The Championship and Lower Leagues Thread 2015/6

[patiirc]

Bit late to this, mainly cos I have had a million and one things on. However here it is for the season ahead.

How's your team preparing for the new season? Any big signings? Results thus far?

 

Bristol City are looking forward to life in the Championship. JET has gone to QPR and we are down to a bare bones squad of 16 at present with no new announced signings. Cotts has been linked to the vacant Leicester job and many of our fans are getting angsty at the the lack of anything. Pre Season seems to be continuing where we left of last year and we are off to Portugal shortly.

 

Hopes for the new season is to not get relegated and push on from where we were last year.

 

 

Over to you guys

[FLips]

We signed Baptiste and he broke his leg 20 minutes into the pre-season friendly.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Coventry have signed Tony Mowbray up properly, brought in Romain Vincelot and Sam Ricketts AND got a pretty fit new Nike kit.

 

Hopes are modestly high for the new season.

 

We've had a problem for a few years where we've filled the squad with kids and hasbeens, with very few professionals in their late 20's/early 30's with both legs and experience. Based on his comments, Mowbray seems to get this so, yeah, hopes are high(ish).

[Guest]

Notts County making lots of signings, some decent young English players and a mix of Dutch talent. Our rivals Mansfield signing practically all ex Notts players this year so the derbies should be a bit of fun.

On paper it's really difficult not to see us finishing top 7, but with those clowns in the boardroom I'm taking nothing for granted.

 

Think the Championship will look a little like this:

Blackburn
Burnley

--
Reading
Ipswich
Sheffield Weds
Bolton

--
Middlesbrough
Wolves
Leeds
Fulham
Derby
Brentford
Cardiff
Nottingham Forest
Hull
Charlton
QPR
Brighton
Preston
Birmingham
Bristol City

--
Rotherham
Huddersfield
"MK Dons"

[I Bent My Wookie]

Daz, always ask Coventry fans this question, but opinions on Lee Burge? Used to play junior football with him when he was 11 and an outfield player and the kid knocked me out on enough occasions in Rugby matches that I want him to do well.

 

Hereford FC played their first match yesterday at home against FC United of Manchester and won 1-0. We've brought back old names like Tony James and Rob Purdie for experience and then a few of the old youth team alongside some trialists from around the area. 9th tier of English football I believe and over 1,000 season tickets sold (Our attendance should be higher than the entire league combined each week) 

 

Exciting times ahead, rebuilding looks fun.

 

I keep an eye on Bristol City as well, just because I'm in Bath a lot of the year and a few friends are massive City fans. It is worrying that literally nothing has been done yet. I realise they like to have a small squad and all but they need 3 or 4 players there, most the team is Championship ready, but a centre mid and striker is key right now.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I like Burge.

 

He came into the team properly once I'd left Cov for London and surrendered my season ticket, but from what I've seen (the odd game I've gone to or on TV) I've been impressed.

 

He's young and he's not very physically dominant or confident yet, but he has good hands, good distribution, good athleticism and covers the goal well.

 

I think he's going into the season as the established no.1 so this will really be his season to breakout.

[Teedy Kay]

I'm not even hazarding a guess at what the whole Championship League will look like come the end of the season, but I will categorically state Blackburn will be lucky to get play offs let alone win the thing.

 

Burnley will be about the play offs too.

 

 

Wolves have some business to be doing in the transfer market if we want to contend. Jed Wallace is a good No 10 signing for us, and Coady will be a decent pairing with either Price or McDonald (if the later stays) but we need a left winger stat to replace Sako.

 

I want Nahki Wells as a left sided player thats adept at cutting in centrally but we'll no doubt procrastinate and get sodding no one.

[pryko]

 

Think the Championship will look a little like this:

Blackburn

Burnley

--

Reading

Ipswich

Sheffield Weds

Bolton

--

I thought I was an overly optimistic Bolton fan, but fuck!!!  6th!?  I'm interested to know what you've seen that I've missed?

 

Happy with the signings we've made.  Ben Amos was quality during his loan last season  Derik has come from Real Madrid ('s youth team...) so have to be optimistic he'll be a good 'un.  Gary Madine is decent target man.  If he gets 6 goals, he'll have the same as Craig Davies got last year, and that will easily be more than Heskey will get, so not too much pressure on him to score goals.  We love our non-Goal scoring strikers (Kevin Davies, Johan Elmander, David N'Gog, Emile Heskey).

 

So yeah, I'm hoping for a mid table consolidation season while we get used to all the changes with lowering our wage budget and what not, and just gotta hope we keep hold of our top prospects who should get some more game time this season now.

