Rethink time for the relegation regulars

here are two things that do not work: Watford and Norwich. Not as Premier league entities, anyway. Not as they currently are. Norwich returned to the Championship with their 23rd league defeat of the season on Saturday, Watford, now 12 points adrift of safety, need to win all of their final four games to even stand the remotest chance of survival, so will duly follow them. It is Norwich’s sixth Premier league relegation, and the last three have come at the first attempt. Watford will now fall a fourth time, and this will be their third immediate relegation from the top flight. So, whatever these clubs are doing, isn’t working. There is perhaps more sympathy for Norwich who do not have football-wealthy owners or a significant budget, but Watford possess a philosophy supposedly built on the trading smarts of the Pozzo family. Managers are disposable and often treated with contempt and, if it worked, there may be some justification. But it doesn’t. Watford keep getting relegated because their strategy is tailored to business, not football. No coach lasts long enough to forge an identity. equally, while any team outside the famed Big Six could get relegated with the right set of unfortunate circumstances, Brighton are now concluding their fifth season, if Burnley stay up they will have lasted six, Crystal Palace nine, Southampton 10. It does not follow that Norwich always have to go down, or that Watford appear permanently at risk. It is happening too often to be just rotten luck. Strategically, they are getting it wrong, yet stay strangely resistant to change.

WHAT a bizarre request from Roman Abramovich that those bidding for Chelsea up their offers by £500million to fund a charitable donation to the victims of Russia’s war in Ukraine. He can’t be charitable with someone else’s money.