Paphos People

man u
Ins: None.

Outs: Adam Eckersley (AC Horsens, free), Gerard Pique (Barcelona, £5m), Tom Heaton (Cardiff City, loan), Chris Eagles (Burnley, £1m).

summary we know they will sign a striker but who and when? we know ronaldo will leave but this season or next? at the moment they have the same squad as last season not much difference (with the lad back from sunderland and pique leaving)

predicition, they will suffer more from injury this year, ronaldo will sulk (and only score 18 goals) but they will still finish 2nd

Middlesbrough
Ins: Didier Digard (Paris St Germain, £4m), Marvin Emnes (Sparta Rotterdam, £3.2m).

Outs: George Boateng (Hull City, £1m), Fabio Rochemback (Sporting, free), Lee Dong-Gook (released), Mark Schwarzer (Fulham, free), Steve Thompson (Port Vale, free), Lee Cattermole (Wigan, £3.5m).


summary smaller squad than last season, a sprinkling of quality downing, wheater, tuncay, alves supported by even more youth acedmy players (expect bennett, franks and walker to make break through this year), more pace and youth than at any other time in the last 20 years, still a bit concerned about keeper but very happy that we will continue our improvement from the 2nd half of last season

predicition 10th

newcastle
Ins: Danny Guthrie (Liverpool, undisclosed), Jonas Gutierrez (Real Mallorca, undisclosed).

Outs: Emre (Fenerbahce, undisclosed), David Rozehnal (Lazio, £2.9m), Peter Ramage (QPR, free).

summary oh sorry, too many injury prone players, then there is alan smith, barton
too much off field rumours regarding ashley, worrying times to be a barcode imo

prediciton bottom of the NE 14th

portsmouth
Ins: Peter Crouch (Liverpool, £11m), Ben Sahar (Chelsea, loan), Glen Little (Reading, free).

Outs: Sulley Muntari (Inter Milan, £12.7m).


summary, losing muntari will hurt them although crouch is a decent signing, think they were over rated by the press last year and this year they be similar

prediction 8th

stoke
Ins: Seyi George Olofinjana (Wolves, £3m), Dave Kitson (Reading, £5.5m). thomas sorensen

Outs: Marlon Broomes (Blackpool, free).

summary, derby
prediction 20th may take the points record

Sunderland
Ins: Pascal Chimbonda (Tottenham, undisclosed), David Meyler (Cork City, undisclosed), Nick Colgan (Ipswich, free), Teemu Tainio (Tottenham, undisclosed), El Hadji Diouf (Bolton, £2.5m), Steed Malbranque (Tottenham, undisclosed).

Outs: Andrew Cole (Nottingham Forest, free), Greg Halford (Sheffield United, loan), Ian Harte and Stephen Wright (both released), Ross Wallace (Preston, loan).

summary, if you are a mackem you should be fairly pleased well until you realise that 2 of your key players (evans and jones) are not going to be doing much (unless you sign evans), still a better transfer window than last year when they could on the whole only attract dross, can see them signing another striker and another central defender before september

prediction solid team this year will beat a few big teams and struggle against some naff ones will get more points than last year but they will finish in 12th

tottenham
Ins: John Bostock (Crystal Palace, £700,000), Heurelho Gomes (PSV Eindhoven, undisclosed), Luka Modric (£15.8m), Giovani dos Santos (Barcelona, £4.7m), David Bentley (Blackburn, £15m).

Outs: Pascal Chimbonda (Sunderland, undisclosed), Paul Robinson (Blackburn, £3.5m), Teemu Tainio (Sunderland, undisclosed), Joe Martin (Blackpool, undisclosed), Robbie Keane (Liverpool, £20.3m). Anthony Gardner (Hull City, loan), Steed Malbranque (Sunderland, undisclosed), Jake Livermore (Crewe, loan).


summary, bought some quality players not all will settle, however there season will rest on how many games king and woodgate play together in my opinion

predicition, think spurs will do well and end up 5th

West Brom
Ins: Scott Carson (Liverpool, £3.25m), Marek Cech (FC Porto, £1.4m), Gianni Zuiverloon (Heerenveen, £3.2m), Luke Moore (Aston Villa, £3m).

