Tickle Tackle - The Promised Land?
Tuesday, 6th May 2008 00:00 by Steve Tickle

As the Rams' sojourn in the Premier League comes to an end, is it really all it's made out to be?

The Rams' excursion to the Premier League was brief and painful. In hindsight, we were never properly prepared for the task and having come from the brink of extinction to those heady heights in less than two years, it was always likely we'd be overcome by altitude sickness. Too many times it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

It used to be said that the Premier League was split into three parts, I think the proportions of those parts have changed in recent years. There are still the “Big Four” of course and then there's maybe another four and at most six clubs who have reason to believe they can qualify for Europe. The remaining clubs, whether they like it or not are all likely to worry the relegation places at some time during the season.

After Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool all making it to the Champions League semi-finals I heard some Radio Five Live sycophant extolling the suggestion that the Premier League must now be undoubtedly the best league in the world. Hmmm... I'm not sure that the best league in the world would be one where not only could you accurately predict the top four clubs before a ball was kicked most seasons but could in all likelihood, predict their finishing order too.

The gap between top and bottom is getting ever wider in financial terms and hence also in footballing terms. Many of the rules (the transfer window for instance) do nothing to help the smaller clubs bridge the gap and there's a tendency for less favoured clubs to overstretch themselves. Personally, I also think the play-off system contributes to the problem and serious thought should be given to restructuring it (or preferably scrapping it altogether). I don't see the latter happening any time soon though.

Clubs also have an increasing tendency to run themselves like corporations rather than as focal points of the local community as they once were. Prices are going up and fans feel less involved with their clubs as they become merely customers.

To cap all that – and thanks to the “efforts” of some (too many) of our players, the Rams have plumbed new depths of ineptitude this season. If having to suffer all those defeats and incompetent performances wasn't enough, we've managed to coin a new footballing phrase as promotion winning managers and players stress their clubs won't “do a Derby” next season.

The problem is, I fear that before too many seasons have gone past, someone will do just that. After all, it's only taken us a couple of years to take over Sunderland's unwanted mantle of Worst Premier League Club Ever. As I've said above, we didn't help ourselves any plus there were some mitigating factors but I do worry that before too long, some other unsuspecting club will enter battle all wide-eyed and innocent and end up humiliated.

You only have to look at the top of the Championship. There's a real possibility that two of the three promoted clubs will be Premier League “virgins”. On the one hand, you could argue that's good for football – and you'd be right. The problem is all the odds are stacked against them. They're going to look at what we did wrong and try not to repeat it but it's going to be very difficult for them and I genuinely think it would be bad for football of one (or more) of them did “do a Derby”.

They're not flush with money and as we know all too well, there's a big difference between Premier League and Championship class players. All the old clichés apply but whereas Jim Smith worked wonders when he took us up back in the 90s, the Premier League has changed greatly since and it would be a real achievement to replicate that now.

Having said all that, I'm now going to contradict myself somewhat by saying that only the top four or five Premier League clubs play the real quality football. The rest of the division is very much of a muchness but the big difference between the Premier League and Championship is that every Premier League club has at least one player who can turn a game (we have several but unfortunately for us, all too often they turned it in the opposition's favour).

But to be serious again, is it good for the game that most clubs are slowly but surely being left behind as the money gravitates towards the big clubs?

The Championship is in my opinion, a league where all the clubs are generally of similarly poor quality. It doesn't always make for the most highly skilled football but it is an open league which is high on entertainment value. Any club which gets its act together for one good season can find itself playing in the Premier League the following season – and that's what happened to Derby really.

I sometimes think it must be wonderful to be a Wolves fan – eternally damned to finish seventh or lose in the play-offs. They get to see competitive football every season with the real hope that they might be promoted at the end of it, only to be thwarted at the last hurdle – and then the cycle begins again.

In purely footballing terms we did get promoted too soon. In financial terms, it was a Godsend (even though it appears Billy Davies managed to fritter away the first year's parachute payments almost before a ball was kicked). At least we've now had plenty of time to lick our wounds, reflect on what went wrong (lots to go on there) and put together a proper, workable plan for next season.

Like it or not, the Premier League is still where everyone wants to be, Promised Land or not.

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