When the Forbes list of the richest clubs in international soccer was released last week it was no shock to ?nd Arsenal third on the list. Coincidentally on the same day Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger came out with the not so surprising comment that despite the likely availability of transfer funds there would be no major changes at Arsenal this offseason. This of course was met with the understandable fan reaction of disgust that the current underperforming will again return next season for yet another encore performance. However there is another attitude amongst Arsenal fans, one that is spoonfed by the club that is lapped up by it’s more “loyal” fans.

The Arsenal hierarchy often point to the remaining debt from the move to the Emirates as the reason for the club’s frugality. However the truth of the matter is this is merely club propaganda. When you consider that even most successful businesses operate with some level of debt, Arsenal by most accounts is and should be the model for how to run a successful football club. That is of course unless you are a fan. You see the key to running a successful club as a business is to remain competitive while keeping operating costs down, mainly by not paying high salaries and transfer fees. Wenger and Arsenal are the best in the world at this when you consider they challenge every season for the Premier League title and qualify for the Champions League, an honor that brings even more income to the club. The actual winning of a championship would be an added bonus of course but it is not worth enough economically at the cost of raising payroll.

So why is it that Arsenal fans defend a philosophy that is all about maximizing pro?ts for the club while only providing a competitive product on the ?eld? This attitude would bother me less as a fan of a team I knew to be limited ?nancially, but this just isn’t the case at Arsenal. They are a global brand with a growing following here in the U.S.  Where the Premier League is enjoying a level of success that has not been seen for soccer in this country since the Cosmos. I will never understand the mentality of the Arsenal fan who points to the clubs ?nancial standing as a badge of honor. I don’t feel the fans should be content merely with being competitive when being elite is clearly within their grasp. This will only elevate this transfer period if Cesc Fabregas, a long rumored target of Barcelona, is sold to the Spanish giants. If this happens and the 30 to 40 million pounds is not reinvested in the club, maybe then people will realize what is really the long and short term goals at Arsenal.

Also making things even more complicated is the impending takeover by now majority shareholder Stan Kroenke. How will his philosophy and vision for the club mesh with Wenger’s? Hard to believe this wouldn?t be a match made in heaven. Wenger is any owner’s dream.

Newcastle apart, it’s Queens Park Rangers who have probably received the most praise and media coverage over the last couple of months. Goals have been flying in from all angles, Derby were humiliated on terrestrial television and the passing style insisted upon by Jim Magilton has led to the club being dubbed ‘The Arsenal of the Championship’ on more than one occasion.

QPR, though, have problems. First of all they failed to find much flow against Leicester live on Sky and their winning run came to an abrupt end. A few days later they were denied again by a hard working Palace side who held them to a 1-1 draw. Even Rangers’ recent victory at Sheffield Wednesday needed a late winner to patch over a lack of fluency.

The cliche is that the top teams win even when they are playing badly, so in that respect the win at Hillsborough was an encouraging sign. Yet despite the individual brilliance of Akos Buzsaky, Adel Taraabt amd Wayne Routledge, QPR fans harbour concerns about how far their team can go this season.

The reason for this is The Captain Curse. Five separate players have already led the team out this season. Four of those players are currently injured. If Mikele Leigertwood was to be crocked in training this week, the chances are a sixth name would be added to that list. It’s only November!

Rangers are currently chronically low on genuine leadership. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of endeavour. Defender Peter Ramage has a tremendous attitude. Wayne Routledge’s work ethic is outstanding for such a creative footballer. Jay Simpson is a tireless worker up front. But it feels like a quiet dressing room. Teams going for promotion need defiance, they need players in the team that will drive them forward when the going is tough. Sometimes, just playing great football isn’t quite enough.

It all started when poor Martin Rowlands suffered a second cruciate injury in a year while playing in a friendly for the Republic of Ireland, ruling him out for the rest of the season. It was a cruel blow for the QPR captain and also for the team because his energy, his drive and his snappy tackling add an extra dimension to the squad. Gavin Mahon took over the armband and the matchday programme notes as Rowlands prepared for a season watching from the sidelines. Mahon will have been with the club for two years in January and during that time he never missed a game through injury – until about a fortnight ago. He’s now out for four months following knee surgery. While not always a first team regular, Mahon is nevertheless a real leader and was captain of Watford the last time they paid a brief visit to the Premier League.

With defender Fitz Hall seemingly unable to put together a run of games in a QPR shirt without suffering injury, Rangers are certainly lacking a genuine captain. The possible signing on a permanent deal of current loan player Ben Watson in January would help (not least because QPR’s central midfield is now looking a bit thin), but ideally Rangers probably need something extra.

If the club is still in the top six after Christmas, it seems likely that Jim Magilton will be asking Chairman Flavio Briatore for a little more investment (Russell Martin of Peterborough is one name that has already been rumoured in the press). A couple of wise additions in January may well be enough to push Rangers over the line and back into the top flight for the first time in 14 years… unless The Captain Curse continues to strike down QPR’s leaders.

Can Chris Hughton give The Toon what they want?

Yet if I was a Newcastle fan I would have deep concerns about the decision. When Middlesbrough finally took the plunge and ditched the clearly struggling Gareth Southgate, they did not mess about. They appointed Gordon Strachan, a man with genuine experience and a history of success. He has won Championships. He even took Southampton to an FA Cup Final.

Newcastle, meanwhile, appointed Chris Hughton, who has never taken sole charge of a team until this season. I’m not sure how much debate this caused in Geordieland, but whatever discussion it may have generated has surely been totally engulfed by the latest embarrassment to crawl out of a once proud club. When Newcastle take on Peterborough this weekend, you may have read, the two teams will no longer be running out into the historic cauldron of football known as St James’ Park. They’ll be running out into something called ‘sportsdirect.com @ St James’ Park’.

Without a doubt, the stupidest, nonsensical and downright insulting renaming of a football ground in history.

But let’s get back to my point. The Championship is now beginning to settle down and while Newcastle still lead the pack, only an extremely blinkered fan would suggest they are certainties for promotion. By all accounts their victory against Sheffield United this week was rather fortunate, as was their draw with QPR and their narrow victory over lowly Doncaster.

