Coach of the Year nominee Balagumaran loses his job at Hougang United

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K Balagumaran is one of three nominees for this season’s S.League Coach of the Year award. Alas, he has lost his job at Hougang United even before the awards ceremony on Nov 1. Photo: S.League

What a horrible shame, and exactly one of the many thing of what is wrong with the Sleague.

With only 9 teams, there is literally too little between a good finish and a bad finish in the league.

If I translate this into EPL’s top 9 teams, the standing for 2015-2016 season would be:

1. Leicester City <-- this isnt even the 9 most impt teams in EPL 2. Arsenal 3. Tottenham 4. Man City 5. Man Utd 6. Southampton <-- neither is this 7. West Ham 8. Liverpool 9. Stoke City If I take out Southampton, Chelsea would have finished bottom (they are 10th in the league last season) in the imaginary Sleague-inspired EPL. Can you even imagine Chelsea bottom, or Liverpool 2nd bottom from the league? Man United becomes a mid-table team? Would you still watch this version of EPL? Even if there is no relegation, meaning all the Liverpool fans can still have a team to support next season. But would you still identify yourselves to a team that finished bottom? To me, a healthy top division league for Singapore comprises of 16 teams. With the bottom 3 positions relegated to the next division (currently NFL1) This season would have looked like this: 1. Albirex Niigata FC (qualified for ACL) 2. Tampines Rovers (qualified for AFC Cup) 3. DPMM (qualified for AFC Cup) 4. Home United (qualified for ASEAN Super League (ASL) - my fantasy) 5. Geylang International (qualified for ASL) 6. Hougang United (qualified for ASL) 7. Warriors FC (qualified for ASL) 8. Balestier Khalsa 9. Young Lions 10. Eunos Crescent FC 11. Police SA 12. GFA Sporting Westlake FC 13. Singapore Cricket Club 14. Tiong Bahru FC (relegated) 15. Siglap FC (relegated) 16. Yishun Sentek Mariners FC (relegated) If the table looks like this, do you think the Hougang coach will get sacked? Do you think our local players will still feel demotivated and feel that their future is bleak?