Those with a season of thrills and spills ahead...
Much as it pains me to say it, this is where I feel Crystal Palace will be finishing, but then again after the considerable turmoil of last season, a nice quiet spell in 12th place might be just what the doctor ordered. George Burley comes with excellent pedigree (if you ignore that little spell with the Scottish national team) and the signings so far look to complement well with the prodigious youngsters coming out of the club’s excellent academy. Retaining goal scoring midfielders Neil Danns and Darren Ambrose, as well as centre half (and new captain) Paddy McCarthy along with goalkeeper Julian Speroni (the best in the division) means the clubs spine is strong...until you get to the centre forward position. A chronic lack of goals is the clubs main weakness, and this area of the team, along with the fact that the squad is a little on the thin side, is the most pressing concern for the new manager.
Another club who know all about financial problems is Leeds United finally back at this level after three gruesome years in League 2. Initially leading from the front, they just about limped over the finishing line in the end, but the club finally seems back on the way up. However keeping supporter expectations, sure to be expecting an immediate tilt at promotion back to the upper echelons of English football, on the ground could be a problem. Right now the squad doesn’t look strong enough for a go at the playoffs, and consolidation should probably be the aim (although you try telling Leeds fans that).
They might have wobbled badly, but in Simon Grayson, they have in my eyes a terrific young manager who has the talent to take them back to the top; in good time that is. Summer recruits (Kasper Schmeichel, Lloyd Sam, Billy Paynter, Paul Connolly, Alex Bruce) haven’t exactly set Yorkshire a light with expectation, and there has been grumbling about ‘Uncle Kenneth’s’ refusal to dip his hand into his pocket a bit more. The key task will be for Paynter to replace the goals and influence of the now departed Jermaine Beckford.
God’s county (that’s Yorkshire) will have a significant presence in the division this season, and two of those clubs, Barnsley and Doncaster Rovers could be your proverbial dark horses. Doncaster now seem well acquainted to this level, and in Sean O’Driscoll have a very talented and progressive manager, who I’m very surprised no Premier League chairman has decided to take a punt on (well, not that surprised, given Premier League chairman only seem to look at the same small list of managers for every role). It’s a terrible cliché, but Rovers do like to get the ball down and play, and in Billy Sharp have one of the brightest attacking players in the league. Outstanding on loan at the club last season, it’s a real coup for the club to have snapped him up permanently. Following Mark Robins arrival last year, Barnsley put in an impressive run of form to comfortably avoid the drop and like their Yorkshire rivals can realistically aim to look to push on this time around, even if they have lost the goals of Daniel Bogdanovic.
Another side that put in an impressive second half to the season under a new manager was Reading. They’ve been tipped by many to be playoff challengers, and in Icelandic international Gylfi Sigurdsson possess arguably the best all round midfielder in the division (both an excellent goal scorer and set piece taker) and yet I just can’t help think (and I have little real evidence for this) that Brian McDermott, with all due respect to his excellent record last year, won’t be able to handle things if the wheels fall of.
The man McDermott replaced, Brendan Rodgers, is the new man at the helm of Swansea City. Under continental management (Roberto Martinez and Paulo Sousa) the Welsh side have performed impressively, passing their way up the divisions, and would be hoping for another tilt at the playoffs. The manager however worries me, with a much vaunted reputation (which seems to come from the fact he’s mates with Jose Mourinho and wears a nice coat) his managerial career has been pretty dismal so far. Jumped from Watford before he’d barely been there five minutes and was looking like taking Reading down, Rodgers styles himself as a forward thinking man, but there hasn’t been much evidence so far. The squad has been weakened and they struggled to score goals even when winning last season, but they are very solid at the back with an excellent goalkeeper and shouldn’t be dragged down to the bottom of the table.
A pair of midland sides that should have too much to lose sleep about going down, Coventry City and Derby County don’t look like having the squads to challenge higher up the table. Derby will benefit from the continuity of another year with Nigel Clough at the helm and Rob Hulse is one of the top strikers in the Championship. Their home form (where they regularly get just under 30,000 in attendance) is impressive, but the away record needs a lot of improvement, and they need to get more out of Kris Commons who on his day can be mercurial, but also very injury prone and inconsistent. It would also help if Robbie Savage decided that playing football was more important than standing on the halfway trying to referee the game as well. Coventry dispensed with Chris Coleman after a season of dreary football, and while Aidy Boothroyd may bring an upturn in results, it’s unlikely there will be a surge in the excitement levels. The team form the Ricoh Arena have been scrambling around at the bottom end of the table for too long, but despite the arrival of ‘cult hero’ Clive Platt, I can’t see them hitting any more heights than that of mid-table.
Oh yeah, and erm...Preston North End are in the division, but couldn’t think of anything of interest to say there. They’ll be OK, won’t go up, won’t go down, there we go – mid-table mediocrity.
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