The standard of football between the two divisions has improved vastly over the last several seasons and this season sees the quality of the Championship as good as it ever has been. In defence of these players, there is of course a higher standard of football despite the dip in margin. For example, strikers are up against better teams and while they might have got 10 chances per game in the Football League, they may only get the odd few in the Prem.

So what unfortunate ten make my top ten list of players who are Championship rather than Premier League quality? Find out below…

Click on Routledge below to see the Top TEN

There are definitely some bargains to be had in the second tier of English football and also some genuine Premier League quality that is waiting to be snapped up by the big clubs. Youngsters are breaking through into Championship sides and it may be the case that the clubs look to cash in on the future stars.

Last season Premier League clubs Birmingham and West Ham have held on to the majority of their quality players and some experienced heads are having a much welcomed second wind in their careers that could be worth a gamble on in January. Here are the ten players that have the Premier League clubs sniffing around.

Click on Jay Rodriguez below to unveil the top 10

This new deal has reduced the amount paid to Football League clubs from £88 million to £65 million. As part of this agreement, clubs relegated from the Premier League will now receive £48 million in parachute payments over four years instead of £16 million a year for two years as they received previously.

Looking back, the concerns of the lower league clubs at the time were understandable. Already this season we have witnessed the financial clout of the likes of Leicester City who have spent vast amounts of money in comparison to some of the smaller teams in the teams like Coventry and Watford, who both have financial problems.

The fact that a team relegated from the Premier League now receives £48 million while a team going in the opposite direction to League One will actually lose £3.7 million shows the sort of disparity that exists between the two leagues. This makes it extremely difficult for the relegated team to bounce straight back unless they actually have the financial aptitude as Norwich and Leicester showed. It will be even harder for the smaller teams to get back into the Championship but much easier for teams coming down to get out it.

The difference in central payments in the Championship and League One is already substantial. The television and solidarity payments that come into the football league are split 80 per cent Championship, 12 per cent League One and eight per cent League Two. Although the money the other two leagues receive has increased, it is nothing in comparison with that of the Championship.

Every year, we hear about clubs spending beyond their means to remain in or try to reach the promise land of the Premier League before seeing them go into financial trouble when this does not materialise. What is the Premier League doing to prevent this situation apart from giving them even more of an incentive to spend with the fall-back of parachute payments?

How long will it be until there are two separate tiers of English football, where promotion and relegation does not exist? We seem to be going more and more towards the American example of the franchise system where Television and money completely dominate the game.

It would seem that Premier League Two is not too far off.

This could lead to the death of the traditional English football clubs and the game outside of the top two divisions. The loyal fans would probably remain at these clubs but would the money still come in from the richer elite leagues? If this was divide was to take place, the long-term future of lower league football clubs outside the top two divisions would be very bleak indeed.

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Left with no matches to report on, and out of ideas on how to re-spin Cesc Fabregas transfer news, they wrote instead on the horror of not being able to attend matches. Replete with a picture of him looking suitably disgusted, Henry Winter was FORCED to pay £25 to watch Nottingham Forest play, and the sporting world held its breath.

Winter and others (such as Sam Wallace at the Independent), argued that this was bad news for all fans of football. Winter argued that “newspapers, whether in print, online or via Twitter, keep fanning the flames of supporters’ interest in clubs.”

“On Sunday morning they will turn to their newspapers for a neutral’s verdict to find an absence of match reports.

“…the report is part of the match-day experience, fans’ reading up on the game, agreeing or disagreeing. I could spend an hour or more a day dealing with tweets, emails and letters sparked by a report of the previous night’s match.”

Sam Wallace said:

“But without us, and the other members of our dysfunctional press family, who is left? The answer is, the clubs’ own media. I have nothing against the website and TV personnel of our clubs, many of whom started life on our side of the fence and are very capable journalists. But are we sure the clubs are going to strive to give us the real, inside, uncomfortable story on their organisations?”

“…..I fear that my industry is getting elbowed out of the way by certain wealthy clubs who dislike not being in total control. I fear that some of these young men and women may end up in a ghastly PR-version of journalism where their questions are restricted.”

