Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

[Spooner]

All odds available at http://www.odds-comparison.co.uk/ Championship antepost bets in here, winner, relegation, promotion etc. :ok Npower Championship Winner 50/1 BAR

[RedDevil92]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season Does anyone know when the gameplan will be presented? I have 4 teams to win the Championship:Leicester,West Ham,Cardiff and Leeds. Leicester are coached by Eriksson who is a good manager with a lot experience and with a few signings he could make it. West Ham will be coached by Big Sam Allardyce.Despite a few departures such as Upson,spector and Green he is capable of forming a promotion team. Cardiff were poor in the play-offs but in the season they were one of the top teams all the time.A few good signings and let's see. Leeds have good big history with many fans.This team hsa to play in the Premier League.They need to play more consistent and hold players like Snodgrass and Beechio. Some short ideas.Let's see what will happen in the transfer market.

[AHughes]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season Opinions on Birmingham bouncing straight back up ? McCleish is a proven good manager having already got Birmingham promoted from this league before. They have some very useful players in Ben Foster, Craig Gardner, Roger Johnson and Scott Dann. It really depends on how many key players they can keep however with the attraction of Europa League football will they stay ? They have already signed winger Chris Burke who could turn out to be a decent acquisition and look like they're ready to sign Marlon King from Coventry also. 10/1 Birmingham to win Npower Championship - Blue Square

[HastGill1]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season I would say Birmingham will need to increase their squad size if they want to get promotion, are they automatically into the group stage of the Europa? If they are then thats another 6 games this season for sure with the League Cup and FA Cup also, Premiership squads struggle with the workload so not sure how Birmingham will do with a 46 game season coming thats another 8 games on top also of what they had last season..Dann is likely to leave I would say, Dann being injured was a catalyst for their poor form and they would probably have stayed up had he been fit. Birmingham will certainly need to improve in defence, an area they are been traditionally strong, if they are to go up..

[thfc]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season I'm surprised Ipswich are as big a price as they are (around 20/1 to win the league and 8/1 for promotion). Paul Jewell turned them around in the second half of last season, is proven at this level, and they have some quality players. They also have money to spend and are rumoured to be after Michael Chopra who would be a great signing for them. Whether Wickham stays or not is unknown but even if he does they should have the money available to strengthen the team. When you see that teams like Middlesbrough and Southampton are rated as better chances of being promoted, I see value in the price on Ipswich to be promoted at 8/1 (corals), as I think Ipswich have at least as good a squad as those teams, and a capable manager to keep them heading in the right direction for the course of the season.

[RedDevil92]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

I'm surprised Ipswich are as big a price as they are (around 20/1 to win the league and 8/1 for promotion). Paul Jewell turned them around in the second half of last season, is proven at this level, and they have some quality players. They also have money to spend and are rumoured to be after Michael Chopra who would be a great signing for them. Whether Wickham stays or not is unknown but even if he does they should have the money available to strengthen the team. When you see that teams like Middlesbrough and Southampton are rated as better chances of being promoted, I see value in the price on Ipswich to be promoted at 8/1 (corals), as I think Ipswich have at least as good a squad as those teams, and a capable manager to keep them heading in the right direction for the course of the season.

Are you sure that Ipswich has that money to buy some good players?

[thfc]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

Are you sure that Ipswich has that money to buy some good players?

I'm not sure as i'm not an Ipswich fan, I just go by what I see and read. They have apparently bid £1m for Michael Chopra and he will be on decent wages as well given his track record at this level so they do seem to have some money to spend. Its not going to be in the same league as Leicester or maybe West Ham and the other relegated teams, though if they sell Wickham for £10m+ then that would give them the finances to improve the squad. IMO Ipswich don't need to go and spend huge amounts of money anyway, they have the nucleus of a good squad and just need a couple of stand out signings for me. Chopra would be one, and there's plenty of time to get a couple more in, or maybe use the loan system to get a decent PL player or two in. Compared to some of the other teams prices, Ipswich's price stands out to me as the best value. No way would I be trusting Leicester, West Ham, Forest, Middlesbrough etc at the prices they are at as the championship is too unpredictable. I just hope Ipswich give me a good run for my money over the season. I think they should be in the shake up for the playoffs, and with a bit of luck could get one of the top 2 spots.

