A Poor Championship season?

[Barry the bird boggler]

Web site "the 72" says it's been a poor year in the Championship. Would you agree?

Personally I find it hard to analyse having been so involved in it, but I don't think I agree really. I think it's been just as good as last season and in many ways exactly the same in terms of the way it culminated.


http://theseventytwo.com/football-league/championship/2012/04/23/six-reasons-why-this-championship-season-has-been-worse-than-last-year/

Six reasons why this Championship season has been worse than last year Apr 23 2012.

The overall impression from many seasoned Championship watchers is that this has not been a vintage year for the second tier. Reading are worthy champions and their extraordinary run has been something to behold, but the remarkable has been few and far between this term in comparison with the 2010/11 campaign. Here are six reasons why.

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Fewer goals

The headline reason is the average number of goals scored per game in the Championship, which has dropped from 2.74 in 2010/11 to 2.57 this time around. With one full round of matches plus tonight’s meeting between Leicester City and West Ham United yet to come, it seems highly unlikely that this season’s total number of goals (currently 1383) will get anywhere near the final tally last time around (1510).

In truth, that was an unusually high average – the 2002/03 season is the only one to contain more goals (1512) since 1989/90′s total of 1526 – so perhaps there was a lot to live up to. There have also been half as many games with at least six goals – 19 this term as opposed to 38 during 2010/11. It probably hasn’t helped that the Premier League’s most hyperbolic games have produced an unusually high number of goals, a timely example of which came yesterday with Manchester United and Everton’s 4-4 draw.

Fewer stars

Last season saw a number of high-profile over-30s head to the Championship – Edgar Davids, David James and Craig Bellamy all pitched up in the division but all three disappointed to differing degrees. We’ve seen the same again with less of a fanfare – Vicente has dazzled when available in an injury-hit spell at Brighton and John Carew’s impact at West Ham has been non-existent. Vicente is a player who could have ignited wider interest had he not succumbed to injury for long periods and, although fans of the Seagulls and Eagles will baulk at this comparison, the same is true of the promising Crystal Palace youngster Jonathan Williams. They are both players who could have roused the national media’s interest if they had remained fit for longer.

Meanwhile, we saw two familiar sights in the Premier League on Saturday. Loftus Road rose to acclaim a long-range goal by Adel Taarabt just hours after Scott Sinclair weaved his way infield from the left wing and drove the ball high into the net for Swansea City. All that was missing was a jinking run and assist from Wes Hoolahan at Ewood Park. Two of the key creative players of the 2010/11 Championship season were doing the business in the top flight this weekend. So who have been their successors during the current campaign in the second tier?

At Championship level, both 2009/10 and 2010/11 were dominated by central midfielders playing in advanced role behind the attack – the former in the shape of goalscorers such as Kevin Nolan, then of Newcastle, Graham Dorrans at West Bromwich Albion and Charlie Adam during his time at Blackpool; the latter through Taarabt and Hoolahan for the two automatically-promoted clubs. This role has been conspicuous by its absence at the leading Championship clubs this season. Reading have put in a team effort as part of a flat 4-4-2 and if any one player could be said to have made the difference in recent weeks, it would be the veteran striker Jason Roberts. Nolan’s much-heralded return to the Football League with West Ham hasn’t been the universal success that helped result in Newcastle’s title win.

Directionless clubs

At the foot of the table, those that were already losing have lost out if you consider the directions taken by the people in power at Portsmouth, Coventry City and Doncaster Rovers in recent times. They have contributed to what has happened on the field through overinvestment, underinvestment and the wrong kind of investment, respectively. Between them, they have additionally managed to alienate fans, fail to pay players on time and threaten the existence of their club.

There has also been an air of failure attached to a number of the bigger clubs in the division. While they hauled themselves clear of danger, Nottingham Forest’s season should never have been so perilous and they also had to make the demoralising decision to sell both their most promising youngster and their longest-serving player to enable the arrival of loanees. Further north, Leeds United ditched their Leeds United-supporting manager and replaced him with Neil Warnock without success. Leicester City spent millions last summer but failed to purchase any creativity or flair.

