The first of a series of blogs looking at the goings on in the Coca Cola leagues...if you're not into that sort of thing, do join us anyway...it's a magical land of goalmouth scrambles and ageing old footballers looking for a last pay packet. I'll buy you a Toffee Crisp if you come along for the ride...good, thanks for joining me. You look very nice today.
It's all going on in the Championship as Colin "Tinkerman" Calderwood plays a genius master stroke. Gone from The City Ground are the likes of the pacy Junior Agogo along with bullish front man Grant Holt. Rob Earnshaw could provide a few goals but Cole's signing stinks of a desperation move. He could prove me wrong but with the influential Kris Commons gone from the squad we could learn a lot about Calderwood as a manager this season as he takes charge of a side that isn't going to walk a league that easily.
Down south, Southampton are set to get a big windfall from any possible sale of Peter Crouch from Liverpool to rivals Portsmouth. They could get a figure as high as £500,000 to make Crouch's move more bearable for Saints fans. In a time of rebuilding under new boss Jan Poortvliet it's all change. Letting go of Inigo Idiakez will alert several Championship sides.
Crystal Palace have netted what could be one of the free transfers of the summer in signing Daryl Flahavan from Southend. The goalkeepers helped the Shrimpers into the playoffs and is a rock solid stopper with a good few years in him yet at the age of 29.
Everyone likes the return of an old head to start their weeks with and Ipswich have added the legend of Panini sticker albums Chris Kiwomya to their backroom staff as a reserve team development coach. It's good to see old boys returning to their roots and at least Kiwomya doesn't want to play again. Yet.
QPR are fast becoming this season's Manchester City as they sign unknowns from around the globe for their new revolution. Argentines and Italians have arrived already with more expected. The influx of new faces worked for Sven last season right away but there will be quesiton marks from R's fans as to whether it's going to work for them.
Wolves have been in the news (well the bbc website news anyway, if you look close enough) as they've dropped their reserve team for next season. It seems a bit of a silly move to deny a lot of players the chance to play football but it could well open the floodgates in loan requests for their talented reserves. Daniel Jones and Mark Little were on loan with Northampton last season and they did enough to prove to us at least that they can be lethal weapons at League One level.
The new boys in the Championship are trying to mould their sides to be able to compete next term. Doncaster are most people's tips for relegation straight back down with Forest and League One champions Swansea City likely to try and "do a Bristol City" and compete in the top six. There's plenty of good quality coming down from the top flight this time around though and the usual suspects should be about to show the new sides what the Championship is all about.
In League One, all the talk is about the arrival of Roberto Di Matteo to the MK Dons. Di Matteo must have thought he was going somewhere vibrant when he talked about the move. You can imagine "Stadium:MK" to sound appealing and he must have got a hell of a shock when he turned up to simply find an Ikea and a shopping centre as all Milton Keynes has to offer.
Colchester have smashed their transfer record to bring in talented Cheltenham Town striker Steven Gillespie for £400,000. Gillespie was a bit hit at Whaddon Road and it's understandable for him to depart for the challenge at Colchester, one of my tips for promotion. The money will help Cheltenham sign two or three players though and we'll see what they do with that.
Here at Northampton, things are going swimmingly with the signing of Leon Constantine on a free transfer. Constantine should compliment big Adebayo Akinfenwa in our attack and we're not just a few players short of being a dark horse. Whisper that quietly though...any signs of optimism at Sixfields is a bad sign!
One of the hot targets for League One sides is Wolves defender Charlie Mulgrew. The left sided player turned down a move to Swindon this week so this could open the door for Southend to move in. Mulgrew was on loan at Roots Hall last season and may now fancy a return, particularly with Wolves' reserve now non existant.
Not a lot going on with the whiners at Leeds. They're fifteen point deduction not being in place this season will have them down as odds on favourites for the title this time round but their latest signing of Enoch Showumni, a free from Bristol City may show more signs of where they are and what type of player they need for League One.
The left sided problem has returned to London but it's not England this time. Leyton Orient are madly hunting for a replacement for Wayne Cordon who left a couple of months ago. I hear Stuart Downing's your man for these types of problems.
Fans of Leicester will have had a shock this week as it was announced that Shakespeare was joining the club! Unfortunately it's not everyone's favourite playwright but Craig Shakespeare who left his post at West Brom to hold talks with The Foxes. Meanwhile new boss Nigel Pearson says he wants to play "winning football" at Leicester...maybe that was why Southampton only just avoided the drop last season if he wasn't trying that tactic!