At the moment, the quality that United have in the likes of Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez and Steven Taylor is seeing them through. They do have good options up front, but this season will only get tougher as Championship sides figure out ways to counteract their play.

While things are going well Hughton may be able to keep a steady hand on the tiller. But when they hit their inevitable sticky patch, does Hughton really have the nous, the personality or the experience to drag his team through it?

Last season, Birmingham City pretty much achieved promotion through an edge in quality and the bloody-mindedness of manager Alex McLeish. They were never particularly impressive, certainly never as effective as Wolves, but they grabbed the points when it mattered. As the winter months draw in, will Hughton be able to withstand the pressure of expectation?

True, Newcastle are top, but just six points separate 1st place from 10th position (in contrast, eight points separate first from fourth in the Premier League). It is a tiny gap that could easily be breached in a matter of weeks. Several clubs are beginning to find their stride as well. QPR have been looking like an awesome attacking force. Leicester City are incredibly difficult to beat and have genuine quality up front. Cardiff have enough firepower to defeat anybody. West Brom just put five past Watford. Even Swansea are improving at a frightening rate under Paulo Sousa after a difficult start.

Can you imagine how these teams would have felt if Newcastle had chosen Strachan or Alan Curbishley or if they’d managed to tempt someone like Claudio Ranieri? Appointing career number twos very rarely works – something Sunderland found with Ricky Sbragia. You have to be more than a good coach.

Cardiff fans know only too well that a quick start in this league can mean very little come the end of the season. Newcastle may regret their inability to appoint a stronger, proven manager – or even a talismanic figure like Alan Shearer – when next May comes around. If we’re honest the appointment of Hughton would have been unthinkable even six months ago, and that’s no disrespect to a man who is undoubtedly a good coach and a genuine football man.

These days, very little at sportsdirect.com @ St James’ Park surprises anyone anymore. Good luck to Chris Hughton – he’s going to need it.

Can Kevin Blackwell turn around United's fortunes?

It is probably against all the rules of a blog to direct the reader away in the first paragraph, but I think it’s worth it. Before you read this little ramble, have a listen to the BBC interview with Kevin Blackwell, conducted after Sheffield United’s 3-0 defeat at Blackpool a week ago last Saturday.

Fun, isn’t it? To my mind, that is an interview every bit as shocking and, let’s be honest, amusing as Kevin Keegan’s famous ‘I’d love it’ moment or Rafa Benitez’s accusations aimed at Manchester United last season. As it’s in the Championship, though, the media seemed to have largely ignored it.

To me, that sounds like a manager in meltdown. Poor Seth, the journalist, asks a pretty valid question: “Do you still feel the spirit is strong?” United, who came third last season and possessed an incredibly mean defence, had just lost 3-0 at Blackpool. Moreover, it followed a defeat at Scunthorpe, a last-gasp draw at home to winless Ipswich, a failure to defeat Doncaster and a loss at Swansea. After Saturday’s 4-3 home defeat to Cardiff, the Blades have failed to keep a clean sheet since September 12th and have conceded a rotten 21 goals in their last eight games. If anything, Seth was being kind in his phraseology.

Blackwell, however, did not see it that way at all. Seth’s question provoked a response so defensive and so visceral that you cannot help but assume the journalist had touched a very raw nerve indeed. Blackwell proceeds to spend three minutes desperately reaching for excuses. Injuries come high up the list, but excuses about injuries rarely wash – all clubs face the same problem.

Apart from injuries, though, Blackwell insists: “That’s life… It just happens… It’s just not happening for us… Things aren’t dropping for us at the moment.” Essentially, he seems to be suggesting that it’s just bad luck. But when even that doesn’t seem to convince anyone, he resorts to insulting the journalist who is calmly trying to do his job: “That’s a stupid question,” he retorts. “Come on, don’t be stupid,” he argues. “That’s rubbish, Seth,” he falters. But what has Seth said? Seth’s question is perfectly valid. It is Blackwell’s retorts that stink of refuse and panic.

Perhaps this is all a result of a bit of deja vu for the United manager. Back in 2006, he took Leeds all the way to a play-off final, one win away from the Premier League. That season he never spurned an opportunity to bemoan how little he had to spend on his team (usually just before spending over a million on Rob Hulse or Richard Cresswell) but clearly Leeds had better resources than most at that time. Following a transparent attempt to position Leeds as the underdogs against Watford in the final, Blackwell was tactically destroyed by Aidy Boothroyd as the Hornets won 3-0. Leeds’ descent the following season was rapid and they finished bottom.

I wonder if that season is now rattling around his brain once more. Only that injury time equaliser against Ipswich stops it from looking like a fully-fledged crisis.

Blackwell is keen to blame injuries, new players and a lack of fit midfielders. Yet this is a side that on Saturday included Matt Kilgallon, Chris Morgan, James Harper, Glen Little, Stephen Quinn, Kyle Walker and £3m-worth of Ched Evans. Henri Camara was only on the bench. Can a manager who can field those players in this league really be moaning about injuries?

Whichever way you look at it this is a dire run and the Blades’ defence, the rock on which their season was built last season, appears to be crumbling.  Blackwell’s outburst against an honest, local journalist after a poor result only serves to highlight the pressure the manager is feeling. Perhaps the Blades’ next game, at home to Newcastle on Monday, will galvanise the crowd and shake the team up. Blackwell will hope so, because many more defeats and goals conceded and he might find himself on nodding terms with Gareth Southgate in the dole queue.

Can Southgate deliver promotion?

Newcastle were always likely to lose the likes of Owen and Duff, but with Ameobi hitting the kind of form he hasn’t found for years and the transfer deadline approaching without the departure of Nolan or Taylor, they may have ridden one storm even without a permanent manager. They play Leicester on Monday and few would bet against a home win and a return to the top of the table for the Barcodes.

Things appear pretty rosy for Boro too.

Two away wins, third in the table, Adam Johnson one of the stand-out stars of the league so far and until Nicky Maynard’s double at the weekend, they were yet to concede a league goal.

But watching Gareth Southgate’s flustered post-match interview on the BBC’s refreshingly enjoyable Football League programme, you have to wonder if trouble is lurking around the corner already for the beleagured Boro boss.

