With the Premier League just about under way we once again have a new look league with three teams full of fresh faced players looking to make their mark in England’s top division. This article aims to look at why players who are outstanding in the lower leagues either fail to make it in the Premiership and what sets the ones that do aside from those that can not.

 

 

It seems to me that there is a ever growing list of players who are almost too good, to a certain extent, for the Championship but consistently fail to reach the same heights when progressing to the next level.

 

Firstly you have players who are individually signed from already established Premiership clubs. These are generally strikers who have great scoring records and who are signed by teams looking for an injection of goals, either to establish their league position or quite often save them from the threat of relegation. Due to these circumstances a large majority of the players mentioned in this article will be forwards, as the majority of players moving from Championship clubs to the Premiership are indeed attackers.

 

The second group of players to look at are ones involved in teams which have been promoted. Often they have unfashionable histories spending a large period of their career in the lower echelons of the league pyramid. These players have often played a large part in the team success in the Championship and have all of a sudden found themselves in the ‘Promised Land‘.

 

The relative success of these players to maintain themselves in the league compared to the other group of players is a strange one, and along with the theme of this article bodes the idea of what does it take to ‘make it’ in the Premier League?

 

So what of the ‘signings’ how many of them make it? Many of the names you would be familiar with, many will grace your screen on a Saturday once again scoring in the lower league, and sometimes above. The roll call goes: Robert Earnshaw, Michael Chopra, Jay Bothroyd, John Stead, Kenny Miller, Jermaine Beckford, Ishmael Miller, Marlon King, DJ Campbell, Jason Scotland, Dean Ashton, Bobby Zamora and Gregorz Rasiak.

 

The vast majority of these names are very recognisable and forgetting Dean Ashton and Bobby Zamora nearly all have failed to live up to their billing .They are inbetweeners! Guaranteed for goals in the championship, but with almost with the same breath guaranteed to not score many when making that move above.

 

Now I do not hasten to suggest that these players are failures. Rather they have found themselves in the mire between the leagues. What truly makes the difference between the Premiership and the Championship?

 

Most of these players have made the move at one point or another in their career to move to a Premiership team, most were expected to score, but the Premier League is an uncompromising league for a striker. If you do not have an already outstanding record in the league, people will not wait for you to score.

 

There are a few key factors which hold these players back from really living up to their potential. These being the ‘fear of the league’, ‘wrong team’, wrong time’ and sometimes the lack of ability. Each of these players could have this applied to them.

 

Bobby Zamora for example, he joined Tottenham Hotspur as a young player from Brighton and Hove Albion, where his goal scoring record was exceptional. He however recorded only one goal against West Ham in the League Cup before going on to join them. It has only been in recent years, with the change in his game to a more physical player, that he has gained real confidence and unsurprisingly once again found a eye for goal. His move undoubtedly came too soon.

 

The next player to think over is Jermaine Beckford, he exemplifies a player with a ‘fear of the league’. The reputation of the league does many things to a player, for one, it halts their natural ability. Players seem to try too hard and with that think too much about everything they do. Footballers at their best don’t necessarily think about what they are doing it just comes natural to them and the rest is taught. This can be applied to Beckford and his relative lack of goals for Everton.

 

Kenny Miller’s time in the Premiership has been spent with the wrong club. In his first season with Wolves he only scored two goals but after their relegation was much more successful. When he finally made the move as an older player to the Premier League from Celtic he unfortunately choose Derby and their plight in the League was second to none. He is a player with undoubted confidence and ability but has consistently seemingly found himself at the wrong club at the wrong time, and time has now unfortunately caught up with him

 

What of the other type of player that makes the sudden transition from football league player to Premier League player. It is more often that these players are successful in comparison to the other mode of player. When you look at the likes of David Vaughan, Charlie Adam, Matt Jarvis, Chris Eagles and the such like you see players who came up with teams with little to no expectation to do well.

 

The pressure is off. They no longer find themselves with the stress of instant success or a price tag, rather they can fully express themselves and show off their talent. Many of the players that come up are proven to not have the quality needed and once again find themselves in the lower leagues. But more than often there are a group of players who every season prove their worth as true Premier League players, and more than often they are not attackers but defenders, midfielders and goal keepers. Look at Roger Johnson, Robert Green and Scott Dann they personify that player that can successfully make the transition.

 

What is obvious then is that all too often gambles are taken on the wrong type of player to change a team. It is a rare occasion that a centre back will be picked from the lower leagues and asked to make it in the premiership. The same can be said with midfielders. These players however may be the king makers in your team which can turn the tide of a rot, or help you to establish yourself in the league.

 

So what of this years three teams? Who from QPR, Norwich and Swansea will fulfil the void? Who is the next Charlie Adam? Will Danny Graham at Swansea be another Ebanks Blake or will he be the next Dean Ashton? Will Adel Taarabt, who was exceptional in the Championship, be able to display his talent in the same way or is he another inbetweener? And will Andrew Surman be another Giles Barnes or the next Stephen Hunt?