• Welcome to the ShrimperZone forums.
    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which only gives you limited access.

    Existing Users:.
    Please log-in using your existing username and password. If you have any problems, please see below.

    New Users:
    Join our free community now and gain access to post topics, communicate privately with other members, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and free. Click here to join.

    Fans from other clubs
    We welcome and appreciate supporters from other clubs who wish to engage in sensible discussion. Please feel free to join as above but understand that this is a moderated site and those who cannot play nicely will be quickly removed.

    Assistance Required
    For help with the registration process or accessing your account, please send a note using the Contact us link in the footer, please include your account name. We can then provide you with a new password and verification to get you on the site.

EastStandBlue

Life President
Joined
May 29, 2005
Messages
15,519
Another season in the Premier League graveyard grinds to a halt and Chris Coleman departs Coventry, charged with the heinous crime of failing to take them aboard the Barclays gravy train. Who’d be a manager in the Championship, eh?

Such is the stature of the second tier of English football in this day and age that 15 of the 24 teams are so-called Premiership rejects, and of those nine who haven’t been “fortunate” enough to be relentlessly tonked week in, week out, five of them sit in the bottom half.

It’s been almost a decade since Coventry were relegated from the Premiership and, in that time frame, the club have relocated from Highfield Road to the impressive Ricoh Arena, avoided relegation to League One on two separate occasions and, what is fast becoming an archetypal trait of a former Premiership club, flirted with financial oblivion and administration. In fact, they came just 20 minutes within aforementioned oblivion; Ray Ranson seemingly riding in on an elephant to save the club.

A 19th place finish, an eventual seven point grace from a jaunt into League One, was deemed not good enough and Coleman was handed his marching orders yesterday and became the ninth manager to leave his post in the Championship this season. Ok, QPR and Peterborough account for half of that list by themselves, but you get the picture...

It’s an indictment of what has become all that is wrong with football, a money-fuelled rampage on the quest for success, which will ultimately result in more money, sought by those only interested in lining their pockets with the fruits of Premier League revenue streams and commercial opportunities.

Future prospects aren’t exactly bright, either. With the Premier League keen to increase and extend parachute payments for relegated teams, it will only distort the Championship further and effectively create a glass ceiling for clubs who strive to better themselves. How can a club of Scunthorpe’s stature, who have valiantly staved off relegation this season, compete with a handful of clubs who earn £12m a year for four years because they were deemed not good enough for the Premiership?

The Premier League already has the elitist feel of an Old Men’s Club; You can try it for a year, but we’ll make you feel as unwelcome as possible and, with any luck, send you packing at the first attempt because we don’t like that Reading riff-raff here, nor that Blackpool side who have the commercial appeal of a Baghdad suburb. The Championship is quickly falling to the same snobbery.

Coleman’s sacking was relatively low key because of their disastrous finish to the season and the fans will, more than likely, be appeased with the appointment of Coventry legend Gary McAllister as manager... Someone deemed not good enough for Leeds in League One. As low key as his departure was, it’s a telling sign of things to come for Europe’s fifth most popular football league.
 
Nice blog. I really hate the new 'parachute payments' ideas. They say that it will cost a club around £36m in TV rights, sponsorships etc. if they get relegated, but if they get paid £12m a year for 4 years, that would mean they get £48m overall. They are basically rewarding them for failure. Hull and Portsmouth have gambled with their finances and it has gone very wrong, and they will be rewarded hugely.

The gap between the Championship and League One could become bigger and bigger.
 
The more I think about it, the more worried I get about the future of lower league football. When the Premier League originally split from the football league back in 1990s it was because they felt that they were being held back by the football league in terms of revenue-making opportunities and they wanted self-governance. With the TV money bait being offered by the Premier League to clubs in the Championship I've got horrible sense of deja-vu.

It has been well reported that the football league chairmen recently rejected the improved pay offer from the Premier league, the vote went 23-49 against. The 23 that voted for it were all in the Championship. Sky set a deadline for the offer as a take-it-or-leave it to the football league, my fear is that the Championship clubs may stick two fingers up to the football league and take it anyway and go it alone, just like the Premier league did.
 
