That was a very enjoyable read which perfectly sums up the Championship with all its trials and tribulations.
It it likely the most difficult league to remain afloat in, due to the parachute payments that are afforded the three relegated sides and whatever is left of those handouts for the clubs that were relegated and are into their second or third year away from the Premier League.
Whilst I can appreciate that, maybe, they are a necessary evil for those clubs who are relegated from that league, I do feel that there is more than a sense of an injustice, and a lack of fairness when the rest of the Championship teams aren’t anywhere near to having that level of financial clout at their disposal.
I don’t know what the answer is ultimately, apart from maybe implementing a mandatory relegation clause, in all players’s contracts across the board when in the Premier League, that is commensurate with what would be the higher end earnings of a footballer in the Championship upon relegation.
After all, it’s those self same players who are mostly responsible for their respective club’s relegation to the Championship, and the financial predicament that the owners finds themselves in when dropping down from the top flight.
This incentive would certainly put a rocket up the backsides of those players who aren’t pulling their weight, and cause them to up their performance levels in an attempt to prevent any chance of relegation and the subsequent drop in wages.
Either way, parachute payments as they stand, creates an uneven playing field in the league in which we currently ply our trade.
Consequently, this imbalance makes the chances for promotion for those teams that aren’t financed by these handouts extremely difficult and vastly unfair as a result.
As it stands, the have nots in the Championship will just have to suck it up, and accept that they will have to work doubly hard to overturn that disadvantage.
The well worn phrase, “history repeats itself” is normally thought of in starkly negative terms, about making the same mistakes of the past.
I, for one, will continue to keep the faith that, against all the odds, our team of players can cause history to repeat itself in a more positive way, as we once did when Brendan Rogers and Co took us to the hallowed grounds of the top flight teams week, in week out for only the second time in our history.
We can but hope.
jackarmy.net