[KingofSports]

Preston. Seem reasonably sorted in the attacking department (Garner, Beckford, Gallagher, Will Keane & Daniel Johnson). Defence was solid enough last season, so I don't see too many additions, at least for the time-being. Not sure who our goalkeeper is though, unless they get Sam Johnstone on loan from Man Utd again. His old man was a goalkeeper for North End in the mid-90s & also played cricket for Preston. Probably more business to be done yet & perhaps need to bring in 2 or 3, maybe loans.

[PRINCE2356]

I am not too sure how my team Rochdale are going to perform in the coming season, probably guessing it will be mid table at best. Current signings this summer include Lewis Alessandra (Plymouth), Jim McNulty (Bury) and Donal McDermott (Salford City) but think we still need 2 or 3 quality signings (Goalie/Midfielder/Centre Forward) everything has seem to have gone quiet on last season's loan keeper Conrad Logan possibly signing which is a shame because he was a big factor in his time at the club.

 

But looking at League 1 for next season there are some big money teams Sheffield United, Wigan, Scunthorpe, Bury (False Money and 3 million pounds worth of loses, but still sign players on 3 years deal - work that out), Rochdale just won't be able to compete with that.

[KingofSports]

I am not too sure how my team Rochdale are going to perform in the coming season, probably guessing it will be mid table at best.

I'd take that, considering the finances & Rochdale's history - no offence intended. We've struggled for much of the last few decades, including times when I'd have happily accepted mid-table 3rd tier. Hill seems a decent gaffer, but if you're only attracting 3 or 4000, it's always going to be an uphill struggle, particularly with the concentration of bigger clubs in the area. I can see them finishing between 9th & 14th, so play-offs would be a result. Just make sure you batter the donkey lashers....assuming they don't try to get the match abandoned.

[Brock Goldberg]

Over at Sheffield Wednesday I really don't know where to start. It's been an interesting pre-season so far!

 

Stuart Gray sacked after finishing 13th was harsh but we did have terrible home form last season winning 4 or 5 and hardly ever scoring. A new coaching team from Portugal promise a more attacking, high tempo style of play, we shall see.

 

We let 11 players go but only one or two played any real part last year and the replacements brought in seem to be a step up on what we had or still have.

 

Right back Jack Hunt on-loan from Palace for the season is a very shrewd move, he knows the Championship and seems a very good player who!likes to get forward.

 

Ross Wallace from Burnley well released from Burnley is also someone I'm very pleased we've signed, he's got a very sweet left foot, we need a few quality wingers and he's got a vast amount of Championship experience.

 

A few deals I'm really excited about are Alex Lopez and Marco Matias. Lopez is a central midfield player on-loan for the season from Celta Vigo who he played for 25 times last season. Will be interesting to see how he fits in but he seems to really welcome the challenge of playing in England. Matias had a fantastic season in Portugal last year scoring 17 goals, which for a winger sounds very impressive. We've reportedly spent around 2 million on him and signed up for four years so someone likes him! I really struggle to remember I time when we could spend a few million on a player!

 

A few other players have also signed up, one Dutch, one French but I really know next to nothing about them. After last seasons loanitself all Which was nothing but a success we are strongly linked with Lewis McGugan and reports suggest a fee with Watford isn't a problem but his wages might be.

 

Links to a number of strikers and the many millions we will spend to land one or two keep moving at a pace but until we actually sign anyone it's hard to know what to believe.

 

A move I do like is the little bit of TLC Hillsborough itself seems to be getting. A new top of the range Desso pitch ( much needed) a new state of the art score board/giant TV screen (biggest in the football league), new seating areas for disabled fans, improvements made to the team dug out area, plus other repairs/improvements around the ground and inside the stadium itself all sound fantastic.

 

I have know idea what next season holds for us (much like every other supporter of a championship team) but it promises to be an exciting ride while it lasts.

[The Whole Show]

Who knows how QPR are going to do.

 

The season will pretty much hinge on if we keep Phillips, Fer and Austin, Or if we spend wisely replacing them.

 

Without them, then id imagine a mid table finish, which from what the club are saying is what we want due to rebuilding the next few years.

 

We have made some decent signings so far, Gladwin & Luongo look like impressive signings, everyone is happy Mackie is back, not sure what to make of JET or the new german striker Polter though.

[pryko]

Who knows how QPR are going to do.

 

The season will pretty much hinge on if we keep Phillips, Fer and Austin, Or if we spend wisely replacing them.

 

Without them, then id imagine a mid table finish, which from what the club are saying is what we want due to rebuilding the next few years.

 

We have made some decent signings so far, Gladwin & Luongo look like impressive signings, everyone is happy Mackie is back, not sure what to make of JET or the new german striker Polter though.

You're supposedly about to pocket £9m from the Sterling transfer too aren't you?  That will be a nice bonus to add to the transfer kitty if that's the decision made to use the money on

[drkopen]

We signed Baptiste and he broke his leg 20 minutes into the pre-season friendly.

That was horrid I hate the sound of bones snapping.

 

A lot of people are confident we will Downing back