What does it take to get beyond the first season in the PL

Posting this partially due to lack of Boro related themes and new topics at the moment but perhaps if all goes well later on a subject that could very well be a situation and concern for all those who follow and work within the Middlesbrough Football Club regime.

Simply as the title suggests "what does it take to get beyond the first season in the PL"?

Looking at the Burnley situation, whilst it was clear that they deserved their promotion last season, on the outside it seems as if they are totally out of their depth and to be honest seems as if there was little planning to ensure they stood a realistic chance of keeping their place in the PL next season. I would go as far to suggest that they are on course for a new record low number of points before suffering relegation at the end of this term.

Perhaps the powers that be always knew this would happen and were more content in just getting the financial backing from the one season in the PL and the parachute payments that follow for a few seasons afterwards? Who knows?

I know that many will look at QPR in a different light to the Burnley situation but again they too are looking out of their depth and on the face of things they too are looking relegation bound (ideal club for the yo-yo description)

So with the ideal scenario of Boro getting promotion just what will the club have to do to ensure that we do not follow suit and fall at the first hurdle????

I don't think that Burnley ever planned to get promoted. At the start of last season, many were tipping them for relegation and even the most die-hard of fans would have been happy with a mid-table finish. As a result, they didn't invest in the players needed to mount a premiership campaign.

Last time they went up, they spent money, still got relegated and ended up ruined financially, this time round, they'll give it a go, Turf Moor will be full most weeks, due to the novelty of Premier League football and when the inevitable happens, they'll be relegated, a lot richer than when they were promoted, with parachute payments to follow, and a low wage bill.

QPR on the other hand..............

well QPR won last night, with the size and talent in the side they should see theirselves safe. i have stuck a cheeky fiver on them to stay up :)

I think you might be right about QPR, SB. They have resources and a decent manager, they'll be OK, I would be more worried if I was a Sunderland or Leicester fan, personally.

I think the trick is to be solid and don't change too much from the ethos that got you promoted. Keep the core of the promoted squad together and buy in a few high quality additions, rather than a host of average ones as Burnley did.

The steel and grit from the championship needs to be carried with the squad. You are never going to beat teams by trying to out play them at football. It needs to be a blend of both.

I agree that Burnley probably never planned to get promoted and never really adopted a plan over the summer. Why else would you go into a Premier League campaign with Juke as one of you main strikers? That highlights how low they've set the bar for themselves and they probably won't mind getting relegated and having more Money to consolidate the Clubs future and build a strong competitive team for the next promotion assault, where they will probably be better prepared, and a bit more bold in the transfer market in an effort to stay up.

I'm not taking anything away from the Burnely team that got promoted here, because they certainly deserved to go up, but they clearly lack the ambition to stay up.

While QPR are the horror example of how not to do business in the transfermarket, Burnley are an example of doing too Little. Premier League is a tough League where you need different qualities than in the Championship. Hard Work alone won't see you safe and you really need to add some quality and experience when you go up, and even more so if you haven't got it in your team when you are promoted.

Should Boro get promoted I'd still want some proven top League players in key positions and not having to rely on the entire squads ability to step up. Some will probably step up and prove a succes but not your entire squad.

i think this merry go round of players leaving relegated clubs to go to newly promoted ones doesn't work either, surely if they were good enough then the side wouldn't have got relegated in the first place? some players make a career of jumping from one newly promoted team to another but never actually helpling the side stay up.

i think ading a bit more depth and quality to a side breaming with confidence is what is needed. keeping the core and adding to it is the way forward to keep stability and conifdence going.

The premier league is weaker now minus 2 teams than it has ever been IMO. A few good additions, keep the core squad that got you promoted and a striker that can score goals should keep you in the league. We have a young squad of players that have huge potential and also lots of links with top clubs that should help us get players. If we go up we should really be able to push on and progress

The steel and grit from the championship needs to be carried with the squad. You are never going to beat teams by trying to out play them at football. It needs to be a blend of both.

Swansea did a good job of outplaying teams though, and southampton too.

Then again, WBA got relegated trying to outplay them!!

I don't think there is a set way to do it. Each club has to do it their own way. Stoke came up and they were direct, organised, good set pieces, worked hard etc. That worked nicely for them. Swansea came up and playing possession based football and just stuck to that and it worked. For the most part I think it comes down to the individual players and their ability to step up a level though.

I remember when we last went up that Forest beat us to the title and the Mackems missed out in the play offs. But I was absolutely convinced that Forest would be straight back down, that we would stay up easily and that the Mackems would come up and stay up the next season. My reasoning was that ourselves and Sunderland in my view were already playing 'Premier League' football with that calibre of player whilst Forest were playing a very effective way of playing in that division but wouldn't be able to step up and do it in the Premier League. That's pretty much how it happened.

I think Burnley were always going to be struggling anyway and when your big buy is a player like Juke then you're kind of saying we know what's coming and we're fine with it. As someone said above, they're clearly going into this season with the view that this helps the club financially for years to come and they're not going to spend big and waste that opportunity. QPR are a different case because they spent big before relegation and they've been prepared to invest in transfer fees and wages since then. They've gone down the route of bringing in some experienced Premier League players so that they can already play at that level. The problem is that they've bought a few in that look well past their best and with so many comings and goings you just wonder whether they can become a proper unit. Last night suggests that maybe they can.

From our perspective, if we went up and kept the same squad then I think we'd come straight down again. I'm not sure how many Premier League players we've actually got? Friend maybe but other than that I'm really not sure. I don't think Adomah would make it as he's too limited and defenders will suss him out pretty quickly. Leadbitter would be mediocre at that level when you think of some of the players he'd be up against. But of course sometimes you need to get up into it to prove that you can play there :)

I tend to think there's two ways teams approach a promotion season. For the teams who think they've got a genuine chance of staying up, whose team is already decent, it's about looking at the pattern of play and buying reinforcements to allow that pattern to thrive. Most likely, it's adding strength up front, the kind of player who doesn't need ten chances to score one goal. You're rarely going to be able to buy the proven success, more the ageing one or the one with potential from overseas. Then there's the other approach for teams less confident of staying up who buy players who have been a hit in the Championship. That way, if they come good in the Premiership, great. If not, you know they're an asset when you go back down. I think Burnley are an example of the latter. Leicester are a bit of a mix, they seem to have more confidence of staying up but their best buy has been a Championship striker in Ulloa, who was expensive but has done well.

Teams may go up hoping to do a Southampton or a Stoke but that first year you just have to ensure you do better than three other teams and set yourself up with the capacity to do so. The rest is all bonus from there.

I think its alot easier staying up in your 1st season back, 2nd season syndrome stats prove it, Promoted teams start the next season full of confidence and are an unknown quantity for a while, its so important to get points on the board early otherwise its a long old slog, Whether to stick or twist with signings depends on how much the chairman wants to risk things, does he want to spend loads and try and stay up, spend a little and hope for survival, or keep things tight with a nucleus of a team capable of been promoted again. I would be happy for us to be a yo-yo team havong players who want to play for the club than spend big money on players who are only after the cash and jump ship if we went down again, even if we did get promoted I dont think they'll be any big marquee signings again, though it would be great to be in that position for Gibbo to have to make that choice