Big Sam’s West Ham

And then there’s West Ham United. Supporters of West Ham and other Championship clubs alike knew what they were getting with Big Sam, but plenty of both have still been left disappointed. The Hammers go into their final two games knowing that only six points will suffice to have a chance of automatic promotion. Even then, with Southampton facing relegated Coventry at home on the final day, it looks as though Allardyce’s side have left themselves with too much to do. For those who have long since grown tired of Big Sam’s arrogant bluster, the lottery of the play-offs will be as enjoyable as it will be nerve-shredding for the man in the Upton Park dugout.

In truth, West Ham haven’t offered the Championship much this season in the way of entertainment. By their own fans’ admission, the football has not been great for the majority of the campaign and the only real pleasure for neutrals has involved Allardyce’s post-match comments following poor results, particularly the series of costly home draws against lowly opposition. Like Leicester, West Ham have invested a lot of money this season and it would have been nice to see some of it go towards attractive football rather than, in the Hammers’ case, a variety of forwards who cannot all play at once.

The worst play-off chase in history

For months, it was the race no-one seemed to want to win. The form of the catalogue of sides battling it out for the play-off places below the runaway top three of Reading, Southampton and West Ham was catastrophic, with Cardiff looking set to book their place in the top six next weekend despite winning just two of the 12 league games they played in February and March. Of course, had they endured this poor run earlier in the season instead and ended up on the cusp of a play-off place, they would be hailed from all sides. And to a certain extent, the same goes for Birmingham and Blackpool. But the failure of teams like Hull, Brighton, Leeds and Leicester to put any sort of run together led many fans of sides in the top half to bemoan the overall quality of the division.

Less storied glory

What have been the most memorable moments of this Championship season? Every supporter will have their own – Derby County fans would point to the Rams’ two victories over Nottingham Forest, while City Ground dwellers would instead probably highlight an incredible 7-3 win at Elland Road. At the top, Reading’s run to the title included important away wins at both West Ham and Southampton. At the bottom, Bristol City won twice in three days over Easter to see off Forest and Coventry and lift themselves towards safety. You might also pick out that magnificent David Norris volley deep into stoppage time at St Mary’s, Crystal Palace’s 3-1 win at Brighton or Will Buckley’s opening day double to give the Amex a perfect start. The likelihood is that you know about each of these events, but you might not have seen many of them live.

When you think of the 2010/11 season from a neutral perspective, however, you might think of Taarabt providing one of the greatest assists of all time for Wayne Routledge’s goal against Coventry, Simeon Jackson’s winner at Portsmouth which sent Norwich into the top flight, Darren Pratley’s strike from the halfway line in the play-off semi-final second leg between Swansea and Nottingham Forest or Danny Graham putting QPR to the sword at Loftus Road. They all took place in televised games. We still, of course, have the play-offs to come and there will surely be plenty of drama involved in those, but the matches selected by BBC and Sky this season have failed to spark more often than not. So far, at least…

[Terminal Boardom]

but the matches selected by BBC and Sky this season have failed to spark more often than not.

Very true! It would seem that both tv companies had already decided that they would focus on the likes of Leicester and West Ham before a ball was kicked.

[soggy biscuit]

Yes, yes I would say it had been poor compared to previous season. As much as I have loved our charge to the top we have hardly dazzled and can understand fans of other clubs bafflement at us being 'the best'

[Man Friday]

Rollocks. It's been no worse, no better than any season. It just seems inferior because little 'ol Reading won it.

[Mike Hunt]

Rollocks. It's been no worse, no better than any season. It just seems inferior because little 'ol Reading won it.

This is it.

If West Ham had won the title, it would have been the best.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Id say its about average (which isnt very good) but definately far weaker than last season. I think the standard last year was the highest I can recall at this level for quite a while, backed up by how well Norwich and Swansea are doing.

I certainly dont think Reading are that much better a team than 12 months ago.

[Hoop Blah]

I'd agree it's been a bit of a bland and average Championship this season. Maybe that's just because I've had to watch Reading for 90% of it and we're just a functional team who have ground out results better than anyone else, but I've not seen a lot of good teams or outstanding individuals come to the Madejski this season.

The point about a number of clubs being immediately out of the running because of finances is an interesting point though.

Did they miss out Lamberts great range of goals as well as the quantity though? If I were a neutral that would be my highlight of watching Championship football this year, that and probably watching the likes of Peterborough and Brighton play some decent stuff.

