Friday, 24 July 2020

There's much to like the Championship

While Bournemouth fans might be hanging on in hope for a reprieve on Sunday and another season in the Premier League, I thought it might be prudent to see what life in the Championship might bring and some positives about football in the lower divisions.
A bit more of this will be okay.
The first thing I'd say is that there is more chance of success in the Championship. There are three promotion places up for grabs and the season always goes on forever, with 46 games and the play-offs to keep teams interested into May. We can balance that with the fact that three teams are relegated, but hopefully Bournemouth would be more occupied with the other end of the table.


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While the Championship will no doubt consider adding VAR, it is not there at the moment and the problems that we have had this season may well defer it for another season in the Championship. Goal line technology was introduced to the Championship since 2017-18, so we'll still get that I'd imagine. The other decisions will be left up to the referee and assistant linesman, so we will have plenty of chances to get angry at the officials again!

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There will be some reasonable local rivalries to play as well with Reading, Bristol City and Millwall on the away ground lists. We might also get some London teams staying in the division. QPR will definitely be there and Brentford and/or Fulham could be on our road maps, even if we won't be visiting Chartlon Athletic, unless it is in one of the cups.

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There is also the chance to visit old cauldron's of dislike, such a Nottingham Forest, the windy unpleasantness of the Bet365 (Britannia stadium) and lengthy trips up north to Preston and Middlesbrough. What is not to like?

We may well see many more new and young players who haven't cost the earth and it could be that we get to see more emerging talent from the academy, like Sam Surridge, Gavin Kilkenny and Nnamdi Ofoborh.

Okay, the Premier League has been an exciting home for five years and Bournemouth might not get back there if things don't work out on Sunday. But Bournemouth have created some history in the Premier League and we have enjoyed our time there I think. Wherever the team is next year, there will be plenty of football to look forward to. I have probably only scratched the surface of reasons why the Championship is a great place to play football, so by all means add your own reasons for liking it in the comments.

Previous post on Cherry Chimes - Ramsdale has been unbelievable this season

1 comment:

  1. A further merit of the Championship is that you can play more or less the same style in every game. This might give a realistic chance of developing a fully fledged style and system to cope with the Premiership. The outstanding recent example has been Wolves, who pretty much established a premiership quality team while still in the Championship - which then only needed one or two additions to compete fully at the top level. For many promoted teams the Premiership can just mean a year or two of drudgery and defending your own box - eg Huddersfield.

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