'Play-offs argument is short-sighted...they could get even better with changes'

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There is always an argument when something is good you should not change it. The Championship play-offs - the play-offs in general really - are one of the highlights of any season.

It is high stakes, great drama and incredible excitement. The semi-finals are more often than not thrilling and then we have had some classic finals at Wembley down the years.

Charlton sharing a 4-4 draw with Sunderland before the Londoners won 7-6 on penalties in 1998. Bolton seeing off Reading in a seven-goal thriller. Swindon doing the same to Leicester .

It is genuinely a highlight in any season. It has become the £100m game. Even last season, Sunderland shocking Sheffield United to go up. Look at what Sunderland have done this season and try to argue against the Black Cats deserving a shot at the top flight.

And this is just the Championship. Sheffield Wednesday’s fightback against Peterborough was all-time great. Manchester City ’s last-gasp drama against Gillingham.

It is a brilliant concept which brings us back to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” argument. However, that feels so short-sighted. The play-offs are so good - why not expand them? Turn up the volume and make them even better.

The biggest single issue is that it opens the door for the club which finished eighth - as good as being in mid-table - to gain promotion to the Premier League . But, actually, if the argument is they are so bad they are not worthy of going up… well, relax, they won’t make it.

I’m in favour of making one of the best inventions in modern domestic football even better. Or at least trying to. Two more games and then the odds are stacked against the teams in seventh and eighth

Clubs finishing third and fourth will progress directly to the semi-final, while a one-legged quarter final will be played with fifth at home to eighth and sixth hosting seventh.

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Semi-finals will remain as two legs and the final will still take place at Wembley at the end of May. And by the way, there are currently no plans in place to expand the play-offs in League One or League Two.

It means the Championship season will have more jeopardy and excitement with teams scrapping for extra places. We get more games. And if you look at the Championship right now… it is so close in that little pocket. There’s an ebb and flow to the Champo.

Yes, we could stay as we are - or be bold and try something else. I am old enough to remember when, back in the day, the team which finished 19th in the old First Division (which consisted of 22 teams) played off against the team which finished fourth in the old Second Division.

I went to Selhurst Park in 1987 to see Charlton beat Leeds 1-0, Leeds won the second leg 1-0 and then Charlton won the replay 2-1 in extra time. If we had just stuck with that format, we would not have the drama we have today. It is worth trying different things and bringing a different edge.

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The EFL is trying to drive more interest and survive at a time when the Premier League still have not agreed a financial “deal” with the rest of the pyramid. Football ’s Independent Regulator David Kogan has warned numerous clubs will go to the wall within a month unless their owners prop them up.

Amid this backdrop, West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady has the audacity to call out the EFL for not putting a penny into the National League on the basis that if the Premier League did not do the same and withheld its £300m-a-year funding then there would be outrage.

Talk about lacking self awareness. You might think she would try to run her own club better first before lecturing the EFL when most most football fans - bearing in mind there are 71 EFL clubs to the Premier League’s 20 - think the top-flight are the greedy ones.

The EFL is trying to be creative and make one of football’s great events even better.

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