COMMENT: Portsmouth, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby and Ipswich – at least one set of fans won’t be satisfied once the next nine months of emotional torment are over

Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County, Ipswich Town, Portsmouth. Four clubs whose fanbases have known far happier times than the publication of the 2022/23 EFL fixture list.

The 1991/92 League Cup winners, twice First Division champions in the 1970s, the 1980/81 European Cup Winners Cup winners, and the 2007/08 FA Cup winners.

Their average league crowds last season - 22,399 (in the third tier), 23,010 (the third highest in the Championship, despite relegation), 21,779 (in the third tier) and 15,003 (in the third tier). The first three of those were higher than three Premier League clubs - Watford, Burnley and Brentford - in 2021/22.

The hopes and dreams of thousands resting on the shoulders of four men - Darren Moore, Liam Rosenior, Kieran McKenna and Danny Cowley.

The Owls, preparing for only their 11th season outside the top two tiers since being elected to the Football League in 1892.

The Rams, preparing for only the fifth season outside the top two tiers since being one of the Football League’s founder members in 1888. Only four previous seasons in the third tier in 134 years!

The Tractor Boys, who since 1957 have only played three seasons in the third tier. The last three seasons.

And Pompey, who have been marooned in the third tier, Division 3, the Third Division, League One, call it what you want, for too long now.

The forthcoming season will be the club’s sixth successive campaign at that level. In all, their 11th season in a row playing in the EFL Trophy.

For a club of their stature, their history, their tradition, far too long. And the longer Pompey remain having Papa John’s Trophy group games on their fixture list, the more frustrations grow.

And grow. And grow.

Same with Sheffield Wednesday, same with Ipswich, same with Derby. The latter fanbase might just be glad they’ve still got a club to watch - ditto Pompey in 2013 - but that feeling won’t last too long once a few points have been frittered away against ‘smaller’ clubs.

Pompey fans, imagine playing Havant & Waterlooville in a league game. Unlikely? For sure, but it’s no different really to Derby playing Burton Albion in 2022/23.

When I worked at the Derby Telegraph in the mid-1990s, the Rams were a decent Championship club and Burton, competing in the Southern League, were lucky to get half a page in the weekend Green ‘Un. Now they are rivals (again, having played each other in the Championship a few years ago). If weekend sports papers still existed, they’d get more space now.

Of course, Pompey fans are fed up seeing their club in the third tier and Southampton, Brighton and AFC Bournemouth in the Premier. But it’s the same for Derby this season with Forest back in the Premier League. It was the same for Ipswich last year, with Norwich spending their bi-annual season in the Premier.

Most football supporters, I think, would agree it’s great to see the likes of Brentford and Bournemouth rubbing shoulders with the elite. It gives all the unfashionable clubs that priceless intangible - hope.

But to achieve that, some big clubs are missing out. Not everyone can mlik Murdoch’s cash cow. Ask all 92 fanbases from the top four tiers where they feel their club ‘rightfully’ belongs in the English pyramid and the Premier League would probably be rammed with 30-odd names.

Would Sheffield Wednesday’s fanbase consider their favourites a Premier League club? Historically, they have a point. Only eight clubs have won more top flight titles. But the last one was in 1930. The Owls haven’t been in the Premier League since 1999/2000. This is their third spell in League One since then.

Do Derby County’s fans believe the top flight is where they ‘rightfully’ belong? Based on the 1970s, definitely yes. Based on everything since, probably not. Since 2002, they have spent just one season in the Premier - winning a paltry one game out of 38 and banking a record low 11 points.

How about Ipswich fans? When I first fell in love with football, they had an outstanding team - FA Cup winners 1978, First Division runners-up in 1981 and 1982. That European success. John Wark, Paul Mariner, Arnold Muhren, Frans Thijssen. Even now, four decades on, the names still trip off the tongue. But Premier League? You’re having a laugh, just the five top flight seasons since 1986 (and they were relegated in two of them). Big reputations - even European successes - count for nothing (thankfully) in the race to get out of the third tier.

