Leeds to win the title | Leicester to bottle it | Championship relegation fight | Sportsman Untitled

Will Leeds United finish top of the Championship table? Ipswich vs Norwich in the playoffs? Sheffield Wednesday to stay up and Blackburn Rovers to go down? The race for promotion and Championship relegation battle is discussed on the week’s Sportsman Untitled.

00:00 – Introduction
00:50 – Sheffield Wednesday
02:01 – Huddersfield
02:56 – The importance of the run-in
05:40 – Birmingham City
11:13 – QPR
12:26 – Stoke
16:00 – Plymouth
18:53 – Blackburn Rovers
24:28 – Who gets relegated?
31:58 – Top of the League
36:00 – Who gets promoted?

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I think I think Leicester would be able to handle it more football’s the real winner you can lose six0 away to whip switch and still have a lot of confidence one of the worst teams I’ve ever seen in the championship you’re not seeing that fight in the Birmingham city

Squad I don’t want to go into it myth anyway they’ve not been a very good team for a long time Daniel far in the championship is incredible Blackburn staying up no hello guys and welcome back to the Sportsman Untitled today we’ve got a championship relegation special for you

And as such I’m joined by three teams in the Championship relegation battle we’ve got Chris representing sheff bu how you doing Chris yeah not too bad we’ve got Sam who is kind of representing Plymouth aren’t you s yeah living the dream and Cal who is a big Blackburn Rovers fan

Cal how you getting on oh bz him there yeah football’s meant yeah we might as well start with shefer Wednesday because we’re not going to bother talking about R they are relegated they’re one of the worst teams we’ve ever seen in the championship so let’s start with the sh

Wednesday currently in 23rd what’s changed under Daniel R Chris and do you have a chance of staying everything and yes definitely um it it says a lot that you can lose six nil away to whip switch and still have a lot of confidence that’s partly because

Other teams um didn’t make the most of it the weekend but um since he came in he’s completely changed the way that we play he’s Chang the vibe around the club everyone wants to be there it feels like even though a one point with 12 points a

Drift and um yeah there’s just no fear about playing teams in the championship anymore which at the start of the Season under chisco mun it looked like we were two division apart from the rest let alone one and any worries about that sixn defeat or is it just one of those

Against no um no we just played two of the best sides in the in the league and was still only one point to drift and I think if you offered that to M Wednesday fans two games ago they had taken it um yes we got an absolute hammering against

Dip switch but looking at the goal difference that was already like half a Point’s worth anyway so weirdly I don’t think we’ve lost an an awful lot this weekend so it’s not too bad is it for two defeats on the Trot um still about a little bit about Huddersfield as well

New managers come in and done okay although they failed to beat rotheram this weekend nil nil saw but Thomas got sent off Sam do we think that that’ll be a real big two points dropped for Huddersfield come the end of the season I think you look at how close it is down

At the bottom and you look at the the poor form of Rother room but then also Huddersfield you saw the fight that they had against um Le United a few weeks ago and you thought that might be able to kick on and get them somewhere and

They’d be able to work the way out of it but if you can’t beat botom the table when you need to get a victory um and I think sober Thomas got two bookings in the space of a minute um like little lapses like that where you’ve got

Players that you need to rely on um and you can’t rely on them and then going forward yeah I don’t think they’re going to have enough to to get out of it interestingly they’ve got a fairly easy run in they only have to play commentary Preston and then I switch on the final

Day from those teams in the top half at the moment how important do you think the running and fixtures are Cal from this this point until the end of the season I think massive I think coming back after International break I think what there’s three points or whatever it

Is between black burning wherever we are 16th all the way down to to 23rd it’s so tight I think now it’s basically an eight game shootout who’s got the easiest run in it’s probably maybe Huddersfield or Chef Wednesday look at Blackburn it’s such a difficult run in

We’ve got all the top four still IPS witch first game back after International break they on the back of a 6-0 win we count win a game for TP so you know Blackman 3 now it could easily be it would be very Blackman Rovers to beat IP switch then

To go away and get battered at Sunderland and that’s probably how it’s going to go but I think it’s a week by week it’ll be different teams everyone will be thinking it’ll be a different team that’s staying up and two different teams that are going down I think it’s

