nPower Football League Thread 2010/2011

[The Future]

He's been having contract talks with Genoa for a while now

[DJ Ice]

Man City fan but I am a huge supporter of Watford! So their going to win everything this year

[Pesci]

David James to Bristol City?

[hugobomb]

This year looks like it could be a good one for Barnet. They've made 14 new signing and most of them look like they could be good in League Two. I'm hoping for a mid-table finish at least, with eyes on the top 10

[Walker]

Word in the papers is the Middlesbrough will be walking this year's Championship, which of course translates into "We really should, but we are cocky little bastards so we'll probably barely make play-offs." I'm really happy with Strachan's squad changes, I think it is the best overall team we've put out since the 05/06 season, but over-confidence is not going to help us.

[IAceI]

I think it's mostly to do with the fact Boro have been seen to make the biggest improvements during the transfer window. A lot of Strachan's little Scottish friends coming in, and I honestly think it may do the job in the Championship. However I don't know if that's a team that could survive in the Premiership if they did get promoted anyways.

I do like the unpredictability given from the Championship, however it's a pretty poor league and teams that come up are often fodder just to go back down. To survive in the Premiership after promotion you generally need to already have a Premiership calibre team while playing in the Championship, be interesting to see if that's Boro this season.

Think I'm off to Brunton Park today to see Carlisle v Hibernian in a friendly. Here's to hoping that Carlisle do well, for their sake and Hearts'!

[Walker]

I do believe the team we have now could hold their own against a Premiership team in a cup-tie, but playing a high-calibre team every week is another story though. We don't have a glaring weakness any more and our teamwork is top notch.

[Adam]

This season should be fantastic, really open and Boro should definitely be up there. I expect the top spots will be contended for by Middlesbrough, Burnley, Reading, Bristol City, Forest and maybe one or two others. It'll be a tight league again and I really fancy our chances of making the play-offs if we make one or two more signings. If O'Driscoll can use the loan market as well as last season (Sharp, Shackell and Emmanuel-Thomas were all influential signings) then we have a chance.

[DFF]

I have no idea how we are going to do this season. We've got rid of tonnes of players, though we have brought one or two in.

I've just checked Wiki in case I missed any signings, but here is our squad:

1 GK Steve Simonsen

3 DF Nyron Nosworthy (On loan from Sunderland)

4 MF Nick Montgomery

5 DF Chris Morgan (captain)

6 MF Johannes Ertl

7 FW Darius Henderson

8 MF Leon Britton

9 FW Ched Evans

10 FW Daniel Bogdanović

11 MF Mark Yeates

13 GK Mihkel Aksalu

14 MF Lee Williamson

15 MF Ryan France

16 DF Andy Taylor

17 FW Richard Cresswell

18 FW Jamie Ward

22 DF Rob Kozluk

28 MF Stephen Quinn

34 DF Matthew Lowton

— MF Simon Walton (On loan from Plymouth Argyle)

It seems... okay. There's a fair few decent players there, it's just a case of getting them to perform week-in week-out. Hmm... I'm also slightly worried that 2-3 injuries could cripple us.

I think, if we're lucky and get a bit of consistency, then the bottom-half of the play-offs is attainable, though I realistically expect to see us 8th or 9th at the end of the season.

[IAceI]

"They tried to take the ball passed Nyron and he said no, no, no."

Good pre-season win for Carlisle today against Hibs. Pretty drab match but enjoyed the majority of the possession and probably deserved the win. Francoise Zoko looks like he could be a top signing. James Chester on loan from Carlisle looked to fit in perfectly and do the job, but I'll be interested to see if Jean-Yves Mvoto makes the switch from Sunderland on loan now.

Probably another safe midtable finish for Carlisle this season, which is pretty much all we can hope for. Then at the end of next season, all the good players will be poached and we'll have to find a load of new players again.

[Adam]

Did Sean McDaid get a game? I'm hoping he does well there as he was out injured for so long with us. He got injured just before the play-offs in 2008, missed the win at Wembley against his old club Leeds and then ended up playing about 20 minutes of Championship football in two years because of his injury.

[IAceI]

Yeah he played a good hour or so I think. Decent and solid left back, bit of a dwarf though. Should do a good enough job replacing Evan Horwood.

[DJ Ice]

David James to Bristol City?

I read about this, It's so fucking awesome!

[lanky316]

After far too long away from this place had to hunt out this topic just to say, 14 years too late, "Come on the (no longer) Borough!". Hope to see us out of the blocks quick against the Mac Lads this weekend.

[IAceI]

It's baaaaack!

And I'm already whinging, during the Southampton v Plymouth match one of the commentators has just said; "And Peter Red was sacked at Sunderland after .. what .. finishing seventh twice!? *chuckle*"

Well, yes, but after that he finished 17th and the following season we were bottom of the league when he was sacked (the 19 point season). As much as I love what Reid did to us and gave us our best years since I've been a fan, it's not like we turned round after the second seventh finish and went "Get to fuck."

Either way, so glad the football season is back.. particularly the football league on TV. Always a joy to watch!

[Age Of The Lariat]

It's good to have the season start again. Norwich vs Watford was a fun watch last night. I've rated Danny Graham as a player for some time now and he shone. Norwich don't fill me with fear. I'm venturing up to Scunthorpe on Saturday to watch our first home game against them, and I'm considering it one of our must-win games if we want to survive. I was very surprised we beat Reading away today 2-1. Our first opening day away win for 10 years. It's too early to change my "we will definitely get relegated" belief, but we do have immense team spirit which will carry us to some good results this year.

Derby vs Leeds kicks off on BBC1 in 10 mins in case anyone didn't know. Should be a decent watch.

[Adam]

So glad it's back, and what a way to return. We played brilliant football at times today, in the first half we made Preston look like Prescot Cables. They came back in the second half but we held on to a clean sheet even after Gillett's red card, I anticipate a good season for the Rovers!

Good to see all the title favourites losing and the relegation favourites winning too, I'm sort of coming to expect it in this league but pretty much every result went the way I wanted it to. Always nice to win when Leeds and Barnsley lose

[jack95]

Solid win for Charlton today aside from Jose Semedo getting sent off. Off to Shrewsbury for the League Cup on Tuesday which should be an interesting clash.

Looking on the Championship as a neutral, I'd love to see Doncaster go up, they have a good attacking mentality. Cardiff probably deserve to go up after coming so close for so long. A lot of my family are Coventry fans, and I occasionally go to games with them, so it would be nice to watch some premier league football. I have soft spots for Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday and Stevenage Borough as well.

[MDK]

Narrow 2-1 loss to Yeovil, could have equalised late on in the game on two separate occasions, but never mind. Swindon in the cup on Tuesday, c'mon the O's!

[Pesci]

Steve Coppell resigns from Bristol City >_<