“…..I do not believe any football fan thinks that the clubs’ curtailing of press freedom is something to be celebrated.”

Thankfully a deal was struck just in time for the start of the Premier League, a brand that cannot be damaged at any time, or else the world would shift on its axis.

And this was good news for all concerned. Yes?

As already mentioned, when the ban kicked in it covered the Championship and below. But for fans of non-Premier league teams, the question is this? Was there a huge chasm in your life last weekend, a sense that something was missing, that you weren’t as up-to-date and educated with the goings-on of your football team? Or was it business as usual? Probably the latter.

When I was very young, before the days of Premiership football, live steaming, Super Sundays and message boards, I relied on newspaper match reports. Their words shaped much of how I thought about teams and players. Only when I became a regular attendee did I realised what drivel was being written.

Ok, not drivel – but I realised that people were seeing games very differently to how I was, and the match reports were nothing more than opinion pieces much of the time. Many a time you can watch a match with a friend and see things in a totally different way. Your man of the match is someone your friend thought was terrible. Even with 100 slow-mos and multiple angles you’ll still get wildly different opinions on whether an incident was a penalty, or a red card or a dive.

The most reliable of match reports was often the Football Pink, because it was a match report that simply reported what had happened, rather than trying to crowbar in a particular angle or agenda, and without some sub-editor’s misleading headline. On the downside, it did have a tendency to suddenly end after 67 minutes.

In the modern world of access-all-areas, how much do we need match reports? I never read them as one way or the other I will have seen the match, and so don’t need someone else to summarise it for me, but that’s just a personal choice. Sunday papers are known to sell better during the football season, so it seems their coverage is important to many. You may have seen a match, but when your new signing has scored a hat trick on his debut, you may want to read every match report possible. But if you support a small, lower-league club, there will be little of interest in  antional newspaper anyway.

But Winter’s theory that fans’ interests in their clubs is kept burning brightly by the press is laughable in the extreme. I, like millions of others, have supported my team for decades, and I managed to do it just fine without having to read newspapers to gee me up.

The problem journalists have is that their reputation is besmirched by the minority. Fans have become tired by lies, false rumours, sensationalizing of minor events, and perceived agendas and injustices. This used to be the style of the tabloids alone, but is is depressing how many broadsheet reporters have been reduced to spreading tittle-tattle and speculation. In the world of 24-hour news, there is not enough proper news to go around. When under 20% of transfer rumours turn out to be true, then it is hard to believe anything you read.

According to journalists, Wesley Sneijder has joined Manchester United five times, the first time being over a month ago. He has joined Manchester City twice. He has snubbed City twice too, United have ended their interest three times, terms have been agreed four times, and a fee agreed five times. Nasri signed for Manchester City three weeks ago, but then he was staying at Arsenal, this all coming after United had closed in on his signing, then he has since signed again four times, and the latest news is he will sign again once more later this week (for City).

Sam Wallace is probably right in saying the recent dispute is fuelled partly by the desire of clubs to have more control on the release of information, and more power in deciding what stays behind closed doors. The new tradition of players to tweet information will only have increased their paranoia. But the newspapers do not help themselves by writing critically of clubs – often it is deserved of course, but it is no surprise trust breaks down with clubs.

And journalists alone do not have access to breaking news. Twitter will break any story instantly, with or without journalists, and will spread malicious rumours in much the same way. The age of instant news has also put great doubt over the newspapers themselves. Exclusives are no longer the domain of the morning paper, as by then most people will already know the story. Add to this that agents and the truthful “in-the-knowers” can keep fans up to date with transfer stories, and that plenty of normal fans have an inside line to clubs, and what are reporters providing that’s unique? What’s more, quality bloggers like the Swiss Ramble have no constraints on space, and no deadlines.

Even Joey Barton, in a week of tweeting Nietzsche, the musings of Wittgenstein and calling Brian Woolnough a nugget, found time to say that the press won’t exist in ten years’ time. Wishful thinking on his behalf, but you can see the logic of his point.

