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

Managers are often thought to get a bad deal, what with many chairmen eager to sack them after a couple of bad results. However, some managers themselves are only too happy to move on and try their luck elsewhere, sometimes just weeks after they’ve had a go at on of their players for doing just that.

Here is a list of my top ten managerial villains, some for betrayal of fans, players and values, some for some mad rants, others for down-right lunacy.

Click on the image of Mr Graham 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

Who needs enemies with friends like these?

10) Aston Villa v Birmingham – The Second City derby

The countries second city might be a little further down the pecking order in footballing terms but that does nothing to dampen hostilities between Aston Villa and Birmingham.

The Villains have always viewed themselves in higher esteem than their blue neighbours and when the clubs first met when City were Small Heath Alliance back in 1879, the Villa players described Small Heath’s Muntz Street ground as, ‘suitable only for potholing.’

Relations have gone downhill since then and although over the last half a century meetings between the pair have been relatively limited, that only intensifies the occasions when they do get together.

The two clubs traditional stadiums help create a fervent undercurrent which takes few prisoners – just ask Peter Enckelman.

9) Blackburn v Burnley – The Cotton Mill derby

These two might not be considered big players nowadays but Blackburn and Burnley were big cheese’s back in the day by being founder members of the Football League in 1888.

The rivalry between the Lancashire towns eleven miles apart stretches back to the Victorian age when the mill industry was booming and hostilities were later taken from the factory floor to the football field.

Local issues were hardly smoothed over at the turn of the twentieth century when Rovers allegedly complained about Claret’s ‘illegal number of Scottish players’ and the animosity has remained.

Clashes have been scarce in recent years but when they do meet it creates the inevitably cliché’d ‘hot-pot’ atmosphere.

8. Everton v Liverpool – Merseyside derby

The Merseyside derby is English football’s longest running top-flight rivalry with a game having taken place every year since 1962-63, but this familiarity hasn’t tapered the spice of the contests and meetings between the blue and red halves of the city of Liverpool are often some of the most highly charged contests of the season.

This game has long been coined the ‘friendly derby’ because the opposing sets of fans are said to enjoy a healthy rivalry but on the field it’s anything but.

In the last 30 Premier League fixtures between the scouse giants there have been twenty red cards, scores of bookings and more fight scenes than a Jackie Chan youtube compilation making this particular local fare the most tempestuous football match around. Who needs enemies with friends like these?

7) Manchester City v Manchester United – Manchester derby

The Manchester derby has long been fuelled by one sides dominance over the other. United have been at the forefront of English football for well over half a century whilst City have had to play second fiddle in terms of silverware and prominence.

United fans have revelled in their superior status for decades now and have been afforded the luxury of mocking the blue half of Mancunia for their almost comedic failings as City for long periods strived but largely failed to climb out of the shadows of their near neighbours.

However, the Citizens new found wealth has upset that balance and after ending their long-wait for a trophy and embarrassing the reds on their own patch, this is one confrontation which will only intensify over the next couple of years.

6) Newcastle v Sunderland – Tyne-Wear derby

The Tyne-Wear derby is another inter-city confrontation which has it’s routes through indifference to one another stretching back hundreds of years.

Newcastle and Sunderland – despite being just ten miles apart – fell into different hands following the English civil war and the Jacobite rebellions and although that historical context is largely lost present day, none of the rancor has.

There were 160 arrests in the aftermath of the 1990 Second Division play-off second leg when the Toon fans invaded the St James’s pitch hoping to force an abandonment.

Proceeding games have also fell foul to interruptions and last January, nearly 30 fans were again arrested following clashes in and around the ground surrounding a game which saw a 12-year-old Mackem run onto the turf to push over Newcastle ‘keeper Steve Harper.

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With such great players and with the huge bonus of home advantage, there’s every chance England would still have lifted the Jules Rimet Trophy had Jim been in charge. Despite still playing for the Clarets at the time, Jim was Walter’s assistant manager during the 1962 World Cup in Chile. For England, that meant a month spent halfway up a mountain in the grounds of a copper mine with such primitive resources that one of the boys ended up contracting dysentery.

In a month when the FA revealed their base for next summer’s Euros to be a plush city centre ‘boutique’ hotel in Krakow, it’s worth remembering just how bad things used to be. One of my clearest memories of that copper mine was of Adamson’s Burnley team-mate John Connelly sitting on a cornerstone on the training pitch, simply staring into space for hours on end. A five-star holiday resort this place was not. It was also, as a working mine, completely dry of alcohol.

But one evening, the boss tried to alleviate this crushing boredom by allowing us all out to the only bar within a 10-mile radius. As we got on the bus – thirsty for a taste of freedom – Adamson told us that, while we would be free to have a couple of jars, we were at a World Cup, we were representing our country and we had to act like ambassadors. Not that there were any blondes to grope or dwarves to toss in Rancagua. Anyway, a few hours later, as we clambered back onto the bus, Jimmy was standing at the front by the driver – this time leading the singing of salty songs on account of him being more inebriated than any of us!

When Jimmy did go into management with Burnley, Sunderland and Leeds, his record was not earth-shattering and it’s possible he might have been just too nice and too loyal a bloke to have made a great England boss. Had he taken the job, though, there’s no doubt that the Northumberland town of Ashington would have been officially crowned as England’s capital of football, as Jim hailed from there, as did the World Cup-winning Charlton brothers and their uncle Jackie Milburn.

