlikely to be given a fair chance at Norwich. He reminds me of a young Matt Elliott.