With the richest match in football now decided the Football League play-offs are once again in full swing with the usual mix of drama and tense-natured games as always.
With the League 1 & 2 finals to be decided in the coming days, there is a very prominent lack of big names in the running for a place at the Wembley or Old Trafford showpieces.
The Championship is the most pertinent of that fact.
The two teams left standing following the weekend's events are Reading and Swansea. One thing both have in common is the unrecognisable names and young managers they have at the respective helms.
At Reading, is Brian McDermott.
A 14-year career which started at Arsenal and continued with less glamorous stop-offs at Exeter and IFK Norkkoping in Sweden. He first joined Reading's coaching set-up in 2000 as the chief scout and after a spell as the clubs Reserves and U19 boss, took the top job at the Berkshire club initially as Caretaker, ironically from his opponent in the May 30th Final, Brendan Rogers.
With Rogers who's path to being just 90 minutes away from the football elite is something similar to McDermott in that he plied his coaching trade by working at the Academy at first Reading and latterly Chelsea, where he was a hand-picked for the job by Jose Mourinho. Since taking over at Swansea, again alot like McDermott he has wasted no time in putting his stamp on his side and the style of play they used to their advantage.
Both squads have very little in way of marquee players. Going more towards a squad of honest and hard working professionals who have a self belief and work ethic instilled by their up and coming managers.
The teams they have out-fought, Cardiff and Nottingham Forest on the other hand have managers who go about their buisness, as they are obliged to do, in a totally different manner.
The squads at the disposal of Billy Davies and Dave Jones are packed with former multi-million pound players and International captains and thoroughbreds. The two managers also have build up a reputation that their successful counterparts are working towards with little to no fuss.
The pressure on messers Davies and Jones was undoubtedly more prelevant before the ties began and now following their defeats the futures of both may be called into question from their success-hungry fan-bases.
Whoever gains promotion to the top-flight at Wembley, in what is believed to be worth around £80m for the winners, both will look towards the future and no longer be able to go about their buisness in the unassuming way they have this season as the footballing world feasts their eyes on two teams and managers who worked their way to the positions they find themselves in and no-one can begrudge either of them were they to take the next step.
The blueprint put down by the patience and faith shown by the money men at the Liberty and Madejski stadiums which is seemingly being followed throughout the football league as the big-name managers sit and watch on as the new wave of promising managers get their time in the sun.
To see this blueprint in action, the playoffs throughout the three leagues are a pointer towards it.
Sucess at Bournemouth in recent years, is to put it blunty, astounding. Working with no money to bring any players in and facing a 17 point deduction, rookie boss Eddie Howe whose playing career was cut short at just 29 at the club took the club to safety and then to a fairytale promotion.
Following a strong start to this past season in League 1, the inevitable plucking of one of the most sought after young managers happened. Too little panic from the Dorset club as they again appointed within in giving the job to club legends Lee Bradbury and Steve Fletcher, a continuation of Howe's groundwork continued and leaves them two games away from a promotion to the second tier, four years after they came within moments of going out of the league alltogether.
Whoever comes out on topover the course of the next few weeks and as the Football League season comes to a close for another season. It is safe to bet that we may see similar stories of young-managers prospering over the bigger names for the next few years as the financial side continues to take priority over a risky gamble on a former-success story.
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