The Championship - Every team with something to play for (except Barnsley)

As it stands in the Npower Championship every team (except Barnsley) has something to play for, whether this is gaining automatic promotion, achieving a place in the play-offs or avoiding relegation to League 1 the remaining fixtures in the league will define the majority of teams season. In this blog I will give my opinion on each teams prospects going into the final month of the season.

Part 1 - Promotion/Play-offs

Team - Southampton

Rickie Lambert

My View - Consistently strong throughout the season, Southampton have made St Mary's a fortress with 15 of their 23 wins this season coming at home. Nigel Adkins is now so close to mirroring the achievement of Paul Lambert and Norwich with successive promotions and I see no reason why this wont be the case.

Key Man - Rickie Lambert - The big mans goals and all round play have been the shining light in Southampton's bright season 

My Prediction - 1st

Team - Reading
My View - Reading have, like last season come into form at the right time in the season. Their long run of successive wins has seen them move into the 2nd automatic promotion place and the acquisition of Jason Roberts has proved to be a shrewd bit of business by royals boss Brian McDermott with the former West Brom and Wigan man scoring 5 times in 11 appearances
Key Man - Jason Roberts - His experience of past promotions may be key during the run in
My Prediction - 3rd      


Team - West Ham United

Big Sam

My View - Despite fans complaining that Big Sam's team are not playing the 'West Ham way', the table doesn't lie and with seven games to go the hammers are in with a great chance of getting automatic promotion. Many of their squad have premier league experience and in my opinion this experience may just see them pipping Reading to 2nd place
Key Man - Kevin Nolan - The attacking midfielder may be pushing 30 but has scored important goals this season and I'd back him to get a few more before the end
My Prediction - 2nd


Team - Birmingham City
My View - With their finances apparently in crisis it appears to be promotion or bust for the brummies. They have a strong squad and under the reassuring calmness of Chris Hughton I expect them to make the play-offs.
Key Man - Marlon King -Despite his much publicised background, he appears to have but this behind him and is concentrating on scoring goals.(Still not welcome at the Ricoh)
My Prediction - 6th

Dodgy Keeper

Team - Brighton
My View - Their free flowing football has been a pleasure to watch this season with the likes of Vicente and Mackail-smith shining. However with tough fixtures to come and a questionable keeper in the erratic Peter Brezovan I feel they may fall just short of the play-offs. If they can keep Gus Poyet for next season they have they potential to be champions.
Key Man - Vicente - The Spanish winger is finally fit and showing his pedigree
My Prediction - 8th


Team  - Middlesbrough
My View - Tony Mowbray's men have been in the play-offs for the majority of the season and I expect them to stay their. Strikers Bart Ogbeche and Lukas Jutkiewicz has recently scored important goals to acquire two vital away points at West Ham and Ipswich and with Scott McDonald on the way back from injury plus Marvin Emnes and Curtis Main they appear to have the fire power to see them into the play-offs
Key Man - Barry Robson - The experienced Scot will take over the captain's armband from the injured Matthew Bates
My Prediction - 5th


Team - Blackpool

Ian Holloway

My View - Everyone knows what Blackpool are about; ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK. This season has been no different with players such as Matt Phillips and Thomas Ince showing their worth. I cant see a reason why they shouldn't make the play-offs as they did in the 09/10 season
Key Man - Kevin Phillips - The evergreen striker still knows where the net is and has 17 so far this season
My Prediction - 4th


Team - Cardiff City
My View - The perennial underachievers of the championship and I feel this will be the case again. Despite their league cup heroics I feel there isn't as much quality in their squad as there has been in previous seasons. They haven't utilised the goalscoring talent of Robert Earnshaw as much as I thought they would
Key Man - Robert Earnshaw - Malky Mackay should give him a run in side he may just find his shooting boots at the right time
My Prediction - 7th

Nicky Barmby

Team - Hull City
My View - Nick Barmby has taken to management like a duck to water, he has a defensively solid team with flair players such as Cameron Stewart trying to make the difference at the other end. However recent results haven't been brilliant and at this stage in the season momentum can be everything and they don't appear to have it.
Key Men - Hull's strikers - Hull need to score more goals, if they can they may have a chance
My Prediction - 9th


Team - Leeds United 
My View - An enigma of a team who can dominate and win away at Boro, then concede seven at home to Forest. No question that they have quality in Becchio, Snodgrass and McCormack with 30 goals between them but there are questions to be asked defensively
Key man - Neil Warnock - He's done it all before and maybe can inspire Leeds into the play-offs
My Prediction - 10th


Team - Leicester City
My View - Biggest spenders in the championship have been consistently inconsistent all season long, but with a potent striking duo in Nugent and Beckford scoring consistently now could they put a run together and gatecrash the play-offs.
Key man - Jermaine Beckford - Played well in the prem last season with Everton and is more than lethal at this level
My prediction - 11th

Beckford and Nugent

The best of the rest - Derby, Palace, Watford, Ipswich and Burnley
My View - Despite mathematically still being able to make the play-offs in reality they will all probably miss out. Mid-table consolidation is not a bad thing and going up through the play-offs if your not ready is not always good as Derby will testify to.