This week he lost Tuncay and, perhaps more pertinently, Robert Huth to Stoke. Immediately, Boro’s clean white league sheets were dirtied by Bristol City. Southgate, himself once a first class centre back, must have been fuming with the direct nature of Nicky Maynard’s late winner. Even Maynard himself looked surprised by the freedom the Boro defence offered.

Of course, this may just be a blip and Boro are not the first team and won’t be the last to be undone by the in-form Maynard this season. But let’s take a closer look at Boro’s results so far. Against Sheffield United on the opening evening they were largely lacklustre, although it must be said that the Blades are masters of defending away from home: last season they shipped just 17 in 23. Nevertheless, Boro fans would have been worried by their almost total lack of threat that evening.

Next came two comfortable away wins, the first against a Swansea side struggling to come to terms with the loss of their brilliant manager and a number of key players, and the second against Scunthorpe, a League One side just a few months ago. In short, the results were good, but Boro would have expected to take six points from those games.

A 2-0 home win against Doncaster was also fine but again, with all respect to Donny, the odds on 2-0 would have been rather short and with the quality and resources Boro have, all three of those wins should have been achieved whoever was in charge. Since then, they’ve been knocked out of the Cup by Forest and beaten in their first serious test since their game with Sheffield United.

I’m a big believer that tables mean nothing until at least 10 games in. By that time, all clubs have had a chance to play a variety of teams from up and down the table. Boro’s position bears that belief out. Even though they are third, their only really impressive result was away at Swansea, a team clearly at the start of a major transition.

As Southgate struggled to contain his fury on Saturday he almost looked disturbed by the number of microphones shoved under his chin. He may have the most supportive Chairman in the country in his corner, but he is still under enormous pressure. If he thought the spotlight would be a little dimmer in the Championship, Saturday’s defeat will have set him right.

When the league resumes after the bothersome international break, Boro face a slowly improving Ipswich, the unpredictably dangerous Sheffield Wednesday and the impressive West Brom within a single week. After those three games we should have a clearer picture of Southgate’s ability to keep Boro in that top three – and of the likelihood of him lasting the season at the Riverside.

Can Billy Davies take Forest to the top?

With this in mind, here are five random predictions for the coming season, hung on a flimsy animal theme:

Dark Horses: Nottingham Forest

When Billy Davies took over in January, Forest looked likely to go down. In fact, even with a few weeks of the season left they were still teetering, but now they mean business.

Billy Davies has brought in Lee Camp, Dexter Blackstock, Dele Adebola, Paul McKenna, David McGoldrick, Chris Gunter and Joel Lynch. It’s reminiscent of Davies’ last full season at Derby, where he transformed a team of strugglers into promotion material in just 12 months. I’m not saying they’ll win the league, but with all their attacking options and a proven manager, this could be an enjoyable season for the Tricky Trees. Prediction: 5th.

Stinking Skunks: Newcastle United

You can see what I did here: skunks are black and white and so is Newcastle’s kit… well, the one that doesn’t contain shades of urine-yellow, anyway.

Newcastle are in serious trouble. They looked bereft of desire last season after Keegan left and this year they won’t even have the excitement of playing against Manchester United or Fulham.

Currently, they have no manager. Their owner is desperate to sell, but no one really fancies buying them for the asking price. Their squad holds enough quality to win this league with some ease, but it’s a club with more than a whiff of Leeds about it. Every game they play will be against a team desperate to knock over the largest team in the division. Every team will get a big gate against Newcastle. Fans will back their underdogs all the way. I just can’t see, at the moment, how Newcastle will be able to cope.

New owners, a strong manager and a bit of stability could change all that. After all, Sunderland were flailing around like a flock of drowning giraffe a couple of years back until Roy Keane dragged them from bottom to top. But at the moment, 23 clubs are rubbing their hands at the prospect of playing the Magpies. Prediction: 14th.

Irritating Wasps: Peterborough United

Peterborough are at the other end of the scale to Newcastle. They have a much-coveted manager. After years of worrying if they have enough money to pay for the floodlights on evening games, they are now financially stable. They have just been promoted. The club is possibly in its best shape ever.

The problem is that despite these positives, every fan of every club will look at Peterborough and say: “We have to be beating teams like this.” Peterborough are still a small club, but they possess a genuine sting and players, especially of the larger teams, are going to feel pressure to swat them aside. I can’t see that happening. They have a winning mentality and that will continue, at least for this season. Prediction: 9th.

Suicidal Lemmings: Coventry City

What is going on here? The rumour is that Cov are selling off their players so that they can buy their cavernous stadium that can make a tremendous noise when full, but echoes horribly the rest of the time. Two of their best performers last season, Scott Dann and Daniel Fox, have both gone. Michael Mifsud has been released along with Leon McKenzie. It’s not even as if they were much of a force last season and with the Championship now spitting out former Premier League clubs on an annual basis, I fear the same fate could be about to befall poor Cov. Prediction: 22nd.

Harmless Pussycats: Reading

That 100 point+ season now seems a long time ago. The player turnover since then makes alarming reading: Leroy Lita, Dave Kitson, Graeme Murty, Kevin Doyle, Marcus Hahnemann, Nicky Shorey, Steve Coppell… They still have the Hunt brothers and Shane Long, but this season smells like transition to me.

Clubs who lose long serving managers often seem to struggle for a while afterwards as the club creakily adapts to a new regime (just look at Charlton) and although Brendan Rogers has a fine reputation in the game, he’s still inexperienced and is now charged with re-building a Reading force.

The Royals were poor for much of the second half of last season, their vaunted attacking force failing to score in 50% of their last dozen games. Royals fans are going to need to show some patience. Prediction: 13th.

How much time will Jim Magilton be given at QPR?

Of the 24 teams that kicked off the Championship just under a year ago, eleven now have new managers. In the majority of cases, the manager was removed due to perceived failings. Being a Championship manager is like being a duck at a shooting gallery. It’s a question of ‘when’, not ‘if’, no matter how dumb the man holding the gun might be.

It’s a truism, but it all comes down to expectations. Two teams can be promoted automatically, another four can reach the play-offs. Yet by my reckoning seven clubs will expect to finish first or second and nine others will believe they can make the play-offs.