Finally, down in League Two and Bury's new signing Efe Sodje reckons his new side can make the playoffs this season. He wins this week's "Kiss of Death of the week" award. You just watch them struggle now.
One of the new hits of league football could come from Rochdale's new striker Jon Shaw. Shaw scored twenty goals in thirty eight starts last season for Halifax and with the gap between Conference and League Two football closer than ever he shouldn't take too long to adjust. Dale just missed out on their first promotion since the war times last season and coul make it next time around with a proven goalscorer.
Another side that missed out on promotion was Darlington and their shrewd move for Stockport's Adam Proudlock could help their attempts to break into League One this time around.
Two parties are battling to invest in Chesterfield...a game of pass the parcel is due to take place at Saltergate this week to decide which party is better. The musical chairs challenge ruled out the Monster Raving Loony Party in the preliminary round.
Bournemouth are thankfully moving out of administration and it's good to see. If their ten point deduction didn't come into play last season they would have been well safe and it was a shame to see them go into the basement league again. Bourmeouth is a favourite away day of mine and hopefully we'll be returning very soon.
Brentford have moved to sign Marvin Williams from Yeovil in one of the best moves of League Two's tranfer window so far. Williams has a good talent to get behind defences and will score a lot of goals in that league. Expect the Bees to be challenging for promotion this time around with Adam Newton another handy capture from Peterborough.
Bradford are another side set for big things in League Two this season and the signing of Paul McLaren from Tranmere will be very useful, McLaren was Tranmere's player of the year last term and turned down a new deal at Prenton Park to drop down a division.
Meanwhile, The Chuckle Brothers will be trembling in their boots as their beloved Rotherham United must wait another two weeks to see if they are to start next season with a points deduction. The Millers are in trouble again and could face a similar minus points start to that of a couple of seasons ago when they were relegated from League One after starting on minus 10.
Finally, my dark horse tip for next season in League Two are Shrewsbury Town...the double signing of Grant Holt and Richard Walker from Nottingham Forest and Bristol Rovers respectively will stand them in very good stead.
More from the land of the Football League next week!
It's all going on in the Championship as Colin "Tinkerman" Calderwood plays a genius master stroke. Gone from The City Ground are the likes of the pacy Junior Agogo along with bullish front man Grant Holt. Rob Earnshaw could provide a few goals but Cole's signing stinks of a desperation move. He could prove me wrong but with the influential Kris Commons gone from the squad we could learn a lot about Calderwood as a manager this season as he takes charge of a side that isn't going to walk a league that easily.
Down south, Southampton are set to get a big windfall from any possible sale of Peter Crouch from Liverpool to rivals Portsmouth. They could get a figure as high as £500,000 to make Crouch's move more bearable for Saints fans. In a time of rebuilding under new boss Jan Poortvliet it's all change. Letting go of Inigo Idiakez will alert several Championship sides.
Crystal Palace have netted what could be one of the free transfers of the summer in signing Daryl Flahavan from Southend. The goalkeepers helped the Shrimpers into the playoffs and is a rock solid stopper with a good few years in him yet at the age of 29.
Everyone likes the return of an old head to start their weeks with and Ipswich have added the legend of Panini sticker albums Chris Kiwomya to their backroom staff as a reserve team development coach. It's good to see old boys returning to their roots and at least Kiwomya doesn't want to play again. Yet.
QPR are fast becoming this season's Manchester City as they sign unknowns from around the globe for their new revolution. Argentines and Italians have arrived already with more expected. The influx of new faces worked for Sven last season right away but there will be quesiton marks from R's fans as to whether it's going to work for them.
Wolves have been in the news (well the bbc website news anyway, if you look close enough) as they've dropped their reserve team for next season. It seems a bit of a silly move to deny a lot of players the chance to play football but it could well open the floodgates in loan requests for their talented reserves. Daniel Jones and Mark Little were on loan with Northampton last season and they did enough to prove to us at least that they can be lethal weapons at League One level.
The new boys in the Championship are trying to mould their sides to be able to compete next term. Doncaster are most people's tips for relegation straight back down with Forest and League One champions Swansea City likely to try and "do a Bristol City" and compete in the top six. There's plenty of good quality coming down from the top flight this time around though and the usual suspects should be about to show the new sides what the Championship is all about.
