1) Liverpool

5) Spuds

14) Portsmouth

20) Reading

You're okay Rev. Given the above four, you clearly weren't swayed by the weekend's results!

Well that's the season started then. Sounds like not much went right today, and while I'm not readying myself for life in the Championships, there are a couple of things that concern me. First of all being...

I think we all need to keep a little perspective here. We lost our first game last season after playing awfully, but we didn't do too badly in the end. As awful as it sounds like we were, we had a couple of key players out...

Scotty, I agree with most of what you said, but this is the part that really concerns me. We did have a couple of key players out, but for a team in Europe, the Premiership and two domestic cups, we quite simply have to have more depth than that. It's the first match of the season and a couple of injuries have already made us a shambles. What happens when the injuries and suspensions really start piling up in, say, November?

That's the #1 takeaway I got from this: more depth is clearly needed if we want to steer clear of a relegation battle and stay in the thick of things in the top half of the table.

I won't be accepting any more tables for our little prediction game after 12:45 England time tomorrow, so time's running out!

And Capt, I hate to say it but I'm not giving you credit for your 8 and 9 spot predictions in that table you fence sitter.

i would play

friedel

neil todd zurab gray

gally bentley savage MGP

mccarthy roberts

That must be one of the most lightweight midfield combination I've ever seen.

Agreed, krislu, but as hard as I try I can't see any other way around it (assuming Emerton and Reid aren't fit to play, as has been indicated).

The only other option I could see would be MGP on the right and Peter on the left -- that's certainly a stretch, and it does nothing to address the problem of the midfield being too lightweight. Unless of course we want to give Mokoena or Douglas a run in the center. Hell, we could favor the classic Souness approach: play Douglas on the left, Matteo and Martin Andresen in the middle and Flitcroft on the right.

Needless to say I'll be interested to see how Hughes chooses to play it tomorrow.

1. Chelsea

2. Liverpool

3. Arsenal

4. Manchester United

5. Tottenham

6. Everton

7. Newcastle

8. Aston Villa

9. Blackburn

10. Bolton

11. West Ham

12. Charlton Athletic

13. Portsmouth

14. Middlesbrough

15. Manchester City

16. Wigan

17. Reading

18. Fulham

19. Watford

20. Sheffield United

Not very gutsy, but then again it's tough not to leave the top five as they are or pick more than one of the promoted sides to stay up. A bit lower of a finish from Rovers as they make a run in at least one of the cups; Man U in fourth, though if they do end up getting Hargreaves they'll certainly finish higher than that; Fulham, with Malbranque, to go down.

I have another prediction as well: Charton will go down within three seasons. I think Dowie is a very good manager, but I always said that when Curbs left they would slip back down to where he had taken them from, and I won't budge from that assessment.

good news hope neil follows in nelsen and reids foot steps

good news hope neil follows in nelsen and reids foot steps as well

Yes. As Bobby G would no doubt put it, and probably will very soon: "That's good news, I hope that Neill follows in Reid and Nelson's footsteps."

If Neill were to do to noble thing and sign on the dotted line Like Reid and Nelsen before him, then that would, no doubt, be good news...

Great news - So far this summer we have had Nelsen, Reid & Pedersen all signing 4 year deals. We just need Neill to sign up now too.

It is great news about Nelsen, especially after Reid and MGP have also signed new deals.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it, but wouldn't it be super if Lucas followed their examples?

Yeah, whatever.

Anyway, with a bit of luck Neill will sign a new contract now as well. After all Reid, Morten Gamst Pedersen and Ryan Nelsen have all signed new contracts this summer. Maybe he'll follow suit?

Guys, I don't think you were clear enough with this... the wrong Aussie just signed a contract extension!

It is great news about Nelsen, especially after Reid and MGP have also signed new deals.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it, but wouldn't it be super if Lucas followed their examples?

I'd just like to echo your sentiments, Chesh.

Treacy has usually played on the left I believe, at least during his preseason run outs with the first team.

As for your second question, there's plenty of opinions on that in this thread.

1-1, Kuqi with a late equalizer

Just to keep this thread updated.

Andy Neild reporting Nelsen close to new deal with Rovers...

...but Pompey making another bid?

How many bids is that from 'arry? Three? Four? I can't keep track anymore. Funny that the "###### Off" message that Rovers have continually given him seems to be too subtle for 'arry.

