Gotta hate the Mail On-Line
Chances: Narrowly avoided the drop last season and then promptly binned the manager who saved them, while many of their better players have also departed. Once held up as the model of how to run a football club,
Charlton are now a disaster waiting to happen.
BIRMINGHAM
Manager: Lee Clark
Position last season: 21st
Nickname: Blues
Ground: St Andrew's
Capacity: 30,016
Players in: Jonathan Grounds (Oldham, free), Grant Hall (Tottenham, loan), Stephen Gleeson (MK Dons, free), Wes Thomas (Rotherham, free), David Edgar (Burnley, free), Gavin Gunning (Dundee United, free), Mark Duffy (Doncaster, free), David Cotterill (Doncaster, free), Clayton Donaldson (Brentford, free)
Players out: Darren Ambrose, Peter Lovenkrands, Brian Howard, Nikola Zigic, Chris Burke, Akwasi Asante, Reece Hales (all released), Hayden Mullins (Notts County, free), Wade Elliott (Bristol City, free), Liam Maher (Leamington, free), Aaron Martin (Yeovil, free), Amari'i Bell (Mansfield, loan)
Key man: Clayton Donaldson
Chances: Birmingham avoided the humiliation of relegation by the slenderest of margins on the final day last season, prompting a wholesale clear-out by boss Lee Clark. Should key new signings Clayton Donaldson, Stephen Gleeson and Wes Thomas fail to fire, Blues fans will not waste time in heaping pressure on their under-fire manager.
BLACKBURN
Manager: Gary Bowyer
Position last season: 8th
Nickname: Rovers
Ground: Ewood Park
Capacity: 31,367
Players in: Chris Brown (Doncaster, free), Luke Varney (Leeds, free), Alex Baptiste (Bolton, loan)
Players out: William Beesley, Robbie Cotton, Ryan Edwards, Hugo Fernandez Molina, Timothy Payne, Deniz Pero, Aaron Tumwa, Matthew Urwin, DJ Campbell, Dickson Etuhu (all released), Alan Judge (Brentford, undisclosed), David Goodwillie (Aberdeen, free), Josh Morris (Fleetwood, loan), Alex Marrow (Carlisle, free)
Key man: Jordan Rhodes
Chances: Gary Bowyer's men ended last season with a goal glut amid a 12-game unbeaten run and only narrowly missed out on the play-offs. The free-scoring Jordan Rhodes has since signed a new contract and expectation will be high at Ewood Park with promotion the clear aim.
BLACKPOOL
Manager: Jose Riga
Position last season: 20th
Nickname: The Seasiders, Tangerines
Ground: Bloomfield Road
Capacity: 17,338
Players in: Sergei Zenjov (FC Karpaty Lviv, free)
Players out: Barry Ferguson, Michael Chopra, Robert Earnshaw, Louis Almond, Anderson Banvo, Jake Caprice, Adam Dodd, Nathan Eccleston, Elliot Grandin, Faris Haroun, Liam Tomsett, Nathan Tyson, Tony Warner (all released), Chris Basham (Sheff Utd, free), Kirk Broadfoot (Rotherham, free), James Caton (Shrewsbury, free), Neal Bishop (Scunthorpe, free), Craig Cathcart (Watford, free), Matt Gilks (Burnley, free), Chris Kettings (Crystal Palace, free), Mark Halstead (Shrewsbury, free), Tom Ince (Hull, compensation), Ricardo Fuller (Millwall, free)
Key man: David Perkins
Chances: Jose Riga arrived at Bloomfield Road knowing he had just six professional players and piecing a squad together, let alone building a team which can avoid a relegation scrap, has proved difficult. A disgruntled fanbase is ready to erupt if Blackpool toil, as the bookmakers have predicted.
BOLTON
Manager: Dougie Freedman
Position last season: 14th
Nickname: The Trotters
Ground: The Macron Stadium
Capacity: 28,723
Players in: Neil Danns (Leicester, free), Liam Trotter (Millwall, free), Liam Feeney (Millwall, free), Andy Robinson (Southampton, free), Dorian Dervite (Charlton, free), Ross Fitzsimons (Crystal Palace, free), Dean Moxey (Crystal Palace, free), Kevin McNaughton (Cardiff, loan)
Players out: Zat Knight, Chris Eagles, Tyrone Mears, Jay Lynch, Andre Moritz, Arran Lee-Barrett (all released), Marvin Sordell (Burnley, undisclosed), Alex Baptiste (Blackburn, loan)
Key man: Jermaine Beckford
Chances: Bolton have cleared the decks and tightened the purse strings as they cope with life in the second tier. Many supporters remain unconvinced by boss Dougie Freedman, who may need to utilise the loan market to good effect once again.
BOURNEMOUTH
Manager: Eddie Howe
Position last season: 10th
Nickname: The Cherries
Ground: Dean Court
Capacity: 10,783
Players in: Dan Gosling (Newcastle, free), Junior Stanislas (Burnley, free), Callum Wilson (Coventry, undisclosed)
Players out: Richard Hughes, Stephen Purches (both retired), Shwan Jalal (Bury, free), Matt Tubbs (AFC Wimbledon, loan), Lewis Grabban (Norwich, undisclosed), Mohamed Coulibaly (Coventry, loan) and Ryan Allsop (Coventry, loan).