That class you’ve also got the thing at this stage of the Season where teams have different things to play for and you maybe want to play the teams I know there’s not many in the championship with nothing to play for at all those games against relegation kind of candidates become so important Chris

Yeah everyone wants to play Bristol City or sundland at the minute CU they’re about the only teams left with not a lot to play for but um yeah it it is one of those I think of the eight teams now between 16th and 23rd um the average position of their opponents going for

The rest of the season is either 13th or 14th for six of seven of those eight clubs are the other one is Blackburn their aage average position of their opponents is eighth because they just got so many game games against teams at sorry Cal they’ got so many games

Against teams at the top I think they’re one game against another relegation battler is against Wednesday and there’s only Bristol City away other than that it’s it’s just a Relentless run into Blackburn I think and now relegation sorry but announce it we are down but I think things like that actually give a

Lot of the other teams hope because they’re not just having to pick off games against other um desperate clubs they know that most of the other are also in in matches against either desperate clubs or teams fighting for stuff at the top and as I say seven of

The eight have also got the odd game mixed in against your sundland your Preston your um Watford whatever who maybe are going to be a little bit more laidback come the end of the season that’s the thing with the relegation battle you don’t know at the end of the

Season you might playing a a West Brom which is a difficult playoff side but they might have already secured their place in the playoffs they might be wrestling you might be playing a centry have a cup semi-final coming up as different fixtures have kind of different mean had to squeeze it there

At some point let’s talk about a team that are never going to make it to an FA Cup semi final ever again Birmingham City they are having an absolute shock I think they’ve got one point in the last six games they’re really free fall and they’re just one point above the relegation Zone at the minute Mark Venus is in charge they’re having taken after Tony Mo’s illness hope he comes back

Soon Sam from your point of view what do you think of B at the minute it feels like this season’s gone disastrously wrong and I feel they’re the club potentially with the most to worry about I think they do have a lot to worry about um like you mentioned the form

Recently um has been terrible even when you’ve had moments um like when they played Southampton recently and I think they went ahead twice ended up losing the game 4-3 um with like a 94th minute winner from a Rebo I think it was um yeah they’re in freeall um I saw a

Birmingham city tweeting about how they need to look for an interim manager um and I think still available new manager bounce I think Neil War knock’s left uh abine AR he could he could he be the man to come in for four game Cameo but this the thing

You’ve got your interim manager is is Venus if you can’t rely on him you can’t just keep like bringing in a new manager um can just to interrupt that would you not say they’d be better equipped or it will be better to bring in someone with more experience in a managerial role

Rather than a coach which is what might beist as an assistant do you not think they’d be better bringing in a a manager intoing basis until Mor’s back and you get that bounce like with a war I think they need to make a decision if Mo is

Going to be back before the end of the season not Venus Venus was talking before the Watford game as though Mo’s in a good position and could be back say after the international break in which case you know the conversations moved a little bit but um it’s also that thing

Of they’ve bought into M which is probably about the one thing they’ve got right this season for the most part um they B bought into M he’s still trying to get his point across through Venus it’s a kind of D trust Venus to get up point across it’s not happened so far

Does the international break help that even if Mo takes another couple of games to come back into the setup you know another couple of games after that they might be even even more dietal than they are at the minute good question go I just I think as well you

Can only you can say oh you need a manager in there you need a manager in the dog out Mark V is only a coach but like the players also just have to take on responsibility as well you know you’re in a dog fight like you you can

Have whatever tactics you want out there your players still have to either go and execute the tactics or at least play for the shirt like fight and I don’t think when you’re looking at the results that they’ve given up lately the way that they’re goals just aren’t coming for

Them um like you’re not seeing that fight in the Birmingham city Squad um Wayne Rooney was right wasn’t he he wasn’t very good but he was right like there wasn’t enough in that Squad nowhere near enough to be adaptable to things changing over the course of the

Season the moment he got into a position where he was able to change that they sacked him um it felt like poor appointment in the first place a poor decisions to get rid of him when they did and yes they went and made a really good appointment but even that’s kind of

Fallen in their face a little bit just because of circumstances so I wanted to open that question up to so B on 39 points at the moment one point above the relegation Zone had they stuck with Rooney given obviously we didn’t know what would happen with T Mo would they

