FLC Predictions and Guide Part 3: Positions 7-12.

By: Martyn | August 5th, 2008

7 Ipswich Town
8 Derby County
9 Cardiff City
10 Charlton Athletic
11 Southampton
12 Queen’s Park Rangers

(7). Ipswich Town – Everything about the boys from Suffolk screams Premier League. Unfortunately, they aren’t in the darn money bucket itself! Jim Magilton’s nearly-men of last year are back for another stab at things and their squad is even stronger. However, Magilton came in for a bit of criticism (meat-pie throwing included after one horror-show at Charlton) as the team threatened to go places before promptly stalling and frustrating expectant fans. As with most clubs, this stagnation involves either that lazy, can’t-be-arsed manner that infuriates fans worldwide, or the stagnation that is a result of just plain suicidal defending. Town are still very much a dark horse to go up mind, and as contradicting as it sounds, I believe that they’ll either go up automatically or narrowly miss out on the play-off’s. A highly contrasting viewpoint that doesn’t so much see me sitting on the fence, more trying to sellotape myself to it, but it’s a case of sink or swim for one of the league’s better squads. And for convenience and conviction sake, I can’t see things working out for the young manager with minimal experience: It’ll be the much-despised 7th spot. One must add post-script that Town have acquired the best goalkeeper in the league (narrowly better than Nicky Weaver and Lee Camp) in Richard Wright. Great, great signing.
Main Man – David Norris. Pure quality and can so easily play at a higher level. Makes the basics look easy and will keep things tidy and tight.
Surprise Man – Velice Sumulikoski. The Macedonian ‘Steven Gerrard’ looked ruddy decent on the one occasion I saw him last season, and Tractor Boy fans have been impressed too. Expect a few more people to sit up and take notice in 2008/09; just don’t expect many to be able to spell his surname right!
Jim Magilton – 12th. Came in for a bit of stick last year having floundered with a large and decent squad. Having spent more money this summer, don’t expect the club’s new backers or the fans to view continued stalling and fumbling favourably.

(8). Derby County – We’ll finally get an answer to the question that has plagued Rams fans for the last three-quarters of a year – just how suited are Paul Jewell and Derby County? This is a man who conspired to win not a single game in charge of the Midlands club last season and although his consistent post-match excuse of not having the right personnel resonated a little given Derby’s woeful and inexperienced unit, a team that held Champions-in-waiting Manchester United for 80 minutes and secured a victory under previous manager Billy Davies against Middlesbrough should really have added to that total. Nevertheless, County have money, enormous and passionate support and a healthy looking squad, peppered with striking additions such as Liam Dickinson and Rob Hulse. I expect the Rams to have one of those seasons that isn’t exactly a disaster, but by no means is it one fans will fondly remember.
Main Man – Martin Albrechtsen. An excellent defensive draft, if only the Rams had acquired him during their Premier League vacation.
Surprise Man – Emanuel Villa. Supposedly so good that after he signed for Derby from Mexican side UAG Tecos, the coach of the Central American side resigned in protest at the sale. Had little time and service to make a mark in the Premier League, but there’s no doubt that the Argentine knows where the net is given his quite brilliant goal records in the South American and Central American leagues.
Paul Jewell – 1st. My favourite for setting the sacked ball rolling. Some might deem that Jewell is only just starting the job at Derby, but seeing as the club has just received a heavy injection of finance from American investors I can’t see them viewing any more failings favourably. The ex-Wigan man will survive until the end of September, before (forcibly) bidding adieu to yet another club.

(9). Cardiff City – Yes, us. I just don’t feel we have enough strength in depth to gain a spot in the play-offs. Sure, we’ll be there or thereabouts all season. But to further overload this summary with clichés, when push comes to shove we’ll be weak-wristed. Although we have some semblance of an attractive and effective football outfit, the lack of striking options – and with it a Plan B – will prove to be our undoing.
Main Man – Riccardo Scimeca. Terribly missed last season, he really was the absent link in our team on several can’t score for love nor money occasions. If he plays, we’ll play.
Surprise Man – Darcy Blake. The versatile Valleys youngster won’t just say hello to the world this season, he’ll shout it down an oversized inflatable mobile phone Trigger Happy TV style.
Dave Jones – 20th. (a.) The purse strings always have more knots than a Navy warship. (b). Ridsdale doesn’t appear to be overly trigger-happy when it comes to hiring and firing. (Conclusion). An anagram of Dave Jones is Jon evades: It won’t be Jon doing the evading mind, it’ll be Teflon Dave doing it to the dreaded sack.

