In the Championship – Preston in search for fans

They are though very much in the driving seat after that farcical second goal from Richard Cresswell (and it was Cresswell) in the last few minutes of the first leg. Derby will be without Michael Johnson, Chris Makin, Inigo Idaikez and Grzegorz Rasiak and pulling back two goals is going to be difficult.

It’s certainly all to play for in the second match where Ipswich showed it isn’t that difficult to come from two behind. Once they had got Drissa Diallo off the pitch at half time they looked a much better side and they will surely start as favourites at home tonight against West Ham.

Whether we will get more argy bargy on the touch line with Pardew and Long Ball Joe we will have to wait and see but even if we do, as LBJ says, it is none of our business.

We can already say welcome to Hull and Luton from League One and they will be joined by either Hartlepool or Sheffield Wednesday. Hull have already started to strengthen their squad and have snapped up former Sheffield United and Birmingham midfielder Curtis Woodhouse from Peterborough.

For Woodhouse it’s a return home and an opportunity to play for the club he supports and he has turned other offers down. Once tipped for England the 25 year old has lost his way somewhat after losing his place at Birmingham but has been a regular in the Peterborough side for almost two years.

Luton weren’t too far behind them and they’ve also now made their first signing – bringing in Carlos Edwards from Wrexham. The Trinidadian has turned down offers from Leeds, Millwall, Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday to sign for Luton.

We could offer a welcome to Crystal Palace, Norwich and Southampton as well but I’m not sure it is exactly what they wanted. The rest of us are going to find it difficult next season because two of them, Palace and Norwich, have already said they are on their way up.

Delia Smith - she just kept on smiling as Norwich went down

Not all the Norwich fans were downcast though, as they suffered a 6-0 defeat in the last match at Fulham we were treated to more showings of Delia Smith on television than the match at times. How on earth could she carry on smiling when they were six down?

Southampton seem to be the one of the three on the real downer and they are still awaiting news as to whether they will have two Redknapps, one or none at all next season.

Son Jamie continues to play in severe pain and is considering retiring from the playing side of the game whilst dad ‘Arry is considering his options and it is looking as though he doesn’t fancy Championship football.

Chairman Rupert Lowe has suggested that the club has made too many managerial changes of late and that has cost them. Now who is it that makes all these managerial changes? He also thought Steve Wigley’s record was good during his tenure, I would have thought three wins from seventeen games was not very good at all.

He has irons in the fire though if Redknapp and his team leave – he’s got rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward and there are rumours that the likes of Duncan Fletcher and Elleray Hanley have been approached.

Lowe did say in the end that the only reason they went down is because they had too many losses instead of draws and too many draws instead of wins. Maybe he’s finally getting a grasp on the game.

There’s one club without manager and one club who have secured their manager for a longer period. The one without is Millwall and new chairman Jeff Burnidge says it will be someone with Millwall tradition, even if he has never been with Millwall previously. Whilst trying to work that one out I heard that India coach Steven Constantine was favourite for the job. It makes you wonder what sort of football India play if they have a Millwall tradition.

Glenn Hoddle - staying at Molineux

No such problems at Wolves where Glenn Hoddle has signed a new one year rolling contract after there had been much speculation that he would be on his way. The Wolves fans might not have wanted him at the time but their minds have been changed with one defeat in twenty-five league games.

Since he took over only five teams have picked up more points and they finished in the top five places.

Hoddle is also hoping to attract Henri Camara back to Molineux but that seems unlikely with the player and his agent touting themselves around the Premiership.

Wolves were finally absolved of all blame this week following the terrible incident during the 2003/04 season when a supporter was hit by a firework. Jubilee Fireworks of Kingswinsford were fined £10,000 in court this week with Wolves again confirming that they will not have fireworks again at Molineux.

Sheffield United have been quick into the transfer market and have signed French midfielder Lilian Nalis who has been released by Leicester for financial reasons. Some though it was a strange signing given that Neil Warnock tends only to sign strikers.

Fear not though, he’s been linked with moves for Watford’s Heidar Helguson and Juan Ugarte from Wrexham although he faces stiff competition to get either.

Leeds meanwhile just continue to try and sign players. Kevin Blackwell told his fans not too long ago that he had got himself a 15-goal per season striker and he’s now on the lookout for another striker. He wants Helguson too.

That 15-goal per season striker has taken another swipe at his former club this week, being heavily critical of last year’s pre-season, funny though that’s not what he said when he was out in Austria.

Juan Ugarte - in demand

Blackwell is also considering moves for Everton’s David Weir and young Italian defender Raffaele Schiavi.

Crewe and Cardiff are the other clubs that want Ugarte. Dario G has said that if they don’t get a goal scorer then it will be another tough season next time and one where they might not be quite so fortunate.

He did say that they are competing against clubs who have better players than Crewe – that must have given his squad a massive list. He’s also been looking at Rochdale’s Grant Holt whilst Kenny Lunt is apparently on his way out with Burnley one of the clubs mentioned.

Cardiff have no money, are in a hell of a state but Lennie Lawrence seems confident that he can get the Spaniard from Wrexham.

Whilst in the Welsh capital they have come up with an ingenious idea for selling season tickets (please no one mention this one to Dave Edmundson). They have sent out 37,000 season ticket packs and have then got volunteers from the supporters clubs to phone each and everyone of them to try and persuade them to buy one for next season.

Poor Reading chairman and owner John Madejski. Despite putting his name to virtually everything – including the stadium and the hotel next to it – he wasn’t satisfied and Reading have revealed this week that the ticket office, formerly known as ‘The Ticket Office’ will now be called ‘The Madejski Stadium Sales Centre’. That should give him and Cilla a lorra, lorra laughs, not everyone gets to have a ticket office named after them.

I bet it hasn’t changed things though and the club that charges £2.40 for a pie will probably still be ripping off away fans again next season with their blatant overcharging.

Manager Steve Coppell has finally worked out why Reading won’t be winning promotion, he has said there isn’t enough quality in the side particularly in terms of creativity.

There’s no news from Coventry, they are too busy getting everything packed into boxes ready for their move to the new stadium. If they are short of removal fans they could always stick some stuff into the boot of manager Micky Adams’ new car – a Jaguar XJ Super V8. It really is tough being a football manager.

Finally this week there’s some good news for one club with a financial boost. QPR’s former Chairman Chris Wright has sold his stake in the club to current Chairman Bill Powell following Wasp’s long term deal to play their rugby at Wycombe.

Wright has immediately donated every penny he has received from Powell back into the club and although no figure has been given the news is that QPR have received what they have described as a substantial amount of money.

By next week we will know the play off finalists – so I think at this point I’ll put a jinx on Preston and predict an Ipswich v Preston final.