Mark Lawrenson Says The Championship 'Is The worst In Living Memory'

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

(from today's Mirror - comment also applies to League One surely? )

Mind the gap
Forget about Cup results, the Championship is the worst in living memory
Lawro 8/03/2008

If You take a casual look at the FA Cup quarter-final line-up then you could be thinking there was a shift in power away from the Premier League.

There are three clubs from the Championship - Barnsley, Cardiff and West Brom - and Bristol Rovers are flying the flag for League One.

Well, don't get too carried away because this is without doubt the worst Championship that I can ever remember.

The gap is even wider than ever between the Championship and Premier League.

There are three separate divisions in the Premier League - with the top four, the next group pushing for a UEFA Cup place and then the rest fighting for survival.

But with the Championship, there is just one league because it is so mundane and average.

You only have to look at the leadership in the Championship and the fact that no-one is capable of staying top to realise that teams do not have quality or consistency.

Stoke, Bristol City and Watford have all gone top in recent weeks - only to lose their nerve and slip up against clubs way down the table.

Even the preseason favourites, West Brom, do not seem to have any consistency even though their home form may see them clinch automatic promotion.

...

I can't think of a single player to excite you. The keeper at Wolves, Wayne Hennessey, looks a good prospect, but apart from that there's no one else.

Tony Pulis has done a great job at Stoke to get an incredibly average side to the top of the table. The same goes for Gary Johnson, who has worked wonders at Bristol City. Johnson has done an amazing job wherever he has been - Cambridge, Latvia and Bristol City.

Charlton under Alan Pardew were expected to bounce straight back but have stuttered and struggled.

But these guys are doing great jobs despite their limited resources. It's not a reflection on them, but a reflection of the complete lack of quality outside of the Premier League.

Championship matches have been poor. I went and saw my club Preston beat Stoke a couple of weeks ago and it was an awful game.

Stoke are direct, hard-working and tough. They could have scored four but ended up losing 2-0 to a club who are fighting for survival.

Mind you, even Preston could have beaten Olympiacos by the way they played at Chelsea in midweek. And the FA Cup will probably even out this weekend as it is hard to see many shocks.

The Championship is just an amazingly poor league. Teams are average, the standard is getting worse and that is being proved by the lower clubs beating the top clubs with alarming regularity.

But most overwhelmingly, the football is so mundane and so poor. Whoever goes down from the Premier League this season will be favourites to go back up.

And whoever survives this season will be confident that they will stay up the following season because of the poor quality of teams who will come up.

That is a damning indictment of the Championship - and if the league below the Premier League is going down in quality, then the Premier League will inevitably deteriorate in quality, too.

 

[7:18]

its called parity, and I think thats what everyone wants, a competative league and not a landslide (big 4)?

 

[Ernest]

It's a shame the Premiership isn't as competitive with any team capable of beating any team.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Surely a non-definitive result before the season has started should make the competition more exciting? I am surprised he is even giving the Championship the time of day.

If anything has ruined football, it is money and the clubs at the upper end of the Premiership, including his beloved Liverpool.

Money has inflated ticket prices and has deflated stadium atmospheres and created players that are playing for cash and not for the love of the game or pride.

 

[NMH]

It will get worse before it'll get better. The Prem is swollen with fer'ners, and their reserves have basically taken away a division's-worth of decent players who otherwise might've competed in the '2nd division' (now the Championship).

England will only get worse as an national side, and the Prem has now become 'a league unto itself' as an international show of players.

 

[Munkfish]

o dear that awful championship team barnsley beating one of the top 4. im sorry but Mark Lawrenson = wanker

 

[jevs]

Lawrenson is the biggest f***ing wankstain on this planet

 

[vincey]

And the FA Cup will probably even out this weekend as it is hard to see many shocks.

Humble Pie, anyone?

 

[Tooting Gull]

I agree with him completely. There are no outstanding teams, and hardly any outstanding players. West Brom should be streaking away with it, but they've been abysmal for weeks.

One or two cup shocks don't eradicate the evidence of your own eyes over a whole season.