With kick-off still a few weeks away, two-thirds of the managers in this league are now giving optimistic interviews about challenging for the top six. Disappointment for most of them is therefore inevitable. And disappointment leads to jobless managers.

Here’s my top five managers most at risk as teams start their pre-season preparations:

1. Jim Magilton, QPR: The Rangers owners can dress it up any way they like, but the turnover of managers (or head coaches) at the club since Flavio Briatore arrived has been startling even by the bizarre standards football sets itself. QPR have now turned to Jim Magilton, deemed not good enough for Ipswich only a few weeks before his appointment at Loftus Road.

A spat with the Chairman or a poor start to the season could easily see Magilton disappear from his post within a matter of months.  He has to be the favourite to go first.

2. Malky Mackay, Watford: Another new manager who could potentially be at risk early in the season. Watford seem destined to lose talisman Tommy Smith to Sheffield United, and even though the surprisingly high £1.8m fee will be welcome, his departure will be a real blow.

Watford are now a far cry from Boothroyd’s big, dangerous side of a a few years back and if they start badly the club may decide to cut their losses and, against recent practice, opt for a more experienced hand.

3. Gareth Southgate, Middlesbrough: If Southgate had been in charge of any other established Premier League club and turned in the results he did last season, he would be out of a job.  Famously, he belittled Sven Goran Eriksson after England’s 2-1 World Cup defeat to Brazil in 2002, claiming that the team needed Winston Churchill at half time, not Iain Duncan Smith.

I wonder if he recalled those words when his team lost 3-0 to rock bottom West Brom, 4-1 to Bolton or 5-0 at home to Chelsea. The management game, he must now realise, is more than spouting a bit of loud rhetoric at half time.

Steve Gibson always backs his managers but if Boro fall towards mid-table (or worse, as Sunderland did a couple of years back), Gibson may have no other option than to advise Southgate to go back to the pizza commercials.

4. Roberto di Matteo, West Brom: This was truly an appointment out of the left-field. It was as if the West Brom board were so flush from receiving £2m from Celtic for a manager that had just relegated their club, that, like a gambler who believes he’s on a roll, they decided to bet high on a pair of deuces. I mean, the Albion job is a big job these days.

Di Matteo did well at MK Dons, but in truth he was managing a team already built by Paul Ince and one that had a significant financial advantage over most clubs in League One.

It’s a brave decision, but West Brom fans are used to yo-yoing. They’ve had their spin down and now they will be expecting the corresponding spin up. Di Matteo is under significant pressure.

5. Chris Coleman, Coventry: As with the Premier League, there will always be one surprise who’ll go early. I’ll plump for Coleman. He has had time to consolidate at Cov and the board will be expecting something much greater than last season’s finish of 17th.

Only four teams won less home games than Coventry last season and Cookie must somehow find a way to turn that cavernous stadium into an intimidating place to visit.

Now it’s over to you. Who do you think will be first to go? Maybe Shearer won’t be able to take the heat? Or perhaps Gary Johnson will be poached by the Premier League. Let us know below.

Will Shola Ameobi be enough to fire Newcastle back to the EPL?

Newcastle fans must have watched Leeds United’s loss to Millwall in the League One play-offs and shuddered. It was like watching The Ghost of Football’s Future. Two clubs of similar size with similarly raucous fans, they are teams that by rights should never experience relegation from the top flight, let alone into League One. But it happened to Leeds. And it could happen to The Toon.

There can be no doubt that the steep road Leeds followed during their rapid decline could be one that Newcastle are already barrelling along themselves. The similarities, from playing staff, to wages, to financial excess, to a quick succession of managers, is almost eerie. To a Newcastle fan it should be downright terrifying.

The Championship is an unforgiving place – graduation is difficult, expulsion is effortless. Here are eight reasons why Newcastle will find next season to be the toughest battle the club has faced since before King Kev’s revolution in 1992:

1. Expectation: Birmingham faced their fair share of expectation last season and only just managed to cope with it. They went up, but with the players at their disposal it was hardly inspiring. Newcastle have an even larger mountain to climb. Pundits and the Newcastle public, regardless of who stays and who joins, will expect Newcastle to not only win the league, but to win it in style and with games to spare. Newcastle failed to deal with the pressure last season – can they reverse that next season?

2. The Bus: Fans, management, players and directors are going to be desperate for their club to beat Newcastle.  No other team in the league has the cache of the Toon. At St James’ Park teams will, as they say, park the bus in front of the goal. Away from Newcastle, teams will fancy themselves to take a black-and-white scalp in front of their biggest crowd of the season. Every game, from Doncaster to Blackpool to Peterborough, is going to be a scrap. Are they up for it?

3. The Manager: As things stand, Newcastle do not have a manager. In fact, they have not had a permanent boss since the Keegan debacle at the start of last season. Alan Shearer looks likely to take the role and perhaps given a blank sheet of paper he may thrive where this season, to be blunt, he ultimately failed. Yet even with the talismanic Shearer Newcastle could struggle as they come to terms with the take-no-prisoners nature of the Championship. To overcome that, Newcastle need stability on and off the field, which leads us to…

4. Ownership: Mike Ashley wants to sell and says he wants to sell fast. Few could blame him. Newcastle have a large squad full of players on extensive wages that cannot be supported in the Championship. Not only will the new manager need to be rid of a substantial portion of the playing staff, he’ll also need to pick up a few players who will help guide them through the second tier. The longer the sale of the club drags on, the more difficult this will be and the more unprepared the club will become for the new season.

5. Middlesbrough: Newcastle will be favourites, but in reality Middlesbrough will, gallingly, probably be in better shape than their local rivals. Steve Gibson manages the finances of the club well and always backs his managers. The team should really only lose one or two of their better players and, due to injury, they may even hold on to Stewart Downing for the whole campaign. If Middlesbrough do storm the league it will heap pressure on the Toon and leave just one automatic promotion spot up for grabs.

6. Unpredictability: The Championship is an odd league in many ways. It has become a cliche to say that any team can beat any other, but it is close to the truth. Last year, mediocre Coventry beat Birmingham home and away, while Wolves were battered 5-2 against the usually-feeble Norwich. The gap between the top and bottom of the table is nowhere near as large as it is in the Premier League.