What football journalists do have is contacts and access to areas we normal fans don’t (Old Trafford excepted). They get interviews with players and managers, get briefed on stories and get into press conferences. They have plenty of worth in what they can tell us. With experience comes relationships with those in the game, which bring sinsight and information that might not otherwise be known.
And many write excellently of course, such as Martin Samuel, Daniel Taylor or the financial investigations of David Conn. Quality football “writers” are plentiful (see also Jonathan Wilson). But this is more about the need for reporters rather than writers.

Times have changed, and the way news is reported has entered a new era that has made many old methods redundant. Newspapers have faced difficult times for decades, and the football journalists are no different, as they are no longer the sole bearers of news. Increasingly they know that times have changed, and have looked to branch out, be it appearing on radio shows, podcasts, or nibbling on a croissant on the Sunday Supplement panel. There will always be a role for sports reporting in newspapers in this country, but in future, it may well be less about exclusives and more about fulfilling a much broader media role. The competiiton for them is now huge, but they still have a vital role to play.

An exciting new era for youth football begins this evening, with the Next Gen series kicking off. It is an international tournament, with 16 of the worlds best clubs showcasing their stars of the future in an exciting knockout competition. The likes of Liverpool, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Manchester City, and Celtic are all featuring in the inaugural challenging 6 month international competition. In light of the competition, should the FA look to set up an elite Premier League for the academy sides rather than the regional Premier Academy Leagues which currently exist?

Next Gen is hailed as the new era in competitive football, providing competition on a level that isn’t seen through the regional Premier Leagues. Players will be able to test themselves against world class opposition players trained and nurtured by the best sides in Europe, which can only be of benefit for youth development in this country. It’s a unique opportunity for youth players to experience all aspects of a competitive, large international tournament, including adapting to an unfamiliar style of play, prolonged periods of travel and two match weeks, which are more likely to help them transition into the first team, than the current Premier Academy Leagues, with its lack of competitiveness, as well as its constraints and restrictions.

Unlike playing in the reserves or the Premier Academy League, Next Gen will stretch players, and this is likely to improve their play. Many promising young academy graduates haven’t been provided with enough consistent high quality challenges in the regional leagues, so it could help more to reach senior levels, but more needs to be done on the domestic front to improve the standards of youth football.

Aside from the FA Youth Cup, English youngsters don’t really have enough competitive games, in order for them to frequently test themselves. The Premier Academy League is made up of 40 clubs currently split into four regional leagues, 2 southern and 2 northern, meaning the best sides may only play each other once over the season or not at all, this format lacks that competitive edge for players to be able to benefit from it. Youth football in this country has been stagnant, and now is the time for long overdue progressive ideas to make the difference.

Should the FA do away with the regional leagues and set up one elite Premier Academy League for the best academy’s in the country? It would perhaps provide a greater competitive edge, if there was one elite league and the matches week in week out were of a higher standard. If the best academy’s are playing against similar opposition, then this is likely to increase competitiveness and standards. Playing against similar level opposition on a consistent basis is likely to improve the youth development in this country.

However, there are some problems associated with making a single elite Premier Academy League. It is likely to widen the gulf between the Premier League elite teams and the rest. This could pose a big problem to the smaller academies, with restrictions and constraints on travel and rules lifted, they could find themselves forced out of being able to compete on that level with the cash rich Premier League sides. It could potentially go the other way and kill youth development in the country with smaller clubs in different regions missing out, and subsequently the talent in the local area slipping through the net. Academies could also become more elitist, and it could encourage young players to join bigger clubs, with clubs like Crewe, Huddersfield, and Mk Dons missing out. However, small the academy, they serve to fulfil the potential of local talent around the community, so to wipe this out would be a travesty.

Premiership Title

Whatever happens in the transfer market this summer, Manchester United will once more be favourites for the title, which can come as little surprise. At 6/4 they are clear favourites ahead of Chelsea at 11/4, Manchester City at 4/1 and Arsenal at 8/1. Basically the bookies see the top 4 as remaining the same, in the same order, as last season.

If you’re feeling brave though, how about Norwich or Swansea for the title, at a competitive 5000/1? Ok, maybe not.

