Post by Macmoish on Apr 20, 2011 23:26:47 GMT
Daily Express/Graham Taylor
PROMISED LAND-MINE
LIKE him or loathe him, the experience and the managerial abilities of Neil Warnock have played a major part in putting Queens Park Rangers eight points ahead in the Championship with only four games to play.
The title and automatic promotion to the Premier League beckons. That is wonderful for Neil and he is in the best position of all. He can plan with certainty .
But only five points separate the four clubs chasing the second automatic place and another five points separate the eight clubs chasing the final play-off place. Welcome to the wonderful chaos that is the Championship.
Each season it is like this. When it was called the Second Division it was recognised as the hardest league from which to win promotion . Now the hardest thing – if you happen to enter the gates of the promised land – is to stay in the Premier League the following season. To win the play-off final at Wembley is fantastic. It really is like winning a cup final. It has become known as the richest game in the world because the money waiting in the Premier League is amazing.
But for some clubs it represents a turning point in their fortunes. To win the play-off final is great but the winning manager or chairman is already three weeks behind the other two promoted clubs in terms of planning, buying and selling – and you can throw the Premier League survivors into that.
There are also negotiations for new contracts , which should contain a clause reducing players’ salaries in the event of relegation the following season. History shows that is a distinct likelihood. Believe me, it is all a mad rush.
Players will naturally almost immediately be going off on holiday, generally leaving all negotiations to agents, although some contracts will have included a salary rise for promotion as well as a bonus. And you can guarantee that in many cases there will be a demand to have this renegotiated.
For the majority of play-off winners, almost everything needs reassessing in such a short time. By the time the Premier League season starts, if new players have not been signed then the club are accused of lacking ambition.
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But most of the best players rarely sign for a newly promoted club . The next chance of signing players is, of course, in the winter transfer window and, if the team are anywhere near the relegation zone, the better players will again be hard to tempt to your club.
The trap that most clubs fall into at this stage is to then pay over the odds in transfer fees and salaries for average players.
I have always believed that, for most clubs, there is a “natural” level in terms of the size of the town or city the club represents and their own natural catchment area. I have had to consider this at Watford and I’m sure it will have crossed the mind of Ian Holloway following Blackpool’s play-off success.
Once you start thinking you are bigger – or better – than your natural level, your troubles start. There is nothing wrong with ambition, but to get carried away by those Premier League fortunes can be catastrophic .
My advice to any of the clubs chasing a play-off place is to assume you will win the final and start getting your financial act together now . If you do not make it, all you have to do is tear it up. That is far better than being torn up yourself, by a league that is far stronger than the Championship.
There is nothing worse for fans than to watch their team getting thumped every week – even if it is in the Premier League .
Take a look at the Football League tables and count how many clubs have been in the Premier League in the last two decades. Did they gain anything from that experience that has made them stronger and better?
www.express.co.uk/posts/view/242021/Promised-land-minePromised-land-mine#ixzz1K6oP6rSB
PROMISED LAND-MINE
LIKE him or loathe him, the experience and the managerial abilities of Neil Warnock have played a major part in putting Queens Park Rangers eight points ahead in the Championship with only four games to play.
The title and automatic promotion to the Premier League beckons. That is wonderful for Neil and he is in the best position of all. He can plan with certainty .
But only five points separate the four clubs chasing the second automatic place and another five points separate the eight clubs chasing the final play-off place. Welcome to the wonderful chaos that is the Championship.
Each season it is like this. When it was called the Second Division it was recognised as the hardest league from which to win promotion . Now the hardest thing – if you happen to enter the gates of the promised land – is to stay in the Premier League the following season. To win the play-off final at Wembley is fantastic. It really is like winning a cup final. It has become known as the richest game in the world because the money waiting in the Premier League is amazing.
But for some clubs it represents a turning point in their fortunes. To win the play-off final is great but the winning manager or chairman is already three weeks behind the other two promoted clubs in terms of planning, buying and selling – and you can throw the Premier League survivors into that.
There are also negotiations for new contracts , which should contain a clause reducing players’ salaries in the event of relegation the following season. History shows that is a distinct likelihood. Believe me, it is all a mad rush.
Players will naturally almost immediately be going off on holiday, generally leaving all negotiations to agents, although some contracts will have included a salary rise for promotion as well as a bonus. And you can guarantee that in many cases there will be a demand to have this renegotiated.
For the majority of play-off winners, almost everything needs reassessing in such a short time. By the time the Premier League season starts, if new players have not been signed then the club are accused of lacking ambition.
SEARCH FOOTBALL for:
But most of the best players rarely sign for a newly promoted club . The next chance of signing players is, of course, in the winter transfer window and, if the team are anywhere near the relegation zone, the better players will again be hard to tempt to your club.
The trap that most clubs fall into at this stage is to then pay over the odds in transfer fees and salaries for average players.
I have always believed that, for most clubs, there is a “natural” level in terms of the size of the town or city the club represents and their own natural catchment area. I have had to consider this at Watford and I’m sure it will have crossed the mind of Ian Holloway following Blackpool’s play-off success.
Once you start thinking you are bigger – or better – than your natural level, your troubles start. There is nothing wrong with ambition, but to get carried away by those Premier League fortunes can be catastrophic .
My advice to any of the clubs chasing a play-off place is to assume you will win the final and start getting your financial act together now . If you do not make it, all you have to do is tear it up. That is far better than being torn up yourself, by a league that is far stronger than the Championship.
There is nothing worse for fans than to watch their team getting thumped every week – even if it is in the Premier League .
Take a look at the Football League tables and count how many clubs have been in the Premier League in the last two decades. Did they gain anything from that experience that has made them stronger and better?
www.express.co.uk/posts/view/242021/Promised-land-minePromised-land-mine#ixzz1K6oP6rSB