I might be wrong, but I’m sure if I conducted a straw poll of every Pompey fan who attended a game at Fratton Park last season the majority would say their club should ‘rightfully’ be in the Championship. Even though they have won as many top flight titles as Tottenham, that - in my eyes - is a sensible viewpoint.

But, as ever ahead of a new season, how likely is it that Pompey will be back there in 12 months time?

Momentum is a big thing in football, and Danny Cowley’s men ended last season strong - 10 wins and only three defeats in their last 18 games. Their haul of 35 points was almost two a match - promotion form, even title-winning form, over an entire season.

Yes, key players have departed - but Cowley appears to have recruited well. Josh Griffiths is proven at this level, Marlon Pack should improve central midfield.

And yes, George Hirst has gone. So has Aiden O’Brien. So has Marcus Harness.

But I didn’t see much negativity over the signing of Colby Bishop, and Joe Pigott scored 21 League One goals just two seasons ago (and for a struggling side, AFC Wimbledon). To my (non-Pompey supporting) eyes, they look good signings.

But they are not alone. The Owls have also made good signings - among them Michael Smith, Michael Ihiekwe, two players who won promotion from League One only last season - and they still have Barry Bannan.

Derby, too, have brought in players with higher division experience. The last time James Collins was in League One, he netted 25 times for Luton in 2018/19. David McGoldrick brings years of Championship experience, and the promise of a few goals. Same with Connor Hourihane, over 400 league games and 73 goals on his CV. The last time he played in League One, with Barnsley in 2015/16, he won promotion.

Can those players make a difference? Are their best days behind them, a taunt which cannot be thrown at most of Pompey’s new arrivals? Is a welter of Championship experience a major ingredient in League One success? We’ll find out soon enough.

Sheffield Wednesday, Derby County, Ipswich Town, Portsmouth. Four big clubs playing alongside the likes of Morecambe, Fleetwood, Forest Green Rovers, Accrington and Cheltenham.

Four fanbases with, quite rightly, big hopes, huge expectations. But at least one of them will be left disappointed when the curtain is brought down on 2022/23. Then the recriminations, the inquests, possibly the managerial changes, will begin.

Of those four, my money for automatic promotion would be on Sheffield Wednesday. As for the others, the play-offs are a minimum requirement.

When the expectations are that high, football can be a tough sport to enjoy - every draw, every loss, every frustration, creates its own social media storm. Wins are to be expected, failure is not an option. Not just for the Fratton Park faithful, but for many others too.

If only life was that simple. If it was, we’d have 30-odd clubs in the Premier League and a League Two table containing Harrogate, Barrow and Sutton. If it was, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby, Ipswich and Portsmouth would never be in the third tier in the first place.

As I wrote in the final Sports Mail last weekend, it is a sobering thought indeed that one of those four clubs will still be in League One in 2034/24. And I haven’t even mentioned Bolton, Barnsley, Charlton and Peterborough yet. Or Oxford United, last season’s joint-top third tier scorers (82 goals, same as Wigan). Or MK Dons or Wycombe, beaten in the play-offs last May. None of those clubs will roll over for Derby because they were champions of England under Brian Clough. Indeed, it is exactly BECAUSE of that history that less glamorous clubs will raise their game against them.

And so the curtain is hoisted up on another EFL season this Saturday. Another nine months (or more for those in the play-offs) of being put through the emotional wrangler. It was, of course, forever thus. But for those who have grown up tapping out their thoughts on social media, those emotions are now magnified through the prism of Facebook and Twitter.

That is not healthy, but these are the times we live in. These are the times where Darren Moore, Liam Rosenior, Kieran McKenna and Danny Cowley are responsible for the hopes and dreams of thousands of fans of clubs who have known sunnier outlooks. All four men wanting, desperately craving, the same end goal. And knowing one of them, despite all the training, all the analysis, all the sleepless nights, all the hours on the phone trying to sign new players, won’t reach it.