There’s been quite few defiant noises coming from the club about re-structuring the squad after it was finally confirmed that we're going down.

Some optimists have been pointing to the fact that we will get three lots of money – Premiership parachute, American investment and the season tickets income.

PJ has been talking about one (of many) mistake that we made when coming up – you cannot bump along the bottom and hope to develop. You have to be ready for the fight and scrape a point here and there to survive the first season. So there is a need for players who can manage the rigours of the Championship and are also able to compete at the Premiership level.

What intrigues me is how this will affect the tactics we will use next year. In my opinion, the long ball system is more effective (a la Stoke) in the Championship where there is more room for error. We exploited this to our advantage and we had Howard who was used to great effect. Unfortunately he was found seriously wanting once we came up, and we soon ran out of options. Giles Barnes was unable to reproduce the flashes of skill that we all hoped for, and not surprisingly for a young chap, he lost heart.

So to be successful in the Premiership there is a need for much more passing to feet, with the long ball used as a shock tactic or even a tactic in certain games. Even Arsenal, the passing team par excellence, are not above using this tactic at times when it looks on.

But passing in the Championship doesn’t work as well – retaining possession allows the other team to re-group and unless you have players with much higher levels of skill – you cannot unlock their defence. Sound familiar? Derby County in their Championship season were able to beat teams with higher levels of skills – Southampton and West Brom for example - because we were able to close down the game and nick it with a solitary goal.

Unfortunately this tactic doesn’t work in the Premiership as we know to our cost. So there you have it – rely on skill and passing in the Championship, you run the risk of losing to inferior teams once too often and miss out on promotion or the play-offs. But rely on the long ball and a strong and competent Championship defence, you will be found out when you get into the Premiership.

So what’s the answer? A bit of both in my opinion – we need players who can mix and match as the occasion requires. Players who can change the flow of the game – slow it down by passing when we are winning (defending by passing), or when we are being a bit overwhelmed and need to slow down the tempo. Players who can up the tempo and press the other defence with a few clever long balls to the target man or the channels.

Those players also need to be strong and pacy athletes with a tough mentality. Too many of our players this year have been lacking both mentally and physically – our lack of pace has been exposed time and time again as has been the fragile will and confidence. Stubbs is a case in point – a battle hardened warrior – but he will not last much beyond the next season as his age and lack of pace will tell.

The culture also has to change – the sheep-like mentality that BD fostered needs to be replaced with a much stronger sense of responsibility on the field and preparedness to ignore the manager when it feels right. There are signs that this is beginning to happen, but it has to be ready for the off next season because if not, then we will struggle and be all over the place resorting to hopeful punts down the field and soon become a rabble and a collection of undisciplined and unmotivated players as we did so many times this season.

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