Black Sabbath

No, not a post about some long haired West Midlands heavy metal band of the 1970's but the name given to the final day of the Premiership season which saw Newcastle and Middlesbrough join West Brom in football's equivalent of the Star Trek transporter.

Ian Wright, in one of his more lucid moments, did pose the question a few weeks ago about whether or not some clubs really did care whether or not they went down from England's top flight. The two years of parachute payments don't seem to have benefited West Brom at all since they were last relegated and all the well meaning talk about not wishing to spend more than they receive seems flabby when compared with the £60 million they have accumulated in recent sesaons via the promotion-relegation yo-yo.

For Newcastle United the reality will dawn next season when they look at the fixture list and see that their 'local derby' is against Scunthorpe United. For Middlesbrough the lack of investment in a team bereft of any genuine quality can only be seen as foolhardy. It doesn't take much crystal ball gazing to see that the 'Boro' will quickly join former Premiership teams: Norwich, Southampton, Charlton and Leeds United in England's third tier.

West Ham finished ninth an improvement on last seasons 10th but we still finished one place below Tottenham albeit down to goal difference. Nex season with a fit Dean Ashton, Kieron Dyer and a seasons experience for the likes of James Tomkins and Jack Collison things should get better - there's no obvious reason why Fulham, Aston Villa and Tottenham should finish ahead of us again.

Manchester United won the title despite having the worst record in head-to-head matches against the other teams of the 'big four' and Liverpool saw their 18 league titles record equalled despite having beaten the Champions 4-1 at Old Trafford. Liverpool lost the league following a series of abject displays at home against the likes of Fulham, Stoke and West Ham. For Chelsea, the fact that this summer they will appoint their fourth manager in a year says it all really, an ageing team showing little sign of improvement doesn't look in great shape for 2009-10. And what of Arsenal? Last August Arsene Wenger boldly announced that this season would see his young team challenge for honours, and its true they reached the semi-finals of two cup competitions but too many players didn't look up for a fight in the league.

I was wrong about Stoke City, I expected them to be relegated because of their one dimensional approach to football and also thought Hull City would be relegated but they somehow survived.

My villain of the year was Harry 'rent a quote' Redknapp. Interviewed by one of his many non-questioning media loveys, Redknapp said that the current crop of West Ham youngsters would never emulate the players he brought through the club in his time there. This was not only a gross insult to the young players at West Ham but missed one blindingly obvious fact. The players who he was talking about, with reference to the 2008 Champions League final, were: Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, Michael Carrick and Joe Cole - they reached the final at the ages of 29, 29, 27 and 27 - I think Jack Collison, who is 20 still has plenty of years left before he needs to worry about not making it 'big'.