[Alan Partridge]

I know humans do just generally always look back at things and think they were always better when that's rarely ever the case but I do just think that football as a whole in this country is as poor as it's ever been in terms of standard. You only have to look at the amount of dross in the Premier League to see that. Worst Man Utd team in my lifetime still might win the league, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal are all worse than they were 5 years ago. Even Villa, Bolton and Blackburn were good sides when Reading were in the Prem. Awful now.

I think money and the fear factor of losing is a lot to blame for it, at all professional levels. Maybe tiredness as well as they play probably too much football with no break as well as maybe fans expectations due to the ever increasing ticket prices and wanting more for your money. I've seen 4 Reading games this season, 3 of them were appalling in terms of quality, 1 was good. As a season ticket holder you get 23 games and you accept the rough with the smooth, not every game is going to be great and you quickly forget about the crap ones. If you go 3 or 4 times a season and they are all poor then obviously that's what you go by to assess teams or the league as a whole, which isn't always fair.

Having watched a bit of the Championship via the TV, I've been to a few Reading games, I saw Middlesbrough at Millwall and I'm going to see Blackpool at Millwall on Saturday I've not been too impressed by the level of play.

League 2 has been similar, it's like the rest of the football league it's really competitive, anyone can beat anyone but other than Swindon it leaves a lot to be desired. it's a good job I get in for free as I'd have been heartbroken paying some of the fees clubs charge to watch what I've seen.

[Hoop Blah]

I agree on the Premier League standard too AP, I nearly put much the same in my post.

This season the defending has generally been pretty poor even for the top clubs and although I think it has a lot to do with times of change at a lot of clubs it does seem to be an odd trend.

[Wax Jacket]

I can't believe this a worse standard than Mickey Quinn beer-bellying goals in in front of 12,000 at Highfield Rd

[Silver Fox]

I'm assuming from it's name that the 72 is a football league blog so they should stop crying about a lack of stars and take the championship for the excellent second tier competition it is, and for the record this was probably one of the best championship season's ever, with only 05/06 really challenging it

[Wimb]

It's been fairly decent with the usual amount of storylines and drama.

It mentions the fact that Leicester have failed to live up to the hype but there was a lot of interest and excitement at the squad Sven was putting together in August. A Championship side splashing out £4.5m on a defender is something we've not really seen before and the hype 7 speculation at who was the next to join them was just as fun.

The start of the season saw splendid runs from two promoted sides as Saints steamrollered on and Gus Poyet and Brighton had a great start.

As odd and ultimately futile as Doncaster's 'recruitment policy' was, it was still interesting to see pantomime villains like Diouff playing at the keepmoat.

Pompy looked as dead as a doornob for weeks but they rallied a bit in the closing weeks and at least made things a bit interesting.

You had two Championship sides make it into the semi-finals of the league cup, with one taking Liverpool to pens.

Rickie Lambert utterly d**ked on the division this year with his 27 goals. That's more than anyone has scored at this level for years. Vaz Te has also been a revelation this season.

Good guys finish first. Neil Warnock won the title in typical Warnock fashion and backed by big spending last year but this year it's been done by a team with a great work ethic and despite having to sell it's best names. If that doesn't give hope to clubs up and down the country then nothing will.

[Dare to Dr£am]

Had Southampton or West Ham won it no one would have mentioned this.

Because Reading put a run together that doesn't tend to happen, and then gate crashed the party, there must clearly be something wrong with the league this year.....

Bollocks to everyone who doesn't want to give us the credit we are due!

CHAMPIONS!!

[pea]

It hasn't been a good season. The fight at the top has been entertaining but characterised more by Saints and West Ham's failures than our successes. The playoff battle has been apalling, its the fight not to get promoted and the teams that have put decent runs in during the second half of the season (Ipswich, Watford, Millwall) had done so badly in the first half that they counted for nothing in the end.

Last season's championship was the best in a long time, our first year back down was equally as terrible as this years with us throwing away such a good start and the whole league watching Birmingham over the season and being baffled at how they got promoted.

[Wimb]

It hasn't been a good season. The fight at the top has been entertaining but characterised more by Saints and West Ham's failures than our successes. The playoff battle has been apalling, its the fight not to get promoted and the teams that have put decent runs in during the second half of the season (Ipswich, Watford, Millwall) had done so badly in the first half that they counted for nothing in the end.

