season preview

[drummindefender]

heres what planetfootball.com thinks about our chances this season......

Leicester City manager Craig Levein has completed a massive overhaul of his squad as his own identity is very much imprinted on his current pool of players.
The former Hearts chief has made the most of his knowledge of the SPL scene by continuing to bring players south from Scotland and Celtic duo Rab Douglas and Momo Sylla should prove to be astute captures.
It means Levein now has the squad that he wants and it should mean an improved campaign for The Foxes, after they disappointed when starting the 2004/2005 campaign as the bookmakers' favourites for promotion.
There is considerable strength in depth and Blackburn Rovers' Nils-Eric Johansson is another more than decent purchase who bring Premiership experience to the defence.
Of course, there has been something of an exodus going the other way and Ian Walker, Keith Gillespie, Nathan Blake, Scot Gemmill, Lilian Nalis and Nathan Blake do take a lot of experience and nous with them. However, the new broom has swept through The Walkers Stadium and Levein is convinced his side will have the heart for a promotion battle.
"We expect to do better than last season," he commented. "That's for sure.
"The energy we are playing with is much higher than last year and that's simply because we have got younger and fitter players."
Whether the new zestful City will be enough to secure a play-off place is another matter, as the competition will be fierce towards the top of the table, but the signs are that The Foxes will once again be heading in the right direction after a poor campaign last time around.
PREDICTED POSITION: 11th
STAR MAN: Danny Tiatto
ONE TO WATCH: Momo Sylla

 

[drummindefender]

and heres how they think the league will end up...

1st Norwich
2nd Wolverhampton Wanderers
3rd Crystal Palace
4th Preston North End
5th Reading
6th Southampton
7th Sheffield United
8th Leeds United
9th Ipswich Town
10th Derby County
11th Leicester City
12th Cardiff City
13th Burnley
14th Queens Park Rangers
15th Hull City
16th Coventry City
17th Sheffield Wednesday
18th Stoke City
19th Luton Town
20th Plymouth Argyle
21st Millwall
22nd Crewe Alexandra
23rd Brighton & Hove Albion
24th Watford

 

[fcukcov]

From that quick summary what we have brought in looks much better than waht we have "swept" out IMO. However only time will tell.

 

[Redditch Fox]

Heading in the right direction is what we should hope for - we haven't got the squad to mount a serious promotion challenge but we will not be pushovers - 8th - 12th finish IMO.

 

[Graz]

I'd be happy enough with 11th place.

From Soccernet.com:

This is how we at Soccernet (not very confidently) expects the season to finish:
Coca-Cola Championship
1. Wolverhampton Wanderers
2. Norwich City
3. Leeds United
4. Crystal Palace
5. Preston North End
6. Burnley
7. Sheffield United
8. Derby County
9. Leicester City
10. Hull City
11. Ipswich Town
12. Reading
13. Southampton
14. Coventry City
15. QPR
16. Sheffield Wednesday
17. Luton Town
18. Cardiff City
19. Plymouth Argyle
20. Stoke City
21. Crewe Alexandra
22. Millwall
23. Brighton and Hove Albion
24. Watford

 

[joe501]

danny tiatto star man!!
only if the star is yellow and card shaped

 

[Rayvon]

I'm optimistic, i don't know whether we have a chance of the play offs but atleast with us not being fancied there is no pressure. we do have some potentially great players, and it all depends on how well the team starts performing. i honestly believe if we have a good first 5-10 games we will get on a roll with the confidence up. i think with our team being so young we have a real chance next season if not this one.

i reckon 8th or so but maybe top 6 if we hit form early. i think preston aren't gonna repeat last years feat, and i have my doubts on reading and southampton.

we'll see. TOMORROW

 

[drummindefender]

The main problem is definitely the strikers you look at the teams who are predicted to do well they all have guys capable of scoring 20 goals this season. Wolves have Miller, Norwich have got Ashton, Palace have got Johnson and then teams like Reading have Lita who could get them some goals while Southampton have Fuller and Preston have Nugent. The question is can we class Connolly in the same league as those guys?

 

[Lako42]

i think we can. he seems a 20+ goals a season striker. under MA he seemed to move out wide to often and wasnt always in a good position. this year im sure he will do us proud

 

[Joe_Fox]

Of course, there has been something of an exodus going the other way and Ian Walker, Keith Gillespie, Nathan Blake, Scot Gemmill, Lilian Nalis and Nathan Blake do take a lot of experience and nous with them.