Outs: Kevin Phillips (Birmingham, free), Curtis Davies (Aston Villa, undisclosed), Martin Albrechtsen (Derby County, free), Zoltan Gera (Fulham, free), Luke Daniels (Shrewsbury, loan).

summary, mogga is god just remember that!! I feel wba have made good signings fairly cheaply they will miss gera and need to replace him, but they are probably the strogest team to have been promoted for a few seasons

predicition survival 16th

West Ham
Ins: Valon Behrami (Lazio, £5m), Balint Bajner (Liberty Salonta, undisclosed), Jan Lastuvka (Shakhtar Donetsk, loan).

Outs: John Pantsil and Bobby Zamora (Fulham, £6.3m), Richard Wright (Ipswich, undisclosed).

summary, behrami is a good signing, better business was getting paid to sell zamora

predicition, another team i dislike (bloody FA should have relegated them) 13th

and finally

wigan
Ins: Amr Zaki (Zamalek, loan), Olivier Kapo (Birmingham, £3.5m), Daniel de Ridder (Birmingham, free), Lee Cattermole (Middlesbrough, £3.5m).

Outs: Andreas Granqvist (Groningen, £600,000), Julius Aghahowa (Kayserispor, undisclosed), Salomon Olembe (Kayserispor, free), Josip Skoko (Hajduk Split, free), David Cotterill (Sheffield United, undisclosed).

summary, a hard working team strenghtened in midfield, will not excell but not going to go down
prediction 15th


so there you go

I don't know what tickled me most, Boro 10th or Spurs 5th..

Up the Hammers!

Typical comments from a Smoggies as regards the TOON, did think you'd play devils advocate but obviously not

We've brought in 3-4 good players so far & lost none of the decent players who took us to 12th last season, we also have KK to start the full season off, so that 7 game unbeaten run may be longer this season, after we get Manc Usa & Arsenil out of the way in the 1st 3 games

As for bottom of the NE clubs, prepare to lose your double or quits bet on those mars bars in fact, would you like to predict what the outcome will be between the NE games, I say this:

Toon v Mackems @ SJP - 3-1
Mackems v Toon @ SDF - 1-2
Toon v Smoggies @ SJP - 3-0
Smoggies v Toon @ RS - 1-1
Mackem v Smoggies @ SDF - 1-1
Smoggies v Mackem @ RS - 1-1

Only my prediction you understand

thought it was fairly fair as i do think you have serious problems ahead

Have a look at who left the club & who as come in to replace them, also add Bassong & Colocinni as they are both either here or coming to the TOON & then see how are we any weaker a side than last season

But according to your prediction, you'll go upto 10th with who you've brought in & we'll drop to 14th, you're having a laugh mate very bias towards your own team I see but then again, I suppose I would be too

to be honest most of that is based that i believe alves will get nearly 20 league goals this season, mido is fit, we have got rid of the 1 good game in 4 players like rocky and mendi, and got rid of the worst keeper on shots to save ratio from last season and yes i am more biased about boro than other teams ( not that climbing 4 places is expecting too much)

Personally I think Alves will break down in a few months & Mido will be his usual self & put the weight back on & you'll be lucky to get 15 between them for the season

Us on the other hand, I think both Martins & Owen will be in double figures, as we need them to do something as the other strikers we have, Viduka, Smith, Carrol & Ameobi will get 10 between themselves, the only difference is, our defence won't leak as many once we get Colocini in & sorted

My TOON side to face Manc USA at start of season:

Given

Baye, Bassong, Colocini, Enrique

Spider, Milner, Butt, Duff

Owen Martins

Subs: Harper, Zogs, Smith, Carrol, Lua Lua, Faye, Taylor

pete mate obafemi got 10 goals last season for you, michael owen got 13 and the others you mentioned got 7 (and they were all viduka) so you are hoping they will do what they did last season basically?

Pretty much that & more if possible, as long as we don't leak goals, we'll be ok

Owen 18
Martins 15
Viduka 7
Carrol 3
Ameobi 0
Smith 0
Duff 5
Milner 4
Zogs 4
Spider 3
Colocini 3
Taylor 2
Bassong 3
Baye 2
Enrique 2

Total 73+