The English Premier League is developing rapidly and rapidly, flying forward, not looking backward. Those who stuck in the rearguard of the evolutionary process were unable to meet the requirements of the time due to various reasons. Watford, Charlton, and Sheffield United were the victims of natural soccer selection. A special elevator is provided for them, which will transfer teams to the “championship”, like the souls of the dead across the Styx River. The trio of the most worthy of the second most important English division will follow in the opposite direction. Having conquered the dungeon, they earned the right to seek their place in the sun. The money, radiant and merciless sun of the Premier League.
However, for most of today's wanderers, such an attraction is not a curiosity. Watford, Sheffield, Sunderland and Birmingham repeat last year’s maneuvers, inverting only the motion vector. And they themselves turn into a kind of elevators. This quartet can also be joined by West Bromwich, which flew out last year, and on May 28 it will play the last ticket from Derby County. While the team of Tony Mowbray courageously struggling in the playoffs, the elevator froze in anticipation of the last client. And he gave us time to look into the face of each of the passengers.
Top down
WATFORD
The team of Adrian Butroyd, the youngest manager of the Premier League, spent the season according to the status of his coach - modestly, curiously and ... almost hopelessly. Initially, the chances of the "hornets" were quoted below the rest, and they could not change skeptical prophecies. Watford started off quite well - recklessly, militantly, but lightly. Like a boxer with excellent reaction and dexterity, but without a knockout blow. The dark-skinned attack group - Francis, Bouazza, Young, King - gave rise to comparisons with a certain American university basketball team. They sometimes managed to turn the heads of the defenders of even such teams as Manchester United, but to put pressure into goals, and goals into victories - well, nothing at all.
For the first time, Watford took three points in a match only in the eleventh round. Even before this, team leader Marlon King received a serious injury and orphaned the attack. And when Ashley Young, the striker of the youth team of England and the main hope of Butroyd, left the “hornet” in the January transfer window, it became completely clear that Watford could not get out. There was only one player left in it, which certainly corresponded to the level of the Premier League - goalkeeper Ben Foster, rented from Manchester United. Throughout the season, the goalkeeper, who deserved an invitation to the national team, worked wonders. He was not even embarrassed by the ridiculous goal conceded on White Hart Lane from a colleague of Robinson. Foster has become the best player in the team, one of the best goalkeepers of the tournament, and now he will certainly go to conquer more significant heights.
The second round for Watford turned into a protracted farewell to the elite. The Hornets, as if with a bypass sheet, rode through the English elite, managed to surprise some people and firmly promised themselves to return. The final 28 points look quite decent against the background, for example, of the shameful 15 Sunderlands the previous season. It was difficult to wait longer - Butroyd himself admitted that his team is not yet ready for the Premier League. They will again have to draw strength from the dungeon - Watford returns to the championship.
CHARLTON
The London club, which always remained in the shadow of numerous fellow countrymen, at the finish of the last championship parted with Alan Kerbishli - the coach who formed Charlton in a modern form and merged with him in a single synonymous series. The naivety of the “eddix”, who decided that there is life without Kerbishley, manifested itself at the very beginning of this season. Yan Dowie, who stood at the helm of the team, was one and a half times larger than his predecessor and about the same as inferior to him in coaching skills. The start of “Charlton” completely failed, and Dowie suddenly left the club, losing eight out of twelve matches. His successor, Les Reed, a multi-faceted, but pathologically unfortunate person, went even further, admitting defeat in five out of seven games.
The point, of course, is not only in Dowie and Reed. The composition of “Charlton”, cost in the offseason without serious qualitative strengthening, did not have a fight for high places. In fact, everything rested only on the scorer talent of Darren Bent, who scored six of the first seven goals of the team at the start, and ended up scoring 14 times, despite the fact that no one else managed to upset his opponent more than three times. From time to time, the leader was helped by the leader Andy Reid, Jerome Thomas and the namesake Marcus. Under these conditions, only a very strong coach could save the Eddix from relegation. And he was found - on New Year's Eve, like a Christmas present, Charlton received Alan Pardew.
The ex-manager of West Ham, who took the club seven points from 17th place, slowly and methodically put the game to Charlton, returned the team thought and discipline. At one time, it began to seem that Pardew would be able to perform a miracle - according to the results of the 33rd round, the “eddics” left the departure zone. However, the ending did not work out for them - there were not enough personnel resources and a little luck. Having lost the victory in the butt game with Sheffield, the Londoners signed a sentence. However, it seems that it is at Charlton, if they retain Pardew and the combat-ready squad, that the best of the three losers are the chances to return to the Premier League. The main thing is that the team, weaned from the harsh realities of the “champion”, should not be sucked into the abyss of lack of will and hopelessness.
