One Game at a Time: Leeds, Leeds, Leeds (or Burnley)
Championship Finale: May 2nd
And so it comes to this. One final game at the exalted Championship level, and, as luck would have it, the game that we all hoped might allow for one glorious last hurrah, is, courtesy of a last-minute travesty of a goal for Luton Town, in that wonderful new creation for the benefit solely of Sky Television, the lunchtime Saturday kick off, a dead rubber. On another lunchtime kick off.
Not that Leeds will mind. They have only had nine Saturday 3PM kick offs all season. Pompous and Derby had twenty each, Preston had nineteen and we had seventeen. Burnley had twelve, so statistically those twelve thirty starts must be an advantage. That and a player budget eight to ten time ours, at least.
I get that Sky want to be at the big games with the big teams (and Watford) but look at what that does to the competition. Last weekend saw Sky with three games all featuring teams that were solidly certain of what they were playing for next season, and only one where there was an element of something big riding on the outcome. Did anyone outside of Shepherds Bush care if Quite Poor Really shipped five or fifteen goals (and it could have been either or anywhere in between) to the most boring side in the Championship. Who, on Monday night, thought let’s see what happens to the Wurzels goal difference, which but for Max O’ Leary was at the bottom of the xG range for the chances Leeds created? Please tell me that the programming choice wasn’t based on the fact you could see Burnley equal the clean sheet record.
As it was the only game that really mattered also looked to be drifting towards the nil-nil draw we all wanted, despite Coventry doing everything in their power to gift the game to Lootown. Firstly, they contrived to have a player sent off after only thirteen minutes when Jay De Silva accidentally caught Alli’s heel as he broke clear. Harsh but correct.
Frank had already gambled by continuing to select the mentally fragile Brad Collins in goal, still suffering from his porous display at Home Park. In fact, he did manage to keep out the only goal bound effort of note from Walsh. Walsh then decided to garner his third red card of the season by pushing the recalled Binks in the chest. Binks, as One-Eyed Frankie completely neglected to mention in his post-match summary, feigned being struck in the face to secure the equalisation of numbers. One-eyed Frankie was more concerned with the ”leg breaker” and “face push” from Bundu last week than the pretend face strike his own player simulated to cheat the referee into producing a red card.
Having survived the whole game with more or less with little threat, then came the moment that confirmed Argyles almost certain relegation. Brad Collins attacked the aimless ball landing on his unchallenged centre half’s forehead with all the ferocity of namesake Gemma spotting the last cream horn in the patisserie. The ball fell to newly arrived Shandon Baptiste, recently recovered from a calf strain, who prodded a hopeful shot towards the City goal. On the line Binks, still heavily concussed from being pushed in the chest managed to slowly prod the ball into his own net as his feet tangled and brought the stricken defender to the ground. Our thoughts go out to his family for a full recovery.
All of which meant that Argyle’s “must win” game became a “doesn’t really matter anymore” game, which makes the delivery of a two one away win, goals by Bundu and, finally after, two years, Callum Wright, all the more creditable. Cheered on by a raucous Green Army, and in a toxic environment as the locals turned on the Riddler and ex-putative Argyle managerial White Knight Paul Heckingbottom, Preston now have to go to play-off chasing Bristol City to make sure of survival. Sorry, not sorry. Come on down.
So, one final lunchtime of football at Championship level for now. The great irony is that of the two managerial dugouts at Home Park this weekend, it is the relegated coach who is assured of his job security, rather than the three-time Championship promotion winner Daniel Farke, as his expensively assembled squad attempt to break the hundred-point barrier and keep the newly rampant and expansive Burnley at bay.
And in this penultimate preview of the season, it is the managerial side of the Championship that catches my eye. Of 24 clubs, nine complete the season with the manager/coach they started with. The top five as you might expect, plus a mid-table cluster of Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday Watford and Portsmouth. Ten at a push if you count Marti Cifuentes who is still at QPR but on gardening leave pending what looks like an inevitable parting of the ways.
