BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION Last Season; 7th Coach: Mickey Adams Transfers IN: Kevin McLeod Colchester free David Livermore Hull City free Adam Virgo Celtic free Colin Hawkins Chesterfield free OUT Sam Rents Crawley Town free Gary Butters Havant free Gary Hart, Paul Reid, Kerry Mayo (released) VERDICT Unlucky to miss out last season on the playoffs, and some astute signings have been made by new boss Mickey Adams. However goals may be hard to come by, and the reliance on 34 year old Nicky Forster to get them may lead them to struggle to match their performance last season. PREDICTION; Mid-table 14th BRISTOL ROVERS Last Season 16th Coach: Paul Trollope NOTABLE TRANSFERS IN Daryl Duffy £100,000 Swansea City Jeff Hughes free Crystal Palace The signing of Daryl Duffy from Swansea is an astute gamble, a player who threatened to become prolific while at Swansea could take the pressure off Ricky Lambert, but the lack of defenders may hurt in the end VERDICT: Small improvement 12th CARLISLE UNITED Last Season 4th (lost to Leeds in the Playoff Semi finals) Coach: John Ward NOTABLE TRANSFERS IN Ben Williams free Crewe Josh Gowling free Bournemouth OUT Kearon Westwood £500,000 Coventry City Stephen Hindmarch free Shrewsbury VERDICT: The loss of Westwood, arguably the best keeper in the league will be a big blow, and boardroom unrest may still threaten to derail a promising squad. If they can keep promising youngsters like Danny Graham and Gary Madine they could challenge for automatic promotion. PREDICTION 5th CHELTENHAM TOWN Last Season; 19th Coach: Keith Downing IN Alex Russell free Bristol City OUT Steven Gillespie £400,000 Colchester United Dean Sinclair loan expiry Charlton VERDICT: A small town club punching a division above their weight and the loss of top scorer Gillespie will hurt them. His goals kept them up last year. PREDICTION: Big struggle to hold their heads above water: 23rd COLCHESTER UNITED Last Season 24th (Championship) Coach: Geraint Williams INS Steven Gillespie £400,000 Cheltenham David Perkins undisclosed Rochdale Matt Heath free Leeds United Paul Reid free Barnsley Matt Lockwood free Nottingham Forest OUT Karl Duguid undisclosed Plymouth Argyle Kevin McLeod free Brighton Adam Virgo loan expired Izale McLeod loan expired Danny Granville free Leyton Orient Matt Connolly loan expired VERDICT: Stronger defence with Lockwood and Heath, but will struggle to replace talismanic captain Karl Duguid who is going to remain in the Championship with Plymouth. Steven Gillespie should feature in the scoring charts. PREDICTION: Playoff contenders 4th CREWE ALEXANDRA Last Season 20th Coach: Steve Holland INS Calvin Zola £400,000 Tranmere Rovers Joel Grant £130,000 Aldershot Town Steve Collis free Southend United Jake Livermore loan Tottenham Hotspur OUTS Ben Williams free Carlisle United Ryan Lowe free Chester City Steve Jones loan expiry VERDICT: Always a big job following in the footsteps of English footballs longest serving manager, Steve Holland's first season in charge saw them just avoid relegation. It remains to be seen whether Calvin Zola will get the goals to keep them up again, while promising striker and last seasons top scorer Nicky Maynard is likely to leave for a £2m fee to one of several Premier League clubs interested. PREDICTION: Struggle again. 21st HARTLEPOOL UNITED Last Season 15th Coach: Danny Wilson INS Alan Power free Nottingham Forest Ritchie Jones free Yeovil Town VERDICT: A good promotion season last time around, but lack of activity so far gives cause for concern. Goals may be an issue again PREDICTION: Stalling 17th HEREFORD UNITED Last Season 3rd (League Two) Coach: Graham Turner VERDICT With transfers relying on young players coming in on loan and small support its hard to see Hereford doing much more than tread water PREDICTION 18th HUDDERSFIELD TOWN Last Season 10th Coach: Stan Ternant INS Chris Lucketti free Southampton Jim Goodwin free Scunthorpe Utd Keigan Parker free Blackpool OUTS Danny Schofield free Yeovil Town Frank Sinclair free Lincoln City Chris Brandon free Bradford City Robert Page free Chesterfield VERDICT: With the club under a new chairman and due to cheap season tickets, good crowds expected Huddersfield may spring a surprise and challenge for the Playoffs. Lucketti will bring experience to a young team while Keigan Parker has a good goalscoring record PREDICTION: Could be a surprised 8th LEEDS UNITED Last Season 5th (deducted 15 points) Coach: Gary McAllister INS Enoch Showunmi free Bristol City Alan Sheehan free (fee to be decided by tribunal) Leicester City Andy Robinson free Swansea City OUT Leon Constantine free Northampton Town Matt Heath free Colchester Utd Darren Kenton, Alan Thompson, Tore Andre Flo (released) VERDICT Leeds have been ambitious in the market this season, however they have been frustrated in bids for Kevin Phillips, Andy Cole and others, but are set to announce the signing of Jay Bothroyd from Wolves and at least two others. More importantly the spine of the team has been held together with top scorer Jermaine Beckford and promising midfielder Jonny Howson being retained. PREDICTION: Bookies favourites 1st LEICESTER CITY Last Season: 22nd (Championship) Coach: Nigel Pearson INS Aleksander Tunchev £800,000 CSKA Sofia Michael Morrison undisc Cambridge Utd Lloyd Dyer free MK Dons Nicky Adams free Bury Kerrea Gilbert loan Arsenal Paul Dickov free agent (yet to be confirmed) OUT Iain Hume £1.2m Barnsley Alan Sheehan free Leeds United (fee to be decided by tribunal) VERDICT: Shock relegation last season and new manager. A season of rebuilding and squad reduction, which is still ongoing. It would be a failure if they didn't bounce back up at the 1st attempt with the backing of Milan Mandaric. PREDICTION: Leicesters experience vs Leeds' promising youth for the title Bookies have them 2nd. -------- Rest of league to follow later......
Disagree on calling our squad experinced - its a randomly mashed together combination of Pearson's signing of promising youngsters, plus those who we've had all along like Ashley Chambers, Mattock (though no doubt will move to a Premiership team's reserves at some point) and Gradel, plus the experienced, highly-paid wasters from last season like Clemence, Oakley and Howard, the just plain past-it like Hayles and N'Gotty, and the never-were's who we can't shift I'M LOOKING AT YOU SERGIO HELLINGS. Oh, and the captain of a Champions League team in the prime of his career, just to make things a bit more confusing. I honestly have no idea how this is going to play out. I'd agree that Leeds would have to be the favourites, on the back of a strong season, but we're either at least as good, or far worse and its really tough to tell which. Oh and you missed: McAuley to Ipswich, £1.1m. Stearman to Wolves, £1.6m
Wouldn't it be better to wait a couple of weeks so you'll have more of an idea of squad line-ups? I'd imagine a fair bit of business will be done between now and then.