Staying Up/Going Down

Last Sunday saw the culmination of the Premier League season, as well as the Football league play-offs, with only the FA Cup Final to go until football takes a break for the summer.

Well, on the pitch at least!

During my run in attending games this season, after not attending a Premier League stadium all season (at least for a league match – I did go to Villa Park for an FA Cup game!), I rounded off my run by attending two Premier League stadiums in two weeks as relegation-threatened Hull and Sunderland faced their Waterloos – and it was Hull that slipped into the Football League Championship.

Staying Up

Let’s go forward in time first and go to Sunderland. At home to a resurgent Leicester, Sunderland simply had to get something to keep their destiny in their own hands – with their last two games being at Arsenal and Chelsea, you would imagine that this game represented their best chance of a win. It was a scrappy game, a game of few chances, but after struggling to keep goals out this season, the home side did a good job this time round and managed a 0-0 draw. Would it be enough though? The following Wednesday saw that game at Arsenal, Sunderland knowing a point would seal their Premier League status – and you’d never would have guessed that they would achieve another 0-0 draw! Huge credit must go to Dick Advocaat for stopping the flow of goals – after watching a disinterested Sunderland lose 2-0 at third tier Bradford earlier in the season, I’m amazed that they managed to keep two clean sheets in a row!

Highway To Hull

So it was up to Hull and Newcastle now. A Hull win at home to Manchester United and anything but a Newcastle win, would have relegated the Geordies. As it happened, Hull couldn’t score – what transpired was a carbon copy of the game I saw against Burnley (except the away side didn’t score) – and Newcastle won. That 1-0 defeat against Burnley proved crucial – as 3 points for Hull in that game would have seen Aston Villa relegated! Just shows how tight the league was near the bottom, so you can imagine how tense the supporters felt during the game! I don’t particularly think Hull are a terrible team; they’ve been hampered by injuries, as well as questionable signings, which Steve Bruce must take the blame for. If they manage to keep the core of the squad together (I see no reason why not – what with the huge parachute payments they’ll be getting) I can see Hull challenging to return to the Premier League next season.

Playing Offside – Coming Soon!

The first draft has more-or-less been completed, right now I’m editing and hope to have the book out on time by the start of July. Along with visits to the plush Premier League stadiums, I go to, shall we say, less alluring grounds! If you haven’t already, please ‘like’ the Facebook page, as I’ll be constantly updating the page in the coming weeks, adding various pictures and videos of all my visits, as well as sneak previews and random quotes!

Doing The 92 Book – The End of the Beginning

On Saturday I completed my 16th game of the season, as Leicester got the point they needed to stay in the Premier League with a 0-0 draw at Sunderland. Each of the 16 games I’ve seen this season as part of my doing the 92 book project, have been interesting in their own way and this 0-0 draw, though few chances for either side, was still intriguing to watch – and be a part of, especially with the Sunderland supporters around me cheering when the news came through that Newcastle (their local – and relegation – rivals) were losing! As it stands, Sunderland could still go down, but it’s Hull and Newcastle who are the most likely – Hull need to win and hope that Sunderland and Newcastle lose their final games. I still think we’re in for a few twists and turns on the final day.

The Sunderland match has seen Leicester lose just once in eight games (winning six of them), which has formed the basis of their survival. It’s been a fantastic run, considering everyone (including their own supporters, probably) had them down for being in The Championship for next season. Fair play to the manager Nigel Pearson, the owners (for sticking by their manager) and the players. It’s all too easy in the big-money world of football to sack a manager and bring in a new regime if things aren’t going to plan, but the real road to success is by sticking by something, something that has worked before. Leicester could have easily brought in a foreign coach for big money and yet, that wouldn’t have been a guarantee of keeping them in the league. It’ll be interesting to see how they develop over the coming summer now – can they move to the next level and not be struggling down at the bottom again?

As for Sunderland, a club that can rely on an average supporter base of 40,000, as well as their excellent infrastructure, should be doing better than scrapping at the bottom of the league most seasons. I feel they’ve constantly ripped up their regimes when things weren’t going well and they’ve been left with a squad that has been put together by 3 managers in the last four years. Their 4th manager in that period, Dick Adovaact, isn’t guaranteed to stay either. What they need is long-term stability, someone who can put together a new squad over a couple of years and move forward from there – and even if he does stay beyond the summer, how long will 67 year-old Advocaat stay at Sunderland?

The End of the Beginning!

The 16 games I’ve seen this season will form the basis of volume one of ‘Playing Offside’ – a doing the 92 book split over a period of 5 years, which I feel will capture how quickly the changing face of football can smile and cry. I’m now off to do some editing, re-writing and other things that I’ve not even thought about yet! Hopefully the finished result will be out in July, in eBook format. You can keep up-to-date on the latest news of my doing the 92 book by visiting the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/playingoffsidebook or follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/danieljgee