The Football Championship - England

ALBICELESTE2010

ALBICELESTE2010

Champions League
13 July 2006
Watford
Argentina & Watford
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Seeing as this division is the fifth biggest league in Europe so to speak in terms of attendance and many clubs have budgets bigger than many clubs in the top divisions of other countries, not to mention a fair few fans of Championship clubs on the site , why not open a thread on it ?

You can get all the latest news,fixtures and updates from this site:
http://www.football-league.co.uk/page/ChampionshipHome

As many EPL teams are taken over by foreign owners the trend seems to be for foreign investors to buy clubs in the next division down.

Cardiff are already backed controversially with regards to it's decisions in changing the home strip and crest for example by Malaysians.

Leeds United are in the process of talks with new investors , relegated Blackburn are run comically some would say by the Indian Venky group.

As a Watford fan I'm glad to say that investors with a sound pedigree in football ownership and responsible financial management as they have shown at Udinese Calcio and Granada CF are extremely close to completing the terms of takeover at Watford.

As with the Premier League more and more foreigners have entered the playing staff of clubs in the division, which perhaps is not necessarily a good thing in the long run.

Loanees from the Premier League also constitute an important part of many clubs squads and players like Tom Cleverley and others have spent valuable time gaining competitive football experience.

Hull are trying at the moment to sign Will Keane for instance from Manchester United on loan.

Vicente Rodriguez ex of Valencia and Spain has signed on for another season with Brighton.

And at the end of a long season lies the huge draw of the EPL and the finances it offers. One reason why investors are being attracted to the Championship. Although it can be a poisoned chalice.

Many clubs that have overreached themselves in trying to stay within the EPL, have succumbed to spiralling wages and slid down beneath the Championship.

Plenty of well known clubs with great histories are all trying to make it into the elite of the English game from three times national champions Huddersfield Town to Nottingham Forest tryig to recapture former glories.

Money including large parachute payments for clubs relegated from the EPL and history however are no guarantee of sucess as Leicester City have found out.

This is one of the tightest, most competitive divisions in world football. And to get out of it requires some steel but as Swansea have shown, one can get promotion through silky passing football.

And the season ahead is likely to be no exception. One cloud of worry remains the controversial EPL plans to systematically pinch young players from other clubs academies.

Crystal Palace, Watford and Ipswich for example unless they get grade 1 status will be under threat of being ripped off and all three have had experience of that in the past.

As the season builds up post your hopes, analysis , signings in this thread.
 
the championship always has drama. its gonna be really tight this season i reckon. i think about 2/3 of the teams have played in the premier league before.

i hope blackpool do well and i hope the sheed get relegated lol, still a long way to start of the season but i think blackburn will struggle to stay up cos they're a mess.
 
Nice to have a thread on this league! Good idea.

I wonder if Ian Holloway will leave Blackpool. He's a loyal man but doesn't strike me as the most ambitious
 
derby v scunthorpe was mental in the capital 1 cup, 5-5 with 2 goals from scunthorpe in stoppage time and then they win penalties :OH: but i hate that the league cup is seeded and we always get championship teams in the 1st round, make this shit random ffs.

anyway im predicting middlesbrough, bolton and charlton to go up this season into prem league. but championship so close these 3 teams could also get relegated hahaha and watford should be strong with granada and udinese players on loan

and wtf is the blackburn advisor doing talking shit about his own players lol..
 
Hope Leeds, Forest and Sheffield Wednesday get promoted and then are followed in the near future by Sheffield United and Derby County. It'd be good to have these biggish clubs back in the topflight.

Birmingham can come up as well for another derby. Cardiff City vs Swansea would be interesting as well
 
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As expected the sides that came down and came up have found the Championship to be what they might have expected.

No club it would appear parachute payments or not an automatic certainity for promotion.

The relegated clubs could only muster one solitary point between them and that was Blackburn at Ipswich. This despite the enormous troubles behind the scenes.

The owners who hardly uttered a word last season have already seemingly opened their mouths too wide leaving players and the manager upset in addition to their own supporters.

Wolverhampton had their chances but succumbed to a fine diving Becchio goal and in the Lancashire hotpot (where former Burnley manager Owen Coyle received a pretty warm and unfavourable reception ) the Clarets triumphed 2-0.

Had it not been for the heroics of Hungarian number one Bogdan the score might well have been higher.

Of the promoted sides Sheffield Wednesday fought back from 2-0 down to leave Nigel Clough unhappy once more and secure a draw. Charlton were denied only by a late Nikola Zigic effort and Huddersfield can count themselves unlucky to have come across a keeper Andy Marshall in exceptional form as they went down 1-0 at Cardiff in the opening game of the Championship on Friday.

It was a mixed bag for the other promotion favourites. Leicester and Blackpool secured wins while Middlesborough lost to relegation favourites Barnsley. Perhaps they might have done better to look at Keith Hill's shrewd reinforcement of the Tykes squad.

As for my club we came back to beat Crystal Palace 3-2. Zola has instilled a wonderful passing system of play which dominated posession. And it was nice to see the 2 loanees score on their debuts Abdi and Vydra who looked a class above.

