That’s the idea Ben Procter is analysing… bringing back fond memories of Swindon’s 1992/3 play-off final victory over Leicester.

Here is his argument (incidentally, the Man Utd game we linked to earlier was a 5-3 thriller with 6 goals in the last 17 minutes…)

Watching a late night session of American Football and thinking about their playoff system, I realised top-flight football is one of the only sports they don’t feature in.

Recently, Rugby Union and Rugby League have moved to a playoff format, Tennis has the Masters Series for the top eight players, and American Football, Basketball, Ice Hockey and Baseball have been using playoffs for years.

That playoffs, culminating in a final, add excitement to these sports is undoubted – just look at the number of people who don’t follow American Football yet watch the Superbowl. In 2008 it was broadcast to a worldwide audience of 148.3 million viewers.

The lower leagues use the playoff system to determine the third promoted side. The finals are a great spectacle and draw season-high crowds both at the games and on television. Would this system be a good idea for the Premiership to add some extra excitement at the end of the season?

You can be certain that the ‘Big Four’ managers would talk about player burn-out and the already congested fixture list. However, I’m sure that the players of the teams finishing from 5th to 8th in the league would have no such problems if it gave them a chance to lift the title. It would give more for the teams who finish the season in mid-table mediocrity to play for at the end of the season, but may result in a team running away with the league and not being named champions.

There would also be the opportunity to bring the game to a wider audience. There has been talk of a 39th game each season (to be played at overseas venues) – running playoffs at the end of the season would be a perfect opportunity to try this out.

So what conclusions can we draw?

It may create an extra buzz at the end of the season with teams having more to play for, and create opportunities to expand the game to a more worldwide audience.

However, football doesn’t lack for excitement at the end of the season – relegation, european places and titles are often decided on the final day. Add to that the possibility of player burn-out and maybe even the degrading of the FA Cup and I don’t think playoffs shouild come to the Premiership. It’s one bandwagon I can’t see football jumping on.

Ben takes a look at some of the major summer transfers and how they have fared at their new clubs. Part two to follow…

De Souza Robinho (Manchester City)
The obvious choice to look at first when talking about the summer transfers. Manchester City would have broken the bank with the British record £32.5 million transfer which they paid Real Madrid for his services on transfer deadline day were it not for the bankroll their new owners could provide. He has weighed in so far this season with 8 goals and 2 assists and has been an ever present for Mark Hughes apart from when injured for the 1-1 away draw with Fulham. One has to think that there is still more to come from him, there have been glimpses of brilliance, but he has not proved to be the consistent match-winner Citeh fans would have hoped for on his arrival at Eastlands. Mark Hughes will be hoping to use some of his wad of cash to bring other star names in the January window, he will just have to hope they gel instantly, and also with Robinho, otherwise he may be out the door in the summer.

Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United)
The other big money signing of deadline day, sparked a war of words between Manchester United and Spurs over “illegal dealings” after his £30.75 million + the loan of Fraizer Campbell switch. He has scored only 2 league goals for United this season, but has weighed in with a creditable 6 assists and after the first 3 games of the season has only been out of SAF’s starting line up for the away trip to Aston Villa. He has shown glimpses of the form which led to his big money move, his piece of skill to set up Cristiano Ronaldo in the West Ham game has to be one of the moments of the season so far.

Deiberson Geovanni (Hull City)
Has to be undoubtedly the signing of the season thus far. Since his move to the tigers, Geovanni has not just scored some fantastic goals, but he has also instilled a belief in the newly promoted team that they can play with the big boys. It must be amazing for Ian Ashbee and Paul McShane, to name just 2 run of the mill journeymen, to play in the same team as someone with the guile and undoubted quality which Geovanni possesses. He has hit the back of the net 6 times in the league so far this season, Hull winning 4 and drawing 1 of these games. He is not just a goal scorer, he is a match winner, he is an inspiration, he brings hope to all those journeymen who week in week out dream of upsetting the big boys.
Jose Bosingwa (Chelsea)
You can read in depth about Jose Bosingwa here. But it would not be fair to write this without mentioning him. Chelsea lie second in the table behind Liverpool and although many Chelsea fans would expect them to be topping the table at this stage, they have 2 more points than they did at this stage last season. One of the reasons for this must be Bosingwa. He has added an attacking flair down the right wing which Chelsea have not seen for some time, to think last season their right backs included Paulo Ferreira, Juliano Belletti and Michael Essien. He has already scored 2 and set up 4 goals this season and has only missed 22 minutes of action all season, he has to be up there with the first name on the Chelsea team sheet and has proved a snip at £16.2 million from Porto.