7. Goals: Having a Kevin Phillips or a Sylvain Ebanks-Blake in the squad can pay dividends for any Championship team. Newcastle need to act quickly. Michael Owen will be gone, as will Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins. Peter Lovenkrands may look for a transfer, which means only the terminally under-achieving Shola Ameobi will be left of Newcastle’s senior strike force. That seems unlikely to be enough.

8. Referees: We often hear how bad the standard of refereeing is in the EPL, but whatever the real truth, it cannot be denied that those in the Championship are, by definition, worse. The Championship, for example, boasts ‘phantom goal’ referee Stuart Attwell. They are not referees impressed by reputation and the Magpies may find it tough to struggle in the more physical second tier.

The fact is that these awards always go to those players who enjoy plenty of column inches. Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, has had a quiet season by his standards and I would be willing to bet he wouldn’t even be in most Man Utd fans’ top three for their player of the season. At most clubs, the marquee name often does not pick up the fans’ award. It’s the left back who’s been dependable all season, or the hard-working centre midfielder.

In the Premier League there are always players who have been excellent yet are never considered for the big awards because they play for a less fashionable club, or perhaps because of the belief that you must play for a team likely to win a trophy to be taken seriously. That is rubbish, of course, so in honour of these players, I present my No-Big-Four-Allowed EPL Team of the Season:

Goalkeeper: Shay Given – Man City

When people talk Newcastle it’s normally about strikers. Or Joey Barton. Or the behind the scenes shenanigans. But for years their best player was Shay. Not the biggest keeper you’ll ever see, but there aren’t many safer goalies around. Now he’s run away from the circus to join Man City where he’s being just as brilliant. Apologies to Mark Schwarzer and Tim Howard who just miss out.

Right Back: Glen Johnson – Portsmouth

An exceptional talent at West Ham and a decent start at Chelsea soon gave way to a few years of struggle for Johnson. This season he seems to have grown up. His performances have improved, he has played with greater responsibility and under Paul Hart he has shown willingness to adapt to a new role further up the pitch. The England right back slot was up for grabs a few months ago. Now he’s nailed it.

Left Back: Herita Ilunga – West Ham

The rumour was that when Alan Curbishley lost George McCartney to Sunderland his solution was to sign Ben Thatcher. Relations with his Board continued to dwindle. Ilunga came in on loan from Toulouse and has been superb all season for Zola, part of a defence that looks extremely tight, especially since the arrival of coach Steve Clarke.

Centre Back: Brede Hangeland – Fulham

The 27-year-old Norwegian cost Roy Hodgson just £2.5m this time last year. Arsene Wenger must be sick because this is exactly the sort of dominating giant he needs at the heart of his porous defence. Hangeland has been outstanding in a mean Fulham back five that has conceded just 28 goals in 34 games this season.

Centre Back: Phil Jagielka – Everton

Poor Jags. He had the stones to step up and take a crucial penalty against Man Utd in the FA Cup semi-final after missing one in a previous UEFA Cup tie. He scored. If anyone deserved that glory it was him. Always a solid player, now, like so many at Everton, Jagielka has progressed enormously under David Moyes. It was sad news to see that an injury will keep him out of the Cup Final.  Being in this prestigious team of the season will be little consolation.

Right Midfield: Antonio Valencia

You have to sympathise with Wigan. Every time they discover a decent player (Palacios, Chimbonda) or rediscover an underappreciated talent (Heskey) it’s only a matter of time before they’re nabbed by a bigger club. Or by Spurs. Wigan fans must be wondering what colour shirt Valencia will be wearing next season. Steve Bruce rates him almost as highly as Cristiano Ronaldo.

Left Midfield: Ashley Young – Aston Villa

Ash should, of course, have been given more of a chance in the England squad, although his form in the last third of the season has not been as electric as the first two-thirds. Reached a zenith in December with those two goals away at Everton in a thrilling game that resulted in Martin O’Neill branding him a genius.

Centre Midfield: Stephen Ireland – Man City

Now it starts becoming really difficult. There are great central midfielders all over the shop in the Premier League these days. But I really like Stephen Ireland. Limitless stamina, he manages to be unselfish yet still score plenty of goals himself (13 in all competitions this season). A real talent and only 22 years old.

Centre Midfield: Gareth Barry – Aston Villa

It’s an obvious one, I know, but he deserves it. The chaos surrounding his transfer to Liverpool last summer was upsetting for Villa fans, but eventually he stayed and had the professionalism to get on with his job. You couldn’t say that about every footballer in the land.

Striker: Carlton Cole – West Ham

It’s been a low scoring year for strikers in the Premier League. With a few games left, Ronaldo has scored the most with 17 and Anelka is the only other player to reach 15. Until his injury, however, Carlton Cole was in the form of his life, proving plenty of doubters wrong and helping Zola to turn around West Ham’s fortunes. He even grabbed himself an England cap. Next season will be a big one for him.

Striker: Djibril Cisse – Sunderland

This was a real struggle. I almost stuck Tim Cahill up front as he was excellent there for Everton and Robinho has a case too, but I think his overall form has been too patchy. Robbie Keane had a tough time at Liverpool, Defoe has been injured a lot, Benni McCarthy has blown hot and cold, I like Tuncay but he hasn’t scored enough goals and Agbonlahor’s form has fallen away at times. Old warhorse Kevin Davies has had a tremendous season, but for me Djibril Cisse just about gets the nod, if only to have some variety in hairstyles in the team.

So there we have it. My No-Big-Four-Allowed EPL Team of the Season. Would it challenge the top four? I’d like to think so. Take your pick from David Moyes or Martin O’Neill to lead them into battle and I think you’d see some silverware. Please feel free to let me know where I’ve gone horribly wrong…

St Mary's Stadium will host League One football next season

Sheffield Wednesday, QPR, Manchester City, Wimbledon (aka MK Dons), Leeds, Oldham, Nottingham Forest, Swindon, Leicester, Barnsley, Bradford. Soon to be joined by another two and probably three in Charlton, Southampton and Norwich. All these clubs have tasted the sweet nectar of life in the Premier League only to later sup at the workaday bitterness of League One. In Bradford’s case, even League Two.

