Today's Mirror...Bleeding Lawrenson - I hate this man...

So why Mr. Thatched cottage head, if the Championship is so poor, did we beat the five times European champions in their own back yard? Granted there is a gap but why do you have to spout all this bile on a weekend that is fantastic for the FA Cup? PS he has us to lose 2-0!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
If I were Davey I'd stick this up on the dressing room wall.
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http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/columnists/lawro/
LAWRO ON SATURDAY
MIND THE GAP
Forget about Cup results, the Championship is the worst in living memory
Lawro 8/03/2008
If You take a casual look at the FA Cup quarter-final line-up then you could be thinking there was a shift in power away from the Premier League.

There are three clubs from the Championship - Barnsley, Cardiff and West Brom - and Bristol Rovers are flying the flag for League One.

Well, don't get too carried away because this is without doubt the worst Championship that I can ever remember.

The gap is even wider than ever between the Championship and Premier League.

And for people to suggest that the Premier League is the strongest league in Europe just because there are potentially four English clubs in the Champions League is a joke as well.

The top four in the Premier League may be strong but if you took the top 10 clubs in Spain and compared them to the top 10 in England, then La Liga is far better in terms of skill, technique and quality.

There are three separate divisions in the Premier League - with the top four, the next group pushing for a UEFA Cup place and then the rest fighting for survival.

But with the Championship, there is just one league because it is so mundane and average.

You only have to look at the leadership in the Championship and the fact that no-one is capable of staying top to realise that teams do not have quality or consistency.

Stoke, Bristol City and Watford have all gone top in recent weeks - only to lose their nerve and slip up against clubs way down the table.

Even the preseason favourites, West Brom, do not seem to have any consistency even though their home form may see them clinch automatic promotion.

But whoever comes up this season will become automatic odds-on favourites to go straight back down.

In previous seasons you might have had teams like Birmingham, who had been there before and had a chance of staying up.

But now there is very little hope - if any. Derby are a great example as they came up last season as the team which won the play-offs and yet have proved to be hopelessly out of their depth.

It will be the same for whoever comes up this season - but this time all three will struggle because the gap is getting wider and wider.

Just take a look at Watford.

Their current team is worse than the one which Aidy Boothroyd took up two years ago. At least then they had the likes of Marlon King and Ashley Young. Who have they got this time? In fact, who are the outstanding players in the league? In previous seasons you knew that Phil Jagielka would be a Premier League player. The same for Kenwyne Jones.

I can't think of a single player to excite you. The keeper at Wolves, Wayne Hennessey, looks a good prospect, but apart from that there's no one else.

Tony Pulis has done a great job at Stoke to get an incredibly average side to the top of the table. The same goes for Gary Johnson, who has worked wonders at Bristol City. Johnson has done an amazing job wherever he has been - Cambridge, Latvia and Bristol City.

Charlton under Alan Pardew were expected to bounce straight back but have stuttered and struggled.

But these guys are doing great jobs despite their limited resources. It's not a reflection on them, but a reflection of the complete lack of quality outside of the Premier League.

Championship matches have been poor. I went and saw my club Preston beat Stoke a couple of weeks ago and it was an awful game.

Stoke are direct, hard-working and tough. They could have scored four but ended up losing 2-0 to a club who are fighting for survival.

Mind you, even Preston could have beaten Olympiacos by the way they played at Chelsea in midweek. And the FA Cup will probably even out this weekend as it is hard to see many shocks.

The Championship is just an amazingly poor league. Teams are average, the standard is getting worse and that is being proved by the lower clubs beating the top clubs with alarming regularity.

But most overwhelmingly, the football is so mundane and so poor. Whoever goes down from the Premier League this season will be favourites to go back up.

And whoever survives this season will be confident that they will stay up the following season because of the poor quality of teams who will come up.

That is a damning indictment of the Championship - and if the league below the Premier League is going down in quality, then the Premier League will inevitably deteriorate in quality, too.

Interview: JOHN CROSS

P.S.

What a surprise to see Jose Mourinho shoot his mouth off just as Real Madrid crash out of the Champions League

 

I agree with most of that

Must have been a ghost writer, because the bloke does talk tosh most of the time

 

Not saying that I don't agree with how poor this division is...

...just question the timing of the article.

 

anybody who as seen Stoke would agree with him, along with Watford

The worst teams I have ever seen and they look like going up

 

unfortunatelythe truth and it will reinforce the argument.................

that the Premiership should abolish relegation and become a closed league a la NFL. This is the ultimate aim of the Premier League-that and to reduce the numbers down to 18 clubs

 

Can't Agree With His Article

He makes it sound like someone not walking away with the championship, makes it a poor league. After this weekend, lets see how many lower league teams are still in. It won't be the first time he's looked stupid with his comments (3-0 Liverpool anyone?).

 

RE: Can't Agree With His Article

Can't imagine anyone on here suggesting that the closeness of the Championship this year meant that it was a poor league.

Oh, hang on . . .

http://www.barnsleyfc.org.uk/bbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=92436&mid=594811#M594811

 

For someone who achieved so much as a player..............

He doesn't half talk some B*ll*cks. </p>

It's the only way he can earn a living now.</p>

He failed as a manager and isn't very bright, IMHO. So what else can he do.</p>

The BBC and the Mirror must think he does a good job even though he talks B*ll*cks.</p>

Can the supporters society get him down to one of their meetings. That could make an entertaining evening. Throwing Lawrenson to the Lions! </p>

 

I'm afraid he's right

... the Championship is suffering and the gap is becoming wider. All the cash is going in the Premier who are beginning to make themselves an almost impenetrable fortress.

 

His arguments are contradictory though

As evidence for how bad the Championship is he says that there aren't any teams winning consistently. As evidence for the weakness of the Premier League he say that four teams win all the time?!