Real Football, Real Fans

The second tier of English football, more affectionately known as the Npower Championship, is known as a league not so much of high-profile stars, big wages and fancy football, but more a division of hard graft and more balls hitting the net than Peter Crouch in French nightclub.

Even after the first two games of this season, I feel my love for football completely restored - once dwindling through life in the Premier League. Predictable results, pre-empted positional finishes and the sight of Sir Alex Ferguson's purple cheeks made life as a fan, for me, a very dull experience. It's for this reason only, that I think us being relegated last season was the best case scenario all round.

This thought, also backed up after the revelations that the remaining nineteen Premier League clubs voted to have us shut down, with our remaining TV money to be evenly distributed amongst themselves. If this doesn't stink of a 'group of members' looking at the pound signs than the morals of football and everyday life - then I don't know what does.

This act from sides playing in 'the best league in the world' has tarnished the love of the game for many, with me hoping to not be a part of it for a very long time. Of course, you don't need me to tell you that for us to prosper as a club and maybe even to get a long-term owner, we need to be a financially stable Premier League club - but at what cost?

Why would we want to return to a league which nobody looks out for each other, the size of a squad's budget dictates where they'll finish in May and not even the governing body know how to check if a new investor has any money, or even what he looks like? For me, I'd rather we told the bosses at Soho Square to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

Reliving the away days will also be a massive part of this Championship tour, travelling to the likes of Selhurst Park, the Den and Carrow Road. The banter with the fans' is what makes this division the most unpredictable in the world. Everyone says that the passion of the twelfth man can spur a side to three points - and with some of the greatest supported clubs all in the mix for promotion - and relegation - this season, it's set to be just as ludicrously unpredictable and exciting as previous seasons.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see us win the Premier League one day (very probably in my dreams), or even become a force to be reckoned with on the European stage, but for now, the not-so-sought after heights of the Npower Championship will suffice - with a squad that wants to play for the shirt, and not their next 'big move' to a club that won't want them twelve months later.

Written by Dan Brett.

The views within this article are the views of the individual who wrote and submitted this piece, sometimes solely theirs. They are not necessarily shared by the Vital Pompey Site Journalists.