If Norwich go down, as seems likely, that’s 14 teams who have played against the best and slipped to the third tier of English football in the last 17 years. In a game full of startling statistics, that seems pretty mind-boggling. It might hearten fans of Saints and Addicks that a decent portion of those teams have at least made it back to the Championship. Indeed, this time last year Leicester were belly-up and now they are like a horny young salmon, leaping back upstream to play with the bigger boys and girls once more.

In a sense, this shows the outstanding strength in depth of the English leagues. Unlikely teams including Bradford, Swindon, Hull, Stoke, Wigan and Reading all made huge strides in the last decade and a half to reach the top of the mountain. Yet it does not take much to find yourself back at base camp in double-quick time.

It can be put down to poor money management. It can be blamed on carelessness and poor decision-making. But the shocking thing this year is that two clubs who have often been held up as excellent examples of how a medium-sized club should be managed are either already down or simply waiting for the trap door to open.

When Sheffield Wednesday, Man City, QPR, Leicester and Leeds fell into League One, the structure at the clubs was poor and all of them had dealt inadequately with the money the EPL gave them. But Charlton and Norwich do not seem to fall into this category. Charlton have cleverly developed a fanbase from all over Kent and steadily improved a stadium that was derelict 20 years ago. Norwich had more than their fair share of problems in the boardroom in the 90s, but they have a city dedicated to the team, a real sense of community and Delia Smith providing heart and soul as well.

For those two clubs, the short term might be unpalatable, but the feeling is that the long term might be rosy. They are sensible clubs. If they cut costs, appoint the right managers and keep expectations sensible, they could return a stronger unit, like Leicester appear to be doing.

Southampton, though, could be a different story. Not so long ago they had a new stadium, Gordon Strachan had taken them to the Cup Final and they were the latest in a long line of clubs hoping to break into the top six of the EPL. Now the money is gone. The stadium is not being filled. The stars of their youth system have almost all been sold in an effort to balance the books. Rumours of a takeover notwithstanding, it seems likely that Andrew Surman and Adam Lallana will now have to be sold as well.

Around this time of year a lot of pundits make long faces and say it’s a shame for this team or that team to go down. They are saying it about Newcastle now, but is it a shame when clubs the size of Southampton are relegated to League One? Would we prefer to see the smaller clubs, like Doncaster or Blackpool, get relegated, to keep the status quo?

I don’t think so. I think it’s a healthy situation that big clubs occasionally taste life in the bottom half of the Football League. It’s good for football that so-called small teams like Peterborough can play at Championship level.

With dreams of winning the Premier League unrealistic for fans of all clubs except perhaps five – six at a push – the dream has perhaps been downshifted to glory in the Championship and a chance to merely get in the ring with the big boys.

The difference this season compared to others is that three clubs who have all played at the top level within the last four years are (probably) heading down. Not only should that be a lesson to clubs currently happy in the Premier League, it should be a warning. There are at least half-a-dozen Premier League clubs who could be facing the same crisis as Southampton in three or four years time.

1st September 2007. I stood outside Loftus Road looking in silence at the memorial laid by fans for our young striker Ray Jones who had been tragically killed in a car crash. As I turned to enter the stadium a vehicle pulled up and from it emerged then Chairman Gianni Paladini along with the man about to buy the club, Flavio Briatore.

For years Rangers had been struggling with finances, seemingly always only days away from a second spell in administration (unlike most clubs, QPR emerged from an administration period worse off than when they went in). Now, just as the club had reached the lowest possible point with the death of a young striker, there was just a semblance of hope. As Briatore crossed the road the silence was broken by an ovation. No cheers, just clapping hands, a sign of thanks and appreciation.

For a while, things were actually pretty good as the club turned to an Italian none of us had heard of, Luigi De Canio. Along with a slew of signings including Fitz Hall, Matthew Connolly, Patrick Agyemang and most importantly the sublime Akos Buzsaky and the mercurial Rowan Vine, De Canio dragged us up the table pretty quickly. There was an annoying penchant for conceding late goals and the away form was shaky, but at Loftus Road fans were treated to the best football in years. Two 3-0 thrashings against promotion-chasing sides Stoke and Bristol City in particular were an absolute joy. We were rich. We were scoring goals. We loved the manager. All was right with the world.

But since April of 2008 very little has been right with the world. Buzsaky and Vine both became injured and between them have played less than five times in the last 12 months. The cultish De Canio left the club under uncertain circumstances, no one quite sure whether he was homesick, whether the players were frustrated by his lack of English or whether he was always only a stop-gap to stave off relegation.

In addition, despite boasting a Board worth billions of pounds, season ticket prices shot up – in some cases by as much as 50% when taking into account discounts for the previous season. There were grumbles, but fans conceded that if we wanted success and more good players then perhaps we should have to pay for it.

There were all kinds of rumours about who the next manager might be (the most outlandish being Zinedine Zidane) but in the end the man chosen was a decidedly unglamorous Iain Dowie.

In a blaze of publicity, QPR managed to sign Real Madrid starlet Daniel Parejo on a one year loan deal, a player Arsenal were rumoured to have offered £10m for only a few months earlier. There were concerns about the lack of a top class striker at the club, but otherwise hopes were high.

A decent start soon went sour. Emmanuel Ledesma, a loan signing from Italy, scored one of the most perfect hat-tricks I have ever seen against Carlisle in the League Cup, but soon lost form and never recovered. Parejo showed flashes of brilliance, but struggled to adapt to the English game. Both have since left the club early. Dowie’s initial expansive football quickly gave way to a more defensive game, causing rows with Briatore. By October he was gone.

Paulo Sousa’s time in charge has been mixed. Some excellent results – a scintillating 3-2 home win against Preston and a 3-0 destruction away at Blackpool – have been enjoyable, but with Buzsaky and Vine still injured, Agyemang joining them and new signing Heidar Helguson seemingly unsure of fitness from one week to the next, the problem of scoring goals has persisted, resulting in some very dull 0-0 draws.

