Almost Heroes

Not about the 1998 film, which I think is pretty darn hilarious and definitely worth a watch if you're looking for a laugh. And if you may have never heard of it..check this out, but you'd better watch the whole thing.

Nah, this post is about something completely unrelated to a movie that came out when I was like...4 years old. The Premier League season drew to a close two weeks ago, but we're all primed up for the new season which starts in August. For readers of this blog that don't know, the Barclays Premier League is the top football division in England. It's made up of 20 teams, 19 of which were already known to us this time last week.

Until May 30, 2011, that is.

Three teams are relegated from the Premier League to the Championship each season. To replace these relegated teams, three are then promoted from the Championship, two automatically, and one via a play-off tournament between the teams that finished 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. The teams that gained automatic promotion were Queens Park Rangers or simply known as QPR, as champions and Norwich City in second place. The final team that graduated to the Premier League were Swansea City, a WELSH side playing in ENGLISH football's top division, a first in history, but I doubt many people here in Malaysia are very familiar with this team.  I watched that play-off final and it was a THRILLER (Swansea won 4-2). But I can't help wonder what would've happened if the three other teams in the play-off, Reading, Cardiff City or Nottingham Forest, turned out to be the team that made it to the top-flight next season. It made me think, which of these teams would I like to see in the BPL the most? Here are their cases:

READING FOOTBALL CLUB 

For the record, it's pronounced REDDING, I repeat, REDDING. It irks me when people always get this wrong. These were the guys that were beaten by Swansea in the play-off final. Recent football fans will be quite familiar with this side because they were in the Premier League just 3 years ago, promoted in 2006 and relegated in 2008. And don't be surprised that Reading were involved in such a thrilling play-off final, because they were also part of the HIGHEST SCORING FOOTBALL MATCH IN PREMIER LEAGUE HISTORY. Before their relegation, they faced a team called Portsmouth and both teams scored 11 goals between them in just 90 minutes. The score of that game was: Portsmouth 7 Reading 4. Ironically, both teams have since been relegated from the Premier League and have yet to return!! It blows for Reading, but I'm not too sorry that they lost to Swansea. I have this thing about watching a "new team" in the Premier League each season, and I've already seen what Reading have to offer. Swansea haven't been in the Premier League for 28 years, so they're new to me. Bad luck Reading, there's always next season.

CARDIFF CITY FOOTBALL CLUB

 

So, once again, Team Malaysia fails at the final hurdle. Yes, Team Malaysia. The fact is, Cardiff City are Malaysian-owned. Tan Sri Vincent Tan's Berjaya Group are the money behind the club, and for good reason, Cardiff are one of the best teams in the Championship. But there's a major, MAJOR fault with that statement: If they are one of the best teams in the Championship, why haven't they reached the Premier League yet? Simple, Cardiff City are just like this guy:

They are the guys that just won't stop giving. They give up their ticket to Premier League football on a regular basis. They come OH SO CLOSE to promotion....then decide that another team should take their place insted. Such generosity isn't normally seen in world football today. They lost the play-off semi-final to Reading this season, and the play-off final to recently-relegated Blackpool last season. It would be great seeing a Malaysian-backed team mixing it up with the likes of billionaire-backed teams like Chelsea or Manchester City (and hopefully OWNING them), and Cardiff themselves finally getting to the Premier League. I always thought Cardiff would've been the first Welsh team to make it to the BPL. That's something they'll never achieve now, but we'll probably see them promoted sooner than later.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST FOOTBALL CLUB

Of all the teams in the play-offs, football fans worldwide (myself included) would've probably liked to see THIS team promoted more than any other. Fans of football in th 80s have great memories of this side, because they were a formidable and mighty team not just in England, but in Europe as well. For those of you who don't know, only FOUR English teams have managed to win the UEFA Champions League in history, Liverpool, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. Yes, Forest who are now in the second tier of English football won the Champions League, something Chelsea and Arsenal are STILL trying to achieve. Don't believe me? WATCH THAT VIDEO DOWN THERE!!! Brian Clough was the mastermind of the team back then, so I've read. Since those glory days, they have slumped to the lower leagues of English football and are trying to crawl their way back up, just like Leeds United. As a recent football fan, I'd heard about how great Forest were from my dad, who'd supported both Forest and Manchester United back then. And I'd really like to see the true might and strength of Forest return to the top flight of English football, as would a great many fans in the footballing world.

 THE FINAL VERDICT:
Which of these teams would I like to see more than any other in the Premier League?
                                    NOTTINGHAM FOREST
Hands down, for the sake of history repeating itself. It would take some rich Arab dude to make Forest winners again, but just the excitement of seeing Forest at the top again would be very refreshing. How about you? Who'd you like to see get promoted to the Premier League? Forest? Leeds United? Maybe even Crawley Town? Or what about FC United of Manchester (NOT Manchester United)??? Let me know if there's a team you'd like to see at the top. Till then, congratulations to Swansea City for reaching the Premier League for the first time in 28 years, at least them and QPR I can consider as "new teams" for this season!! Till then, thank you for reading this monster blog post until this point, your loss of time is my personal gain. Take care and be well.