Dr.Leeds wrote:
Just to address this part of your post alone Mike, two questions:
1) Of the three teams relegated from the Premiership last season and receiving parachute payments this season how many of them won a match against newly promoted shoestring funded Leeds United this season?
2) Of the three teams relegated from the Premiership last season and receiving parachute payments this season how many of them finished higher in the league than newly promoted shoestring funded Leeds United this season?
The three teams who came down - Portsmouth, Burnley and Hull - are, in two cases, very different from the three teams who are likely to come down next year. With the exception of Burnley, who are for the record a well run club, the other two have been through financial hardship. They had similar seasons to our own first season in the championship back in 2005-6. That being a season where they needed to cut costs dramatically, rebuild their team, and make sure they had a good solid season back in the championship. I'll give you that none of them beat us, and we beat Burnley home and away. It is a great record and achievement beating and drawing with the teams who came down, however, it didn't help us seal a play off place, did it?
No, it didn't. They were good results, but we ultimately dropped points against other teams and we failed in our bid to gain back to back promotions. Granted we never expected it, but we missed out nonetheless. That was one of my points in my post. That despite our aim of having a good solid season, we got ourselves in contention and failed to capitalise. Next year we won't have the element of surprise. Teams will know how we play, will know our weaknesses, and we will have to be even better next year. Think of it as second season syndrome: in your first year you surprise everyone and get results no one expected, but in your second year it isn't that easy. Now I believe that we should be right back up their next season if we invest in the right players in the summer, however, I will stand by my view point that it will be more difficult than this year due to not only the teams who are coming down, but the teams who will miss out this year. Next year will be about money, something we don't have. So we will have to do what Norwich have done this year, and what Blackpool did last year; achieve promotion based on team spirit, and having good players committed to the cause.
But not to dwell on this topic too much, since the only team that matters is Leeds. The three teams who are set right now to come down are very different from last years bottom three. West Ham, Wolves and Wigan all have owners who will back their managers with significant funds. They want a player for 2 or 3 million, they'll get them. Sure, they'll lose players when they come down, but they'll be able to replace them without any worries whatsoever. Now for Portsmouth they couldn't bring anyone in for absolutely ages; for Hull they had to replace half their squad, and granted underachieved; and Burnley had an inept manager in Brian Laws who wasted their transfer money, and if they had a good manager in charge, they'd have gone up or at least been challenging.
Anyway, hopefully we will finish above all three teams who come down, and achieve promotion next season. But, it is going to be very tough to do that with the amount of money that will be floating around in the summer.