About a month ago, the club trumpeted the return of the Early Bird Discount Scheme whereby existing season ticket holders and members could buy a season ticket for next season at the same price as last season as long as they bought it by mid-April. How the word ‘Discount’ was allowed to be in that offer has been discussed at length, because there was no discount. In fact, because of the VAT reduction, it was actually an increase on last year’s prices. Having sat through a fair amount of turgid football (although at least for once we have been top half for a whole season) fans were furious.

Revolution has been brewing for some time and the whole sorry mess regarding the sacking of Paulo Sousa for apparently revealing ‘secrets’ about the club to a fan has brought things to a head. Sousa may not have set the club alight, but he has had just six months. He is not responsible for buying players and Sporting Director Gianni Paladini has failed badly in this regard to acquire strikers of an ability to make us into a team worthy of promotion. He continues to appear to wield a disproportionate amount of power at the club despite being a former agent who has never coached, never managed and has been responsible for bringing a number of sub-standard players to the club on big contracts.

Indeed, it seems possible that Paladini’s signing of Gary Borrowdale in January precipitated the current crisis. Borrowdale was signed on loan in November with a permanent signing also agreed. Sousa was not impressed and Borrowdale never started a game and has been shipped out to Brighton on loan. In retrospect it appears possible that this may have caused something of a power struggle between the coach and the sporting director.

Sousa was an outstanding footballer and a man of honour. A few years ago QPR could never have dreamed of attracting a man of his standing to the club, and now it has booted him out on an embarrassing technicality. He deserves better.

The PR machine at QPR has quickly gone into overdrive, relegating the story of the sacking of the manager to the fifth item on its news page only hours after the initial announcement (where Sousa, bizarrely, was referred to as Paulo De Sousa) and proudly crowing about a 5% reduction in season ticket prices, as if that makes everything okay.

Of course, it makes nothing okay. QPR fans are in a terrible situation. We were desperate for a takeover, for someone with money to have faith in the club. Now we have it and the club is a circus, a shambles, an embarrassment. It is starting to make Newcastle look like a well-run ship.

And who is going to manage this club now? No one seems capable of lasting more than around six months in the job and even a minor run of poor results could mean the sack, as could a disagreement with Briatore or Paladini. Some people have mentioned Darren Ferguson or Gary Johnson but neither have any reason to risk their good names. At the QPR circus, the coach cannot be the Ringmaster, which usually makes him the clown.

I go to football for entertainment. On Monday when Rangers will undoubtedly lose to Sheffield Wednesday, I am dreading the ugly atmosphere that will flood the stands.

It was just a shame that fan behaviour cast such a pall over the whole day.

Like many fans I was disgusted with the throwing of the coin that injured referee Mike Dean in the Welsh derby, but I’ve been just as concerned by the reaction of key figures from both clubs.

Peter Ridsdale, Cardiff Chairman, said:

“We’ve now identified an individual who threw a coin, we believe it’s the individual whose coin hit the referee… assuming it’s the right individual he will be banned for life.”

Well, that’s good to know. But it wasn’t ‘an individual’ it was many individuals. The few seconds of footage surrounding the moment Mike Dean was hit clearly shows several items landing near the referee, while Swansea captain Garry Monk has claimed objects were being thrown throughout the match. Cardiff fans have commednably been more open than Ridsdale, speaking of witnessing a number of individuals throwing objects onto the pitch ranging from coins to lighters.

Does Ridsdale think that getting rid of this one person somehow solves the problem? Moreover, was this individual more guilty for hitting the referee than anyone else who tried but missed?

Cardiff manager Dave Jones said:

“I hope the club don’t suffer serious repurcussions as it was only one person and there were 20,000 people here… It’s ridiculous as I thought those days were long gone.”

Only one person, Dave? Really? And you thought those days were long gone? Good job the police didn’t share your view or they might not have sent those 450 officers to Ninian Park to try and minimise trouble between the fans.

What weasel words by both of these people. I would expect more of Jones in particular, but perhaps he is just trying to protect the club. If that is the case then he has been shown up by the Cardiff City Supporters’ Trust who condemned the ‘mindless idiots’ (notice the plural) and for those Cardiff fans who stood up and pointed out the offenders at the time. If only club officials were so forthright.

It is unfair that the whole club should be tainted by this, but football must not continually attempt to hide the truth. Whenever there is violence at a game we are fed the same line about how “these people are not football fans” – well, who are they then? There can be no doubt things have moved forward over the last 20 years, but problems still exist. Every club still has their trouble-makers.

In the midst of all this you might expect Swansea to act with quiet dignity, but manager Roberto Martinez, a good, honest, likable man, a successful coach and a very decent TV pundit, has waded in with some ill-advised comments of his own:

“You don’t want to see coin throwing incidents like that but looking at the overall performance of the referee maybe he was affected by it… you work all week not to get emotional performances from your players and you drop two points because of an emotional decision by a referee.”

In one sense, Martinez is right – Cardiff’s late penalty for the equaliser was probably the wrong decision – but to show such callous disregard of the referee’s health beggars belief. He had been hit in the end, no more than a few centimetres from his eye, yet made little fuss and carried on refereeing the game – on the whole very well. It seems incredible that rather than blaming the fan for his actions he suggests that the referee failed to deal with the situation adequately. I wonder what Martinez’s reaction might have been had his goalkeeper received a blow to the head. Would he have publicly blamed him for dropping a cross and for becoming too emotional?

The fallout from this will undoubtedly continue for some time, but what sort of punishment should be meted out by the Football Association? Ridsdale has a point in that it seems unfair to punish Dave Jones’ team for the actions of some of the fans. Cardiff have improved the image of the club in recent years and so a fine or a points deduction seems ill-fitting.

Perhaps the FA must leave it to the club to identify as many of these coin-throwers as possible and have them thrown out of all football grounds for good, but while Ridsdale continues to suggest it was only one person, this is not a problem that will disappear any time soon. In the meantime, football officials need to start being a little more honest when it comes to assessing the behaviour of some fans.

Back in the day, commentators, football writers and outfield players all used to laugh at goalkeepers. They were sometimes described as ‘a breed apart’ but mostly they were bluntly referred to as ‘mad’. Keepers were allowed to have rushes of blood and make silly mistakes, because that is what they were there for. They provided added entertainment to football.