Well fook me! I didn't realise we had two players called Nathan Blake - no doubt both as shit as each other.

 

[Graz]

Chris Kamara's preview of the new Championship season

The Championship looks like it is going to be the most competitive it has been for years and I'm really looking forward to it.

Last year, Leicester, Leeds and Wolves had just been relegated, but with the benefit of hindsight you can see why they all struggled to make their mark.

Leicester had just had the problems with La Manga, when Micky Adams was going to resign. He started the season as the man in charge and it was obvious that things weren't quite right. Leeds had their massive financial difficulties. And Wolves were struggling to score goals at home, while David Jones hadn't been given the money he needed to strengthen when they were promoted.

None of them stood a chance, but that really isn't the case this season.

When Harry Redknapp was at Portsmouth, he sold Peter Crouch to Aston Villa for £6million and that money helped establish the club as a good First Division (as it was then) side. He signed lots of quality players like Paul Merson, Tim Sherwood, Steve Stone and Arjen de Zeeuw and said 'don't pay big money, spend it on the wages'.

At Southampton, he has got an extra million for Crouch, but Rupert Lowe doesn't seem quite as convinced by the philosophy. I still expect Harry to do a lot more business before the end of August and bring in the players that he needs to make a decent challenge.

From about Christmas last season, Norwich City were planning to keep what they have got to help them bounce straight back. Damien Francis wanting to leave is obviously a disappointment for them, but if he wants to go and play in the Premiership, what can they do? They have managed to keep players like Dean Ashton and Robert Green and must be feeling confident.

As for Crystal Palace, what a bonus it was to keep Andy Johnson! He scored 21 goals the last time he was playing in the division and you have to fancy him to repeat that and keep Palace in the top pack.

As well as three strong teams dropping into the division, the three that came down last year look like they have got their houses in order too.

Leeds have made some great signings in Robbie Blake, Rob Hulse, Dan Harding and Steve Stone, and they should do well. The thing that amazes me about Leeds - and Ken Bates deserves a pat on the back for it - is that they are still haemorrhaging money, but have once again gone out and spent this summer. They believe they should be in the Premiership, they are taking a massive financial gamble to get back there and Bates will be expecting results.

Glenn Hoddle has done really well at Wolves. He has instilled the belief that they can't be beaten, now he needs to convince them that the will win matches because they cannot afford to draw as many as they did last year. They have had problems at Molineux because they kept losing goals, but if they can get rid of that they will be serious contenders.

You don't know how Leicester are going to do because Craig Levein and his signings know a bit more about the division. But Ipswich - who really missed the opportunity to go up last season - have lost too many players for me. I know Joe Royle is shrewd and clever but what can you do when you lose the likes of Shefki Kuqi, Darren Bent and Tommy Miller?

Sheffield United will be up there and this time it really is one last season for Neil Warnock! It's his sixth year at Brammall Lane and unless he gets them promoted or beaten in the play-off final, I really don't think they will give him any more time. They need to either sit back and accept it is never going to happen or give it one last push.

Steve Coppell's Reading just missed out on the play-offs last season. Having gone out and spent £1million to bring England U21 striker Leroy Lita in this summer, you would expect them to do well in the coming year too.

It will be very hard for Derby and Preston to emulate what they achieved last term. Preston were the hardest working team in the division - bar Sunderland. That was what got them their success, but maybe they just ran out of ideas in the end and the play-off final was one game too far. Derby is Phil Brown's first managerial job and you have got to give him and opportunity but it will be tough to follow in George Burley's footsteps.

Of the promoted sides, you have to fancy Hull. There are only a couple of teams in the division with the financial clout that Hull have. And Peter Taylor, with his experience of promotions, will be invaluable. The problem they are going to have is that they are going to lose more games at the Kingston Communications Stadium than ever before. They have a lot of new fans, who have only ever seen they win so let's hope those new fans will accept defeat in the same way they have embraced victory.

ONE TO WATCH: Brighton have got a player to watch this season in Colin Kazim-Richards, who they bought from Bury with the money they won in the Coca-Cola Win a Player competition. I am going to watch his progress carefully and I'm sure a lot of others will do the same and maybe look upon the signing with envy.

Usually I think Kamara seems to make sense and knows what he's talking about (or at least more so than most others), but he's said that you realise we never had a chance last season...and yet I remember last season, he was one of the many tipping us to win the league!

 

[drummindefender]

exactly lionel is full of shite most of the time