Pressure mounts as McCarthy fights to keep Wolves in main pack

No-relegation was shot down swiftly but the fact that it was floated at all is revealing, writes MICHAEL WALKER

YOU COULD even suggest a breakaway cup involving clubs from Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow, perhaps even Belfast and Dublin.

Cardiff, Bristol, Plymouth, London, Brighton, Nottingham, Leicester, Sheffield, Leeds would be among the cities represented in a new league that would not be distorted by Champions League annual financial doping, which Uefa are supposedly so against.

It’s said the Premier League breakaway in 1992 changed everything. It formed a new status quo.

ON THE last Saturday of August, which is not so long ago, Wolverhampton Wanderers travelled to midlands rivals Aston Villa and gained a point from a 0-0 draw.

Having won their previous two Premier League games against Blackburn Rovers and Fulham, Wolves lay third in the table and Mick McCarthy’s televised smile was broad and bright. Praise flowed his way.

Since then Wolves have lost five in a row. The last of these was at another midlands rival, Wolves’ closest, West Brom. That was last Sunday and the 2-0 defeat left Wolves fifth-bottom. McCarthy was the same manager as at the end of August but now criticism flowed his way, particularly across the local airwaves.

It is not that sudden a process but the contrast is there. Mick McCarthy appears to be in a corner, and today’s lunchtime kick-off against promoted Swansea at Molineux is tagged must-win by some, “mustn’t lose” by McCarthy.

The former is probably a correct assessment if Wolves are to last a third successive season in the top flight. Last season Wolves won 11 Premier League games, one of which was against promoted Blackpool in February. In May Wolves finished one point above Blackpool, who were relegated.

Victory over Swansea today would not only give Wolves three points, it would deny the Welshmen any.

McCarthy would then be able to ponder resting a few tired legs at Manchester City next Saturday and concentrate on the next home game, against Wigan.

Win these next two home games and Wolves would have four of the 11 victories that kept them up last season and there would still be 27 games left to get the other seven.

Should that occur, McCarthy would understandably receive plaudits next May about another remarkable successful survival fight. He could have a summer holiday as a Premier League manager, then return to fight the same fight all over again knowing that at some stage his ability will be questioned loudly and publicly again, that he will be informed on the radio he has taken Wolves as far as he can, again.

And McCarthy might just ask himself: is that it, is that all there is? The answer he gives himself, or hears from others, will surely be “Probably”.

Because if McCarthy is in a corner today, he is no different to half the other club managers in the Premier League. They are all scrapping over the same piece of turf, the one that lies between eighth and 17th in the division.

This is what the Premier League has become and if we have known this for some time and fretted over the predictability, lack of democracy and uncompetitiveness there are still weeks when all that is crystallised afresh.

This was one of those weeks.

To begin with there was something unappealing about Manchester City’s 4-1 win against Aston Villa last Saturday.

“We were amateur,” said Alex McLeish, of his professionals.

It would be interesting to know the mood on the Villa bus home. You would expect it to be flat after such a result, but was it angry? It should have been. Flat acceptance of City’s assumed superiority is all part of the problem of the Premier League.

Roy Keane used to talk of United beating teams in the tunnel; opponents had the excuse they were facing Manchester United.

Now it feels like the excuse is City’s money. Of course they have acquired major players but City’s back five last Saturday contained Hart, Clichy and Lescott, who could easily be playing for Villa. Two of those ahead of them, Milner and Barry, came from Villa.

Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and substitute David Silva are a class above but they are not unbeatable.

Meanwhile, down at Chelsea, Everton were 3-0 down in an hour and David Moyes spoke afterwards about not making the top six this season; a day later Sunderland lost 2-1 at Arsenal. Only 2-1.

Where is the resistance? Where is the ambition? We think of Stoke City as challengers but they finished 13th last season.

The notion of a league within the league has been around for years, and, allowed to flourish, it is now the accepted reality. Money, from Abramovich, Abu Dhabi and the Champions League have ground down the competition.

We have a monopoly at the top and the self-serving ruling on youth development on Thursday will only increase it.

The accepted reality is such that the idea of a Premier League without relegation can be floated.

This a week after a Liverpool director said he wants to cut the likes of Bolton from foreign TV rights.

No-relegation was brought to earth swiftly but the fact it was floated in the first place is revealing. There are people desperate to protect the status quo. They are doing very nicely out of it.

Perhaps no relegation would relax teams like Wolves and Villa. They could have a go week in, week out and not fear the consequences.

As it is Mick McCarthy looked ahead to Swansea City at home and said: “I’d take a point now.”

Here's an idea to mull over . . .

HERE'S AN idea for the Football League chairmen incensed by the Premier League and Football Association's apparent gerrymandering of youth development via their Elite Player Performance Plan, by the Premier League's notions on TV rights and relegation, and by the patronising attitude in general: form a breakaway league.

There are enough well-supported clubs in the Championship and below to sustain a competitive league with a good geographical spread.

Just as before the creation of the Premier League, a club such as Nottingham Forest could win it.

Think ahead 10 years and who beyond United, City and Chelsea can win the Premier League – not just reach "the top four", but become the best team in England? Who? Is that not demotivating?

The last six winners of the Championship are QPR, Newcastle, Wolves, West Brom, Sunderland and Reading.

Can they ever win the Premier League? Even if a Football League breakaway, with relegation but without promotion to the Premier League, could not be achieved quickly, why not float it as a contender?

That's what the Premier League do.

It could be called The Football League.