Graeme Bailey considers why relegation from the Premier League might not be so bad.
Graeme Bailey considers why relegation from the Premier League might not be so bad.
With every passing weekend the Football League prepares to welcome some heavyweight former members back into the fold.
West Bromwich Albion's pass to the Premier League always had the possibility of being viable for just 12 months, but with Hull City and Stoke City exceeding expectations the two other relegation spots could well be filled by some experienced top-flight campaigners.
Look no further than Middlesbrough, who have clocked up 10 years in the Premier League and are one of just 10 of the founding members still in the top-flight.
Many see relegation as a shocking, terrible thing and for most I can see that - but for West Brom and particularly Middlesbrough I think there is an argument to suggest the opposite.
With West Brom, what have they lost by going up and down once again? They have made at least £20million without spending vast, vast amounts and will be back in the Championship with a squad that should be in the top three the season after and with their finances in a much healthier state than 12 months previously.
And nobody can convince me that the powers that be at The Hawthorns did not have a contingency plan in place for relegation - so what really have West Brom lost? Their reputation of playing some of the best football in the country remains firmly intact and would West Brom's squad be decimated by relegation? Unlikely.
That brings me on to dour Boro. Now I am not suggesting that chairman Steve Gibson did or even should have had a plan 'B' in place for his club, indeed in November after winning at Aston Villa he was contemplating dusting down his map of Europe ahead of another season on the continent.
But the worst run in living memory has seen Boro find their level, which unfortunately for them looks like being relegation.
However, as I alluded to earlier, I think going down will not be a huge body blow to the Teesside club.
Huge blow?
Let's look at it like this. Even if Boro escape relegation by the skin of their teeth they will still lose most of their most influential players next term. Stewart Downing and Gary O'Neil have been virtually assured of their passages away from the club, while the likes of Tuncay Sanli, Robert Huth and mis-firing record signing Anfonso Alves could easily follow suit.
And what would come of Gareth Southgate? He would no doubt be kept on by the club after masterminding a great escape, although would that be much of an achievement given chief executive Keith Lamb's claim that this is the best squad ever assembled at The Riverside?
If Boro do go down they would still lose the aforementioned players and the manager would also probably go, and given Lamb's claim perhaps rightfully so. Although even if he did stay, a promotion campaign would still be more than capable of being put together although a new boss would likely help galvanise the fans who are starting to get on Southgate's back.
They would still have a squad made up of homegrown talent, and in the shape of Adam Johnson and David Wheater some of the brightest young talents in English football, who should find life in the Championship relatively comfortable.
The initial disappointment and gloom of going down would need to be lifted, and that would need to be done by the players on the pitch - but don't forget Boro have been in this position before when they suffered relegation in 1997, with a side that contained some much better players than the current crop.
The Championship would also provide the Infant Hercules the chance to flex its muscles. Despite being the constant scourge of the top four, Boro are never, and will never, be seen as mouth-watering opposition by any Premier League club - aside from North East rivals Sunderland and Newcastle - and anything above a mid-table finish would be seen as an over-performance.
At England's second level Boro are primed to be big guns, one of the teams everyone will want to beat, and since the late 1980s they have always been one of the most feared sides at that level.
Granted it is now more than a decade since they were last in the Championship, but Boro would surely be able to take to it like a duck to water and after season upon season of mid to lower table mediocrity in the top-flight, the possibility of a promotion campaign could offer some respite to a club which is intrinsically a Championship one anyway.
These benefits for Boro, I think, can also be applied, although possibly to a lesser extent, to Blackburn, who also have a good experience at the second level and would prove a powerhouse next term if they started in the Championship. Again the same rationale could be levelled at Portsmouth and Sunderland.
Newcastle worry
But while the relegation of Boro and others could be seen as a blip, and one they could bounce back from, the same cannot be said for Newcastle - who are in real danger of going down.
Not since Leeds United's relegation in 2004 have a club of the stature of Newcastle sunk below the top-flight.
Just six years ago Newcastle finished third in the league. But it is not just that - they were truly regarded as one of the 'big' clubs in England and have tasted Champions League football on three seperate occasions.
But now for the first time since their promotion in 1993, Newcastle are gazing down at the Championship.
If few predicted Middlesbrough's plight this year, then almost nobody would have suggested Newcastle could be going down with them.
There is no doubting that if Newcastle do go down they would surely assemble a squad capable of bouncing back and, like with Boro, they have a fine youth system that is already producing players capable of performing at that level.
But I think the main worry for Newcastle and their fans is that they will not be able to shrug the Leeds label off. The fallen Yorkshire giants plummeted from similar heights as the Magpies and now find themselves still trying to battle back out of League One after a bout of administration which forced a fire-sale of club assets.
Newcastle, though, need to forget about Leeds and remember the recent exploits of nearest rivals Sunderland, who suffered a humiliating relegation in 2006, but less than three years later have emerged as top dogs in the North East.
This is not to suggest Newcastle are doomed - far from it - and likewise with West Brom and Boro, but it is more giving all those teams destined for the drop, something to look forward to!
Championship football is something to be savoured rather than feared.
