Claridge is a pundit for The Football League Show and Football Focus

Portsmouth fans have got an FA Cup final against Chelsea to look forward to after Sunday's unlikely semi-final win over Tottenham but they were also relegated over the weekend and will be playing in the Championship next season.

I look at Pompey's prospects in the second tier as well as those of two clubs definitely going in the opposite direction; Newcastle and West Brom, who have both won promotion to the Premier League.

I also give my thoughts on Reading's late play-off push, Peterborough's appointment of Gary Johnson as their new manager and the teams battling for survival at the bottom of League Two.

If you have a question for me, you can submit it through Twitter at http://twitter.com/AskClaridge or use the form on the top right of the page.

I'm a Portsmouth fan and I, like everyone else, accepted that we will be a Championship team next season before it was confirmed at the weekend. There are likely to be many departures in the summer, possibly leaving our squad down to its bare bones. However, with Newcastle and West Brom going straight back up this year, do you think that Portsmouth stand a chance of making it back in to the Premier League in the next few seasons?
Oscar Pearson, England

I was at Wembley to watch Portsmouth beat Tottenham in their FA Cup semi-final. It was an incredible day and totally unexpected. It's ironic it came only 24 hours after they were relegated.

How Pompey do next year will depend on which players they keep hold of so it is an impossible question to answer at this stage.

Michael Brown has plenty of previous Championship experience

If they keep the team that they have got then they will be OK because they have got a lot of players there who we know are very good Championship players anyway - the likes of Michael Brown, Richard Hughes, Hayden Mullins and Tommy Smith.

They know what to expect at that level. They are the sort of players who will continue to give their all and, even if they might not be good enough for the top flight, they certainly have enough quality to make sure Pompey have a decent year.

But nobody really knows what is going to happen. In the meantime, the fans just have to enjoy the moment - make the most of the FA Cup final and wait and see what happens next because there could be some more difficult times ahead.

I have to say I think it is ridiculous parachute payments for clubs dropping out of the top flight will increase from £11.2m to £16m from next season and could be extended to last for four years instead of two.

Already this season we have seen two of the teams that went down last year go straight back up. All this does is make it even more certain that anybody who comes down in decent shape will do the same thing in future and go back up, too.

I don't understand why clubs should get any money for going down. You should not get rewarded for failure. If you cannot run your club properly, why should you get money to soften the blow when you come out of the Premier League?

Clubs could do that by putting in place contracts that allow them to operate outside the top flight. They should say to players "this is what you get if we're in the Premier League and this is what you get if you don't keep us in the Premier League".

It is a crazy situation as it stands and soon it will be impossible for some teams to get out of the Championship.

Steve, with Newcastle promoted and their owner Mike Ashley promising a transfer kitty in the region of £25m, do you think this is the last the Championship will see of them for the forseeable future?
Andrew Neill, England

It should be. I don't think Newcastle have a bad squad at the moment anyway. They will have to strengthen but they have already got quality and strength in depth. There are not too many teams who have won the Championship in the manner they have, then gone into the Premier League and got relegated the following season.

When you go up to the top flight, what you can't do is go up and buy a new team. You have to have five or six players who are good enough and then add to that. On that basis, Newcastle will be all right as long as the players they bring in work out because they have got the nucleus of a team good enough to stay up.

Hi Steve, a question for you from an Irish Baggies fan. Now West Brom are promoted, do you think we have any chance of staying in the Premier League this time? It seems as if the chairman Jeremy Peace is intent on keeping a tight budget, which is understandable in the present economy, but is this almost like throwing in the towel before the fight starts?
Enda McMorrow, Ireland

Doncaster 2-3 West Brom

West Brom worry me. I get a feeling of deja vu with them from the last time they got promoted from the Championship under Tony Mowbray in 2008. They are good going forward but defensively they are shocking. The two goals they conceded in their 3-2 win over Doncaster on Saturday were so poor it beggared belief.

Their front five or six players will always cause other teams problems but when they do not dominate games they ship goals - and they are not going to dominate many games in the Premier League next season.