[RedDevil92]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season After reading that both Bothroyd and Chopra will leave Cardiff,I don't think that they can make the promotion this year anymore.Furthermore Burke has also reaveled his departure from Cardiff to Birmingham so I won't take Cardiff anylonger. They have no real striker left expect Parkin and he is no one who should be in the starting XI at least not at Cardiff.McCormack and Keogh are already back at their clubs.

[thfc]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

I'm not sure as i'm not an Ipswich fan' date=' I just go by what I see and read. [b']They have apparently bid £1m for Michael Chopra and he will be on decent wages as well given his track record at this level so they do seem to have some money to spend. Its not going to be in the same league as Leicester or maybe West Ham and the other relegated teams, though if they sell Wickham for £10m+ then that would give them the finances to improve the squad. IMO Ipswich don't need to go and spend huge amounts of money anyway, they have the nucleus of a good squad and just need a couple of stand out signings for me. Chopra would be one, and there's plenty of time to get a couple more in, or maybe use the loan system to get a decent PL player or two in. Compared to some of the other teams prices, Ipswich's price stands out to me as the best value. No way would I be trusting Leicester, West Ham, Forest, Middlesbrough etc at the prices they are at as the championship is too unpredictable. I just hope Ipswich give me a good run for my money over the season. I think they should be in the shake up for the playoffs, and with a bit of luck could get one of the top 2 spots.

The Chopra deal is now done, confirmed at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13688443.stm Good signing for Ipswich if he can stay fit. Don't think Chopra would have gone there unless he thought Ipswich would be contending promotion so happy to make Ipswich my team to support in the championship this year on the antepost markets

[western skies]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season Personally, I'd hang fire on Ipswich just for the moment. Chopra is a decent signing, but there's still a lot of work needed before Paul Jewell can turn them into genuine promotion contenders. Their defending was pretty shambolic at times last season and they've lost far and away their best centre half in Gareth McAuley, who's joined West Brom on a free. That leaves them with Damien Delaney, who tends to look out of his depth without McAuley alongside him, and Tommy Smith, who's only 21 and, whilst he shows promise, lacks consistency. They badly need cover at full back - Jamie Peters and Carlos Edwards (both right midfielders by trade) covered at right back with mixed results, whilst Mark Kennedy is an excellent left back but suffers horribly with injuries and, at 35, that's unlikely to improve. They've also lost club captain David Norris who refused to sign a new contract and is now a free agent. He scored 11 goals from midfield last year and that sort of contribution will be badly missed. Should Connor Wickham leave as well, then that's another goalscorer gone, albeit Jewell should have the thick end of £10m to reinvest. For me, Ipswich badly need a centre half, 2 full backs, a creative midfielder, and (if Wickham goes) another striker to share the load with Chopra. If they get all or even most of these, then I fancy them to push for the play-offs at least, but until we know more about the shape of their squad, I'd be leaving them alone for the time being.

[aliando]