Peter Crouch (Portsmouth)
The biggest disclosed transfer fee for an English player paid during the summer at £11 million from Liverpool, Peter Crouch has looked like a very shrewd purchase this season. He has started every league game for the South coast side, has scored 6 goals and set up 3 more. He was never given the chance that he deserved at Liverpool, he has shown since his move that he can finish with his head and his feet, he can hold up the ball, not in the same way that Emile Heskey can, but play it to his feet and there are few more difficult strikers to win the ball from in the league. Should weigh in with lots more goals in the second half of the season, and really prove his worth.

David Bentley (Tottenham Hotspur)
Bentley’s form at Blackburn last year suggested he may have a real break through season at Spurs this year. In reality, he has been a real disappointment, he has shown very little of that same form this term. He takes the majority of Spurs’ set pieces, regularly with a lack of aplomb. The fact that he has made only 4 league assists this season is testament to this. He did score quite possibly the goal of the season in the incredible 4-4 draw with Arsenal (See below), but that has proved to be a blip on an otherwise highly disappointing season thus far. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Harry Redknapp get the best out of him in the second half of the season, but Spurs fans will be sincerely hoping he does to justify his undisclosed summer transfer fee.

Robbie Keane (Liverpool)
In the same way as Geovanni being the signing of the season thus far, Robbie Keane is undoubtedly the flop of the season. He was signed from Spurs for the mammoth fee of £20.3 million and all Liverpool fans must have been expecting great things from him. With his form at Spurs over the last few seasons, the thought of his link up with Fernando Torres was mouth watering. The outcome of his transfer has been a flop. He has scored only 2 league goals thus far, has failed to form a partnership with the magnificent Fernando Torres when they have played together and has been left out of the action in the last 2 league matches. His face when overlooked on Saturday for El Zhar, Babel and Lucas told a picture. He doesn’t look like a happy boy and has been linked with a move back to Spurs when the transfer window reopens. Although this appears to be unlikely, if he doesn’t buck his ideas up it definitely doesn’t look entirely out of the question.

Tiger’s article has provoked a response from Ben Procter. Below he analyses Harry Redknapp’s claim, before looking at exactly why O’Neill deserves the prestigious Footballsup Coach of the Year Award...

Having read Tiger’s article on the footballing personalities of the year, I thought I might just expand on one of his nominations – the coach of the year winner, Martin O’Neill.

I feel there is a very strong case for Harry Redknapp. He took Portsmouth to the FA Cup title last season, and if you were to combine the points scored by him at Portsmouth and Spurs this season he would be sitting proudly in 6th position on 30 points with a goal difference of +1. It is testament to his quality as a manager that he has brought a group of players back together at White Hart Lane, who seemed down and out earlier in the season, and taken them to victory against the strongest Liverpool side we have seen in years and, more recently, to a hard fought and well deserved draw with Manchester United.

However, having said all this, I believe that Tiger is right in awarding the title to O’Neill. The obvious reason being the fantastic job he has done over the last few seasons, and more prominently this season, lifting Aston Villa to the brink of battling full time with the big four – at the same time disputing the aforementioned Harry Redknapp who, after the Spurs vs Man U game, implied that the big four would finish as the top four again this season.

Villa have everything required to join this elite group. A solid goalkeeper (Friedel), a titan of a centre back (Laursen), a battling and passing central midfielder (Barry) and a goalscoring striker (Agbonlahor). Add to this the youth and excitement of Ashley Young and James Milner, the experience of Jon Carew and Stilian Petrov, the battling qualities of Nigel Reo-Coker and Steve Sidwell and you have a formidable squad of players.

However, it is for the development of Gaby Agbonlahor that I believe he requires most credit. I think that most English football fans would place a national victory in the World or European Championships above club success. In recent times the most difficult job for the England manager (other than the Lampard and Gerrard issue) has been to find a partner for Wayne Rooney up front. In Gaby Agbonlahor, Martin O’Neill is moulding the perfect foil for Rooney. He has pace, can play on the break, has good vision, and has proved himself this season to be the best English born finisher in the league, to this point.

Martin O’Neill can take all the credit for this development, apart from Agbonlahor’s parents of course. One needs look only at the number of games started by premiership strikers since the start of the 2006/2007 season to see the reason for his development. O’Neill has shown an unerring will to start with Agbonlahor, indeed he has started 91 of a possible 93 games in this period, 13 more than Kevin Davies, who I think it is fair to say is not the perfect foil for Rooney, 15 more than the mercurial Dimitar Berbatov, who unfortunately is not English, and 16 more than Emile Heskey, who although throwing his name into the hat recently does not offer the same threat that Agbonlahor does. If other Premiership managers were to show the faith in young English talent which O’Neill has, then maybe there would be more future English World Class players developing in the premiership.

We must give kudos to Arsene Wenger for developing the precocious talent that is Theo Walcott, but Martin O’Neill’s devotion to developing young English talent is second to none. For that reason above any other, he is my coach of the season, and I look forward to the forthcoming years when the young Aston Villa starlets will be rife among the England set up.