An Ode to the Championship

Watching the trophy festivities replay on ESPN+ later Saturday evening, the broadcast closed with that EFL intro jingle. I suddenly became quite saddened and realized: I'm going to miss the Championship.

Yes, the Premier League is where Fulham belong and the top flight is where any club should strive toward.

But I'm going to miss the variety of clubs and locales, playing the once-greats and the small potatoes, the amount of games, the seeming evenness of it all.

Being in the EPL at times felt like rooting for a mid-level college football team in a top power conference. Resources make things rote: "These are the games you'll probably lose; these are the games you'll probably win; these are the games you'll need to win in order to have a 'good' season. Have a nice day."

The Championship did away with that stratification. Even though we were a "bigger" club during our duration, we had some fairly mediocre XIs during that span. There were lean years that the performance and inability to watch matches live left my interest waning significantly.

But, it never spelled our ultimate doom. I could still enjoy it, Fulham could win or lose without the same sense of existential dread or anxiety that the EPL brought us. There was always another game, another day to live and fight on; outside the microscope and oligarchs (yes I'm fully aware our chairman is a billionaire). A home loss to Bristol City? Well there's a match away to Burton in 72 hours so shake it off.

Going 23 matches undefeated will obviously shade my appreciation of this league. I'm sure any Derby County fan will sell their soul to get out of this division. Charlton, Portsmouth, or Plymouth fans will do anything to get back in to this division. There's a lot Fulham are leaving, and we should all remember that in our joy.

 

We well said Timmy

 

Good stuff indeed. And spot on. And I hope we never go back.