Reddevil - take a deep breath, stay calm and slowly put you money back into your pocket. Whatever you do, don't write Cardiff on your slip! Where do I start? :-( 3 successive aborted premiership missions made more painful by the fact that our biggest rivals just strolled past and joined Newport and Wrexham by dropping out of the football league. Jones has gone, he had to. There's a general respect about the job he's done but he could no longer stay. He had the squad he wanted this year and failed to get us promoted in arguably the weakest championship in recent years. With the likes of west ham, birmingham, Leicester, hull, forest, burnley etc, I think this season will be harder. Jason perry said that if jones stayed and we lost the first couple of games, the city crowd would be on jones back and it would fall apart before it began - I think he's bang on here. So no manager, but plenty linked. Early reports, as usual linked us withbig names but this is gradually showing less and less wanted targets. Anticipation is turning to fear in some degree... So, no manager. But we got players! Well... Gk: we finished with 4 keepers and I'd not really rate any of them highly. Heaton probably best but isnt inspiring. Defence: likely to be most stable area. Most are staying but we need better full backs and a good centre half with speed wouldn't go amiss. Midfield: uh oh. Burke has gone to brum, hard working winger but not irreplaceable. Whitts, mcphail, ummmm wildig has come back from Hamilton.. Oh that's it! Forwards: Jon fcuking parkin. Fcuk. Bellamy is looking to come back. Plenty of speculation atm, but IMO he'll want to see what's here for him to come back for first. Players gone: Bellamy, bothroyd, chopra, olifinyana, Burke, Matthews, Emmanuel-Thomas, koumas, bywater, brown, Samuel have all left/returned to their squads - these were all players part of the first team. We now have 17 players left, including 3 promoted from the youth academy. Off the field, sam ham am still lurks due to the debt but reports of agreements for him to fcuk off have been put in Place - we'll see... The malaysians have stated there will be funds available but have not said to what extent. All in all, I'm expecting a roller coaster few months but not expecting us to challenge this season. It'd be easy to see the above and look at relegation but it's looking like mid table mediocrity for a new manager rebuilding. I hope :-(

[Jk]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season Jase, I've got a Pompey supporting mate who often keeps me updated with things going on there. Apparantly there's a lot of noises coming out from the new board about there being money to spend. Apparantly Danny Norris is a target and a couple of others as well. From what I understand you only have about 8 players currently on the books, but do you feel with potential investment this summer you could challenge? I'm a fan of Cotterill and if he can get it right you may be a dark horse next year.

[thfc]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

Personally, I'd hang fire on Ipswich just for the moment. Chopra is a decent signing, but there's still a lot of work needed before Paul Jewell can turn them into genuine promotion contenders. Their defending was pretty shambolic at times last season and they've lost far and away their best centre half in Gareth McAuley, who's joined West Brom on a free. That leaves them with Damien Delaney, who tends to look out of his depth without McAuley alongside him, and Tommy Smith, who's only 21 and, whilst he shows promise, lacks consistency. They badly need cover at full back - Jamie Peters and Carlos Edwards (both right midfielders by trade) covered at right back with mixed results, whilst Mark Kennedy is an excellent left back but suffers horribly with injuries and, at 35, that's unlikely to improve. They've also lost club captain David Norris who refused to sign a new contract and is now a free agent. He scored 11 goals from midfield last year and that sort of contribution will be badly missed. Should Connor Wickham leave as well, then that's another goalscorer gone, albeit Jewell should have the thick end of £10m to reinvest. For me, Ipswich badly need a centre half, 2 full backs, a creative midfielder, and (if Wickham goes) another striker to share the load with Chopra. If they get all or even most of these, then I fancy them to push for the play-offs at least, but until we know more about the shape of their squad, I'd be leaving them alone for the time being.

I agree they need to sort out a few more signings to be competitive near the top, but i've put my money down early in the anticipation that Paul Jewell is aware of this and will be looking to bring in quality replacements. The Chopra signing seems to suggest they have money to spend regardless of whether Wickham goes or not, so i'm trusting that more money will be available to sort out the defence and midfield. My bet is really based on my faith in Paul Jewell as a top manager at this level rather than the sqaud strength at present. After all, if they do get all those playing positions sorted with quality players, their price will come in and they won't represent much value any more. Its only a small bet from me to keep me interested in the championship over the course of the season.

