The board, the coaching staff, the players and we the fans have all played a major role in making these ambitions come true. Everyone involved in the last season can take a well deserved bow.
Now, here comes the interesting part. What, as a club, should we be looking to achieve next season, and where realistically would we find to be an acceptable position come May 2006?
I believe that come next season, our primary aim should be retention of our place in the division, and hopefully a nice mid-table spot. It may sound negative, but please bear me out.
Many are expressing the belief that we should be looking to mount another promotion challenge, to try and emulate what Hull have done this year. I would be thrilled if we could do so, but there are two major differences between the two clubs that I can see. Firstly, Hull were quite heavily bankrolled by their chairman during the initial stages of Peter Taylor's team building, so they already had a squad of quality players to build on. Secondly, they had already moved to the K.C. Stadium prior to leaving League Two, so they had drawn in higher gates and were therefore able to budget for greater team strengthening still to mount a second straight promotion campaign.
We have the benefit of neither of these. We are limited to a slower process due to the financial safeguards that we are, quite rightly given our previous problems, sticking to religiously. KJ. is having to target players that can improve the squad, whilst not breaking the bank, which is not an easy job. Given the somewhat fickle nature of the South Wales sporting public, we also cannot accurately predict what gates are likely to be next year. Hopefully we can look for a five-figure average, but until we know for certain it would be careless to gamble on an excessive wage bill.
On the pitch, the quality of a relegated Wrexham side should give anyone pause for thought, as well as Nottingham Forest, Bristol City, Tranmere, Sheffield Wednesday, Gillingham, and quite a few other well established sides that will also have their eyes on the prize. There are no walkover teams like Cambridge, Bury or Kidderminster to rack up points and goals against.
All of this makes me think that not only moving to a new division, but also a new home, might be too much of an upheaval to make in one year and still put out too much hope of back to back promotions. Consolidate this year, get our bearings both on and off the pitch, and then build a side to challenge for a step to Championship football in 2006/07.
We do have a few things going for us however. Kenny Jackett knows what it takes to get a side promoted from this division as he has achieved it alongside Ian Holloway at Q.P.R. We also had higher gates last season than quite a few clubs in this division, so we should be able to invest in better quality than them under the wage capping regulations.
I just hope that people appreciate just how far we have come in a little over two years, and the boos don't start to ring out around White Rock at the first game there next season if we're not 2-0 up at half time. It will take time, and we will be stronger for it. You only need to look forty miles east for a cautionary tale of a club who tried to run before they could even crawl.
We WILL grow, we WILL progress, and we WILL cement our rightful place as Wales' Premier football club. We just need to do it properly.
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