The more I think about it, the more worried I get about the future of lower league football. When the Premier League originally split from the football league back in 1990s it was because they felt that they were being held back by the football league in terms of revenue-making opportunities and they wanted self-governance. With the TV money bait being offered by the Premier League to clubs in the Championship I've got horrible sense of deja-vu.

It has been well reported that the football league chairmen recently rejected the improved pay offer from the Premier league, the vote went 23-49 against. The 23 that voted for it were all in the Championship. Sky set a deadline for the offer as a take-it-or-leave it to the football league, my fear is that the Championship clubs may stick two fingers up to the football league and take it anyway and go it alone, just like the Premier league did.

I'm just hoping that this 'millionaire footballer' era will end soon with players playing for the love of the game and not to get their next pay cheque. Best solution .... Salary Cap?
 
I'm just hoping that this 'millionaire footballer' era will end soon with players playing for the love of the game and not to get their next pay cheque. Best solution .... Salary Cap?

I think it's too late for that.
 
It has been well reported that the football league chairmen recently rejected the improved pay offer from the Premier league, the vote went 23-49 against. The 23 that voted for it were all in the Championship. Sky set a deadline for the offer as a take-it-or-leave it to the football league, my fear is that the Championship clubs may stick two fingers up to the football league and take it anyway and go it alone, just like the Premier league did.

Because that worked so well when they tried it the last time with ITV Sport...

Seriously, they can attempt to rebrand that League as much as they want, the common armchair fan wants to watch Sheffield United vs Doncaster on a Saturday evening no more than he wants to watch his wife have sex with the milkman. They simply don't have the global appeal that the Premier League does and, as such, any attempt to replicate it is destined to fail.

If they want to pursue delusions of grandeur then, please, I insist... Don't just drag half of the football league into the financial mire like you did the last time.
 
Because that worked so well when they tried it the last time with ITV Sport...

Seriously, they can attempt to rebrand that League as much as they want, the common armchair fan wants to watch Sheffield United vs Doncaster on a Saturday evening no more than he wants to watch his wife have sex with the milkman. They simply don't have the global appeal that the Premier League does and, as such, any attempt to replicate it is destined to fail.

If they want to pursue delusions of grandeur then, please, I insist... Don't just drag half of the football league into the financial mire like you did the last time.

The deal with ITV died because you had to buy a digital box to watch their programmes which put them in direct competition with Sky. There was only ever going to be one winner.

Whilst I agree that Sheffield V Doncaster doesn't have the appeal of some of the Premier League (although I'd argue that it's no less appealing that Wigan v Bolton), last season it had the 4th highest total attendance figures in Europe - in fact more people went to see Championship matches than to watch Italy's Serie A. They may not have global appeal but it's still a very marketable league and Championship chairmen are well aware of it.
 
A little while ago, around Feb/March type, Coventry where flirting with the play-offs and he was a hero. How quickly things change in football. Thats why I'm glad we have Tilson.

I remember the days of chopping and changing the managers, and I hope its not something we find ourselves doing again once Tilson goes.
 
The deal with ITV died because you had to buy a digital box to watch their programmes which put them in direct competition with Sky. There was only ever going to be one winner.

Whilst I agree that Sheffield V Doncaster doesn't have the appeal of some of the Premier League (although I'd argue that it's no less appealing that Wigan v Bolton), last season it had the 4th highest total attendance figures in Europe - in fact more people went to see Championship matches than to watch Italy's Serie A. They may not have global appeal but it's still a very marketable league and Championship chairmen are well aware of it.


And what's changed here? It's not as if the Championship can play the bulk of their games on Thursday nights like the Conference attempted when they signed a deal with the doomed Setanta. The Championship would still be in direct competition with the Premier League and the viewing figures will tell where the interest lies.
 
Coleman is a boring slick haired welst rabbit's nunchuck no good c**t who can't speak spanish.
 
Back
Top