[thfc]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season Does anyone have any opinions on the relegation market? At first glance I thought Blackpool might be a possibility at long odds, based on the fact their best players are sure to move on over the summer and they will spend some time rebuilding. I'm not sure how much money Holloway will be given to rebuild the squad, and while he has done well with Blackpool, his overall managerial record is for me a bit patchy. I remember him getting relegated from the championship with leicester a few seasons back and also with QPR back in 2001 I think, and I don't think he achieved an awful lot with either Plymouth or Bristol Rovers. Last season Middlesbrough were supposed favourites for promotion but spent most of the season in and around the bottom 3 so its not inconceivable that the same thing could happen to Blackpool. At 14/1 (skybet), the price is certainly tempting.

[RedDevil92]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

Reddevil - take a deep breath, stay calm and slowly put you money back into your pocket. Whatever you do, don't write Cardiff on your slip! Where do I start? :-( 3 successive aborted premiership missions made more painful by the fact that our biggest rivals just strolled past and joined Newport and Wrexham by dropping out of the football league. Jones has gone, he had to. There's a general respect about the job he's done but he could no longer stay. He had the squad he wanted this year and failed to get us promoted in arguably the weakest championship in recent years. With the likes of west ham, birmingham, Leicester, hull, forest, burnley etc, I think this season will be harder. Jason perry said that if jones stayed and we lost the first couple of games, the city crowd would be on jones back and it would fall apart before it began - I think he's bang on here. So no manager, but plenty linked. Early reports, as usual linked us withbig names but this is gradually showing less and less wanted targets. Anticipation is turning to fear in some degree... So, no manager. But we got players! Well... Gk: we finished with 4 keepers and I'd not really rate any of them highly. Heaton probably best but isnt inspiring. Defence: likely to be most stable area. Most are staying but we need better full backs and a good centre half with speed wouldn't go amiss. Midfield: uh oh. Burke has gone to brum, hard working winger but not irreplaceable. Whitts, mcphail, ummmm wildig has come back from Hamilton.. Oh that's it! Forwards: Jon fcuking parkin. Fcuk. Bellamy is looking to come back. Plenty of speculation atm, but IMO he'll want to see what's here for him to come back for first. Players gone: Bellamy, bothroyd, chopra, olifinyana, Burke, Matthews, Emmanuel-Thomas, koumas, bywater, brown, Samuel have all left/returned to their squads - these were all players part of the first team. We now have 17 players left, including 3 promoted from the youth academy. Off the field, sam ham am still lurks due to the debt but reports of agreements for him to fcuk off have been put in Place - we'll see... The malaysians have stated there will be funds available but have not said to what extent. All in all, I'm expecting a roller coaster few months but not expecting us to challenge this season. It'd be easy to see the above and look at relegation but it's looking like mid table mediocrity for a new manager rebuilding. I hope :-(

Do you whether your club can spend money because I read one year ago that they don't have much cash.

[angeal]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season My view for what it is worth Southampton and Brighton had excellent seasons last year and could be in the mix to go straight into the premiership - two proven good managers. Leeds also have a good chance - good manager good team Cant see Leicester,West Ham, or Cardiff doing it - loss of players/managers and Erickson to me is a joke. Al :clap

[aliando]

Do you whether your club can spend money because I read one year ago that they don't have much cash.

Don't think anyone outside of the boardroom can give a real answer mate. The malaysians reportedly have billions so there's potentially big money available - our wages, including Bellamy, last season were above average for the championship. However, I'm aware that these guys are property developers and extremely good businessmen. When the club was sold, it was noted that the area around the ground "has development potential." so whilst everything they have done so far has appeared to be in the clubs best interest, my fears don't go away. They have stated they want Cardiff in the premiership and they have stated that there are funds - but thats about as concrete as things are atm. My guess is that the managerial appt will speak volumes about our ambitions this year, the appt is expected in the coming week... Sorry I cant give you a more definitive answer but that's about as good as it gets atm :-/

[RedDevil92]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season Pompey are in deep trouble: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2002635/Tal-Ben-Haim-sue-Portsmouth-1-4m-unpaid-wages.html If Ben-Haim wins then Portsmouth won't be able to sign players and they have just 8 players left.Kanu wants to end his career as I have read and I don't think that the Israelian wants to stay. Does anyone know something else?