Be in a better or worse position than they currently are they won’t be any worse no I think they’ been gone I I think they’d be worse I think it’s terrible I don’t think he’s good I know you guys probably disagree but I just don’t think the fans weren’t buying into

It the it was trying to play a different style of football completely which you know Square pegs round holes you can’t do that I know obviously he got to January and he could have got a window brought some more players in but I just don’t think he would have had the time

And would have seen the improvements that would were required because the level that they were playing at was do Dreadful yeah I think like I say a lot of this is because of circumstance because of what’s happened with Tony M but I think you know when Rooney didn’t walk

Into I’m pretty sure he didn’t walk into that interview and say I I want to change the way that this squad play he said I want to make changes so that I’ve got a squad that can play this way they gave him the job and then sacked him

Anyway when you know he hadn’t added the opportunity to implement that um I think with a few changes in January the results might have picked up a little bit probably to about the point that they are now when you think about you know the initial kick with M and now the

Difficulty with Venus so I don’t think there’ been any any worse off I still think there’s enough bad teams down there that you know they’ have been picking the odd result up um but it all comes down to the decision- making at the top you know it’s do you give John

Eustus longer in the first place although you know the football wasn’t great and they were only you know as much as they were six or whatever at the time they were only three points above mil wall at the time so it wasn’t as though they were flying

Exactly um you know they’ve made a a lot of strange decisions and keeping with Venus and you know giving Mo time is The Honorable thing to do is probably the right thing to do when you think about it but then have they got another decision to make

In the next eight games let’s move on to one position and one point above Birmingham is QPR and it feels like there’s quite a lot of positivity at that club at the moment one decision they got right at the top was bringing in Marty cifuentes I think that’s how

You say it I’m butcher to it he’s done an amazing job and I think if he keeps them up he’s got to be a contender for manager of the Season Cal do you reckon yeah so I went to QPR away October R 4-0 and I think QPR possibly one of the worst championship

Teams I’d seen and I’ve seen some badens that they were awful and then they look denim they look gone and then to be in the position that they’re in now yeah he’s turned it around they have got a decent little Squad there as well I

Don’t think you know I think g f withth obviously he’s got his style of play did not match that Squad at all I mean you can’t you can’t play that that way Direct with the players that they’ve got um they far more elaborate they’ve got some technically good players and

Obviously this is what you know I’m not going to try and butcher the gaffer’s name because I struggle at the best of times with simple names uh so yeah but I think he’s got he’s got playing playing well they’re picking up points I think they’ll stay up now personally I think

They’re on a good run of form they’ve turned it around um so yeah I think they stay up yeah and one team that’s not in a good runner form as well it’s Stoke and I don’t think any of us saw saw them being this bad this season I think all

Of in some I thought they’ had a really good window some of the players they’ brought in seemed to have a fairly stable manager and someone who could push them on now they’ve got Steven schumacker and start charge Sam so I’ll ask you about him when he left Plymouth

What were the thoughts of him and did you think he’d be a success at Stoke and how surprised are you that it’s turned out like this I think you look at the last two managers Plymouth have had you’ve got Ryan low who took time at Preston but has eventually been able to

Give them a style of play um get them into like playoff contention play some good play some good football um and you had Steven schumacker then coming to replace him everything goes really well and Stoke com and poach in midseason you think that’s a bit of a bomb of Plymouth

We lost a good manager there he’s probably going to take some of the loan signings with him he took uh Liam Condell uh with him to stoke but it just hasn’t for whatever reason hasn’t worked um yeah I thought shimaka would be a really big loss for for Plymouth and I

Thought it was going to be a good good good addition for Stoke and they’d be able to kick on and play some expansive football um you saw a lot of that at Plymouth goals were a bit of a worry and I think you’re seeing that same issue

Translate to to Stoke City at the moment like they may not be able to like concede many goals but they certainly can’t score goals either um and I think when you’re in the situation you are in the championship where you need one0 wins 2-1 wins you need that

Last minute Victory you’re not going to see that from this Stoke City side at all I think goals were an issue for quite a lot of teams in the championship this weekend not many goals about at all Chris from your point of view it feels like Stoke have issues that you can’t

Resolve by changing the manager changing the player they’ve got a fairly High wage bill it feels like that club is just not going anywhere at the minute yeah it’s a weird one because without looking too much into it at the start of the season I just kind of went along