As already mentioned, the top four of last season are the favourites to remain where they are. Outside of them, Liverpool are 11/10 to finish in the top four, and Spurs are 3/1. But as a sign of the times perhaps, there is no one else you would remotely fancy to crack that top four (has there ever been many teams you would expect to?). Everton are 14/1, Aston Villa 25/1, and an established Premiership side like Stoke City are 200/1.

As for top goal-scorer in the Premiership next season, the top two are both Manchester United players – Rooney, fresh from a pre-season hat trick is the favourite at 7/1, Hernandez 8-1. Torres is an unappealing 9/1, but Van Persie at 9/1 seems the most attractive if only he could stay fit.
If you fancy throwing some money away, have a bet on Adebayor at 33/1, Demba Ba at 40/1, or Emile Heskey at 150/1. Or maybe, just maybe, Gervinho at 50/1 has some value in it.

Or take a gamble on 8/1 for Tevez, if for some reason you think he will still be in the country next May.

There are only six teams in the league who have not had previous experience in the Premier League and there are number of sides that have had long-term spells in the top-flight and will be looking to return there this season.

The likes of former double European Cup winner’s Nottingham Forest, Leeds United with their intensive history and recently relegated West Ham are all clubs associated with the higher echelons of the English game, not the second tier.

These sorts of clubs are capable of attracting high-profile managerial names such as former England manager’s Sven Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren who will both be looking to set their career back on the right-path with Leicester City and Nottingham Forest respectively.

West Ham’s new man at the helm, Sam Allardyce is a highly regarded manager in the lower regions of the Premier League and probably one of the main reasons why both Bolton and Blackburn are now established clubs in the Premier League. Although the football under ‘Big Sam’ won’t be that pretty, I don’t think Hammers fans will mind if come the end of the campaign they are back in the top tier of English football.

Then you have the other relegated teams, Birmingham City and Blackpool who will both be hoping for an instant return to the Premier League. Birmingham have recovered from losing Alex McLeish to rivals Villa by appointing Chris Houghton as boss. Houghton did an excellent job taking Newcastle back to the Premier League at the first time of asking and Birmingham fans will be hoping he can repeat his magic at St Andrews this term. Blackpool may have lost key men in Charlie Adam, David Vaughan and DJ Campbell but under Ian Holloway they still stand a chance of challenging this year and also have the benefit of parachute payments to help them achieve an quick return.

Leicester City look like title contenders after their summer spending and they have made a statement of intent with their high-quality signings. They have strengthened an already established team and I would not be surprised if it didn’t pay off with a promotion season under Sven.

Another team who could be in with a shout are Reading who will still be picking themselves up from the disappointment of their playoff final defeat to Swansea but the success of their season may hang on keeping last year’s squad together.

Other clubs who will be disappointed not to be involved in the playoffs in May are Burnley who under Eddie Howe look a good bet to have a better campaign after a transition season last term. The list goes on of teams who will be in with a reasonable chance of competing for the playoffs.

Add teams like Hull City, Bristol City, Cardiff City, Milwall, Portsmouth and Watford to the equation and you can see just how tough it will be this year, with all these outfits looking for a place in the higher reaches of the league.

Then you have to consider the three promoted teams who all have plenty of cash to spend after winning promotion from League One. Southampton look an outside bet for playoffs under the leadership of Nigel Adkins as do Brighton who will be in a new home with over 18,000 season ticket holders. Both could well upset the odds this season and repeat Norwich’s trick of a double promotion.

The new Championship season is set to one of the most competitive ever and it will be hard to predict the winner in any game making it very difficult for even the biggest of teams. I expect to see a few of these major teams disappointed at the end of the year and trying to pick out of any of the teams that will finish in the playoffs is a bit of lottery, a lottery worth an estimated £90m to the victor. I can’t wait for it to kick off now!

When it comes to English football being in the Premier League is what every club, player and manager wants. However, how much should clubs risk to get there? A blog post by Paul Fletcher this week put this financially risk into perspective. There is now around £700m worth of debt within the Football League and more than 80% of this is within the Championship.

Now, this is not to suggest that debt in English football is exclusive to clubs outside of the Premier League – because we know there are a number of big Premier League clubs who carry heavy debt. But although we should be concerned with any sort of debt; the debt is more manageable when there is turnover in excess of £100m.