Of those nine Rohl at Wednesday is highly likely to be on his way, as has been rumoured for sometime, perhaps to former employer Southampton. Cleverley at Watford and LeBris at Sunderland are limping home with four defeats in their last four each. You have to admire Cleverley for having beaten the Pozzo managerial odds at Watford for as long as he has. Le Bris’ future, like Carricks, probably rests on whether they perform in the play-offs. Indeed Carrick, despite being the currently longest serving Championship manager, with one of the more patient Chairmen in Steve Gibson will do well to survive a failure to make the play-offs at all, let alone win them.
Wilder at the Blades has had a mixed season, with the failure to gain automatic promotion when seemingly in pole position, and a litany of disciplinary issues which have cost the club an ever-growing list of fines, potentially meaning a blow out in the play-offs could be fatal to his long-term prospects.
Farke and Parker. Sounds like a posh paint company. One will at least get eight to ten more Premier League games on his CV until Burnley start shipping goals. The other, well you do have to wonder what else he is supposed to do with his team after gaining automatic promotion, almost a hundred points ( and still might achieve that) after being shorn of his best three players from the previous campaign, but you do get the impression that Leeds and their US owners have an idea that they need “a name” rather than a German Care Bear reject. Time will tell.
It is a measure of Miron’s impact, that despite not managing to deliver an unlikely salvation, his name (well actually not his name as not one of the posters on the QPR forum touting him as a replacement for Cifuentes could remember it, it seems) and his tenure, including as it did the win over Liverpool reserves in the FA Cup and a shock lead against Citeh and Pep, has meant he has emerged as one of the go to “how about” choices as clubs cast about for their next saviour.
How long the likes of Rowett, Bloomfield, Heckingbottom, Robins and Selles are granted at their clubs will depend on how this season ends, and next season begins. Ishmael at Blackburn, whose unlikely tilt at the play-offs have staved of rumours of a quick departure, and even a shock return to the Championship coaching roster of “four’s the charm” Wazza, whose big selling point is he can do full weeks for Rovers being as it is so local.
Eustace at Derby and One-Eyed Frankie at Coventry have done enough and have overperformed to get a strong run. Aaron Ramsey will get the City gig as long as he doesn’t do himself irreparable damage in the mild breeze in Cardiff’s final fixture. Will mad Victor be prepared for the increase in the cotton wool budget for League One though?
Currently West Brom, Norwich and Swansea plus notionally QPR and realistically the Wendies are already hunting new managers. Undoubtedly some of those will poach from other clubs.
It seems to me that having regulated the availability of players through the window system, perhaps a similar process should apply to managers. My personal preference would be an in season ban on poaching managers/coaches, so who you start the season with is who you end it. I appreciate if that had been in place this season, I may not have been quite so in favour of the idea, but it always strikes me as unfair that clubs have to effectively put their coaching on a hold pattern in the middle of the season and effectively re-recruit at a disadvantageous time.
So, for this season John Eustace wouldn’t have been able to up sticks to Derby from Blackburn, Schuey would have got a full season under John Walters, and yes, we would have had Wayne till the bitter end. Swings and roundabouts I’ll admit.
You would have to have some process to cope with events like Moany Tony’s illness, not that it did him much good, getting the Baggies job in the end.
As it is we go into our final game of the season/Championship against the Champions elect, and with 23 effective sell out home crowds it shows what a transformation the club has had in recent seasons, relegation or not.
It would be “so Argyle” to record the unlikeliest of victories and go down because of those defeats under Wazza/that penalty at Boro/Callum’s disallowed goal at Luton and so on ad infinitum. It seems from the social media world that it isn’t only Popes that are infallible.
Changes will be coming for sure. Some good, some bad, some left field (although not as left field as Lineker announcing our new Head Coach we hope).
So let the only white flags be the limp ones held at half-mast in the away end.
