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James Tomkins (West Ham United)

West Ham United may be sitting in third position but they will need to keep hold of their top players, including England Under-21 centre back James Tomkins, if they want to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

It would be a risk for Tomkins to leave the Hammers for a club in the lower reaches like Bolton or Blackburn who would happily snap him up the bolster their backline. Though with West Ham 3rd in the Championship table a return to the Premier

League playing for his boyhood club would be much preferred.
At 22 Tomkins would be eligible to play for Team GB in the Olympics this year and with the England Euro 2012 team unavailable he could be in with an outside chance should he impress in the second half of the domestic season.

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10. Nathaniel Clyne (Crystal Palace)

England Under 21 international defender already reportedly a Newcastle United target.

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Argentinian football club Instituto de Córdoba did not receive a penny when Alejandro Faurlin signed for Queens Park Rangers but the Championship side denies any wrong-doing.

Qpr are charged with seven breaches of Football Association rules connected with the transfer of Faurlin in July 2009 and his contract extension last October.

The most serious charge alleges the 24-year-old was owned by a third-party during the 2009-10 season.

Third-party ownership was banned by the Premier League and FA after the Carlos Tevez saga in 2006 and Qpr are the first club to be charged with breaking the rules.

If found guilty, QPR, currently the Championship leaders, will be docked points which could cost them promotion.

QPR state on their website the deal was worth £3.5million but sources in Argentina confirm Instituto were paid nothing.

All payments by English clubs when buying any player has to go through The FA, so the governing body is aware that no payment was made.

The West London team argue Faurlin was a free agent after coming to the end of his contract with Instituto.

But The FA believes the registration of Faurlín, who has impressed in the Championship, was in fact owned by an Argentinian company.

West Ham were fined £5.5million for irregularities concerning the Carlos Tevez deal and QPR could expect a similar fine, as well as a points reduction.

The other charges, relating to use of an ‘unauthorised agent’ and the QPR chairman, Gianni Paladini, submitting false documentation when renegotiating Faurlin’s contract, are less significant.

The agent involved is Peppino Tirri. The Italian holds a Fifa licence but is registered in England, as the FA requires.

Being “unauthorised” in that way is not as serious for a club as dealing with an agent who holds no licence.

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The Football Association has charged Queens Park Rangers for breaching Third Party and Agents Regulations.

The charges are put against the football club and the chairman Gianni Paladini and is certain to rock the Championship leaders as they bid for promotion to the Premier League.

The seven charges relate to the transfer of Alejandro Faurlin and concern an alleged agreement between the club and a third party in respect of the player’s economic rights.

Qpr is also charged with failure to notify The FA of the agreement and seeking to pay an unauthorised agent when the transfer was completed in July 2009.

The Club and Paladini are also charged with falsifying information contained in documents submitted to The FA in relation to Faurlin signing a contract extension in 2010.

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Every year the same predictions are made before the Premier League season starts. That Man Utd or Chelsea will win the title and that the three promoted sides will struggle and probably get relegated. No team is more written off than the team that gets promoted through the play-offs especially if it’s a team that no-one expected.

However over recent years clubs such as Hull, Burnley and now Blackpool have showed that they are up for the fight to stay in the division. Even though Burnley and Hull got relegated last season I’m sure that their supporters would not have given up their time in the Premier League for anything.  And, what a time it was, as it gave us spectators moments such as Geovanni’s long range spectacular against Arsenal at the Emirates and Robbie Blake’s sublime volley to give Burnley an unlikely winner at Turf Moor against Manchester United. Now Blackpool fans have the memory of playing Liverpool off the park at Anfield, add that  to their humiliation of Wigan and now rest of the league has to stand up and take note that Blackpool are certainly no-pushover’s.

It seems gone are the days when teams such as Sunderland, Derby and West Brom would get promoted and find themselves out of their depth and immediately get relegated back to the Championship. Granted that Sunderland are now an established Premier League side and West Brom look very capable of stopping up. It seems obvious that they learned the lessons the hard way and vowed it would never happen again.

Why are we seeing a change in the fortunes of the promoted sides? Well, there certainly seems to be a change in attitude from the managers and the playing staff, that if the team are going to go down they are going to do it in style.  You can also add the factor of low expectations from the supporters, who would probably be over the moon with 17^th and happy to be in contention for survival in May. All of which, takes a great deal of pressure off the player’s, which means they can play more freely and without fear, leading to some quality football being played at times.

However, the Premier League can be a cruel mistress and even Ian Holloway was not getting too carried by his side’s success as he knows that his side’s fortunes can change overnight, as Hull and Burnley can testify to.

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You will hear time and again just how important it is to reach the coveted top tier of English football and it’s no idle boast and today Burnley achieved that feat and will now have the chance to pit their wits up against the likes of Man United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea in the Premier League.

Financial experts now put the value of winning the Championship Play-off at a cool £60m. This figure is derived from the increase in sponsorship revenue the increase in season ticket sales and perhaps most importantly a share in the huge chunk of money available from TV companies who show the live coverage of the English top tier all around the world.

Once Owen Coyle has finished celebrating he will have to go about the task of forming a squad that is capable of holding it’s own in esteemed company and avoiding a drop back to the Championship next May. It’s a tough job but one that the club will no doubt try it’s hardest and damnedest to achieve.

Well Done Burnley and welcome to the millionaire’s playground!

With third placed Birmingham currently a game and 7 points clear of the next three teams and anyone from 9th able to grab that last spot. How can it be argued that in a play-off situation QPR, twelve points and nine places behind them, would deserve their spot in the Premiership more?

But more to the point, how can the quality of their squad justify their inclusion on the basis of one cup game at Wembley?

Is it now time to have a straight three up three down system and scrap the play-offs for the Championship?

Preston

Lonergan
Jones
Mawene
St. Ledger
Davidson
(Nolan)
Sedgwick
Chaplow
(Nicholson)
McKenna
Wallace
Parkin
Mellor
(Elliott)

Liverpool

Cavalieri
Carragher
Hyypia
Agger
Insua
Alonso
(Leiva Lucas)
Mascherano
(Aurelio)
Babel
Gerrard
Riera
Keane
(Torres)

Arsenal

Fabianski
Sagna
Gallas
Djourou
Silvestre
(Gibbs)
Eboue
(Vela)
Diaby
Nasri
Ramsey
Van Persie
Bendtner
(Wilshere)

Plymouth

Larrieu
Cathcart
Seip
Gray
Barker
Clark
(Noone)
Summerfield
Duguid
Mackie
Gallagher
(MacLean)
Fallon