Never mind the quality, feel the tension. For the team who hold their nerve, the prize is Chelsea instead of Coventry, Manchester City rather than of Bristol City, and a life of luxury. The Championship comes to its conclusion today with an improbable ending to an unpredictable division. One of Birmingham, Sheffield United and Reading will end today as a Premier League club. The other two will be condemned to the trauma of the play-offs.
The most lucrative match in club football is the final. In one respect, the knockout football starts today, and one of the games is as profitable. The rewards, besides a greater status, are estimated at £60million (Dh328m). For the neutral, it is wonderfully poised. There is a three-way fight for the second automatic promotion place, with the picture both complicated and enlivened by the fact fourth-placed Reading host Birmingham, in second.
They are separated by Sheffield United, who visit Crystal Palace. If Birmingham fail to win then a United victory at Selhurst Park will take them up. The Londoners' station in mid-table may suggest a side with no great incentive. Far from it. Their fans covet a win to send their former manager, Reading's Steve Coppell, up, but they are led by a Blade. This pits Kevin Blackwell, in charge at Bramall Lane, against his mentor, the former Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock.
The ever quotable Warnock has stated his belief that Blackwell has the division's best squad, several of them recruited during his own eight-year tenure. Birmingham arguably possess the superior pool of players, but even the managing director, Karren Brady, has admitted Alex McLeish's side have underperformed. They have the division's highest overheads, courtesy of a £21million wage bill, yet the consensus is they have scarcely played well. They spurned a chance to seal promotion by losing 2-1 at home to Preston last Saturday.
If theirs is the strangest season, Reading's has also proved unlikely. They averaged two goals a game before Christmas and one in the subsequent slump. Nonetheless, they could still go up. Drama is a theme. Seven of the day's 12 games have something riding on them, quite apart from the celebrations as champions Wolves face Doncaster. Two from Cardiff, Burnley and Preston will claim the final play-off berths. Either Norwich or Barnsley will join Charlton and Southampton in League One next season. If it is the East Anglians, it will mean all three relegated clubs have also been demoted from the Premier League within four years. The cost of making the opposite journey extends beyond the £60 million in lost revenue.
rjolly@thenational.ae