One last hurrah. For now.
COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Championship Finale: May 2nd
And so it comes to this. One final game at the exalted Championship level, and, as luck would have it, the game that we all hoped might allow for one glorious last hurrah, is, courtesy of a last-minute travesty of a goal for Luton Town, in that wonderful new creation for the benefit solely of Sky Television, the lunchtime Saturday kick off, a dead rubber. On another lunchtime kick off.
Not that Leeds will mind. They have only had nine Saturday 3PM kick offs all season. Pompous and Derby had twenty each, Preston had nineteen and we had seventeen. Burnley had twelve, so statistically those twelve thirty starts must be an advantage. That and a player budget eight to ten time ours, at least.
I get that Sky want to be at the big games with the big teams (and Watford) but look at what that does to the competition. Last weekend saw Sky with three games all featuring teams that were solidly certain of what they were playing for next season, and only one where there was an element of something big riding on the outcome. Did anyone outside of Shepherds Bush care if Quite Poor Really shipped five or fifteen goals (and it could have been either or anywhere in between) to the most boring side in the Championship. Who, on Monday night, thought let’s see what happens to the Wurzels goal difference, which but for Max O’ Leary was at the bottom of the xG range for the chances Leeds created? Please tell me that the programming choice wasn’t based on the fact you could see Burnley equal the clean sheet record.
As it was the only game that really mattered also looked to be drifting towards the nil-nil draw we all wanted, despite Coventry doing everything in their power to gift the game to Lootown. Firstly, they contrived to have a player sent off after only thirteen minutes when Jay De Silva accidentally caught Alli’s heel as he broke clear. Harsh but correct.
Frank had already gambled by continuing to select the mentally fragile Brad Collins in goal, still suffering from his porous display at Home Park. In fact, he did manage to keep out the only goal bound effort of note from Walsh. Walsh then decided to garner his third red card of the season by pushing the recalled Binks in the chest. Binks, as One-Eyed Frankie completely neglected to mention in his post-match summary, feigned being struck in the face to secure the equalisation of numbers. One-eyed Frankie was more concerned with the ”leg breaker” and “face push” from Bundu last week than the pretend face strike his own player simulated to cheat the referee into producing a red card.
Having survived the whole game with more or less with little threat, then came the moment that confirmed Argyles almost certain relegation. Brad Collins attacked the aimless ball landing on his unchallenged centre half’s forehead with all the ferocity of namesake Gemma spotting the last cream horn in the patisserie. The ball fell to newly arrived Shandon Baptiste, recently recovered from a calf strain, who prodded a hopeful shot towards the City goal. On the line Binks, still heavily concussed from being pushed in the chest managed to slowly prod the ball into his own net as his feet tangled and brought the stricken defender to the ground. Our thoughts go out to his family for a full recovery.
All of which meant that Argyle’s “must win” game became a “doesn’t really matter anymore” game, which makes the delivery of a two one away win, goals by Bundu and, finally after, two years, Callum Wright, all the more creditable. Cheered on by a raucous Green Army, and in a toxic environment as the locals turned on the Riddler and ex-putative Argyle managerial White Knight Paul Heckingbottom, Preston now have to go to play-off chasing Bristol City to make sure of survival. Sorry, not sorry. Come on down.
So, one final lunchtime of football at Championship level for now. The great irony is that of the two managerial dugouts at Home Park this weekend, it is the relegated coach who is assured of his job security, rather than the three-time Championship promotion winner Daniel Farke, as his expensively assembled squad attempt to break the hundred-point barrier and keep the newly rampant and expansive Burnley at bay.
And in this penultimate preview of the season, it is the managerial side of the Championship that catches my eye. Of 24 clubs, nine complete the season with the manager/coach they started with. The top five as you might expect, plus a mid-table cluster of Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday Watford and Portsmouth. Ten at a push if you count Marti Cifuentes who is still at QPR but on gardening leave pending what looks like an inevitable parting of the ways.
