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The Championship Playoffs Thread 2012/2013


Saint Scott

WHO WILL BE PROMOTED TO THE PREMIER LEAGUE?  

69 members have voted

  1. 1. WHO WILL BE PROMOTED TO THE PREMIER LEAGUE?



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After seeing the first leg of game one last night I thought it might be worth while having a thread dedicated to the playoffs. Before anyone posts a link to another thread vaguely discussing this years Championship playoffs, i'm aware they're some dotted around but thought to save numerous threads popping up tonight and over the weekend it would be easier to consolidate everything into this one.

 

Firstly have a go on the poll on who you'd like to triumph at Wembley this summer. I'm sure everyone has a different opinion be it that you live local to one particular club, have friends or family that are fans or are just an admirer of one teams ethic towards the way they play the game.

 

Here is a brief background on the four clubs involved and my personal opinion of how they will fair over the next 2/3 games that could make or break their season. I'd love your opinions too for those who have the time to write up a couple of paragraphs.

 

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Watford

3rd Place - 77 Points

 

Since being bought by Italian businessman Giampaolo Pozzo in June 2012 Watford have certainly seen an upturn in their fortunes. In the last 10 years they have faced administration whilst ex Premier League footballer Gianluca Vialli was manager but have now balanced the books and are looking to return to the Premier League for the first time in nearly a decade.

 

Pozzo is certainly a football fan and Watford fans would of been delighted to see him buy the club considering his ventures in both La Liga and Seria A. Giampaolo currently owns not only Watford but Italian giants Udinese and Spanish outfit Grenada. After just a month at the club Pozzo installed Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola as his manager. Zola was also given the added bonus of youth talent from Udinese due to the clubs new link and it has certainly paid off for the Italian pairing. No less than 9 players are currently on loan from both Udinese and Grenada including the likes of Matěj Vydra, Ikechi Anya and Almen Abdi who have all been regulars for Zola this year.

 

Zola has certainly employed the continental type of football into his side and they have been credited all season for their mentality towards football. Gianfranco has found the mix between loan players and his core which includes Troy Deeeney and Lloyd Doyley and were very unfortunate not to achieve automatic promotion on the final day due to goalkeeping errors and a late Leeds United goal at Vicarage Road. All is not lost for The Hornet's though as they still have the chance to strut their stuff at England's top level.

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Brighton & Hove Albion

4th Place - 75 Points

 

Brighton have certainly been on the up in the last few years. They have finally moved on from the joke of a ground that was The Withdean and owner Tony Bloom has pumped money into a new multi million pound development including The Amex stadium. With a new training ground also being built Brighton can now consider themselves as not over achievers for their size but where they should be in English Football.

 

After winning League One in 2010/2011 The Seagulls had a good first season at Championship level finishing in a respectable 10th place. Poyet has certainly picked up some bargains from the continent this summer including Vicente, Leonardo Ulloa and Bruno as well as some very good loan signings such as Wayne Bridge, Matthew Upson and Dean Hammond. Some consider Brighton come into the playoffs as the form team and have certainly proved difficult to beat in the last few weeks. They also hold the best defensive record in the league having conceded just 43 goals all season.

 

Brighton have never played in the newly formed Premier League and will be hoping this is their year to reach the heights of English football, they are certainly my bet to come through the playoffs.

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Crystal Palace

5th Place - 72 Points

 

Crystal Palace have been one of the famous yo-yo teams in Premier League history despite being absent from the top flight since 2005. They made significant progress under the guidance of ex player Dougie Freedman before being succeeded by ex Blackpool manager Ian Holloway in November 2012. Palace had looked destined for automatic promotion before seeing a poor run of results after the turn of the year and have now had to settle for a playoff place in their hope for a return to the Premier League.

 

Championship top scorer Glenn Murray with 30 goals will be relishing the playoffs as Palace come up against fierce rivals and his former club Brighton in the semi-finals and he and Crystal Palace will be hoping that he can be the difference over the two legs. Alongside Murray are notable youth players that The Eagles have come up with on a consistent basis in recent years including; Victor Moses, Nathaniel Clyne and now Wilfred Zaha who is to join Manchester United this summer.

 

Holloway has already achieved playoff success in recent years after guiding Blackpool to the Premier League in 2010 and he will be hoping to do the same with his new club this season.

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Leicester City

6th Place - 68 Points

 

As with Watford it has been a decade since Leicester City played in the Premier League and have had to climb back from the depths of League One in that time after their relegation in 2008. After bouncing back at the first attempt they have been competing in The Championship since 2009 and were touted as favourites last season after forking out millions of pounds on some of the leagues hottest property. However it wasn't to be and Leicester struggled eventually finishing in 9th place.

 

This season however Leicester managed to sneak into the playoffs on the final day of the season with a 3-2 victory at playoff rivals Nottingham Forest knocking out Bolton at their expense. They will face Watford who were unfortunate not to achieve automatic promotion on the final day and will be hoping their momentum can oversee the broken hearts of the Watford team.

 

Nigel Pearson has certainly built a good squad at Leicester including the likes of David Nugent, Kasper Schmeichel and Wes Morgan. After an impressive 1-0 home victory courtesy of Nugent in the first leg Pearson will certainly fancy his chances of reaching the final.