With the idea a lot of people were saying that sto could have a good season and that they’d Built Well and then by the time I saw them a couple of times I saw them I way to I saw them against Wednesday at bet 365 and it was one of

Those like you just thought this can’t be the team that everyone was talking about at the start of the season because they had nothing about them um you know I don’t think like even some of their better players um it feels like they’ve had really up and down Seasons um and I

Just don’t see them as a real threat like when you look at um some of the clubs down there you you look through the squads and you say well they’ve got this player and that player who could really pull them out I don’t see Too Many real threats in there in the stug

Squad that make me think oh well they def they’re definitely going to pull themselves out of it at some point from a commentary point of view they had Michael Rose and Luke Manali two players who helped us get to the playoff final last season so when you look at them

Bringing in those two players in the summit you automatically think that’s a playoff Chase in defense so I don’t think they get rviews from anyone at stoke the fact that their confidence is gone something’s gone there’s not a lot in in front of them either to kind of to

Take pressure off at key points in game like from what I’ve seen of them when when they’re under the C they’re really under the C and they just don’t know how to kind of break that cycle in a game um you know when in every game there’s

Going to be a two three four minute period at least where you’re under the under the pump a little bit and in the games that I’ve seen of them like it’s those those periods have lasted and lasted until they’ve broken like you know like a lot of relegated teams in

The past that they’re definitely not kind of safe yet so I’m going to come back to you and talk about Plymouth next up obviously it’s been a bit of a t tumultuous season with Steven Schumaker leaving Ian Foster’s coming now and it seems like the form’s dropped off a bit

What do you make of him and his management style at the minute I think everyone saw him come in with his links to England youth setups and everyone was like you know what this is fine we’ve got a very young Squad at Plymouth um bought in a few really good young loan

Signings as well you’ve got the likes of Ashley Phillips who’s been there he’s on L from Spurs um you got the the talent that is more than whiter everyone Raves about him um signing from the summer Bal mumber as well like really high quality players in that Plymouth Squad

And it’s just fallen off a cliff like goals used to be something Plymouth could get regardless of of form or um style of play like they were just they were going to attack they were going to score goals you knew you were going to get entertainment you knew there was

Going to be a chance that you could get a victory and then you look at it in recent weeks and it’s just the goals have started to dry up but they’ve not dried up at the other end you’re still conceding goals and that’s where Plymouth have have really fallen off

Lately um feels like the home form as well used to be such a hard place to go and now I think no Preston won there this weekend Ryan L obviously going back it just feels like home park is quite an easy place to go now yeah it used to be

Used to be a fortress up until six weeks i’ say Fortress Loosely um but it was in League one it was it was in League one and in the Championship it was where you relied on getting most of your points because I’ve looked at plymouth’s away form and they’ve got 10 defeats seven

Draws and two wins away from home um if your form but if if your form’s that bad away you need to be picking it up at home and it’s just not been working um so I think Plymouth running is is pretty hard as well so unless we get some

Magical results or um an up in form of some sort then we’re going to be ring on people around us failing to pick up points and that’s not the situation you want to be in that comes back to that home form doesn’t it because that’s propped propped them up all season

Pretty much like you could set your clock by like Plymouth getting something out home and it it’s cliche it’s a difficult trip because where it is as much as anything um but as soon as as soon as you’re not winning home games you’re relying on something that that

Even winning The League last year in League one Plymouth were pretty much un Untouchable at home and then you know we’re picking off points occasionally away from home but but there were nowhere near the threat away from home that they had been at home that’s still

The case now and you you’re putting more emphasis on that away from as soon as you’re not doing the one thing that you’ve had for the past couple of years which has been that invincibility and Cal let’s finally finish on Blackburn feels like they’re top of this little mini league of table

Of teams that might a minute for now hardest running we’ve mentioned I think 1.7 points per game their opponents have picked up yeah in the fixtures they have remaining what are the worries at Blackburn right now what’s gone wrong try and sum it up for his just I mean

Obviously all stems from the top like it does similar to Birmingham bad decisions obviously there’s stuff going off on the off the field with venis in India um which is a lot more uh technical shall we say than than I can even get involved with um but basically you know it’s not