Last season's championship was the best in a long time, our first year back down was equally as terrible as this years with us throwing away such a good start and the whole league watching Birmingham over the season and being baffled at how they got promoted.

Disagree with that to be honest. Yes West Ham have stuttured a bit but if they win their final game they'll be up to 86 points, 2 more than Norwich needed to get promoted last season and would have also got you promoted in 2005, 2007, 2008 & 2009. On top of that even though we're laughing at them, they've still won 13 times away from home this year and even at home where they've 'struggled' they've lost just four times.

Don't know how last year's Championship can be classed as the 'best ever'. The play-off chase was hardly a chase as 6th was occuppied by Leeds or Forest for the vast majority of the last two months. QPR were top all season long as were far and away the best team in the league and while the battle for second was there until the penultimate game, it was always between Cardiff, Norwich and Swansea really.

Relegation wise Preston were dead all season long, Scunthorpe were in the bottom three from game 20 and Sheffield United were also in the bottom three from game 27 onwards.

What made it stand out?

[winchester_royal]

It hasn't been a good season. The fight at the top has been entertaining but characterised more by Saints and West Ham's failures than our successes. The playoff battle has been apalling, its the fight not to get promoted and the teams that have put decent runs in during the second half of the season (Ipswich, Watford, Millwall) had done so badly in the first half that they counted for nothing in the end.

Last season's championship was the best in a long time, our first year back down was equally as terrible as this years with us throwing away such a good start and the whole league watching Birmingham over the season and being baffled at how they got promoted.

Massively disagreed with this point.

Our form since Roberts came in has been miraculous, and is seen by the vast majority as why we are where we are. Nothing to do with that failures of Saints (19 points from last 10 games) and West Ham (17 points from last 10 games).

Indeed, if you look at the last 2 '8-game' form tables, West Ham have been 3rd twice while Southampton have been 2nd and 9th. It's not as if they've capitulated.

[Hoop Blah]

I also disagree that our rise to the top has been at the fault of the other two. Our run has been magnificent and has included beating some teams right in the mix to make it even more spectacular. Credit where it's due. We've had a terrific run of form since January and that's what's allowed us to nick in.

I don't agree that if someone else had won the league the argument would've had been made though. That's just the Reading inferiority complex coming out in.

[pea]

I think you've misunderstood me, obviously our run has been sublime, that is not in question. But the OP is about the Championship, the league as a whole, and even acknowledges that we were one of very few good things about the league this year.

Last season the teams in the playoffs and autos were all playing really well in the second half of the year, perhaps with the exception of Forest, I can't remember. This season they've all been awful recently, look at a form table and you'll see that. Every time someone has slipped up noone has taken advantage (other than us), the fact Cardiff have won so few games in 2012 and are still up there highlights that. The only teams that have been worse recently than the playoff teams (perhaps with the exception of Blackpool) have been the teams just below them. Brighton, Hull and Leeds have been shocking unlike usual seasons where the chasing pack get a fresh wind near the end of the season. The race for the automatic spots should have been a neck and neck battle between us, Southampton and West Ham until the last day of the season, if you looked at the table a month or two ago (which is what I meant by it being characterised by their failures). But instead both teams have dropped points in games against weak opposition and let us stroll to the Premier League.

And how many players have stood out this year, last year there were loads playing well - Long, Sinclair, Taraabt, Faurlin, Holt, McGugan, Bothroyd, Graham the year before Sig, Dorrans, Adam, Moses, Whittingham. This year the only one that has consistently looked pretty special has been Lambert (although Roberts obviously made an impact, its as much down to the team around him)

[Tredder]

Good guys finish first. Neil Warnock won the title in typical Warnock fashion and backed by big spending last year but this year it's been done by a team with a great work ethic and despite having to sell it's best names. If that doesn't give hope to clubs up and down the country then nothing will.

Big spending is such a big misconception.

[Wimb]

Good guys finish first. Neil Warnock won the title in typical Warnock fashion and backed by big spending last year but this year it's been done by a team with a great work ethic and despite having to sell it's best names. If that doesn't give hope to clubs up and down the country then nothing will.

Big spending is such a big misconception.

So spending nearly £30m on wages which was 183% of your turnover and double that of any other team in the top six doesn't count as big spending then