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My advice to Delia, Milan, Marcus and Co? Just don’t look now…

23rd April 2008 By Rick Waghorn Leave a Comment

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For the little that it's worth in the pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game that is Championship football, I'd put my money on Southampton's wretched goal difference being the thing that drags them to the bottom over the course of the next ten days.

And before we will all launch our own bitter-stroke-relieved post-mortems in a fortnight's time, you can – even from this distance – start to pen the words of Southampton's if events follow a certain course.

Go into this season almost without a recognised centre-back after last season's Player of the Year and skipper Chris Baird skips to Fulham in the summer never to be replaced – or rather to be replaced by a succession of on-loan, 30-somethings from the Premiership and the latest, down-beat medical bulletins re Claus Lundekvam – and you are always playing with fire.

Start flogging the rest of the family silver in the last 36-hours of the transfer window – or rather those players that at the other end of the team had papered over the cracks (see above) evident at the other – and much like Norwich in 1995, all those chickens will eventually come home to roost.

And when even the fixture computer refuses to play ball and instead hands you a ticket to West Bromwich Albion's promotion party on Monday night, your heart sinks ever further into the mire.

That is not, of course, to say that Norwich are out of the woods. Far from it. For a club that can make a towering mountain out of the tiniest mole-hill, this weekend's home 'banker' against Queen's Park Rangers has every capacity to fall as flat as Southampton's 1-0 home defeat by Burnley last weekend.

But with momentum being absolutely everything at this time of year, the fact that the Canaries ought to be able to go into this weekend's fixture with a half-decent performance agsinst the Baggies ought to count for something; as you suspect will the return of both Darel Russell and Dion Dublin to Glenn Roeder's starting plans.

Somewhere deep in that Colney boot-room there may have been some very dark and difficult calculations being made; whether – in the grander scheme of things – you might not be better off taking your chance against the Baggies with the likes of Gibbs to the left and Pattison in the middle as opposed to courting an injury disaster to either a Dublin or a Russell in a game you were always – or at least, in every likelihood – going to struggle to win.

Given that you could kill two birds with one stone and point to Gibbs' name on the team-sheet the next time Arsene Wenger phoned and, at the same time, wrap Russell in cotton wool for a week might have tipped the selection process the Gibbs-Pattison way. Or maybe it was even simpler – against the team that 'plays' some of the best football in this division, get your best 'players' out there and on the ball…

Perhaps. But there is still a clear logic to having both Russell and Dublin fit and fresh for this weekend.

But as you look around at on-going events at both the top and the bottom of the table, what is fascinating is the number of big spenders for whom this season will prove a disaster.

Southampton's big spending ways happened a few years ago; they are the poor church mice in this discussion – hence George Burley's inability to ever replace like-for-like and hence George Burley's decision to answer his country's call.

Others, however, still cling to this notion that money can but you everything in this world – certainly a ticket to the Premiership.

Milan Mandaric's millions – or relative millions – have done little to spare Leicester City an almighty fight against the drop. The Foxes are still proud owners of the biggest short straw when it comes to the final Sunday of the season – away to Stoke City and all with Tony Pulis having one eye on a promotion prize… nightmare.

I doubt Delia Smith returned to our TV screens simply to fund a League One promotion campaign next season – all after funding a season ticket rebate.

Blackpool are the one's that threw a spanner into the Championship's 'established order' – they shouldn't be where they are would be Mandaric's thinking, even if the Seasiders have a little work to do. Coventry now have Ray Ransom's 'millions' at their disposal; that may yet have to wait till the summer. Again after finally having found a club that would welcome him through the door, he's not in it for a League One promotion campaign.

Cast your eyes higher for a moment and that's where the big rollers are really starting to twitch. Charlton might not have any one individual benefactor with the used readies to hand, but boy did they not bank on being back doing the Championship rounds again next season.

And then there's the gaggle of play-off clubs – Ipswich included. How much Marcus Evans has actually pumped into the Suffolk club is anyone's guess, but again in his ideal world it would have been just enough to nick a ticket to the top flight and not necessarily too much more.

Simon Jordan's outlay these days runs into millions and millions at Palace; Peter Coates has slapped some of the family silver on Shola Ameobi at Stoke; Kevin McCabe at Sheffield United is desperate for a re-match with West Ham United and has James Beattie to prove it whilst one-time Liverpool takeover hopeful Steve Morgan is now following in Sir Jack Hayward's shoes at Molineux – particularly if they choke again in the play-offs.

Someone, somewhere is going to be disappointed – after all the Baggies are all set to hoover up one of the automatic places.

The point? That, in football, absolutely nothing is guaranteed. Other, I suspect, that it will kick you hard where it hurts. Time and time again. And nor will you ever get much by way of thanks from the supporters. You make promises, you better deliver… raise expectations and, woe betide anyone who doesn't then meet those expectations… you're playing with people's emotions here…

But above all, it comes down to flesh and blood – and the human weaknesses and frailties therein. That and management.

Look at all the above and all, in their various ways, have entrusted their faith and their millions into a human vessel. Jordan into Dowie, McCabe into Robson, Mandaric into Allen, Megson and Holloway, the Smiths into Grant… the list goes on and on.

And that's where title races and relegation battles are going to be won or lost over the next ten days – in the individuals at the helm. All the rest of us can ever do – and that includes everyone with their hands thrust so deeply in their pockets – is sit there, watch and pray.


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Filed Under: Column, Rick Waghorn

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j2arlow Jez @j2arlow ·
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Look, I’m listening to the excellent OnTheBall podcast by @michaeljbailey and I cannot understand why their is a narrative of blame towards us fans.

We pay a lot of money and have every right to have a go at these players. Give us some passion, fight, belief that’s it #ncfc

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tommykerrison Thomas @tommykerrison ·
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Wasn’t strange tbf why u left but if it’s that bad spill now not in 10-15years time when you retire #ncfc

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