[RedDevil92]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season I have just read that the fixtures will be revealed in 5 days:beer

[Captain Quark]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

Pompey are in deep trouble: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2002635/Tal-Ben-Haim-sue-Portsmouth-1-4m-unpaid-wages.html If Ben-Haim wins then Portsmouth won't be able to sign players and they have just 8 players left.Kanu wants to end his career as I have read and I don't think that the Israelian wants to stay. Does anyone know something else?

That's not great news for them, but they've become used to these problems and always managed to get round them one way or another. I don't know too much about the new owner or the money he will put in. But even if he's as bad as the last lot they still managed to put together a team that got them to midtable security. As an aside, the article calls this the worst time in their history. surely not! One relegation and a midtable finish, albeit with financial worries, as the cost for probably their best ever period!

[westcoast]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

Does anyone have any opinions on the relegation market? .

Cardiff at 25/1 are massive to be relagated,I am pretty sure they will struggle big time next season. The so called Malayasian investors:lol have spent next to nothing and last weeks sale of Chopra revealed they still owed Sunderland £1.5m of from 2 years ago and all the Ipswich money had to go to Sunderland,they gambled last year taking 7 loan players from EPL and lost and I doubt if the asians are there this time next year with reports of them looking for a route out after last seasons failed gamble. They have massive debts north of £30 million and a winding up order in the next 6 months is a distinct possibilty,something which is possibly making any new manager think twice,with the new season fast coming still no sign of a manager . They have the bare bones of a team at the moment only 14 1st teamers,and no way will Man city be paying Bellamy £80,000 a week this year to play for Cardiff, they will have to find £4m if they want to keep him next season along with another £2m in wages,its just not going to happen.

[BOSS007]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season Hi there. Have got Westham to win this league, basically because big sam tactics of being rough and playing the long ball game should work. Have put accumalator: Westham, crawley,luton, all to win their leagues, and swansea to get relegated. Any views :welcome

[westcoast]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

Hi there. Have got Westham to win this league' date=' basically because big sam tactics of being rough and playing the long ball game [/quote'] If you look at last seasons 3 that got into the premiership you will find they were the 3 best footballing teams in the league and not long ball merchants.

[gettingfatter]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

Cardiff at 25/1 are massive to be relagated,I am pretty sure they will struggle big time next season. The so called Malayasian investors:lol have spent next to nothing and last weeks sale of Chopra revealed they still owed Sunderland £1.5m of from 2 years ago and all the Ipswich money had to go to Sunderland,they gambled last year taking 7 loan players from EPL and lost and I doubt if the asians are there this time next year with reports of them looking for a route out after last seasons failed gamble. They have massive debts north of £30 million and a winding up order in the next 6 months is a distinct possibilty,something which is possibly making any new manager think twice,with the new season fast coming still no sign of a manager . They have the bare bones of a team at the moment only 14 1st teamers,and no way will Man city be paying Bellamy £80,000 a week this year to play for Cardiff, they will have to find £4m if they want to keep him next season along with another £2m in wages,its just not going to happen.

Malaysians arent going anywhere. Dont know whether we will struggle but Bellamy has made it completely clear that he wont play for another Premier League team so Man City can hold out for 4 million and pay him 95k a week for the next year or they can cut their losses and sell him off cheaper to us. Chopra had got fat and lost interest. Im sure we can get a young, hungry striker in for less than 1.5mil and pay him a lot less than 20k a week. I actually think its a good thing that the new manager will get pretty much a clean slate. The players that have left either had shocking seasons (Burke) or shocking half seasons (Bothroyd, Chops). We are left with a solid defense if fit, 2 good goalkeepers, Whitts as our only midfielder and potentially CB39 and Parkin up front. So in terms of starting 11 Id say we only need to really concentrate on improving the midfield.

