Championship Play-off Preview

Crystal Palace vs Watford

The biggest game in World sport. The £50million, £60million, £200million decider. For the victor, rewards beyond their imaginations. The losers? Another season of Championship chaos.

Palace and Watford enter the play-off final at Wembley epitomising two different strategies. Palace relies on a productive youth system, exploiting their relatively large London catchment area (at least compared to other sides in the capital), identifying, nurturing, and then polishing young talent. Wilfried Zaha is the latest starlet off the Palace production line, and the England international will be playing in the Premiership whatever happens, with a summer switch to Manchester United already sealed.

Following him is Jonathan Williams, with a quick google showing links to Tottenham, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool, and after the Eagles recent financial woes it is fortunate that their academy is so effective and productive. It would please many if a club which relied so heavily on young British talent was able to compete in the Premiership.

Watford, on the other hand, have proved somewhat controversial in their methods. Last summer the Pozzo family took charge at Vicarage Road. The Pozzos own Italian outfit Udinese and Spanish La Liga team Granada, and Watford have joined that affiliation. Udinese are the main club and have an enviable scouting system – players like Alexis Sanchez, Goklan Inler, Fabio Quagliarella and Kwadwo Asamoah are just some of the names to have moved on to bigger and better things, earner Udinese a fortune in the process – while Granada was bought to provide competitive football for those players who could not make it into the Italian side.

Watford initially joined as another feeder club for Udinese, exploiting Football League rules that placed limits on domestic loans but no limit on loans from abroad. While there was little blame on the Hornets for exploiting the gaping hole in the rules, the Football League have moved to outlaw such methods from next season. In the mean time Watford, under Gianfranco Zola, finished just outside the automatic relegation places, experiencing heartbreak on the final day as they failed to get the win that would have seen them in the Premiership already.

The luck that was missing came back in abundance in their play-off semi final, as opponents Leicester missed a penalty that would have won Nigel Pearson’s side the tie, and Watford went up the other end and scoredthe winner through Troy Deeney.

"Whichever team is promoted will face a difficult summer, with players leaving both teams and rivals looking to snap up their talent."

Watford have claimed that they will make the loan moves of players like Matej Vydra, Marco Cassetti and Almen Abdi permanent should they win promotion, and Fernando Forestieri has already made the permanent transfer from Italy to England.

Back in Italy, however, the feeling of Udine fans is thatthe Pozzo family actually prefer English football over their traditionalheartland. The sheer size of the broadcasting revenues in the Premiership has led some fans to accuse the Pozzo son, Gino, of focusing on Watford more and more, and there could be a scenario were Watford become the club with all the star names that loans them out to Udinese – what would the critics say then?

Back to the bank holiday match, and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top. Ian Holloway entertains and annoys in equal measures, while plenty of neutral fans have sympathy for Zola for the way he was treated at West Ham. The likeable Italian and eccentric West Countryman will add some colour to post match interviews, and they both appear to coach their sides to play good, attacking football.

To the game itself, and it looks to be a pretty even affair. Palace will look to Zaha, who scored the two goals that knocked out Brighton in their play-off semi final, and Yannick Bolasie. The absence of Glenn Murray is a big blow and it might need Kevin Phillips to come off the bench and grab the goals that Palace need.

Watford on the other hand have less worries, and will look to Deeney and Vydra to continue their excellent form this season in front of goal. They will come up against Julian Speroni, one of the best keepers in the championship, and whoever comes out on top will decide who wins.

Whichever team is promoted will face a difficult summer, with players leaving both teams and rivals looking to snap up their talent. Neither side is likely to be a big spender and they are likely to struggle in the Premiership next season, much like Reading have this time around. The money on offer, however, will secure either clubs’ future for a few years at least, and after their recent financial woes that is at least something to look forward to.