It hasn’t happened many times in the 20-year existence of the Premier League but on the few occasions a team without the resources and stature of the so called ‘big clubs’ decided they want a place in the illustrious top six, it’s rather exciting to watch. This season Newcastle United, touted as relegation candidates just a few months ago, have made an astonishing start to the campaign going 11 games unbeaten a run which has seen them soar into the top three. For a few hours on Saturday after their win over Everton the Magpies went second which is some achievement considering the troubled pre-season they endured which was documented closely in the press. Whilst their challenge to stay in their current position may ultimately falter as the season progresses it’s safe to say that, as of now, the Geordies are surprising everyone on and off the field.

Their rise to prominence is both remarkable and enchanting evoking memories of sides who have no business challenging at the top flight summit but fancy adding a bit of spice to the Premier League season. You have to admit it’s always a pleasure to watch the underdogs beat the big guns, david slay goliath and the weedy kid kick seven bells out of the school yard bully.

Ladies and Gentleman I present to you the Top TEN Premier League Surprise Packages.

Click on the Norwich City boys to see the Top Ten

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

Since Wayne Rooney broke into the Everton first team aged just 17, dozens of players have been played up as being the next big thing to break through in English football. Some players, such as Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere have made the grade and become Premier League players, but plenty more have hardly been heard of since their youth days.

Connor Wickham arrived at the Stadium of Light from Ipswich Town in the summer for a staggering £8million that will eventually rise to £12million depending on appearances. There were rumours that Liverpool may be interested in the English striker, but Steve Bruce got his man and Wickham has made 9 appearances so far this season, scoring once.

With lots of interest in the youngster over the past few years, you would think that we had a superstar on our hands, matching Rooney’s young talent and breaking straight into the Premier League with a bang. But this has not happened so far at Sunderland and it may be time for people to stop talking about the young lad and actually give him a chance to prove himself.

The Hereford-born striker made his professional debut just 11 days after his 16^th birthday and has played and scored for the England Under 16’s, 17’s and 19’s as-well as recently featuring for Stuart Pearce’s Under-21’s. But I feel that there is already too much pressure on Wickham at a very young age and that could be the reason for him not making it as a world class footballer in the future.

The tag of a future England star is going to be especially hard for a striker as they are going to be judged on their goal-scoring record and very little else. It is especially hard for a youngster; similarly to Walcott; who was sold for a large price and thrown into Premier League football. Walcott took three years to really adapt to life in the big time and that may be a learning curve that Wickham will go through in the next few seasons.

Putting a £12 million price- tag on an 18-year-old is ludicrous and he would surely have benefitted from staying in the Championship and becoming a prolific striker at that level, before making the step up. If a player does not play well for a long period of time, if he does not score anywhere near enough goals, can it all be blamed on his age? Should he be there if he is too young in that case?

Sunderland supporters were beginning to warm to Wickham before he got injured at Old Trafford two weeks ago and when he returns from his spell on the sidelines it will be time to start scoring goals and putting critics like myself to shame.

For a player that has only scored 16 career goals, surely it is fair to say that he has not played up to expectations so far in his short career, but Wickham has time on his side without doubt, there are not many out-and-out young strikers coming through at the moment and there is a chance for someone to break into that mould to lead the line for England, something that must be an aim for the former Ipswich striker.

It is unfortunate that so many youngsters are hyped up before they have actually proved their worth in men’s football. Players such as John Bostock and Freddie Sears were built up as being the future of English football when they were breaking through their respective youth systems, but they have failed to produce. It is time for youngsters to get a chance to show what they can do before multi-million pound transfer deals and expensive contracts are drawn up, otherwise more and more players will fall flat on their face in the top division and disappear from the limelight.

Before accepting large wage offers and splashing the cash on new cars and houses, is it unrealistic of me to expect a player to focus more on football than the lifestyle? Perhaps, but time will tell if Wickham made the right decision.

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The Premier League in general is a very well contested league where big and small teams can fight together, with many results often tight affairs. But there are some games that defy belief in scoreline as one team thrashes another to the embarrassment or delight of their fans (depending on which end of the score line you are at).Manchester United’s 8-2 demolition of Arsenal was the most recent example of a Premier League thrashing, this result surprising both because of the scoreline and United’s opposition on the day. On that day Arsenal looked helpless to stop United, goals flying in from all angles as United cut apart Arsenal with the upmost ease.But Arsenal fans can take a tiny slice of solace from the fact that their team is by no way the first to be on the wrong end of a thrashing.

But what are the top ten Premier League thrashings of all time – click on Messrs Wenger and Ferguson to find out

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.

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.

Emmanuel-Thomas said he wanted more game time at senior level after being starved of opportunities under Arsene Wenger, and he believed Portman Road was the place to find minutes on the pitch.

“Obviously it came to the stage in my career at Arsenal where I needed to be playing games. I had a decision to make and Ipswich seemed the right place for me,” Emmanuel-Thomas told Ipswich’s official site.

“I was impressed with what (manager) Paul Jewell had to say – and the team he is building. I know he is looking to bring in more players and it is the club’s ambition to get in the Premier League.”

Stockdale has made the switch after making 13 appearances for the Cottagers, but should incumbent Mark Schwarzer fall injured, it is believed Fulham can recall their on-loan shot-stopper due to a clause in his loan deal.

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!