In League One, all the talk is about the arrival of Roberto Di Matteo to the MK Dons. Di Matteo must have thought he was going somewhere vibrant when he talked about the move. You can imagine "Stadium:MK" to sound appealing and he must have got a hell of a shock when he turned up to simply find an Ikea and a shopping centre as all Milton Keynes has to offer.
Colchester have smashed their transfer record to bring in talented Cheltenham Town striker Steven Gillespie for £400,000. Gillespie was a bit hit at Whaddon Road and it's understandable for him to depart for the challenge at Colchester, one of my tips for promotion. The money will help Cheltenham sign two or three players though and we'll see what they do with that.
Here at Northampton, things are going swimmingly with the signing of Leon Constantine on a free transfer. Constantine should compliment big Adebayo Akinfenwa in our attack and we're not just a few players short of being a dark horse. Whisper that quietly though...any signs of optimism at Sixfields is a bad sign!
One of the hot targets for League One sides is Wolves defender Charlie Mulgrew. The left sided player turned down a move to Swindon this week so this could open the door for Southend to move in. Mulgrew was on loan at Roots Hall last season and may now fancy a return, particularly with Wolves' reserve now non existant.
Not a lot going on with the whiners at Leeds. They're fifteen point deduction not being in place this season will have them down as odds on favourites for the title this time round but their latest signing of Enoch Showumni, a free from Bristol City may show more signs of where they are and what type of player they need for League One.
The left sided problem has returned to London but it's not England this time. Leyton Orient are madly hunting for a replacement for Wayne Cordon who left a couple of months ago. I hear Stuart Downing's your man for these types of problems.
Fans of Leicester will have had a shock this week as it was announced that Shakespeare was joining the club! Unfortunately it's not everyone's favourite playwright but Craig Shakespeare who left his post at West Brom to hold talks with The Foxes. Meanwhile new boss Nigel Pearson says he wants to play "winning football" at Leicester...maybe that was why Southampton only just avoided the drop last season if he wasn't trying that tactic!
Finally, down in League Two and Bury's new signing Efe Sodje reckons his new side can make the playoffs this season. He wins this week's "Kiss of Death of the week" award. You just watch them struggle now.
One of the new hits of league football could come from Rochdale's new striker Jon Shaw. Shaw scored twenty goals in thirty eight starts last season for Halifax and with the gap between Conference and League Two football closer than ever he shouldn't take too long to adjust. Dale just missed out on their first promotion since the war times last season and coul make it next time around with a proven goalscorer.
Another side that missed out on promotion was Darlington and their shrewd move for Stockport's Adam Proudlock could help their attempts to break into League One this time around.
Two parties are battling to invest in Chesterfield...a game of pass the parcel is due to take place at Saltergate this week to decide which party is better. The musical chairs challenge ruled out the Monster Raving Loony Party in the preliminary round.
Bournemouth are thankfully moving out of administration and it's good to see. If their ten point deduction didn't come into play last season they would have been well safe and it was a shame to see them go into the basement league again. Bourmeouth is a favourite away day of mine and hopefully we'll be returning very soon.
Brentford have moved to sign Marvin Williams from Yeovil in one of the best moves of League Two's tranfer window so far. Williams has a good talent to get behind defences and will score a lot of goals in that league. Expect the Bees to be challenging for promotion this time around with Adam Newton another handy capture from Peterborough.
Bradford are another side set for big things in League Two this season and the signing of Paul McLaren from Tranmere will be very useful, McLaren was Tranmere's player of the year last term and turned down a new deal at Prenton Park to drop down a division.
Meanwhile, The Chuckle Brothers will be trembling in their boots as their beloved Rotherham United must wait another two weeks to see if they are to start next season with a points deduction. The Millers are in trouble again and could face a similar minus points start to that of a couple of seasons ago when they were relegated from League One after starting on minus 10.
Finally, my dark horse tip for next season in League Two are Shrewsbury Town...the double signing of Grant Holt and Richard Walker from Nottingham Forest and Bristol Rovers respectively will stand them in very good stead.
More from the land of the Football League next week!
4 comments:
I think that Colic Calderwod has made a good signing in Earnshaw. Peter Crouch will do very well at Pompey and Defoe should fed off him That transfer will do Saints no end of good in the finance stakes
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