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FIXTURES & RESULTS

 

Thursday 9th May - Playoff Semi-Final First Leg

LEICESTER CITY 1-0 WATFORD

Friday 10th May - Playoff Semi-Final First Leg

CRYSTAL PALACE 0-0 BRIGHTON

Sunday 12th May - Playoff Semi-Final Second Leg

WATFORD 3-1 LEICESTER CITY (WATFORD WIN 3-2 ON AGGREGATE)

Monday 13th May - Playoff Semi-Final Second Leg

BRIGHTON 0-2 CRYSTAL PALACE (PALACE WIN 2-0 ON AGGREGATE)

Monday 27th May - Playoff Final

WATFORD v CRYSTAL PALACE

Edited by Saint Scott
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Leicester would spend big I think if they went up so would probably prefer they didn't. IMO Palace would probably be the best to come up in terms of liklihood to go down.

 

Watford an unknown quantity and Brighton could possibly do ok. Living in Hove at the moment there is a big buzz about football round here, they are still on the up (although haven't sold out for the 2nd leg on Monday as they keep sending emails offering tickets at work) - all of them would need to spend pretty big IMO.

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I'd prefer Brighton to lose, ideally hilariously. Been to all of them so not really bothered other than that.

 

At the moment I seem to be the only person to have voted for Palace though. :uhoh:

Edited by The9
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Hopefully Watford, they're the only team I can see out of the four with a chance of staying up, provided they add a few big names to the squad over summer. Leicester looked awful in the first leg despite the win, and as for Palace and Brighton... pah.

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Hopefully Watford, they're the only team I can see out of the four with a chance of staying up, provided they add a few big names to the squad over summer. Leicester looked awful in the first leg despite the win, and as for Palace and Brighton... pah.

 

Why would we want the team with the most chance of staying up to come up?

 

I hope the worst team comes up personally.

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Hopefully Watford, they're the only team I can see out of the four with a chance of staying up, provided they add a few big names to the squad over summer. Leicester looked awful in the first leg despite the win, and as for Palace and Brighton... pah.

 

looking awful and winning is sometimes a sign of a very robust side

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Curiously, I want Brighton to go up. Thing is, if Palace, Watford or Leicester go up they'll be a far easier ride next season when it comes to playing them. But, for some reason, I want clubs to come up that actually want to "achieve" something, not stagnate like Wigan etc. What's the point of promotion if your goal when you get there is just to survive?

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Don't want Brighton to go up. Poyet is a **** and advocates nasty fouling, time wasting and his team are full of cheats. Apart from Hammond of course. Watford for me.

 

To be fair they do play some nice stuff, I'll never forget that 0-0 we had with them at st mary's in league one though. Absolute anti-football on their part, worst time-wasting and play-acting I've seen. Big compliment to us however, I think poyet knew they couldnt match us if they allowed us to play

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Curiously, I want Brighton to go up. Thing is, if Palace, Watford or Leicester go up they'll be a far easier ride next season when it comes to playing them. But, for some reason, I want clubs to come up that actually want to "achieve" something, not stagnate like Wigan etc. What's the point of promotion if your goal when you get there is just to survive?

 

Why wouldn't Leicester make a go of it? As a club and city they are as big as we are, and they have decent, if not megamega-rich owners.

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Why wouldn't Leicester make a go of it? As a club and city they are as big as we are, and they have decent, if not megamega-rich owners.

 

Oh hell, they'll go for it but the owners will probably get excited and begin a QPR-style spending spree... and that very rarely ends well.

 

Also, I'm slightly biased. I can't stand watching Nigel Pearson's teams - they're so boring, so mundane and just plod and bluster through games. Utterly sh1te football.

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Oh hell, they'll go for it but the owners will probably get excited and begin a QPR-style spending spree... and that very rarely ends well.

 

Also, I'm slightly biased. I can't stand watching Nigel Pearson's teams - they're so boring, so mundane and just plod and bluster through games. Utterly sh1te football.

 

You're not wrong. Pearson's Leicester could end up as the new Stoke, grinding their way to twelfth.

 

Just what BT and Sky pumped several trillion quid into the league for. Mouth-watering stuff.

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You're not wrong. Pearson's Leicester could end up as the new Stoke, grinding their way to twelfth.

 

Just what BT and Sky pumped several trillion quid into the league for. Mouth-watering stuff.

 

That's kind of why I'm biased... it's like the visual version of YT's many botfly spot videos. Utterly vile to watch.

 

I'm indifferent on Palace, Brighton and Watford though if I had to choose, I'd go for Brighton simply because I think they'd do it the right way and could "grow" - even if that meant being a more difficult opponent for us (though we should be in Champions League contention by then, ha ;))

 

If I had to choose a second, I'd go Watford purely on the fact that Zola's a nice guy... though Troy Deeney is an odious turd. Thirdly, Palace - they place some half-decent stuff but having Holloway doing his clown act on Sky Sports News every frickin' day would be a huge annoyance.

 

And there's my reasoning, I guess.

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Thought Palace looked great in the 2nd half, Brighton didn't really do anything in either leg. Looked a very limited and predictable side.

 

The final should be a good one, 2 evenly matched teams with very attack minded managers and players.

 

4-3....to either side!

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Lesser of two evils, Holloway or Poyet. Not sure. Anyway, Palace will go down should they beat Watford.

 

And Watford will go down if they beat palace. Not bad looking at it from a purely selfish reason. League should be much weaker next year.

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