Titles

Jimmy was part of a great Burnley team which, during the early 1960s, was vying with Tottenham to be regarded as the best side in the country. He was a one-club man as a player and, including his time as a coach and manager, he spent around 30 years at Turf Moor. These days, had any player half as good as Jim passed through the ranks at a club the size of Burnley, he’d have been snapped up by a larger outfit. But with no higher wages on offer elsewhere, this was a time when smalltown clubs could win titles.

When we travelled to Burnley, on the team coach after an overnight stay in Manchester’s Grand Hotel, the town used to rise from the mist like Brigadoon. And we always knew we would be in for a red-hot game, especially with a player as talented as Jim leading them out. He might never have enjoyed the worldwide fame of Sir Alf Ramsey, but in one Lancashire town at least, footballers don’t come any more legendary than Jimmy Adamson.

The Red Devils will face off against the lowest ranked team still left in the competition with the visitors likely to give youth and Michael Owen a chance at the Recreational Ground. There will also be a Championship presence in the Quarter Final with Crystal Palace hosting Southampton at Selhurst Park whilst Burnley travel to Cardiff.

Serious contenders for the three handled pot are Arsenal who host Bolton at the Emirates desperate to avenge last seasons defeat in the final against holders Birmingham. Newcastle are also actively seeking silverware and will fancy their chances against Blackburn at Ewood Park along with Liverpool who could see the trophy as a route into the Europa League.

Carling Cup Fourth Round 

Wolves v Man City
Cardiff v Burnley
Blackburn v Newcastle
Arsenal v Bolton
Stoke v Liverpool
Aldershot v Man Utd
Crystal Palace v Southampton
Everton v Chelsea

Clarets boss Eddie Howe identified the 18-year-old Frenchman as he looks to inject some quality into his struggling side after a disastrous start to their Championship campaign.

He has been tipped to achieve great things at Old Trafford ever since signing for the club from Le Harve in 2009 with his performances for the under-18′s and reserve side haven’t gone unnoticed.

First team football has yet to come his way although he was on the bench for United’s FA Cup tie against Crawley Town and it seems he’ll have to wait a little longer for his first taste after Ferguson poured cold water on interest from Turf Moor.

The United boss told The Mirror: “It’s more difficult to loan a boy of 18 who’s come from France.

“We prefer to keep him with us until we find he’s mature enough to possibly go on loan.

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.

Follow me on twitter @aidanmccartney for more thoughts and views about the beautiful game.

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.

But director of football Carlos Freitas denied the rumours while unveiling teenager Atila Turan on Friday.

“I have no justification for such news. Bendtner is a player who is as close to Sporting as (Gonzalo) Higuain or (Didier) Drogba are,” Freitas said.

“Those are players who are at the same distance from Sporting. The reports of a move for Bendtner are a fictitious production.”

Bendtner is thought to be seeking a move away from the Emirates Stadium as he continues to fall down the pecking order at the English Premier League club.

Arsenal, meanwhile, are reportedly poised to break their transfer record with a move for Valencia midfielder Juan Mata.

The 23-year-old has been heavily linked with a move away from the Spanish club and Arsene Wenger’s team are viewed as a potential destination for the 2010 FIFA World Cup winner, with an offer in the region of 20 million euros.

The Mirror claimed that the Gunners have come to an agreement with Valencia over the potential sale of Mata, while The Sun reported that the player himself has told friends that he is set to join the north London club.

Elsewhere in the Premier League, Queens Park Rangers have had a bid for Blackpool striker DJ Campbell accepted, with the player to undergo a medical in London.

The forward only joined the Tangerines permanently last term after enjoying a successful loan spell and continued his good form during the club’s first Premier League season, scoring 13 goals in 31 matches in the top flight.

The 29-year-old is set to move to the newly promoted club for an undisclosed fee, and only needs to agree to personal terms with QPR for the deal to go through.

“Blackpool Football Club can confirm that an agreement has been reached with Queen Park Rangers for the transfer of striker DJ Campbell,” Blackpool said on their official website.

“The 29-year-old has now been given permission to discuss personal terms with Neil Warnock’s side and undergo a medical.”

QPR have already secured the signings of Kieron Dyer, Jay Bothroyd and Danny Gabbidon so far this summer, but all three deals were on free transfers.

In other news in England, Bolton Wanderers have completed the signing of Burnley duo Chris Eagles and Tyrone Mears on three-year deals.

Right-back Mears and winger Eagles rejoin manager Owen Coyle, who signed them for Burnley during his time in charge there.

In the Serie A, Genoa have completed the signing of French goalkeeper Sebastien Frey from Fiorentina for an undisclosed fee, with the shot-stopper signing a five-year deal.

In Germany, Bundesliga outfit Schalke have confirmed the capture of former Stuttgart striker Ciprian Marica.

Returning to Spain, the agent of Villarreal attacker Giuseppe Rossi has announced the player will remain with the La Liga outfit – much to the disappointment of potential suitor Juventus.

Rossi had looked on the way out as Villarreal looked to ease their financial problems, but the sale of Santi Cazorla to Malaga has eased the burden and should allow Rossi to remain at El Madrigal.