Championship Talk

We’re proud to announce that Championship Talk and our sister sites have joined Football Media, a network of leading football websites from around the world covering the beautiful game.

Fellow sites within Football Media include Soccerlens, Footy 24/7, Anfield Red, FCB News, The Republik of Mancunia and several other sites.

Some of the goals behind Football Media is to share best practices among soccer bloggers about how to create better sites, generate advertising revenue and to answer technical questions.

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The “Championship Talk” show originally scheduled as per usual for Monday, 10 Dec. has been delayed to Wednesday, 12 Dec., due to unexpected technical glitches and scheduling conflicts this week. Apologies for the inconvenience…if signs of withdrawal syndrome are starting to set in, please refer to our 5 suggestions below on how to cope with the pain:

1. Older episode(s) may be fun to listen to…especially for the first time in the case of new listeners. “Gaffer Go Round” and “Glad All Over” are two of our personal favourites.
2. Sleeping pills until Wednesday….some of the over-the-counter stuff these days is not bad.
3. You might get an emailed photo from Georgie if you ask nicely. Brian’s on Facebook.
4. There may be subliminal messages if you play the recent shows backwards (or not).
5. Alcohol….Brian recommends Johnnie Walker Black….Georgie enjoys red wine, especially during the “festival” season.

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Congratulations to legendary “Championship Talk” listener Karl Krause of Daytona Beach, Florida (and yes Georgie, Houston too!) for making the monumental life decision on which Championship club to support (Sheffield Wednesday). Brian is hoping that Wolves (his suggestion for which club Karl should support) beat Wednesday like a red-headed stepchild on 29 Jan., in light of Karl opting for Georgie’s recommendation.

All kidding aside, its great to receive photos from listeners, and we’re more than willing to assist with club support selection at no charge (customized for an individual’s tastes). Since divorcing is not an option when it comes to English football fandom, it really is a more crucial decision than marriage proposals! Best wishes to Karl and his Owls this season.

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As mentioned on our 26 Nov. show, please send us your caption ideas regarding this alluring visual!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/carlisle_united/7109033.stm

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To review, here are Georgie’s predictions regarding our friendly competition mentioned on today’s show (19 November):

–Next Player to be Sent Off: Ricardo Fuller (Stoke)
–Next Manager to be Fined: Neil Warnock (Crystal Palace)
–Next Manager to be Sacked: Dave Jones (Cardiff)
–Next Club to Concede 5 Goals: Blackpool
–Bottom of the Table at Boxing Day: NorWich

Please submit your forecasts to Brian (brian@championshiptalk.com). Those of you with more correct prognostications that the astute Ms. Frost (good luck) will be entered into a drawing. Five winners will be randomly drawn and will receive “Championship Talk” tee-shirts in January. Please email Brian with any questions. Thank you for your interest in the show!

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Sheffield Wednesday’s academy has formed a partnership with the Kalamazoo Outrage to create new opportunities for young players at both clubs. The Kalamazoo Outrage is a new club founded in 2007 and will compete in the Premier Development League (the fourth tier of men’s soccer in the US). The Wednesday academy is also pursuing possible tie-ups with a club in Vancouver, Canada while former Owl Juan Cobain is looking at a similar set up with a club in Argentina.

This sort of partnership will only help North American soccer move forward and I hope there are more of these setups put in place in the near future.

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There were buckets of goals in the Championship this past weekend. Three matches had 3-0 scorelines (Plymouth beat Norwich, Charlton beat Cardiff, Hull beat Preston), West Brom thumped 10-man Coventry 4-0, Sheffield Wednesday lit up Southampton for five goals and Ipswich embarrassed Bristol City by a 6-0 scoreline.

For Coventry, striker Michael Mifsud was sent off after only 10 minutes for a nasty and flagrant elbow on defender Carl Hoefkens, but it took the Baggies until the 56th minute to capitalize on their advantage. Filipe Teixeira ran riot for West Brom with two goals and set up another.

As Brian mentioned on the most recent episode of the Championship Talk podcast, Southampton’s defence was shambolic against Sheffield Wednesday. The prime example for me was early into the secound half on Akpo Sodje’s first goal when four Southampton defenders could not contain two Wednesday forwards. They all appeared confused and simply stood off Sodje as he fired the ball past Kelvin Davis. That seemed to open the floodgates and Wednesday had the run of the match the rest of the way. Manager George Burley said “To concede in the manner we did was ridiculous. You can’t defend like that.” The Owls are now unbeaten in four matches and look to be turning their season around.