Key man: Eunan O'Kane
Chances: Having roared up the division to threaten a play-off spot last season this young and talented group will look to improve on a campaign to remember. A lot will depend on Callum Wilson's ability to step into the shoes of Lewis Grabban who enjoyed such a fruitful partnership with Yann Kermorgant.
BRENTFORD
Manager: Mark Warburton
Position last season: 2nd in League One
Nickname: The Bees
Ground: Griffin Park
Capacity: 12,300
Players in: Alan Judge (Blackburn, undisclosed), Marcos Tebar Ramiro (Almeria, free), Andre Gray (Luton, undisclosed), Moses Odubajo (Leyton Orient, undisclosed), Alex Pritchard (Tottenham, loan)
Players out: Scott Barron (released), Shaleum Logan (Aberdeen, free), Aaron Pierre (Wycombe, free), Liam O'Brien (Dagenham, free), Clayton Donaldson (Birmingham, free), Sam Beale (Eastbourne Borough, free), Luke Norris (Gillingham, compensation), Farid El Alagui (Hibs, free), Will Grigg (MK Dons, loan)
Key man: Alan Judge
Chances: The Bees are back in the second tier for the first time in 21 years and, having kept the bulk of their promotion-winning squad together, they should have little to fear. The west london derbies against Fulham will be occasions to relish.
BRIGHTON
Manager: Sami Hyypia
Position last season: 6th
Nickname: The Seagulls
Ground: American Express Community Stadium
Capacity: 30,250
Players in: Nzuzi Toko (Grasshopper Zurich, free), Aaron Hughes (QPR, free), Chris O'Grady (Barnsley, undisclosed)
Players out: Peter Brezovan, Will Hoskins, Tomasz Kuszczak, Andrea Orlandi, David Lopez, David Rodriguez (all released), Matt Upson (Leicester, free), Brennan Dickenson (Gillingham, free)
Key man: Leonardo Ulloa
Chances: Champions League winner Sami Hyypia faces a tough challenge on his managerial debut in England. The Seagulls have reached the play-offs in each of the last two seasons but a top-six finish this time around looks a big ask.
CARDIFF CITY
Manager: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Position last season: 20th in the Premier League
Nickname: Bluebirds
Ground: Cardiff City Stadium
Capacity: 33,338
Players in: Javi Guerra (Real Valladolid, free), Guido Burgstaller (Rapid Vienna, undisclosed), Federico Macheda (Manchester United, free), Adam Le Fondre (Reading, undisclosed), Kagisho Dikgacoi (Crystal Palace, free)
Players out: Tommy Smith, Simon Lappin, Luke Coulson, Ronnie Hawkins (all released), Craig Bellamy (retired), Andrew Taylor (Wigan, undisclosed), Don Cowie (Wigan, free), Kevin McNaughton (Bolton, loan)
Key Man: Jordon Mutch
Chances: If there is one thing the Championship title favourites will not be short of it is firepower. The goals should flow freely for Cardiff with new signings Javi Guerra, Adam Le Fondre and Federico Macheda on board. If they can make their home a fortress once more they should make an immediate return to the top flight.
Comments
Funny how the word disaster isn't even in the Blackpool write-up.
optimismdelusion to Hillsborough.The Daily Mail is right down there with Transfermarket.com as an unreliable predictor.
Nearly anyone of here could just guess player values just as they could have made those predictions.
Totally meaningless
I don't get "embarrassed" or "shamed" either like so many others seem to either
I care what my club does and how it does it.
I care what Charlton fans think but why would I care what a spanner or Glaziet thinks?
Not since I was 7
My question should maybe have been for a general fan site I suppose, not a biased one
Especially bad as he is not even a crazy chucking around loads of money foreign owner that the media love to pretend to hate.
A lot of the media want us to be a disaster, as they still have not got over us spoiling the script by not getting relegated last season.
Im sure we are all hoping we spoil it for them once again by having a decent, no relegation worried season.
This season though we are an experiment like it or not and not one that sits easy with the status quo. At least either way we will not be ignored, well not as much as we usually are anyway.
I reckon we are relegation free this season as an Addick that will do for me at this moment in time. Fuck the DM and the bloated "experts" of the British sporting press...
I know that some don't like the facts to get in the way of an argument, but it is fairly obvious that recruiting more valuable players and having a stable club and decent coach is the path to success.
It will take another year for our squad to get older and better and for Duchatelet and Peeters to develop the first team, adding more high value players at the appropriate time.
In 2008-09 the then CAFC board was busy spending millions on new players but that doesn't mean they added value. This time we see players rated at £2m like Buyens, Vetokele and Gudmundsson joining up - different gravy.
I've been accused of mindless optimism since April - whereas what I see here is mindless criticism from someone who probably doesn't understand the meaning of the word correlation, let alone how to calculate one!
Who would have thought that clubs who spent more money were more likely to do better.
Meaningless