With others to come in and not yet fit it bodes well for the season ahead. As for Crystal Palace denuded of Klyne, Scanell , Zaha looked their key man.

If he leaves then they will be facing an uphill struggle. That said it's only week one and this division is as topsy turvy as they come.

The second round of games are on Tuesday.
 
Can't believe what I seen tonight in the Sheffield Wednesday v Leeds match.

Leeds scored an equaliser, then one of their "fans" runs onto the pitch and attacks Chris Kirkland (Wednesday's goalie). Live on TV, what a fucking prick!
 
jackarmy said:
Can't believe what I seen tonight in the Sheffield Wednesday v Leeds match.

Leeds scored an equaliser, then one of their "fans" runs onto the pitch and attacks Chris Kirkland (Wednesday's goalie). Live on TV, what a fucking prick!
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Initially it looked a bit like a light slap, but in the replay the fan kind of snaps Kirkland's neck backwards. Surely GBH.
 
yep, a double punch to the mug ouch!

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So the Championship as it approaches the busy Christmas period is ture to it's nature with bottom club Peterborough beating Cardiff last week.

The surprise packages this season have been Crystal Palace and Millwall while Tony Mowbray has fashioned a competitive side in Middlesborough.

Clubs like Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday though face a long hard winter.

Should be some interesting additions over the transfer window. Players like Stewart Downing being linked to Middlesborough and former Italian international Iacquinta being linked to Watford.
 
Aboutreika18 said:
Fucking dirty Leeds.
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Wasn't i supposed to be the one who hates clubs ?
Somebody i know went with Anderlecht to Milan. Some "fans" cut his ears off (well they tried and succeeded with one ear). Do you think he claims Milan is "fuckin dirty" ? No he doesn't.

Your mask is falling off.
 
:YAWN: Do you ever tire of being such a dullard, gerd?

I haven't had to put anyone on ignore before but I might make an exception for your consistent swipes at me, which would be a shame because in general, I enjoy reading your thoughtful, intelligent posts.

"Dirty Leeds" has historical significance, look it up. You might learn something for once from atop your moral high horse.
 
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Well i have the same feeling about you, but it's not my intention to single you out: i apologize, i made a mistake and i will make a special effort to treat you like other people. Life is too short to have internet feuds. I'm sorry.

Dirty Leeds: i know their reputation and i don't agree with it. I'm old enough to have seen them and i'm well aware that Norman Hunter and Billy Bremner were tough guys. But they aslo had fantastic players like Eddy Gray, Johnny Giles, Peter Lorimer and others. On top of that, it was a team that lacked luck in crucial moments (they lost a EC1 final against Bayern Munchen after a referee did very strange things and i'm somebody who usually defends referees). But that is not important.

The first part is...
 
cardiff made 11 changes and got beat by macclesfield town in FA cup:BLUSH: and wolves got beat by luton, 2 championship teams losing to conference teams, this why erryone love fa cup though.
 
And Nottingham Forest got beaten by Oldham Athletic! Not Conference, but still, losing 1-3 against a League 1 team isn't a result McLeish will be happy with after losing to 3-0 against Blackburn Rovers last weekend.
 
i always loved Leeds , I wish they can be back on EPL .... damn this team was my favorite .... I loved them almost as much as Liverpool .... what a shame they went out of EPL :/
 
Alec McLeish has left Nottingham Forest after 40 days and 7 matches in charge. When they appointed him they were 1 point behind the playoffs, now they are 5 points off it, but it still seems like a crazy decision.
 
blackburn sacked too many managers and now they could be relegated again and the shitheads already down:BYE:

at the top caaeaeaerdydwdwdwydw city dragons malaysia franchise red bluebirds FC just need about 3 more wins to finally be promoted.
 
As a Blackburn fan, the only glimmer of hope for me at the moment is our game in hand.

Even so, I doubt we'll win it. No win in ten is abysmal. On paper we have a squad that has the ability to kick around the play off places.
 
Congrats Cardiff City!

Two Welsh teams in EPL next year! I for one am very excited about that and see it as one more thing that makes the league more interesting.
 
Dazzlà said:
the shit are down:APPLAUD:
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Long time coming, every season they fall to the lower parts of the table and rely on their late season form to save them, frankly I'm glad they're down.. its a well needed reality check and perhaps a chance to rebuild and regroup. Last time they got promoted they reached the play off finals, a repeat would be welcome!
 
At the moment it looks like it's gonna be Hull snatching promotion, and they look rather dangerous in their match - they just need to get the first goal.

And well, that game is breath-taking in my humble opinion, the atmosphere at the KC Stadium is amazing - the supporters (who are wearing their last Premier League kits btw :D ) are pretty loud!

Though Hull seem to be very very nervous, and with Simpson out of the picture, they need to find someone who'll put the goddamn ball in the back of the net! :D (come on Brady!)

EDIT: Oops, Cardiff scores, but what about that, it's the other ex-United player that scores! :D

EDIT 2: WHOA, how about a little ironic GERMAN goal?! :D

3: Holy crap that's one hell of a game! Great play by Hull, looks like I was right about them being the more dangerous team! Come on Hull!
 
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