Great they’re not F they can’t fund The Club at the minute because it’s with the courts um obviously I think in the summer yal Thomasson the the goal post changed in the summer obviously last year we finished 7eventh eth missed out on on um in the playoffs because of goal

Difference whatever it was and there’s a lot of optimism then we’re going to the summer and that changes Steve wager comes out and says we need to stay up so then it’s like well that’s a start change to what what we were thinking we could be pushing the top six this is the

Season gos back to the Prem it’s not happened obviously uh so yand Thompson says that he would leave they’ve said no we don’t want you to leave you’re the man you’re the man for the project he clearly wasn’t uh he didn’t want to be there he was he played the way he played

He had no plan B didn’t want to change probably being a bit stubborn to be honest uh I like the man it was fantastic he give us some of our best moments in recent years but at the end of the there he just he’ lost interest

And he Chu the towel in and that obviously came to a head start this this year he left usus came in we’re now very boring we we are we’re awful to watch Birmingham fans loved John eustus at the start of this season all I hear is eustus Love from Burling fans but

They’re not used to a very nice brand of football are they I mean I mean we weren’t and that’s why we l you know y thomasson’s football it was very good it was pleasing on the eye we’re attacking we we didn’t draw any games we’d lose or

Win it was that stat last season where it was 20 other games without would draw what is it now hust we’ drawn six lost two we can’t buy a win and defensively is shed us up we’re a lot better defensively obviously we brought fing from centry on a three we’ve gone to

Three at the back Wing backs but we’re just saw negative it’s hoofball and it’s we can play football you know we’ve lost Adam Warton which it Sensational Talent we got John Buckley back from Chef winesday which was disaster we’ve lawned out Lewis Travis Club Captain to second

In the table or third whatever which is ridiculous because he again he fell out with John do Thomasson so now we’re you know we’re we’re in a bad position really we’ve got but you can still score goals you’ve got the top scorer in the league you’ve got a player who

Finish he can but nobody else can it seems at the M we’ got Sam giger’s gone five six games without a goal don’t look like scoring um Saturday’s had our best chance if he doesn’t score we don’t score obviously I know midd hit the crossb later on other than that and they

Missed the chance in the opening couple of minutes uh goal line should have scored but other than that they weren’t that great but I just don’t think we’ve got enough to win a game I think we’re too negative and I think we’ll only stay up if other teams don’t win I don’t

Think we’ll do enough to stay up ourselves what is it 42 points at the minute you can probably beat Wednesday at home maybe get some in at Bristol City he 46 47 points going to keep teams up know yeah he wants sorry I’m just say John has mentioned it a couple of weeks

Ago he wants to get to 50 we went down I think it was 51 points in 2016 2017 under morb obviously a k did all the damage before that but 50 points I think he’s going to if you can get to and 4 48 might keep you up there so manyam

There’s so many teams in it you would think that the point is slightly less than 50 but 50 should be fine I think um but just going back to you mentioned Samy smic being top scorer in the league uh there was a stat going around before the weekend that’s probably still true

Now because he didn’t score and they didn’t win um no player in the championship has been on the receiving end of either well has not won when scoring more than Sami smic this year um yeah sounds about that tells you he’s he’s scoring the goals but they’re not

Getting the results to to match it trying to think how rare it is that a relegated team might have a Golden Boot winner and off the top of my head I couldn’t think of anyone who’s come particularly close even in the Premier League I mean Premier League year is

Always a title winner usually Championship I can’t even think or efl because it’s such a rarity to have a player who’s 21 goals you know and might have to be a deep dive that actually yeah and you get you’re probably still going to get this is it I think you look

At our XG as a team I don’t want to go into it I think it’s a myth anyway XG but for the birth of this next year is is much higher than anybody else in that battle for relegation so over the course of the Season we have been creating

Chances we have been bagging but you look at our defense and defensively other than Ram but everyone can just cast Ram aside cuz they are done and it always seems to be the case other than Ram we’ve got the worst defense in the league and that speaks for itself if you’re let in

Goals you’re not you’re not going to win very many football games and that’s simple so that brings me on to my final question for all of you which is who joins them in League one next season I think we’ve had a discussion of all the teams that are involved I think it’s