Last time they spent about £20m and still went down. Enda is right, they probably will not have the same money to spend this time but they need to tighten up whether they spend big or not.

Reading are on an impressive run but it looks as if the Championship play-offs are just out of their reach. If they can keep the same team and the same manager, could the play-offs or even automatic promotion be on the cards for next season?
Mark Lawrence, UK

I've watched Reading a few times recently and they are absolutely flying. Nobody wants to play them at the moment.

But the season is going to end too soon for them. I think the top six is just too much to ask even with their games in hand. If there were even only five more games to go than there are, then you would certainly back them to make the play-offs.

McDermott took permanent charge of Reading on 27 January

It has just clicked for them in the last couple of months. Brian McDermott has got them playing the way he wants to and they look a different team now to how they were earlier in the season. They are confident, they want the ball and they look like they are enjoying themselves.

It does not mean they will definitely challenge next season, though, because it doesn't always work out that if you finish one season brilliantly you start the next one in the same way.

You are starting again and there will also be higher expectations for them next time. It is a lot easier when people are not expecting much from you - fans are a lot more forgiving for a start - and some players don't respond under pressure.

Hi Steve, do you think Peterborough United could make a return to the Championship next season now that Gary Johnson has been appointed manager?
Peter Smart, UK

Well, they will not be favourites to go up. One way or another there will be some big clubs in that division. The likes of Southampton and possibly Leeds or Charlton could be joined by Sheffield Wednesday, Crystal Palace or Watford. But they will certainly be in contention.

The most important thing from their point of view is what director of football Barry Fry said the other day. He said that owner and chairman Darragh MacAnthony is still enthusiastic. If the owner loses interest at a club like Peterborough, then they are just going to be another club making up the numbers at that level.

But they have certainly got the right man in Gary Johnson. He is a good manager, knows his way around League One and I think they will have a good year.

Was there any point in sacking and hiring different managers this season at Darlington? Everything tried at the club has seemed to go horribly wrong and with our fate virtually sealed was there any point in sacking Steve Staunton and bringing in Simon Davey? With all of that going on, where do you see Darlington in the next two to three years?
James Martin, UK

Unfortunately for Staunton, who is a great bloke, he had to go. After taking charge in October, he bought in nearly 20 players without any discernible change to the results and you cannot keep going down the wrong road. He got a chance and it has not worked out for whatever reason so it was the right thing to make the change.

Results have picked up of late and, from Davey's point of view, if they are playing OK under these circumstances then it does augur well for them to have a bit of a go at bouncing straight back out of the Blue Square Premier next season.

As a Grimsby Town fan, I am very worried at this stage of the season and where we are! We are seven points behind Cheltenham with a small amount of games left. So what do you think our chances are of avoiding relegation from League Two?
Zak Storr, England

Steve, can you see Grimsby Town avoiding the drop at the expense of local rivals Lincoln City? With five games to go, will a nine-point gap at this stage be enough to ensure Sincil Bank sees League Two football again next season ?
Karl Mercer, England

Hi Steve, Torquay fan here. A lot of our fans are certain that Grimsby will catch us and send us back down to the Blue Square Premier. If the worst were to happen, do you think, considering his record at that level as a manager, Paul Buckle should go or stay as he has been proven a successful manager in non-League?
Arthur Deval, London

Sorry Zak, it is too late for Grimsby. They have had some great results recently but the problem is that everyone above them has picked up points, too. They are still seven points adrift with five games left.

Hereford 0-1 Grimsby

Any side that goes 25 games without winning is going to be in deep trouble. It has taken them too long to get going. It is amazing how they failed to pick up three points for so long yet still had a chance of staying up. But now, having won a couple of games on the spin, they are as far away from safety as they have ever been.

Torquay, like Lincoln and Cheltenham, are not going to get relegated. I think Paul Buckle has done a fantastic job. His brief at the start of the season would have been to keep the Gulls up and he has done that. But in answer to Arthur's question, yes, even if they did go down, he has earned the right to stay on because he took them up in the first place.

Steve Claridge is a BBC Football League pundit who played more than 800 matches for 15 clubs over the course of a 24-year playing career. He was talking to Chris Bevan.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version