[gettingfatter]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

If you look at last seasons 3 that got into the premiership you will find they were the 3 best footballing teams in the league and not long ball merchants.

Great sample size :unsure and regardless, for at least half the season Watford were by far the best footballing side.

[westcoast]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season Great sample size ????? Sample size means nothing when you state the 3 best teams in the league were the 3 that went into the English Premier League .WTF has sample size got to do with that statement ? Watford:loon finished 14th did`nt they ? QPR and Swansea won 50% more games than them , whats the point of only playing 1/3 of the season and then bottling it ? you should know that better than anyone. Nearly every commentator on the game agreed that Swansea city were the best footballing team in the league last year,although that must hurt you to hell with your club once again bottling it and them becoming the only premiership team ever to come from Wales. Bellamy can say what he wants Man city paid virtually all his wages last year for no return and are in a position to do it again this if he wants to act stupid, they will determine what happens with him not Cardiff unless they come up with £4m which is unlikely since they could not even pay chopras fee to sunderland from 2 years ago . The malayasians are not going anywhere ,since they have injected jack shite into the club and your debt is ever increasing plus they have stated cut backs are needed you should be hoping they feck off pretty sharpish. Anyway all will be revieled in time and I stand by my thoughts that yesterdays 25/1 for cardiff to go down is a value bet something others agree with since Corals have cut it to 20/1 today.

[gettingfatter]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

Great sample size ????? Sample size means nothing when you state the 3 best teams in the league were the 3 that went into the English Premier League .WTF has sample size got to do with that statement ?

In previous years it hasnt been good footballing sides that have gone up, stating the last 3 were proves nothing. Its akin to me saying, 'the last 3 cars that drove down the road were red, this means all cars are red'.

Watford:loon finished 14th did`nt they ? QPR and Swansea won 50% more games than them , whats the point of only playing 1/3 of the season and then bottling it ? you should know that better than anyone.

You mentioned the best footballing sides, Watford were the best footballing side I saw all season. Swansea were the 2nd best footballing side I saw. Norwich were up there, QPR were a one man team a bit like us towards the end of the season.

Nearly every commentator on the game agreed that Swansea city were the best footballing team in the league last year,although that must hurt you to hell with your club once again bottling it and them becoming the only premiership team ever to come from Wales.

Now you are getting childish, Swansea play good football, I was supporting them in both Playoff games. There was a rediculous Swansea = Barcalona bandwagon that people jumped on. They play decent football, I would be shocked if they dont have to adapt next season though. It is also quite ironic that a side that left so many local businesses in the lurch when they went into admin were being heralded as a model club financially...People have short/selective memories.

Bellamy can say what he wants Man city paid virtually all his wages last year for no return and are in a position to do it again this if he wants to act stupid, they will determine what happens with him not Cardiff unless they come up with £4m which is unlikely since they could not even pay chopras fee to sunderland from 2 years ago .

Vincent tan personally paid 35k a week actually. Incidently when we took Chopra back they still owed us 2.5 of the 5 million that they paid, all clubs do it, but I wouldnt expect you to know that. Bellamy was our best player by far, any fool knows you need the other 10 players to pull their weight, not you apparently though. Bellamy is 1/2 to be at Cardiff next year, 5/1 Celtic, I am pretty sure he has said that those are the only two British clubs he will possibly play for other than Man City.

The malayasians are not going anywhere ,since they have injected jack shite into the club and your debt is ever increasing plus they have stated cut backs are needed you should be hoping they feck off pretty sharpish.

Debt with Hamman/Langston is all but frozen and infact is being investigated from a legal perspective as we speak. I remember seeing a figure of 10 million of smaller debts that they had settled (inc tax bill) that the malaysians had put in, obviously that is just pocket change to you though. [this was months and months ago also so could be more now] Although we probably should have taken the easy way out like most clubs and taken administration, not work with creditors to pay off the debts in full.

Anyway all will be revieled in time and I stand by my thoughts that yesterdays 25/1 for cardiff to go down is a value bet something others agree with since Corals have cut it to 20/1 today.