It does seem, such is the huge premium on Premier League wages, that there are plenty of players who would rather be a reserve for Aston Villa than a star with Norwich, hence the dearth of quality.

The good news, of course, is that we can sneak into it we'd at least have a chance of staying in it.

 

[dougdeep]

The quality of football has deteriorated across all divisions in the last few years. IMHO.

 

[bigc]

I agree with him completely. There are no outstanding teams, and hardly any outstanding players. West Brom should be streaking away with it, but they've been abysmal for weeks.

One or two cup shocks don't eradicate the evidence of your own eyes over a whole season.

It does seem, such is the huge premium on Premier League wages, that there are plenty of players who would rather be a reserve for Aston Villa than a star with Norwich, hence the dearth of quality.

The good news, of course, is that we can sneak into it we'd at least have a chance of staying in it.

Do you think the Championship of 2002/03 that we were relegated in, was better than 2004/05, and 2005/06?

I seem to remember it being stronger, but that may have just been cos it was our first time there for years.

 

[RexCathedra]

...there are plenty of players who would rather be a reserve for Aston Villa than a star with Norwich, hence the dearth of quality.

An argument for a salary cap? It might drive some talent off Premiership benches and out of reserves and back into general circulation. As it is, teams like Chelsea buy and stack strikers the way Mainers buy and stack firewood for the winter.

 

[cjd]

Tend to agree with Lawrenson about the Championship. It,s one of the reasons that I feel angry about the board not supporting Brighton properly in the three seasons we had in that division. It really wouldn,t have taken much to keep us there.

 

[che]

I agree with Mark Lawrenson .It becomes worse and worse.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

He has a point about the quality not being great, but this does make it more interesting than having a brilliant team that runs away with it?

 

[Tooting Gull]

He has a point about the quality not being great, but this does make it more interesting than having a brilliant team that runs away with it?

That's certainly true. I think the real issue is there is now a massive disincentive to get promotion from the Championship that counter-balances and maybe even exceeds the obvious incentives and benefits of playing at the top level.

You're way off the pace, no good players will sign for you, your wage structure gets blown, you come straight back down again, and anyone you did have that was half-decent leaves, while the rest of them have been losing for nine months, and are in no state to bounce straight back up. This applies especially to the play-off winners, who have nearly a month less to sign people.

 

[Kent Seagull]

Of course teams like Barnsley don't stand a hope in hell against the likes of Chelsea do they.

I can't see why anyone thinks the Prem is anything special. Before it starts we all know that one of four teams will win it. It's so boring and predictable. At least with the Championship the lower teams in the division are still capable of beating the leaders. What's the point in watching a game if your team is pretty much guaranteed to be beaten before they start?

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

I think the 2 year "parachute" payments help a team try and build for the long run. i.e. I think Watford could slowly build a decent team over the course of the next few years. They can gamble on higher paid players knowing that if they do go down they still get the safety of extra money for the next 2 years.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Of course teams like Barnsley don't stand a hope in hell against the likes of Chelsea do they.

I can't see why anyone thinks the Prem is anything special. Before it starts we all know that one of four teams will win it. It's so boring and predictable. At least with the Championship the lower teams in the division are still capable of beating the leaders. What's the point in watching a game if your team is pretty much guaranteed to be beaten before they start?

Eh? You've argued against yourself in the same post. So can Barnsley ever beat Chelsea, or are they guaranteed to be beaten?

The point is we're talking about a season and coping in a league, not a one-off cup tie. And we're also talking about the quality of what we're watching.

You could go down to Hackney marshes and watch two teams playing that were of similar ability. Doesn't mean you'd want to spend £20 on it, though.

What is special about the Prem is the quality of football played in it (most of the time), and as football fans we like to see the game played well.

However, that doesn't mean it is a more enjoyable overall experience as a fan, in fact on that point I think you're right, it probably isn't.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

Eh? You've argued against yourself in the same post. So can Barnsley ever beat Chelsea, or are they guaranteed to be beaten?

I think he may have been being a bit sarcastic saying that Barnsley have no chance against Chelsea??