Goalies were weird. Just think…

Imagine that over-enthusiastic fan who sits near you. The one who screams, cries and laughs for 90 minutes. Now give him the fabled powers of a top class goalkeeper. You’ve got Les Sealy. Memorably, he once had an enormous row with the Man Utd physio who was insisting he come off the pitch after an injury. To Les, that was not an option.

John Burridge was one of the prototypes. I believe he played at least one game for every single professional football club in existence in England. Burridge freely admits that he sleeps with a football every night. Even now.

Years before David Ginola smouldered at the camera and said: “Because I’m worth it,” Phil Parkes thought it would be a fine idea to do a Cossack Hairspray commercial. Footballers had advertised things before, but that was Bobby Moore promoting pubs (yes, just pubs in general) and Kevin Keegan splashing Brut all over his toned body. Phil Parkes’ commercial was shot soft-focus and looked like a perfume ad.

Bruce Grobbelaar’s regular title in Roy of the Rovers in the 1980s was ‘The Clown Prince of Soccer’. When it was raining he’d run onto the pitch while shielding himself with an umbrella. He once wore an old man’s mask at the start of a game. He swung on the crossbars. His legs sometimes turned to spaghetti at key moments.

In fact, all over the world goalies have been unusual. Rene Higuita and his famous scorpion kick.  Jorge Campos and his luminous, Picasso-style goalkeeper jerseys. Dead-ball specialist José Luis Chilavert scored an astonishing 62 goals in his career. Jens Lehmann performs a strange jump and click of the heels before taking a goal kick, like Dorothy in Oz. Peter Schmeichel was the most scary man to ever stand between the sticks.

Yet sadly the age of the eccentric goalkeeper is coming to an end. Football is just too much of a business to tolerate someone like Grobelaar actually enjoying himself on a football pitch and entertaining the fans.  And, thanks in part to the back pass rule, goalkeepers have become integrated into mainstream pro-footballer society.

Look at the keepers around these days: Chris Kirkland, Rob Green, Scott Carson, Shay Given. I’m sure they’re all nice blokes. But the closest they get to being described as eccentric is when they drop a cross. David James is conisdered slightly different because he likes painting. Give me strength.

So today I kneel down in praise of Sheffield United goalkeeper Paddy Kenny. A true throwback. A man who proudly carries the tradition of weird goalkeepers.

Paddy Kenny looks like he wears his kit all week so he doesn’t have to bother changing between games.

Paddy Kenny looks a bit overweight. Keepers always used to be a bit chunky. Now they’re all skinny like Kirkland or muscly like James.

Paddy Kenny doesn’t stand around his penalty spot before kick-off doing a few exercises. He stands somewhere off to the left, shoulders slumped, looking at the planes passing overhead, his goal wide open.

Paddy Kenny looks like a bloke who drinks WKD every Friday night in the Yorkshire clubs.

Paddy Kenny will respond to crowds who chant that he likes to eat pies.

Paddy Kenny is never, ever limited by his penalty box.

Paddy Kenny has no need for a substitute goalkeeper.

Paddy Kenny is the last of a dying breed… unless there’s one at your club?

That seems unfair. Wolves have led the Championship for sustained periods this season. They are five clear of second and a further four clear of third. They will almost definitely be Champions. They will be in the Premier League next season.

Yet ask most fans if they’d want McCarthy at their club and enthusiasm would be hard to come by. A couple would bite your hand off (Charlton for a start, but they’d probably take Dave Bassett right now). A few might wrinkle their noses but grudgingly accept him (Blackpool, Norwich, Plymouth) but the rest? Thanks but no thanks.

Some clubs who like to think they have a tradition of passing football might not fancy McCarthy’s style while simultaneously dreaming of his success (QPR and Ipswich). Others simply already have arguably better managers in place (Bristol City, Swansea).

The facts are that outside of one or two harrowing Premier League experiences, Mick tends to deliver. Roy Keane might have struggled to respect him as manager of Ireland, but at least back then they  qualified for tournaments – they haven’t done since he left over six years ago.

Like a string of modern British managers such as George Burley, Neil Warnock, Tony Pulis, Dave Jones and Steve Coppell, McCarthy knows how to win in the Championship. Yet despite their successes, these are names almost definitely not even considered  for the still-vacant Portsmouth job.

That is because without a top quality manager (hello, Middlesbrough!), things go very wrong very quickly in the Premier League and catastrophic results can follow for years afterwards.  Look at that list above and all have had a brief flirtation in the top flight only to be spat out pretty quickly. In the Championship, having a highly charismatic tactical genius in charge is not quite so necessary.

McCarthy’s ‘secret’ is pretty simple: Strikers – with the emphasis on the plural. At QPR, Ian Holloway once said he liked to ‘rack and stack’ his strikers because he knew (his time at Bristol Rovers with Bobby Zamora, Jamie Cureton, Barry Hayles and Jason Roberts proved it) that you can see an average team become promotion material as long as you have a couple or more players capable of turning one point into three. While that’s fine for the Championship, it is rarely good enough for the Premier League and a reason, perhaps, why some managers seem unable to make that extra step.

What McCarthy, Coppell and the rest know is that it’s not about having that one fabled 20-goal a season striker. You need three or more who might nick 45-50 between them.  Look at the great Reading team that walked the league in 2006, 16 points ahead of their nearest challenger. It wasn’t just Leroy Lita. It was Lita, Dave Kitson, Shane Long and Kevin Doyle. Hull ended last season with Caleb Folan, Frazier Campbell, Dean Windass and Nick Barmby. West Brom had Roman Bednar, Kevin Phillips and Ishmael Miller. Sunderland before them juggled Anthony Stokes, David Connolly, Daryl Murphy and Stern John – with Dwight Yorke in midfield for good measure.

At the end of last season, McCarthy had Michael Kightly, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Sam Vokes, but he added Chris Iwelumo and revitalised him after a tough time at Charlton. When Kightly and Iwelumo faltered a little recently, he went out and fought off all the competition to get Marlon Harewood on loan from Villa, just to make sure.

McCarthy has successfully followed a popular formula. The Wolves are going up and it didn’t take a genius to take them to the top. The real skill is going to be keeping them in the top flight for longer than the one tough year they had earlier this decade.