As the old season gradually completes all its remaining engagements, attention will very quickly turn to the new season. The Championship remains a tough league to get out of and next season it might just be even tougher, as Blue Review contemplates.
A gross myth will be given its annual airing again this week. That recurring myth is the 'fact' that the 'championship' play off final is the richest club game in the world - with an eye-watering £60million for the winners. It is of course utter nonsense - but when does reality ever intrude into the strange and barmy world of football?
We know it is arrant nonsense because we too have recently won the richest prize in club football - and our prize for winning such riches was to be destitute within 2 years - and ultimately to be sold down the river by a man too arrogant to resign. Sheepshanks' continued presence and brazen lack of humility probably has it roots in a much-avoided fact - for most football clubs the Premier League inevitably leads to ruin.
Yes there is plenty of Premier League money to be hoovered up - but inevitably it is all thrown away. It is the huge squads of very average players who are raking in massive salaries that are getting it all (and their agents). Yes club officials are also paying themselves deeply offensive sums of money for doing very little - but it is the players who are benefiting from the Premier League being awash with money. The clubs are almost universally going down the pan - because the money is frittered away far more quickly than it flows in.
Another myth is that there is money to be made in the Premiership. I am not sure any club makes any money in the Premiership. In an era when the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United are in debt to the tune hundreds of millions of pounds and giants like Wigan, Bolton and erm Sunderland are racking up enormous debts just to stay on the gravy train, you have to wonder what the point of it all is.
This week we are supposed to be enthusiastic about two debt-ridden, foreign-owned, foreign-managed and largely foreign-playered teams taking each other on in the Champions League Final. This absurd match is doubly ridiculous because each team is only there because if has spent hundreds of millions it effectively does not have.
One has its wealth underpinned by the rather fragile USA credit market, currently in a bit of a crisis. The other has got its money from somewhere so dubious that its owner allegedly recently sent a bullet proof car to help him cross the road from his helicopter landing pad to the Wigan ground - and wouldn't even try the local hospitality (but who can blame him for that?).
It does I suppose I have a certain curiosity value, especially if Chelsea win, so becoming Champions of Europe a week after coming second best in their own league to the team they beat in the final. But then, cup competitions are rarely won by the best teams - which is why the double held almost mythical status for most of the last century.
But mentioning the ludicrous and overblown Champions League, brings me round to the subject of this article. Because, as you know, 3 'English' clubs in the semi finals of this competition provides the proof that our league is of course the strongest league in the world. Really? By using the same myopic and misleading yardstick, I suggest that our own league, the Championship, (or as I prefer to call it, the second division), is the strongest league in the world because three of our members reached the semis of the FA Cup, which itself of course is the most wonderful cup competition in the world, the galaxy and beyond.
Now I am prepared to admit that this may well not be the case. But I tell you what it does hint at. Our division is very strong - and has great strength in depth. In fact, our division, far from being the weak division of popular folklore is probably the strongest it has ever been. You disagree? There is compelling evidence to suggest that I am right.
My first piece of evidence is the reason I so despise the Premiership - the vast and ever-increasing numbers of foreign mercenaries plying their trade here. The bar has effectively been raised. With very few clubs now buying football league players, it follows that the standard of the lower leagues must be that much higher - because the best most of the top domestic players can now aim for is a place in the Championship.
My second compelling piece of evidence is the ever-increasing tide of foreign players in the lower leagues. The vast numbers of second grade foreign players must surely be better than our own second grade players. After all, they can allegedly control a football and use their left feet.
My third piece of compelling evidence is that Premiership managers rarely, if ever, buy league players. The best a decent, emerging Championship player can aspire to used to be Charlton or Boro - now it is Boro and Wigan. Staying put is almost certainly a better option (apart from the money). So it follows that there must now be more decent players in the second tier of English football than at any previous time in history.
My fourth piece of evidence is that we find it so hard to get promoted. It used to be possible for Town to get relegated with a hopeless team, take on the likes of McGarry or Lyall and pop back up as unlikely champions within two years. That is now a pipe dream. It now takes us at least five years - and then only through the back door of the play offs.
Far from making it easier of get promoted - the play offs have proved to be a great leveller. Any team in mid-table towards the end of the season is in with a chance of making the play offs. Which effectively makes promotion a lottery rather than a rite of passage through merit.
My fifth and final piece of evidence is that we can't use the myth of money (or lack of it). Leicester had money and went down. We got money and went backwards. With the current squad now destabilised by important departures and mass redundancies (for which transfer-listing is a euphemism), our current situation is looking a little tenuous to say the least.
We are effectively short of a club captain and inspirational central defender, goalkeeper, left back - and a striker of presence who can stay fit and/or motivated throughout a season of what passes for man management in the surreal world of Jim Magilton. That is, I put it to you, a big ask.
By contrast, the world's richest game in club football next weekend will be contended by two teams who have built their teams slowly - with little need for deep pockets. The fact that they have recently been acquainted with the lower leagues is also interesting. It suggests that relegation is not the disaster it is supposed to be. And in due course, a bit of upward momentum can be quite useful.
One of the great untruths of this division is the 'yo-yo effect' of going up, coming down with parachute money - and popping back up with the benefit of all that money. That's a view that doesn't really hold water. Clubs in this division throw money away, as though it is contaminated too. So if you look at the basement you will see would-be yo yo teams such as Leicester, Coventry and Southampton vying to get relegated. - whilst coming up in the opposite direction are upwardly-mobile teams such as Plymouth, Hull and Bristol City. Soon to be joined by Swansea - and perhaps even dirty Leeds.
All things considered, next season's Division Two looks to be awash with capable teams. It appears to be a poor time to lose your captain and half your team. Given Jim Magilton's recent efforts in the transfer market, there would appear to be few grounds for optimism.
Who knows what Derby, Brum and Reading will add to the mix. With just a modicum of stability, Birmingham and Reading should be pretty resilient in this league. And Derby might surprise a few people if Paul Jewell still has what it takes. Any one of ten teams could get promoted next year. I'd say that is a healthy sign of strength - not weakness.
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