Going to be very close it’s probably going to be down to the final day Chris just you have a Wednesday stay up let’s start there uh yes which for for a pessimist like me is quite something but no I think there were enough kind of games in there where

Wednesday can pick up pick up points um I think you know what we’ve seen over the past what six weeks or so it seems to be like everyone wins or everyone drops points at the same time I don’t think enough teams are going to be able

To keep up that kind of momentum to see it through to the rest of the season I think if Wednesday can pick up another 10 or 11 points which they can probably do I think they can stay up um and I just see there’s a couple of teams with

More difficult winnings sorry C and and a few more kind of deep rooted problems than than Wednesday currently have um and I think that there’s every chance we can stay up some do you think Plymouth is staying up h no I don’t no I don’t think Plymouth have enough in the tank

Uh recent forms terrible the goals are drying up um I think we still play rotheram but that’s a way should be but our away form’s horrendous and still got to play QPR um but yeah I I want to believe but I I’m struggling to make a case the only

Man who might be more negative than you is sat next to you Cal Blackburn staying up no go together yeah I mean I was going to say Blackburn and Huddersfield okay and then Birmingham just above I think what Plymouth have got I know he’s not bagging at the minute but they’ve got

Whiter I think if you can get him scoring and OB I went Blackburn Plymouth the other week and even before we went down to 10 men by far the better team you got Ash Phillips at the back who’s solid obious come through Batman Academy um he fantastic player I think you’ve

Got enough about you I think you I think if you start scoring goals I mean it’s a big if but that I think that could keep you up I just think yeah no I think Blackburn looking at the running I just don’t I can’t see us winning another

Game and I’m not but I just genuinely can’t we shot ourselves in the foot not beating Plymouth not beating milal or not even getting one win from them two taking two points obviously we didn’t lose but it’s not good enough we need a win and I just can’t see it coming other

Than and the Sheffield wday game potentially why do you think alfield would go down then I just don’t think they’re very good 40 I yeah I just I just I I feel like I know they’ve got a decent running but I just I know there’s a bit of

Turmoil at the club at the minute I know the new the new manager coming again I’m not going to try butcher his name uh yeah that bright and writer yeah that one uh but and the striker who got who didn’t play the weekend they said he was

Injured and he’s tweeted saying he’s not injured yeah it’s all bit yeah it’s not good is it ination scrap with them they’re one of them teams particularly where the international break what they can get done away from the the the kind of match day environment is going to be massive

Because uh Brighton raer hasn’t had a long period of time with the players um so you know you get a proper idea of where Hood isfield about maybe the the games over Easter um but yeah the the Run since he took over hasn’t been particularly brilliant I still think BL

Blackburn and Birmingham are the two that are in biggest trouble that’s the only thing as well I think that John new has got going from at the minute is that this week or two weeks or International break he’s got time on the training ground with the players which is what

He’s been saying he hasn’t had so now’s two week you know going prove your point basically we need to win get we need we need to win a game we can’t win games he’s joining Rotherham and Plymouth because you said they were going to go

Down so Bingham City okay why is that um this is not a very good team they’ve not been a very good team for for a long time they’ve been flirting with relegation for a very long time and um I think they need a bit of a reality check

And a reset and I think they could do that in League one I think it’s hard to know I think chefer Wednesday are one of those teams who are kind of feel like they’re on the up even though they got beaten six nil sounds like a mad thing

To say it feels like you’ll be all right QPR probably the same thing yeah it depends how long MO is away from the the touch line and how much he can do CU if he’s back in two weeks after International break you have to say they’re going to improve yeah that’s

The one question mark in my mind but as it is right now knowing that Venus is there not knowing anything about Murry I think the longer that goes on the more difficult is for Birmingham I don’t think it’s necessarily just a flick at the switch E when Moby comes back

Because depends exactly how he is and you know he’s got they could on the flip set they could get the new manager bounds they could but whether they do I basically think QPR are going to finish the top of all of this kind of mini league and then um I won’t be surprised

To see any of the others go I do I think black burner have got to find results from somewhere I don’t see it happening in the in the short term at least Birmingham um the team that look most in um most like they’re going to lose every

Game at the minute and it’s probably sto I agree I was just about to say I think Birmingham are in trouble if M doesn’t come back but the team that look like they can’t they need some sort of CPR is Stoke they need to like jolt into action

