oldboy
Winger
The Premier League is dying a death because of the 40 point brigade. Even fans of teams like Southampton know they are at their limit and will struggle to break in to the top 7 so have a massive sense of 'what's the point'.
Perennial 17th place finishers hang round for years stinking the places while spending a fortune and getting further and further into debt just to tread water. It would actually be healthier for these clubs to go down sooner rather than later to regenerate and come back up.
The club who finishes 3rd in the championship is almost always good enough to go up and often walks the league the season after while the club who finished 17th in the premier league continues just to tread water. It would be better for both clubs if they had just swapped places.
Arsenal manager, Herbert Chapman, made the argument almost a century ago that you should relegate half the league. It might be a little bit of a startling statement but the more you look into it the more it makes sense. He said 'The fear of relegation, is forcing clubs to make short-sighted, rushed and often regrettable decisions.' And 'the majority of clubs, interest begins to vanish with the coming of spring. Teams have been knocked out of the FA Cup, league honours are not likely to come their way. There is not even the morbid excitement of wondering if the club will escape relegation. Most of the clubs are virtually safe. It is stalemate. Nothing to fight for, nothing to struggle against.'
it's amazing how much of this still rings true today.
Maybe relegating half the league is excessive, but traditional end of season dead rubbers are happing earlier and earlier in to the season. It's about time something was done to change this.
This would be my suggestion:
Perennial 17th place finishers hang round for years stinking the places while spending a fortune and getting further and further into debt just to tread water. It would actually be healthier for these clubs to go down sooner rather than later to regenerate and come back up.
The club who finishes 3rd in the championship is almost always good enough to go up and often walks the league the season after while the club who finished 17th in the premier league continues just to tread water. It would be better for both clubs if they had just swapped places.
Arsenal manager, Herbert Chapman, made the argument almost a century ago that you should relegate half the league. It might be a little bit of a startling statement but the more you look into it the more it makes sense. He said 'The fear of relegation, is forcing clubs to make short-sighted, rushed and often regrettable decisions.' And 'the majority of clubs, interest begins to vanish with the coming of spring. Teams have been knocked out of the FA Cup, league honours are not likely to come their way. There is not even the morbid excitement of wondering if the club will escape relegation. Most of the clubs are virtually safe. It is stalemate. Nothing to fight for, nothing to struggle against.'
it's amazing how much of this still rings true today.
Maybe relegating half the league is excessive, but traditional end of season dead rubbers are happing earlier and earlier in to the season. It's about time something was done to change this.
This would be my suggestion:
- Relegate 4. The top of the championship offers more than the bottom of the premier league. The top 3 go up automatly and 4th to 7th then go to the playoffs as normal.
- Playoffs at the bottom of the premier league. The 4 teams above the relegation zone go into a playoff meaning you'd have to finish as high as 12th to guarantee safety, meaning pretty much everybody had something to play for going into the end of the season. The loser of the playoffs would then play the loser of the playoff final in the championship, the winner would get the place in the premier league.
