English football's slippery slope
Interesting read, especially the part from Paul Dickov who helped the foxes gain automatic promotion last season:
"Every team and every fan will look for the bigger clubs when the fixtures come out," said Dickov.
"They come to enjoy a game at a big stadium with a big team and they want to make their mark. Then, when you go away from home, it's a packed house every week.
"Players raise their game against you, so it does make it harder. I think that's why some teams struggle when they get relegated because it is everybody else's cup final when they play against you.
"Footballers in the lower divisions work their socks off because they aspire to be where you have been - if you don't match the work rate, attitude and aggression, that's when you struggle."
Last season Dickov helped Nigel Pearson's Leicester side to the League One title and the striker knows what it takes to haul a big name out of a lower division.
"It will be hard for Southampton, Charlton and Norwich, but I fully expect all three of them to do well next year.
"It's a strong league, physically. We knew teams were going to start fast against us - we just wanted to start faster. It knocked the stuffing out of them a bit, because I think they expected a team who didn't like the physical side of the game.
Dickov sees parallels between the way Royle turned Manchester City's fortunes around in 1999 and the job Pearson has done since the Foxes were relegated from the Championship a year ago.
"Nigel settled everyone down," said Dickov. "You just got the feeling the club was on the right track again. In the seasons leading up to the relegation Leicester had three or four different managers - as players, if you are constantly changing managers, you can't perform to your maximum.
The Valley
"We had a good start and it was like a snowball effect. We were top of the League for most of the year, confidence was flowing and you feel like you cannot get beaten. "
The first part all sounds familiar to what Pardew was saying when we first got relegated and we all know he mucked that one up. Also interesting on how he mentions about getting a stable manager to settle everyone down...
Comments
A Nigel Pearson figure to "settle everyone down" is just what we need.
Not quite sure why they went to the Football League for a quote on the structure of football - the problem is the Premier League and clubs over-reaching to stay in it, and then finding themselves with a hell of a hangover afterwards.
If not, get them back to help..........
Definitely seems the longer you are up there, the harder it is to get back up. Birmingham and West Brom have gone up and down a few times, but neither of them were in the Prem as long as we were.
It's going to be a shock for Newcastle fans. They're going to expect to be top of the league all season. Can see them just about making the playoffs and getting up that way, a bit like West Ham. They spent a bit of money here and there like we did, but unlike us got enough of it right.
If West Brom didn't lose their manager they should have been favourites to go up, they're set up as a club to be Championship winners/Prem relegation favourites, while Newcastle and Boro were Prem midtable teams for a long time.
As for criticizing Ferguson, it's ridiculous. £80m is crazy money for any player. No transfer has come anywhere near that. Ronaldo may well have had his very best season in 07/08. He won't necessarily be one of the very best in the world in 3 or 4 years time. Look at Ronaldinho, no longer considered one of the top 3 players.