It's Playoff Time...

This is the time of the season where I'm really, really glad I don't support a non-Premiership club. 3 extra games at the end of a long, hard season that render the previous 46 totally irrelevant. Has your team got the legs or the bottle to get you promoted, thus making you automatic favourites for relegation? Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of the playoffs, but Jesus it must be a more nerve-wracking experience than getting your oncology results. Almost.

The reasons I'm all in favour are the usual suspects in defence of the playoff system. It really does make the end of a season more interesting, and drastically cuts down on the number of teams playing for nothing in the last few games. The Premiership has its UEFA Cup spots to fight for, as well as the title-winning, relegation and Champions League issues, so if you're lucky you can have well over half the league involved up to the final day. The lower leagues need this to avoid even the most dramatic last day involving just 3 or 4 teams at the top playing for something, and likewise at the bottom. For all the title was up for grabs in the Championship last week, it was the playoff race that had me glued to Soccer Sunday.

I'd also add that the 3rd best team in any season is rarely so much better than the 6th placed team that a couple of games between them would be extremely one-sided. These are good, tight games we're talking about. I'd also venture that the 6th placed team in a league would rarely be completely disgraced by promotion, when these sides go up they often do a job. Less so coming into the Premiership, but that's more an issue of money and club reputation.

But bearing that in mind - that a club coming 3rd-6th in say, League One, isn't that much worse than the 3rd bottom team in the Championship - why not make the playoffs about relegation as well? You could quite easily have 3rd playing 6th and 4th playing 5th as we do now, but instead of the winners playing in a final, why not have the winners of each game play against the 3rd bottom and 4th bottom teams respectively from the division above? Now that would be quality. Derby V West Ham and Wolves v Wigan? The winners of each game would be joining Sunderland and Birmingham in the money next season. Admittedly, it'd mean making 4 promotion/relegation spots, but what's so bad about that? We might finally get rid of Fulham.

For anyone who cares, I'm backing Derby, Blackpool and MK Dons. Derby and WIMBLEDON (as they should be known) are the best sides in their leagues, bar the sides already up, and as long as they're not completely knackered I think they'll have enough. Forest would probably think they can do it in League One though, but Blackpool have been on fire lately, I think they've hit top form at the right time. They'll go down next year though.

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Provisional U-21 Squad Named

And it's f***ing brilliant! Looking through these names I nearly started thinking we'd win the European Championships they're going to, until I remembered it's England, and they may well be coached by Stuart Pearce. Excellent squad though, check this out:

Goalkeepers: Ben Alnwick (Tottenham), Lee Camp (Derby), Scott Carson (Liverpool), Joe Hart (Manchester City)

Defenders: Leighton Baines (Wigan), Gary Cahill (Aston Villa), Anton Ferdinand (West Ham), Justin Hoyte (Arsenal), Matt Kilgallon (Sheffield United), Nedum Onuoha (Manchester City), Liam Ridgewell (Aston Villa), Liam Rosenior (Fulham), Steven Taylor (Newcastle), Peter Whittingham (Cardiff)

Midfielders: David Bentley (Blackburn), Lee Cattermole (Middlesbrough), Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham), Michael Johnson (Manchester City), James Milner (Newcastle), Mark Noble (West Ham), Nigel Reo-Coker (West Ham), Kieran Richardson (Manchester United), Wayne Routledge (Tottenham).

Forwards: Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Matt Derbyshire (Blackburn), Cameron Jerome (Birmingham), Leroy Lita (Reading), David Nugent (Preston), James Vaughan (Everton), Ashley Young (Aston Villa).

It's those forwards that excite me. It's clear to all with eyes and a brain that the striking department is where the senior England squad are thin, and the likes of Agbonlahor, Lita and Derbyshire have all looked quality Premiership players this season. Surely the Czech Republic and Serbia kids can't deal with these lads? Well we'll see, but should we fail to at least get to the semis (to be fair the likes of Italy and Holland have good sides) then Stuart Pearce will have been completely exposed as the useless tw*t that he is.

Mind, we are without Theo "£12m Wonderkid" Walcott, (how much did Bentley, Routledge, Derbyshire, Lita cost? Ridiculous Arsenal waste of money? I never said that...) so that's a ready made excuse for failure right there. And there'll probably be a bent ref, there nearly always is, apparently.

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And Finally...

A few random thoughts to set you on your way. How long before David Healy gets linked with a move to Fulham, now Sanchez is confirmed? I'm amazed it's taken this long. It'll be interesting to see if under the tutelage of his mentor he tears the Premiership apart like that Spanish defence next season. I'm guessing no, because he's s**t.

Here's to Wigan, Sheffield United and (I can't believe I'm saying it) Man U, tomorrow - let's get those cheating cockney bastards relegated. They should have been relegated already, if the Premier League had any balls. I don't know about you, but I can't see Chelsea caring too much about a £5.5m fine, so what's to stop them cheating away with impunity? Grow some cajones and take care of our league, you overpaid tossers.

And I leave you with the totally weird news that Japanese striker Kazuki Ganaha has been banned for six games for failing a piss-test. He had abnormally high levels of garlic in his system. This isn't even a joke.

Turns out the authorities thought this was strange (you probably would), and they looked into it. The lad had been placed on a garlic IV drip (that's right) by his club physio to cure a bit of flu, and intravenous treatment is banned by the Japanese FA, so a 6 game ban for the garlic cheat. I really don't know which bit of that story is the most f***ed up, but I'm getting images of Dracula heading the Japanese FA.