There’s never been a better time to be relegated.. it’s far from the disaster being claimed
THERE hasn’t been a lot to laugh about over the past couple of months.
But it’s hard not to raise a smile at the way some people are spouting off over Project Restart.
Or, as us non-hipster, non-beard sporting old schoolers call it, how to finish the Premier League season.
Barely a day goes by without Brighton chief Paul Barber finding a reason to object to the latest suggestions as to how it should be done.
Health and safety, neutral venues, maths — he’s against the lot. Unless, of course, there is no relegation, in which case it’s “any time and anywhere”. Funny that.
He’s fast turning into one Barber you wouldn’t mind staying closed for another 180 days.
Christian Purslow is another who’s been speaking his mind, claiming a Championship return would be a £200million catastrophe for Aston Villa.
It might be true if they stay there and don’t come back, what with chunks of last summer’s £100m-spend still to pay.
And of course, no one wants to drop into the Championship. No one wants to be staring at trips to Birmingham and Reading instead of Old Trafford and Anfield.
But a disaster? A catastrophe? The end of the world?
For the teams that DO go down this year, I’d argue there has never been a better time to be relegated.
Far from it being a crash landing, it will be comfiest ever for those who slip out of the Premier League. It could very well prove to be a long-term blessing.
Before all those fans whose teams are in danger spit the dummy, let me explain.
Let’s just take Norwich as an example. It is a marvellously well run club that does things the right way. Everyone has a soft spot for them — much like they did for Brighton, before Barber’s talkathon.
If Norwich went down, yes, the income would drop but that would be offset by their £100m parachute payment.
And they’d be dropping to a division full of clubs in genuine crisis. Ones making massive cuts to survive. To a large extent you could cherry-pick their top players.
From Norwich’s side — all three clubs who go down, in fact — you could get rid of the higher earners. There will be those on contracts which automatically reduce in a lower division and ones with deals that are renegotiated.
You would be in the strongest of positions to rebuild, strengthen and come back far stronger, with far more chance of it being a permanent stay.
When West Brom went down two seasons ago their income, from TV money and finishing position, admittedly dipped from £102m to £58m.
But against that their wage bill halved and they returned better figures the season after.
Yes, I know they didn’t bounce straight back but losing in the play-offs on penalties meant they went as close as possible without doing so — and all in “normal” times.
This season the relegated clubs would be better placed to build for the long term, to not come back to another survival scrap but maybe get a genuine foothold.
For the ones who survive by the skin of their teeth, the odds are they’d have a similar battle next year. Brighton and Bournemouth were in danger last time and it’s not changed this.
There’s every chance we’re looking at death by a thousand cuts for one or both of them. Of course if they play the season out and survive then fine.
Well done, hopefully they can move on and it will be a different story in a year.
But don’t start with the ‘poor me’ stories about how playing at neutral venues is unfair. Of course it’s not ideal, any more than playing behind closed doors.
The whole world isn’t ideal at the moment. Concessions and compromises have to be made.
Yes, playing at home is an advantage although the half-a-point-a-game argument from Brighton technical director Dan Ashworth is in a normal situation.
A situation where fans can inspire their side, intimidate another and maybe even get inside the referee’s head.
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In an empty stadium? It’s very hard to see how you’d get the same statistics, even if that ground is your own.
So Brighton, Villa and anyone else railing at the suggestions as to how we finish the season, I say suck it up and get on with it.
And if the worst happens and you do go down, well maybe it won’t be the end of the world after all. More the beginning of a brave new one.