Leeds United, Sheffield United, Huddersfield Town and Sheffield Wednesday need to get real and put principles on hold - Stuart Rayner

"Principles", "identity" – they all get spouted a lot nowadays.

It might sound a bit up itself at times, but having all three can give teams an important advantage.

We often get lured into thinking modern football is all about how much you have in the bank but mercifully there is still more to it than that.

Yes, Manchester City might be threatening yet another Premier League title and the parachute regiment are invading the top of the Championship.

Yes, Sheffield Wednesday are looking more and more like 2023's League One champions whilst Wrexham and Notts County head up the Conference.

Having more cash in the bank than your rivals is undoubtedly a massive leg-up but not an insurmountable advantage. This has been the season of Brighton and Hove Albion, Brentford and Fulham.

Having a clear way of doing things can make up for a lot of natural disadvantages. And not can turn you into Chelsea, or worse still Everton.

But in football, principles are for June, July and August. If you get your decisions right, you can follow them all year round. If not, this time of year becomes all about pragmatism.

As the nights lighten, the beautiful game becomes less and less about aesthetics unless you are mired in the no man's land of mid-table. And nobody really wants that.

Huddersfield Town started this season carrying on the highfalutin ideas that began in earnest with Danny Cowley's sacking in 2020.

Cowley had done what was necessary to keep the Terriers in the Championship and all the thanks he got was a P45. Huddersfield had bigger "philosophies" they wanted to follow.

The Terriers want to be a Brighton or Brentford of the Championship, making up for their lack of financial wherewithal with cleverness and strategy. They want to be a club that develops promising players and coaches by playing a clearly-defined, highly-effective, attractive form of football that passes down to their B team and below.

They want there to be a "Huddersfield way" and they would like to stick to it.

Carlos Corberan came to realise he needed to cut a few corners his mentor Marcelo Bielsa never would, but he went off in that general direction and took the club to Wembley.

So when he left, the club tried to stay on that path, giving the job to a first-time head coach, Danny Schofield, who had studied from his backroom. All very Anfield boot room, all very laudable.

When it did not work, Schofield was quickly sacked but back then the principles were unbending, turning to another novice on the back of his having worked for one of the elite, Felix Magath's protege, Mark Fotheringham. That did not work either.

The Scot was trying to learn on the job at a club that had already given its rivals a headstart. It was a lot to ask.

Had they been particularly stupid, Huddersfield's board could have tried for third time lucky.

Instead they picked up the phone and dialled for Neil Warnock.

The football between now and May will not always be pretty – though it will not be as ugly as the caricature makes out either – and long-term thinking will certainly go on hold.

Warnock's job is purely and simply to save them from relegation, then head home to Cornwall.

It might not even work, but Warnock is the best hope they have, just like Sean Dyche is for Everton.

For both those clubs, relegation would be a financial catastrophe.

The same goes for Leeds United, which is why they were wrong to faff around looking for principled solutions having decided the situation was urgent enough to ditch Jesse Marsch, a man picked because he matched their identity.

Javi Gracia may not be the most obvious Premier League firefighter going but he knows the division and a coach who has never hung around anywhere for long can certainly work short-term.

The bigger picture stuff at Leeds and at Huddersfield will have to be picked up again in the summer – hopefully after takeovers which are far less likely if they are relegated.

It might be an entertainment business but no fan really cares if Sheffield Wednesday do not play fantasy football between now and May, so long as they are in next season's Championship.

If Sheffield United fluke a 1-0 win over Watford on Saturday with a winner deep in stoppage time that the linesman did not spot bounce off someone's hand from three yards offside the celebrations will be no less enthusiastic. The Blades just need to right their wobble.

Rotherham United have to pick up points wherever they can. One more than 22nd place gets is plenty, anything else a bonus.

Bradford City just need to get back into League One. End of.

No Barnsley, Doncaster Rovers or Middlesbrough fan will be complaining about how their team got to Wembley if they end up in a play-off final.

Of course it is better and more sustainable to do things the proper, well thought-out way but sometimes at this time of year, the only philosopher you need is Groucho Marx: "Those are my principles and if you don't like them... well, I have others."