The debt in the Football League is of far greater concern, because it’s causing clubs to go into administration and possibly out of business. Then there is the issue of parachute payments to consider and if it’s really fair on the rest of the Championship that clubs are given these payments over several seasons after being relegated to the Premier League. To a certain extent it is up to the individual club how much they want to risk in order to stay in the Premier League.

The risk that Blackpool took on to remain in the Premier League was relatively minimal after spending just £4m on new players. When considered that they received £40m in TV revenue alone for their solitary season in the top flight. However, they will receive up to £48m over the next four seasons. This will put them at a significant advantage over other teams that weren’t involved in the Premier League and encourage them to risk their club’s future in order to try and compete. There is also the argument that Blackpool don’t really need the parachute payments based on the fact that there are in a stable place financially and are likely to profit hugely from the likely transfer of Charlie Adam.

The debt issue is about to be tackled in some way as Football League clubs have agreed in principle to adopt Uefa’s financial fair play rules. An interesting development especially given the financial gap between the Premier League and the Championship; Premier League clubs receive a minimum of £40m in TV revenue each year – where Championship clubs can only expect to receive only £1m. Furthermore, it widens the advantage of the parachute payment system. Clubs with the parachute payments will clearly hold an advantage with those extra resources. Therefore, other clubs will have to get smart to strengthen their squads on a budget. The new regulations look like coming in for the beginning of the 2012/13 season. There is an interesting development in League One for next season where a Salary Cost Management Protocol (SCMP) will be introduced for next season. They system basically means that clubs will only be able to spend a fixed percentage of their turnover of players wages. A similar system already operates in League One.

It is certainly good to see football clubs taking responsibility and being open to tackle the issues of debt head on. However, at the top of world football transfer fees and wages are still extremely high and although the financial fair play rules may start to control this. The reality shows that there a huge amount of money available and just looking at the income clubs of the statute of Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid make shows us that extremely high transfer fees and wages will remain despite any new regulations. But Manchester City and Chelsea in particular will need to adjust their spending to fit in with the new regulations.

There seems to be a danger of English football becoming anti-competitive with a financial disparity between clubs could eventually mean that their will only be a select group of teams that will have a chance of getting into the Premier League. Within the 72 Football League clubs there are plenty of teams that have had their time in the Premier League but have fallen from grace and it’s not as if all those teams still appear in the Championship. Some of those teams appear in League One and League Two. It’s truly remarkable to think that sides such as Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday find themselves struggling in League One with significant financial difficulties – despite the fact it wasn’t long ago that they were solid Premier League sides.

The Championship also contains two previous giants of English football in the shape of Leeds United and Nottingham Forest and both of these sides spent several years in League One as they seriously fell from grace; but both clubs now seem to be making progress again and were both in and around the play-off picture last season. Norwich and QPR provide some inspiration for these sorts of clubs. They were both involved in the Premier League when it began – but had fallen from grace in recent seasons and Norwich even dropped down to League One. However, they have proved that it can be turned around and are now back in the Premier League.

There is no doubt that clubs pushed out to try and get in the Premier League last season – but it didn’t work for them all. It is unclear how much money Cardiff put into the deal to secure Craig Bellamy on loan – but their wage contribution would still have been significantly higher than most wages in the Championship. However, the gamble backfired as Cardiff fell short in the automatic promotion picture and was eliminated in the play-offs. Leicester and Hull also invested heavily in their teams in order to try and force their way into the play-offs but neither managed to get there.

Expect to see more teams take the gamble in the summer and have a crack to get into the Premier League. Promotion the world’s best league is estimated to be worth £90m and clubs will feel it’s worth taking the gamble in order to get a slice of that financial cake. But a word of warning if they fail the consequence may involve the club spiralling out of control getting relegated to League One and entering administration. So proceed with ambition but not recklessly.

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But to get us all in the mood I have picked five classics out from the archives complete with video footage to re-live them in all their glory. So give these a watch over the weekend and you will be well and truly ready, let’s just hope the 2011 final isn’t a letdown.