SHEFFIELD UNITED
Departure “Sheffield” - a kind of verdict to the anachronistic “typical British football” and its admirers. Not in its pure form and not final, but quite indicative. Having made it into the elite, the “blades” retained their composition and continued to beat opponents in the Premier League with new weapons and emotions with the same weapon, which brought them success in the “championship”. Temporal power football with an open visor and a massive shield, decorated as an emblem with the inspired face of captain Chris Morgan. The fighting efficiency of United in the first round puzzled Liverpool - the Reds took away from Sheffield just a draw. Then things went worse. If at home the manner of “blades” consistently brought them points, then at a party they managed to hook something only occasionally.
Sheffield’s most memorable achievement was the New Year’s victory at Bramell Lane over Arsenal. The game turned into a benefit of the central midfielder Phil Jagelka, who turned into a goalkeeper half an hour before the end of the match and managed to inspire partners to keep the advantage gained in the first half. The brutal fury of the "blades", superimposed on the delicate soulful organization of the "Gunners", gave rise to the swan song of Neil Warnock's team.
The dynamics of the Sheffield scoring in the second half of the season allowed United to count on maintaining a place in the elite. The team confidently kept afloat at the level of 15-16th place, but then Charlton and West Ham were ripe for its breakthrough. Sheffield itself loosened its grip. Neil Warnock was a little too clever with the roster, shuffling the performers too often and apparently forgetting that there were 38 meetings in the Premier League, not 46. Nextati was injured by Rob Hals, the team’s top scorer. Ceased to bring good luck and the reincarnation of the Dzhagelki - the decisive match of the last round with Wigan, Phil spent on the edge of defense and earned a fatal penalty.
Offensively losing in the battle for survival, Sheffield, like its two unfortunate comrades, is now missing a very large amount (about 30 million pounds) - TV advertising money continues to flood the Premier League in a torrent and bypass losers. The future of the “blades” is shrouded in fog - Neil Warnock left the club after more than seven years of leadership of the team. A new era begins at Bramell Lane.
Down up
SANDERLAND
With the still audible banging out of the Premier League last season, Sunderland is ripe for global change. The club changed its owner, head coach and seriously updated the composition. An Irish consortium led by Niall Quinn, a formerly well-known forward (including Sunderland), came to power. After four consecutive defeats at the start of the "black cats", the legendary Roy Keen led his debut as head coach.
For half a season, the ex-captain of “Manchester United” looked closely at the team and honed his coaching skills, dealt with the staff for the New Year, and in the second round he took and gave a fantastic leap from 12th to first place. “Sunderland”, hoping only for a place in the playoffs during the championship, finished with a series of 16 victories in 20 matches and earned a well-deserved direct ticket to the elite. And Roy Keane has once in a lifetime shamed skeptics and literally with his teeth pulled out the unofficial title of the most promising British coach.
The basis of the “black cats” is made up of compatriots Kina and Quinn - forwards David Connolly, the team’s top scorer, and Daryl Murphy, midfielder Lyme Miller, as well as the English Whitehead, Nosworthy and Leadbitter, Slovakian Stanislav Varga and the famous Trinidad Dwight York, who now lives in the middle and heading an impressive colony of ex-Mancunians. The young forward Anthony Stokes is gradually adapting, the transition of which from Arsenal in the winter was arranged with such fanfare. If Roy Keane manages to strengthen this company with a couple of qualified players and maintain the cultivated team spirit of the winners, Sunderland has a chance to shoot in the Premier League. And to please their unique fans.
"BIRMINGHAM"
Birmingham completely repeated the Sunderland route, but walked it in a completely different style. After leaving the elite, the team had to part with Emil Heskey, Jermain Pennant, Nicky Butt, Jiri Jaroshik. Already during the season, without waiting for the team, David Dunn and Matthew Upson returned to the Premier League. But the manager remained - Steve Bruce, another legendary Mancunian.
Unlike Roy Keene’s team, Birmingham hosted the tournament smoothly and without shocks, only in the fall allowing itself to fall out of the group of leaders for a short while. Due to stability, the “blue” eventually outperformed their competitors, losing only to the onslaught of Sunderland, but repelled the finishing claims of Derby County.
The leading roles in the new Birmingham are played by the old goalkeeper Mike Taylor, a couple of well-known defenders N'Gotti - Jaidi, the Swedish midfielder brought up by Arsenal Sebastian Larsson, the forwards - Gary McSheffrey and the young Danish talent Niklas Bendtner borrowed from the same Arsenal. Already having solid experience in the Premier League, Steve Bruce probably knows what to do with these guys next season and who to strengthen them to avoid past mistakes and gain a foothold in the elite. And no longer resort to the services of an elevator.