
Now that the relegation battle is finally over, it makes interesting reading to work out just what it means, in financial terms of course, to the three teams that finally bit the bullet, and will now have to go into the battleground that is customary in the Championship for season 2013-14.
TO paraphrase an old Gilbert and Sullivan ditty, “a soccer manager’s lot is not a happy one”, an adage that would apply this week in many quarters in both England and Ireland.
By Striker
WITH just a couple of matches left for each team, the relegation battle in the Premiership is gradually turning into a red-hot contest, for, with Reading and QPR already condemned to the Championship, the identity of the third team to accompany them down is still right in the melting pot.
Aston Villa, just a few weeks ago, looked prime candidates for the drop, but, with some sterling displays since, have eased slightly away from the danger zone, and do look to have the capabilities for survival, as they are now on the elusive 40 points mark. Villa’s last two games are toughies, Chelsea at home, and their fellow strugglers Wigan away, and they would do well to get three points from these two games.
by Striker
Well, here we are, in the closing weeks of the Premiership season, and one could not say that the fight for the title was, from mid-season on anyway, the guts and garters effort that you would expect to get from teams when there is obviously so much at stake.
by Striker
The results of last weekend have thrown the Premiership relegation battle into a little bit more of a quandary, for, as I mentioned last week, QPR and Reading already have the going down look about them, but as to who will accompany them into the limbo of the Championship is still, to all intents and purposes, up for grabs.
The dreaded relegation magnet has, on the bare evidence of points totals and matches played, now pulled six other teams into the mix, namely, Stoke, Newcastle, Norwich, Sunderland, Wigan, and Aston Villa.
Well, wouldn’t you think that we had enough unusual characters in the top league already, especially when one looks at the weekly antics of the various managers trying to upstage each other, week in, week out, and playing the well known mind games before important matches, in an effort to psyche out their opposite numbers.
Since the Premiership looks like a done deal for the Red Devils, its only natural that the closing weeks of the season would be focussed on who is going to win the FA Cup, who will the final top four contain, and of course, who will be the the unfortunate three who will be taking the plunge into the relative oblivion of the Championship Section.
What could anyone make of Man City? One would have thought that having made the transition into what are called the “money” teams, that they would eventually go on to collecting some silverware, either in England, or indeed on the European shelf.
by Striker
As we head towards the last third of the English soccer season, one can see some signs of the extreme pressure that most teams are under, especially in the Premier League.
With some trying their utmost to survive in what they call the “money” division, and others endeavouring to win the only piece of the silverware left to them on the land of England, that of the FA Cup, which is still the oldest trophy in the wide world of soccer. more »
ONE of the real wonders of the current season is that Chelsea seem to have maintained their classy football standard, which has them steady in the top four places in the Premiership, especially when one thinks of the musical chairs that their directors have been playing with some of the top managers in the world of soccer over the years.