But it doesn't matter if his heart is here if he's not playing well enough in the Championship. Sparky will never look at him unless he can produce some kind of form and stay healthy for Brum... so while I'll continue to root against the Big Club, I'll be hoping Dunn himself turns things around.

Which makes it all the more important for us to grab a quality right winger before the close season ends. Sparky's had a solid summer thus far, but I'll be disappointed if we don't get another quality midfielder in before the end of the month.

Rovers 2 -- 1 Kiwis

Starting fullbacks were Matteo and Mokoena.

Please, everyone get healthy in time for Pompey!

- It's very early days obviously but there were signs that McCarthy and Roberts were already linking well. McCarthy came deep a few times to link up play whereas Roberts lead the line and tried to hold the ball up.

This is the most interesting part, in my opinion. Without Bellamy (and with little creativity in midfield in Tugay's absence), I feared that our link up play would suffer. If McCarthy is the type of striker that can help in that department, it would help our attack immensely.

Cheers for the report, Scotty. You and Jordan keep safe now.

Never thought he was given a fair chance at Ewood. Granted, I know Souness and his coaching staff saw him every day in training and they would have known if he was up to it, blah blah, but he looked like he had a real motor when I saw him play against D.C. United a couple of years back. I don't think he'll ever be a starting central midfield in the Premiership, but he could have developed into a nice squad player.

Best of luck to Danns (but not to the Big Club).

I suppose this fits here, not worth a new thread anyway. Hughes has announced that Paul Gallagher will not be going out on loan this season as "he sees him as an important member of the squad this term"

Good news for Gally and I must say this pleases me greatly.

Especially with Agathe not signing on, we'll need cover for whichever right midfielder we (hopefully) sign after we (hopefully) offload Emerton. Finally a chance to see if Gally has matured into a player with Premiership potential.

Bad news for us, especially if American's supposition is true.

I'm not going to call Villa a sleeping giant, but they've been underachieving for quite some time. With an average of 36,000 in fans providing the revenue, a new ownership group willing to spend more of that on the squad, and a very good manager in O'Neill who knows how to use that money to best advantage -- things are certainly looking up for them.

1864, are you trying to make sure this anti-American crap spills over onto every thread? Whatever your agenda is, nobody cares anymore. Just let it go for Christ's sake.

Exactly, blue blood. Bruce is the poster child for fielding a team whose whole is much less than the sum of its parts.

We should be glad that Bruce is still there. With him as manager Brum will struggle much more than they should, especially given the talent that's on that roster (from a Championship perspective).

Sort of akin to their website announcement last summer that they'd had a bid accepted for Bellamy?

You're probably right, theno... though that doesn't make it any less pathetic.

Damn.

Had it working an hour ago now getting:

Server has reached its capacity and can serve no more streams. Please try again later.

Got the same thing.

Alright you greedy @#/?s, my turn!

Very pleased with this. I was in the camp that had Benni as top choice for last summer, so to get him a year later for a massively reduced fee is great business.

That's exactly what I have been thinking.

Mido would have been a better header of the ball, but this is the best "heading" front line that we have had for a long while.

I think that we can discern something crucial from this fact: that we need an out-and-out right winger to supply our new strikers with crosses. Using Emerton or Reid on the right didn't hurt us as much last year because Bellamy and Dickov weren't likely to win a lot of headers in the box... but with McCarthy and Roberts, I think it's absolutely imperative that we bring in someone who can play to their strengths.

Additionally, the loss of Bellamy means that we're crying out for more creative spark in midfield, because for all of McCarthy and Roberts' strengths, creating opportunities out of nothing (a la Bellamy) is not among them.

Here's the SkySports article on Sutton

I have to say, though, that the strangest part of that article is the very bottom: "Meanwhile, Blues have reportedly lodged a £1 million move for Fulham's Brian McBride to replace Emile Heskey who departed for Wigan earlier this summer."

Wasn't McBride Fulham's Player of the Season last year? Why would they want to give him up when they really have no other reliable strikers? And why do Brum think McBride would want to move down a division given the success he's had in the Premiership? The Big Club folly never ends I suppose.

Good spot, Drakefyre... that's what I meant. I corrected it above, thanks.