And they’re not going to change manager now I don’t think they’re definitely not going to change manager the players don’t look interested half the time blackbird have the top scorer they have the ability to do something I feel like you’ll just have enough to stay up from

Point of view I hope you’re right I loved League one it were brilliant but I hope you’re right I think Stoke and Birmingham are probably going to go with rotheram I also think Plymouth you both you both have one of the star players in the championship in your team smodic and

Whiter should be enough and it’s something that shefer Wednesday and QPR arguably don’t have but you’ve got more of a team Cas of unit Stoke don’t have either of those things and neither to burn them I think fingers crossed there’s a there’s a kind of feeling about clubs like Wednesday and QPR that

If they stay up this year that’s kind of year zero in a new project um I don’t know whether the John us to ero at Blackburn as a project as such I think Plymouth fans are already giving up on Ian Foster um Stoke it’ll be interesting

To see how long they go with schumacker because you’ve seen it already at milw with Joe Edwards it’s like okay we’re going to go for something a bit different something new and really going to go with it and milal basically gave that up as soon as they got a bit

Nervous it’s happen happening for them short term but I’m still not convinc mil worlder completely out of it because I think they on the same points with the black bur still yeah um but yeah that just makes me think when The Stoke get really nervous about Shaka and that

Could lead them down a path as well but if they’re in leag won next season you’d argue he has probably the most incredible CV to get them back up exactly get get him back to uh pouth League one yeah yeah bring us back up I think Edwards could have done a job

Longer term at milw they just got nervous very quickly and people talk about buying into a project but they don’t really and Stoke is one of those where they’ve kind of gone for a project of sorts that they’re thinking longer term is the the short term they going to

Get them a little bit and calling H work before too long I think Huddersfield and maybe Blackburn will just Escape it that’s my point of view I don’t know it’s going to be very interesting watch to the end of the championship season do we want do you want to have a quick

Discussion about the top of the league as well want to talk about Lester maybe throwing a question in there are they are you we should ask you T because you said about Lester a couple of weeks ago will not win the league something I did it was

Probably my it’s a great take best ever prediction they were 17 points clear point it’s not upen yet yeah they’re not going to win the leag who wins them leads yeah Le Daniel far in the championship is incredible yeah he just got it on it Peaks at the right time

Just cuz at the start what they had slow start the season lost a couple they couldn’t beat teams at the bottom they they were so like as soon as the team went in with a low block they didn’t know what they were doing they were still picking off teams at the top

Um they looked as though they were completely Fearless against teams at the top they just didn’t know how to break teams down as soon as they found that they they’re clearly the best well them and them and IP switch I’ll say this CU we just played both of them and lost but them

And IP switch look a league above even Lester I’ve seen Leicester a couple of times this season and I’ve not been completely blown away and it sounds like Leicester fans aren’t blown away either it feels like I switch are back on track I know it’s very easy to say if they’ve

Won 60 but even if you look at their last kind of Five results it seemed like they had that bit of a dip after January brought Keith for Moore tried to get a few things sorted and now they’re back again they’ve sneaky got a really good

Squad as well yeah like they’ve got 17 18 like really good kind of players who know exactly what they’re doing under Kier and McKenna I think that’s the best thing that McKenna has done he’s just got um not necessarily brought in players either there existing kind of

Legacy players who just know what he’s after because like got Sam Mo in the middle of the park like Sam Mo turned into like one of the best midfielders in the league and a couple seasons ago he was playing in League one and that’s probably his level he reminds

He reminds me a bit of Ian Ashby at whole city years back when he’d gone right through the leagues but just knew exactly what a manager wanted of him in a system and made like Premier League M Sam how important do you think it is that leads have been promoted from the

Championship fairly recently which obviously promoted from League one last season Leicester it’s been a little while since they’ve been involved in this sort of I mean they were in a premier league title race not that long ago but they’ve not had this kind of promotion pressure on their shoulders

Especially being so far clue they’ve not and neither’s moresa I think that’s potentially an important factor that’s coming in to not bite them but um they’ve been reliant on on key moments and big big plays from the likes of madidi um and drewby Hall who’s been outstanding this year but is moresa just