     

The Table

        


       

Save Our City – The Downfall of Coventry City Football Club

Seeing as this is my first blog I decided to tackle a subject quite close to my heart, Coventry City football club. Once a great family club with a rich history, which includes the 1987 F.A cup final victory over Spurs and being one of the founder members of the premier league, has in recent years turned into a debt ridden club which fails to fill even half of its 32,609 seater stadium and constantly sells its best players. As a season ticket holder I have witnessed firsthand the demise of the club and I can say without any doubt that this demise is down to the owners SISU Capital Limited. In this blog I will explain the reasons as to why SISU have done their level best to ruin the club.

The Ricoh Arena

Since relegation from the premier league at the end of the 2000/2001 season after 34 years in the top flight of English football and up to 2007, City went through 8 managers (including caretakers) not one being able to make the play-offs, many having to sell their best players and little or no funds to acquire new players. The club found themselves having to file for administration in late 2007 with reported debts of £38 million. On The 14th December 2007 City found themselves hours away from entering administration but former footballer Ray Ranson and the SISU group successfully completed the takeover. With this many fans thought the future looked bright for Coventry City.

Chris Coleman

Iain Dowie

However this was not exactly the case, the same pattern of managers being given no funds and having to sell their best players occurred, for example the likes of Scott Dann, Danny Fox and Leon Best were all sold to generate funds for other players or in other words so SISU could recoup the money they had put into the club. Managers Iain Dowie and Chris Coleman failed to do any better than the eight that had preceded them, both talented managers Dowie who had been promoted with an unfancied Crystal Palace team into the premier league in the 2003/2004 season and Chris Coleman who had previously managed Fulham and Real Sociedad. But this is what happens when the owners of a football club do not have any aspirations, just to make a quick profit for themselves.

Aidy Boothroyd

Then came Aidy Boothroyd a successful manager in the past with Watford who like Dowie, took a perennial struggler in Watford into the premier league through the play-offs in 2005/2006. The appointment of Boothroyd in the summer of 2010 raised some eyebrows in the city, as his reputation as a long ball merchant seemed to put many fans off before a ball had been kicked. Despite these criticisms Boothroyd or Hoofroyd as he was known by many fans, took city too fifth by mid December after the clubs best start to a league campaign in 10 seasons. However during the last few games of 2010 city picked up a number of injuries and suspensions which included a bad injury to the influential skipper Sammy Clingan. Due to the good position of the club and the injuries and suspensions occurring, Boothroyd hoped that the owners would back him in the January transfer window so the club could push on and cement their place in the play-offs. Yet the owners had other ideas and not one player was bought or loaned. As a result the club fell to 19^th in the table and Boothroyd was sacked. Again a promising manager wasn’t backed by SISU and a reoccurring theme was starting to show.

After the sacking of Boothroyd, the owners looking to cut costs by not appointing a well known manager on high wages appointed the chief scout at the club Andy Thorn as manager. The appointment which had come about because of their lack of aspirations for the football club actually worked rather well, Thorn bought attractive flowing football to the Ricoh for the last 10 games of the season with the likes of Marlon King, Aron Gunnarsson and Lukas Jutkiewicz flourishing. This open passing style produced optimism for the summer transfer window and season ahead. However yet again SISU would do everything they could to destroy this optimism.

Andy Thorn

During the summer of 2011 the optimism previously mentioned slowly began to wane. With players like Marlon King, Aron Gunnarsson and Kieran Westwood being key to success of the last 10 games of the previous season, extending their contracts was the vital issue. Despite this all three players were allowed to leave on free transfers with both King and Gunnarsson citing that their reasonable wage demands were not met. SISU not seeing the promise the team had shown would rather free up wages for themselves than maintain a potentially promotion chasing team. Add to this that a promising youngster Ben Turner was allowed to join Cardiff on transfer deadline day and that the only money spent was 500k on striker Cody McDonald who was very much unproven at championship level.

Despite all this SISU had a chance to retain some dignity and respect when the chance occurred to sell the club in August 2011. The club’s former vice-chairman and lifelong city fan Gary Hoffman and a team of investors offered to buy the club from SISU for a pound, with the promise of pumping £30 million into the club. With many expecting SISU to cut their losses and sell up they defied belief and rejected the offer from Hoffman. With this SISU showed for sure that they wanted to bleed the club dry and recoup all of their investment, even though this seemed impossible with the club having hardly any assets to left to sell. The future of the club looked bleaker than ever with rumours of administration floating around once again and the direction of the club being unknown.

The Saviour? Gary Hoffman

As it stands now as I write this blog the club is adrift at the bottom of the Championship 3 points from safety and has just sold its top goal scorer Lukas Jutkiewicz to Middlesbrough and SISU seem to just be allowing the club to fall into the third tier of English football. There is a glimmer of hope as in recent months Gary Hoffman has again began talks with SISU over a potential takeover, but for many Sky Blue fans it all seems too little too late.