Leicester City 3 Swindon Town 4 (1993)

Here is a game that after a quiet start really burst into life. Swindon went into half-time leading 1-0 thanks to a strike from their player-manager, Glenn Hoddle. Early into the second half it looked as though Swindon were making the game safe thanks to further goals from Craig Maskell and Shaun Taylor. But Leicester weren’t about to give up without a fight and they came back from 3-0 down to level the game with goals from Julian Joachim, Steve Walsh and Steve Thompson. But a Paul Bodin penalty won the match for Swindon, just six minutes from time.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Bolton 4 Reading 3 (1995)

Reading got off to a fantastic start in this game and found themselves 2-0 up after just 12 minutes – with goals coming from Lee Nogan and Adrian Williams – but Stuart Lovell missed a penalty in the 34^th minute and that turned the match on its head; Reading never really recovered from that disappointment and Bolton  went  from strength to strength. They left it late but Bolton levelled the game up with goals from Owen Coyle and Fabian de Freitas forcing a period of extra time. Further goals from Mixu Paatelainen and a second from de Freitas made the game safe. But there was still time for a late Reading goal from Jimmy Quinn – but it didn’t impact the result.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Charlton 4 Sunderland 4 (1998)

When most people think about First Division/Championship play-off finals this is the one that tends to get remembered. But words can’t really do it justice so please check the video out below. The game really did have everything, 3-3 after normal time – and then a period of extra time that included two further goals. But eventually Charlton won 7-6 on penalties.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Barnsley 2 Ipswich 4 (2000)

This was a game I saw live and as a Norwich City fan I was really hoping for a Barnsley win and couldn’t face the thought of the old enemy in the Premier League. Things started well for Barnsley after only six minutes with a Richard Wright own goal gifting them the lead. However, Ipswich bounced back from their early disappointment to lead the game 3-1 with goals coming from Tony Mowbray, Richard Naylor and Marcus Stewart. But Barnsley still looked to make a game of it and got a goal back through Craig Hignett; any hopes of a Barnsley equaliser were dashed when Martijn Reuser put the game safe for Ipswich.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Blackpool 3 Cardiff 2 (2010)

Most people would agree that last year’s final was a bit of a classic and when a match has 5 goals you can’t really complain. The first half proved to be fairly even with Cardiff taking the lead through Michael Chopra but Blackpool hit back with the equaliser from Charlie Adam.  Then Joe Ledley for Cardiff and Taylor-Fletcher for Blackpool meant it was 2-2 at half time. The winner came for Blackpool early in the second half from Brett Ormerod.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

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Prices are going up all the time in all areas of life, whether it be the price of petrol, alcohol or food and it would seem that football tickets are just another one to add to the list. There was a wide expectancy from supporters of Premier League and Championship clubs that there was going to be an increase in ticket prices for next season, but it’s not until it’s announced that it really hits home with the fans. This is an area where football clubs have complete power over fans, for if they want to watch their team, most fans will still hand the money over. At the end of the day a football club is a business and it needs to make a profit to survive, so increasing ticket prices is just one of the ways to do it.

From what I have read about the situation the three clubs I have mentioned above have genuinely increased their prices to cope with the VAT rise and have tried to be as reasonable as possible. In this extract from the BBC website Keith Jelley, of the Liverpool Supporters Club, said: It’ll be a disappointed reaction from fans but I think it is fair.” The match day tickets at Anfield have only increased by a pound for seats in the Kop and £2 everywhere else, which doesn’t seem a lot, but when added to a season ticket becomes a bigger deal. However, it’s not quite as reasonable at newly promoted QPR, they have increased season tickets at Loftus Road by 40%, a rise which has incensed many Rangers fans who think they are being exploited by their wealthy owners. In this instance I feel QPR are taking advantage of the nationwide ticket increase and are benefiting from their promotion financially at the fan’s expense.

I wouldn’t put the increase in ticket prices solely down to the current financial climate but I do feel it has played a part. Most clubs do value their supporters and try to find a happy medium between prices that are fair for them and the club. It just shows that as much as football supporters wouldn’t be able to live without their beloved teams, the clubs need the fans and their money just as much.

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