Going to fall short in that automatic promotion race when you’re going against the likes of Kiera McKenna who was in an absolute dog fight last year um against Sheffield Wednesday and Plymouth for that final automatic promotion spot um and then Daniel farer who’s being up and

Down like a yo-yo with Norwich mostly he won his last CH three Championship Seasons the last three seasons Daniel Park’s been in the league he’s won the league again Norwich were getting I think 95 points on season yeah so he’s he’s he’s been there he’s done it I

Think mesa’s downfall will be the fact that it’s his first big season so it’s a remarkable achievement yes they should be in there with the squad that they’ve got but he is still a first time manager but they have B it oh yeah defin a b job

Is it Mesa feels like artetta at Arsenal doesn’t it in that he he’d been in that you know a kind of high Stak environment before but not as a manager and you know that was the Premier League even where you know he he has a feel for it moresa

It feels a little bit at the moment like he’s a duck out water almost it’s been very easygo for whole season and now he’s in a sticky patch this is the time you have to prove yourself as a matter isn’t it yeah yeah and you know just

Because their form in the last few games hasn’t been what it was it doesn’t mean that’s going to be the the way of it the rest of the season you know ask go a lot in relegation Z it’s been up and down but um yeah I just it feels like they’re

Going to bit take a bit of time to get out of it and lead the nips which I’m going to allow in that time I don’t think right let’s end this podcast with top two predictions which team out of those three it feels like Southampton are going to finish fourth West Brom are

Going to finish fifth top three predictions Cal let’s start with you so I’m going to there’s two I I want interest to finish in the top two so it’s like you know the parachute payments and all that it dispels that and it’s brilliant to see but I’d also

Like him to finish third and bottle it well not bottle it because they done brilliant but finish third and then set up a playoff tie against Norwich because that would be fantastic but I think Le’s win the league um yeah leads win the league leester second IP switch third

Okay so just off Sam uh leads it switch Lester as it currently not as it currently stands is lead to top of the minute on goal difference happy days but Lester got a game in hand Chris yeah lead TI switch to leester I think leester finished third Lester know which

Should still be good obviously won’t be yeah it’s not the Der though is it we want that if Leicester in fact if any of these teams finished third Leicester or ripich do we think they’d win the playoffs yes I think southton win the playoffs I feel like samton got the

Advantage because they I think they know now they’re probably going to be in the playoffs well they have got a couple of games in hand but I think the point is they’ve got a couple of games in hand and then they need to more than match

The for of the teams above them I think they’re seven a drift now aren’t they um so it’s going to be difficult it almost feels like they could do with losing a Point pretty point or two pretty soon so that they know what what the future hold

For them in terms of playoffs and then they can gear up for that um for that one they’re also not going to have the kind of final day disappointment it seems like unless they go on a remarkable run which is possible it doesn’t feel like a team dropping out of

That top two race it’s going to be so hard it’s better to go early yeah yeah so thoughts who goes up from the playoffs the playoffs um i’ back if if switch town were to drop in add backet switch town over two legs against any team in the championship yeah I mean

They could score 10 goals over two legs pretty much they they’ll Cruise past most teams even those that are in the playoffs um if Lester go down I think if Leicester fall into the playoffs I think you you’d have to start being worried um just because again that’s a whole different pressure uh

You’ve seen the best teams crumble under it before um but quite the few them L the players have played in f c finals and final I think you know they’ve got V there got their experience whether is fit enough to play in you know when it comes to two games in quick succession

With the playoffs and stuff but I do think I think they’d be able to handle the pressure I don’t think it’s like a hull who might be you know it’s much bigger that for them I mean it’s big for bage but in the you know this Premier

League team that come down and they’ve won the Premier League they’ve won the FA Cup I think I think Leicester will be able to handle it more I think the B over two like I just think if it was a Southampton Leicester final for instance I don’t know from what I’ve seen of

Southampton this season they look a far more uh kind of kind of fluid outfit and they they they look like they could pass around the to side like leester they could just strangle teams can’t they be a bit boring I think possibly don’t know play final right I think that’s a good

Place that’s what we all want it football’s the real winner we’ve talked about the relegation battle and now we’re going to get a boring playoff final Cal Sam Chris thank you very much for joining me and we’ll see you next time on the Sportsman Untitled