Promotion favourites, Charlton, sit in third place just two points back of West Brom. Chris Iwelumo was on target again for Charlton and now has 7 goals in 16 appearances this season and has been a very solid signing. The loss for Cardiff pushed them to the edge of the relegation zone. They remain above the drop solely on goal difference and the heat will be turned up on manager Dave Jones. Jones has already been under fire for the team’s poor start, been taken to task for missing a reserve game to attend the launch of chairman Peter Ridsdale’s book and has been put up “for sale” on eBay, by a disgruntled fan who hoped the club would take the hint and sack Jones.

In a battle of struggling sides, Norwich’s extended their run without a victory to 12 matches while Plymouth grabbed their first victory in four attempts.

Ipswich were powered by a Jonathan Walters hat trick as they cruised past Bristol City. They continued their 100 per cent record at Portman Road in the league this season and tore apart an opposition side that many expected to present them with a tough match. Ipswich looked a class apart at times and David Wright’s header for the second goal was a thing of beauty.

Here’s hoping the goals keep flowing in the next round of matches!

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Now that hosts Brian Koski and Georgie Frost have been getting into a regular groove with their fantastic Championship Talk Podcast, I want to take a moment to welcome any new readers and listeners.

The goal of Championship Talk is to provide the most remarkable content to supporters who follow the league.

But in order to continue to grow, we need to hear what you’re interested in reading and hearing. Please post your comments on this blog or email me directly at thegaffer[at]epltalk[dot]com (or email georgie[at]championshiptalk[dot]com or brian[at]championshiptalk[dot]com).

If you enjoy Championship Talk, be sure to check out the other sister sites (and podcasts): EPL Talk, La Liga Talk, Serie A Talk, Major League Soccer Talk and Champions League Talk.

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One of the oldest rivalries (dating back to 1902) in the Championship is between Ipswich Town and Norwich City. Both clubs are based out of the East Anglia region, which includes the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The well-known football clubs in the region include Norwich, Ipswich, Cambridge, Peterborough and Colchester. The derby between Ipswich and Norwich is also sometimes referred to as the Old Farm Derby, a play on the Old Firm Derby that reflects the region’s agricultural history.

Both clubs have also had some major news in the past couple of days. Ipswich Town’s board has agreed to sell a majority stake in the club to businessman Marcus Evans. The investment will see Evans purchase the Championship club’s approximate £32m debt as well as invest a further £12m through the issue of new shares.

Ipswich are currently fourth in the Championship ahead of Sunday’s derby with Norwich, who will be lead by new gaffer Glenn Roeder. The former Newcastle United manager takes charge at Norwich City and his first goal will be to get the club out of the relegation zone. Norwich supporters will hope he can improve on a managerial record that can hardly be categorized as a success. Norwich are sitting at the bottom of the Championship four points away from safety and there appear to be problems at both ends of the pitch for Norwich as they have only created 7 goals in 13 games while conceding 18.

Between Ipswich and Norwich, the Tractor Boys have the more successful history having claimed an English championship, an FA Cup and even a UEFA Cup. Ipswich also have the slight edge in the derby matches having won 58, while Norwich have won 51, the remaining 25 being drawn. Their most recent meeting, last season at Carrow Road, ended in a 1-1 draw.

Going into this match, the only thing Norwich can look to as a sign of hope is that they are playing at home and that Ipswich have been pretty dreadful away from home so far. Ipswich are winless in six road matches (3 losses and 3 draws) and have a -8 goal differential. The Tractor Boys will need to use this match as a statement if they are to push for a promotion or playoff spot. They need to prove to themselves and others that they can win tough matches away from the friendly confines of Portman Road.

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“Championship Talk” will be back on Monday, 29 October, featuring Alex Rice of “The Beautiful Game” fame, Brian Koski, and more Crystal Palace interviews. Georgie is sadly on holiday in Asia, but will return for the Monday, 5 November episode. Thank you for your continued patience, the show aims for more regular weekly episodes slated for release each Monday throughout November.

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