The Premier League looks more and more like first and second class train-seating. As of this morning the top 9 teams, from 31 points upwards, are permanent residents (Burnley excluded). The remaining eleven teams, from 28 points down to 20 are any previous decade's Championship. Watford, Stoke, Palace, Brighton, Huddersfield etc are all much of a piece with us in terms of long-term size and draw. Three will come down. But they'll come down weighted with moneybags which, with a comparatively small outlay, and decent management, will send them into the Championship top echelon. A cursory glance at our own league shows Wolves, Cardiff, Derby, Fulham - interchangeable in size and potential with those 11 teams from the bottom of the Premier. Yet even to get aboard that train now requires a ticket, the price of which has risen beyond our dreaming. What a state things have come down to when, if a prominent backer turned up, we could aspire to be Watford, or Brighton, or Stoke...... ! | |