Of those nine Rohl at Wednesday is highly likely to be on his way, as has been rumoured for sometime, perhaps to former employer Southampton. Cleverley at Watford and LeBris at Sunderland are limping home with four defeats in their last four each. You have to admire Cleverley for having beaten the Pozzo managerial odds at Watford for as long as he has. Le Bris’ future, like Carricks, probably rests on whether they perform in the play-offs. Indeed Carrick, despite being the currently longest serving Championship manager, with one of the more patient Chairmen in Steve Gibson will do well to survive a failure to make the play-offs at all, let alone win them.
Wilder at the Blades has had a mixed season, with the failure to gain automatic promotion when seemingly in pole position, and a litany of disciplinary issues which have cost the club an ever-growing list of fines, potentially meaning a blow out in the play-offs could be fatal to his long-term prospects.
Farke and Parker. Sounds like a posh paint company. One will at least get eight to ten more Premier League games on his CV until Burnley start shipping goals. The other, well you do have to wonder what else he is supposed to do with his team after gaining automatic promotion, almost a hundred points ( and still might achieve that) after being shorn of his best three players from the previous campaign, but you do get the impression that Leeds and their US owners have an idea that they need “a name” rather than a German Care Bear reject. Time will tell.
It is a measure of Miron’s impact, that despite not managing to deliver an unlikely salvation, his name (well actually not his name as not one of the posters on the QPR forum touting him as a replacement for Cifuentes could remember it, it seems) and his tenure, including as it did the win over Liverpool reserves in the FA Cup and a shock lead against Citeh and Pep, has meant he has emerged as one of the go to “how about” choices as clubs cast about for their next saviour.
How long the likes of Rowett, Bloomfield, Heckingbottom, Robins and Selles are granted at their clubs will depend on how this season ends, and next season begins. Ishmael at Blackburn, whose unlikely tilt at the play-offs have staved of rumours of a quick departure, and even a shock return to the Championship coaching roster of “four’s the charm” Wazza, whose big selling point is he can do full weeks for Rovers being as it is so local.
Eustace at Derby and One-Eyed Frankie at Coventry have done enough and have overperformed to get a strong run. Aaron Ramsey will get the City gig as long as he doesn’t do himself irreparable damage in the mild breeze in Cardiff’s final fixture. Will mad Victor be prepared for the increase in the cotton wool budget for League One though?
Currently West Brom, Norwich and Swansea plus notionally QPR and realistically the Wendies are already hunting new managers. Undoubtedly some of those will poach from other clubs.
It seems to me that having regulated the availability of players through the window system, perhaps a similar process should apply to managers. My personal preference would be an in season ban on poaching managers/coaches, so who you start the season with is who you end it. I appreciate if that had been in place this season, I may not have been quite so in favour of the idea, but it always strikes me as unfair that clubs have to effectively put their coaching on a hold pattern in the middle of the season and effectively re-recruit at a disadvantageous time.
So, for this season John Eustace wouldn’t have been able to up sticks to Derby from Blackburn, Schuey would have got a full season under John Walters, and yes, we would have had Wayne till the bitter end. Swings and roundabouts I’ll admit.
You would have to have some process to cope with events like Moany Tony’s illness, not that it did him much good, getting the Baggies job in the end.
As it is we go into our final game of the season/Championship against the Champions elect, and with 23 effective sell out home crowds it shows what a transformation the club has had in recent seasons, relegation or not.
It would be “so Argyle” to record the unlikeliest of victories and go down because of those defeats under Wazza/that penalty at Boro/Callum’s disallowed goal at Luton and so on ad infinitum. It seems from the social media world that it isn’t only Popes that are infallible.
Changes will be coming for sure. Some good, some bad, some left field (although not as left field as Lineker announcing our new Head Coach we hope).
So let the only white flags be the limp ones held at half-mast in the away end.
One last hurrah. For now.
COYG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