Alan Shearer was backed into 1/3 to be our next manager yesterday, a price falling means nothing.

[aliando]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season i think gettingfatter has summed things up very well tbh. you can argue that 25/1 for a city relelgation bet is value and I wouldnt put up much of an argument (see my first post above). But there are a number of paper talk facts that are in your argument, particularly re: finances. As above, the way that money is left owed to other clubs from debt is common practice, rightly or wrongly. As was seen by the Motherwell situation re: Paul Quinn's transfer, the Malaysian investors have inherited a sizeable chunk of debt, both through proper channels and through (possible) bad management from the previous regimes of Hammam and Ridsdale. They have slowly looked to address the debt which has also included drafting in forensic accountants to review the Langston/Hammam debts. Chucking money at players does not guarantee promotion - I personally believe that West Ham are clear favs and its their league to lose, with Big Sam at the helm. Again, I feel that our manager selection will be vital to look at odds. Shearer, for example, may be why those Coral odds dropped!!!

The malayasians are not going anywhere ,since they have injected jack shite into the club

evidence? :unsure Not entirely sure why the emotion is creeping into your argument, possibly to justify the bet? However, I can understand why those outside of the capital would question Bellamy's return - I am myself, to an extent. He's a Cardiff boy and he's spoken of his desire to get us promoted but, as I said, I would be expecting him to be watching before acting. IMO, Bellamy didnt do a great deal until fatboyslim got injured and then he was played in a 4-4-2 with Bothroyd - that coincided with us hitting a decent run towards the end. His sale to Ipswich is not a huge loss to us, given that he is replaced! Jewell will need to manage Chopra well to get the best out of him. Most Cardiff fans I know are accepting of this season being one of transition and rebuilding. We need a manager and then its a case of "who's left in the transfer market." I'm not expecting to see us spend big transfer fees but I'd expect that wages should be above average again.

[moggis]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season BOSS 007 re your acca,if you have already placed it then i advise a saver on west ham ,swans,crawley and fleetwood good luck. i think that generally this season will be a good one for those who do antepost accas....however i think it will be wise to hang fire on the championship

[Jase82]

Re: Npower Championship > Ante-Post 2011-12 Season

Jase, I've got a Pompey supporting mate who often keeps me updated with things going on there. Apparently there's a lot of noises coming out from the new board about there being money to spend. Apparently Danny Norris is a target and a couple of others as well. From what I understand you only have about 8 players currently on the books, but do you feel with potential investment this summer you could challenge? I'm a fan of Cotterill and if he can get it right you may be a dark horse next year.

40s is pure gold :loon We've signed David Norris, and are after another five or so players. We should have a fair amount of cash to splash about, but I wouldn't expect big money signings in respect of transfer fees, as there are plenty of frees floating about. The three clubs that came down from the prem let go something like fifty players or something....A Championship club doesn't really need to spend big these days, with foreign imports flooding the market at the very top, forcing the good English players down the ladder. What money we are getting from the sale of the club has already gone on our training ground, and will probably go toward facilities in the main.

Pompey are in deep trouble: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2002635/Tal-Ben-Haim-sue-Portsmouth-1-4m-unpaid-wages.html If Ben-Haim wins then Portsmouth won't be able to sign players and they have just 8 players left.Kanu wants to end his career as I have read and I don't think that the Israelian wants to stay. Does anyone know something else?

I appreciate the information, but this is another complete piece of trash reporting from another poor poor newspaper. This was all media hype. Some journalist somewhere basically picked up on a technicality, that had a less than 1% chance of ever happening, and reported it as a certainty. Our local newspaper reported this as crap the same week. Trouble is, a lot of these stories are a bit like chinese whispers :\ Overall I'd say West Ham are a shoe in for this league. The signing of Kevin Nolan is enough for me. Scored eighteen goals from midfield alone when he was last down here with Newcastle.