Comments on: Championship players dare not get promoted

By: MATTHEW mORRISONS

MATTHEW mORRISONS — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:07:24 +0000

do you think west brom will stay up next yr in the premiership tho?

By: Matthew Morris

Matthew Morris — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:03:48 +0000

yo i think birmingham will not get promted ad they are individuals and dont play as a team. E.g last year, west brom FC got promted because they played as part of a team. What a season for them

By: hughie

hughie — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:50:03 +0000

Great article. A very well written and amusing angle on an interesting argument.

Personally, I like the Championship, so much more real. The Premiership is a franchise league in all but name and they are welcome to it.

When a team like Blackburn spends over 35 million a year on players wages then the world has truly gone mad and those of us with our sanity intact (for the most part at least) are better off out of it.

Long live the lower divisions.

By: KyleAusGooner

KyleAusGooner — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:49:02 +0000

I think the Championship has been great this year, you just have to look at the top 8 and see that.

I’ve been following it a fair bit since I got Foxtel pay-tv installed at home, we get 2 or 3 games a week and highlights so i’m quite happy ’bout that – I quite like QPR, West Brom and because one of my uncles mates supports Stoke, i’ll have to go for them to get up this year!

By: michael

michael — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:52:45 +0000

Yeah, next season’s going to be very very difficult indeed for the promotion teams. Apparently the teams that get relegated from the Premiership will still get more than Chelsea did last time they won it! So teams like Derby and whoever joins them (Birmingham and Reading) will have serious money to rebuild with.

And even the survival teams will pick up quite a bit, I’d imagine, which will give them a serious advantage over whoever comes up.

I’m starting to realise that if the money keeps pouring in at the current rate, and increases at a comparable rate, then the Premiership is going to be very strange in a few years time.

By: Kent

Kent — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:51:44 +0000

Also remember that Derby really “shouldn’t be” in the Premiership. I know that sounds bad/mean. They got on a fine role at the end of last season and it took them up via the playoffs, at the expense of others (like, say, a better West Brom side). I know that everyone’s looking at them as an example of how bad they are and how outclassed Championship sides are. I see them as trying hard AND being totally outclassed. They’ll take their payment and go down. West Brom or Watford or whichever team goes up? Well, one could certainly stay up, but they’re going to have to spend their money on depth and youth.

A decent run by a West Brom or a Watford could certainly keep them up. It’s not like the margins of success at West Ham (STUPID signings and no depth), Brum (pass, very mediocre), Reading (not bad, but not that good either), Sunderland (yeah…mediocre), ‘Boro (nice offense, they gain points due to weather and only at home), Wigan (mediocre in spite of themselves)…see what I mean?

Championship sides aren’t going to come up and challenge for the Top 10, but they aren’t necessarily outclassed. (Again, let’s remember that Derby are a bad comparison, especially in light of Sunderland and Brum…both of whom will “probably” stay up.)

The problem with the Premiership is that the Top 4 are so entrenched, not that the bottom 10-12 teams fight their asses off to stay up. In fact, in many ways the excitement of the league is in those bottom 10-12 teams desperate to stay up (see Fulham right now, Bolton, etc.)

Just my thoughts.

By: Chris Traverse

Chris Traverse — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:17:12 +0000

I think West Brom would have avoided relegation if they had come up instead of derby, and without having to spend too much. I think they will get automatic promotion (i can’t say they’ll win it, that league is crazy to predict) and avoid relegation next season without having to spend massively.

By: Lord Villa

Lord Villa — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:21:18 +0000

I was at the match and when it went to 0-3 I was happy enough. However, I can truly say, and I have never felt this was before at a football match, by the end I was sorry for the opposition and their loyal supporters. But to say it was just the “gulf in class” that was responsible for the result in naive.

It is less than a month since a greater gulf in class resulted in only a 1-0 win for Manchester United. As big an influence as the class difference was Derby’s approach. They thought they could win, played openly, and as a result were punished. Had Derby treated Villa with more respect the final score would have been much closer.

Championship clubs can survive in the Premier, they just need to buy Premier standard players. This is something Derby and Watford failed to do. Simple really.

By: Ahmed Bilal

Ahmed Bilal — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:47:42 +0000

The gulf in class makes it really hard for teams to manage things in the top flight. Sunderland, with the money coming in, might just have managed it. Derby might bounce back and then stay up if the investment stays.

As more people invest in Championship clubs (QPR, etc), we’ll see the standards rise and more clubs (players) eager to get promoted.

By: Glornet

Glornet — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:53:17 +0000

Surely Watford were last season’s Derby? They tried really hard, but sat on the bottom pretty much all season, with the odd glimmer of hope, such as beating Portsmouth 4-2.

This season, they continued trying hard, getting well ahead at the top, before suddenly remembering that they should calm down if they wanted to avoid going straight back up again. Fortunately they were able to have a couple of dodgy spells to drop down the table a bit, but recently they’ve had to do some really bad stuff (e.g. against Hull and Barnsley) to make sure that they don’t accidently go top again.