(10). Charlton Athletic – Manager Alan Pardew has given the rally-cry: Up we’ll go, so says he. The Addicks – who offered free season tickets to anyone who bought a season ticket last year should they get back to the Promised Land at the first time of asking (they didn’t consequently, much to the relief of the nervous Finance Department) – have invested heavily in youth, much to the dismay of Alan “You’ll never win anything with kids” Hansen. Yet for all their inexperience, the likes of Yassin Moutaouakil, Dean Sinclair, Stuart Fleetwood, Luke Varney, Kelly Youga, Chris Dickson and Josh Wright may just give Charlton’s season a bit of zest and excitement. They shan’t be chucked in at the deep end however: Charlton still boast the likes of Zheng Zhi, Nicky Weaver, Matt Holland and Jerome Thomas. Will that be enough to get them into the play-off’s though? Nope.
Main Man – Amdy Faye. Uncompromising and perfectly suited to excel in this league. A top capture.
Surprise Man – Chris Dickson. The flashes shown will turn into a island of lighthouses. Unlucky to miss the latter half of season through injury, the promise and mountain of goals he bagged at Gillingham will not be shown up as a fluke.
Alan Pardew – 7th. Last year was last year. Now is (funnily enough) now so more mid-table nothingness ain’t likely to get the beancounters beaming.

(11). Southampton – The Saints should probably come with a warning this season: Serious Boredom Alert. Last season’s horror show was thankfully salvaged in some sort of happy ending, but as fans of the Halloween series of films know, Michael Myers always strikes again, no matter how many times you think you’ve seen him off. Therefore I expect Southampton (who dismissed First-Team Coach Nigel Pearson for the absolutely torrid, indignant achievement of erm, keeping them up) to jam-pack the midfield and play a containing, frustrating style of football that will hold more clubs than Tiger Woods’ golf buggy. Anticipate their ‘D’ column to be well into the beyond puberty/young man brackets of numbers. In spite of the new Dutch management team, everybody knows that Total Football is dead so don’t expect to see it here. In many ways there will be comparisons drawn and
distinguished between Jan Poortvliet’s Saints reign and that of Belgian Johan Boskamp’s time at the Stoke helm two seasons back. Safe, steady, and ultimately, doing the job required of him on paper. The squad may have been united a little by the sorta-success of Pearson’s tenure, and bringing in club legend Matt Le Tissier as a coach can only serve to inspire and make all facets of the club flourish just a little more. I may end up being utterly erroneous in giving Saints a quite sigh-of-relief looking higher mid-table finish because their defence still looks no healthier than the one that let in way too many goals last term. But get the midfield tight and right and the defence won’t be as exposed or vulnerable.
Main Man – Stern John. A top quality marksman who’s always justifiably been at the higher end of the Championship or in the Premier League. Leads the line superbly, and Saints can rely on him more than they can on the generally MIA Rasiak.
Surprise Man – Adam Lallana. Scored an absolutely crucial equaliser against West Brom in the penultimate game of last season that proved the catalyst for a final-day Championship-status saving win against Sheffield United. Expect superior things this year as the youthful wideman is given more time to edge his way into the game.
Jan Poortvliet – 10th. A relative unknown, the ex-PSV Eindhoven midfield man worked wonders with Helmond Sport in the Eerst Divisie (the Dutch equivalent of the Championship) last season, and this was enough to convince Michael Wilde to give Poortvliet and Mark Wotte the chance in charge. Don’t expect Saints fans to take too kindly to an unknown struggling in the job, so a bad start might just make Wilde and the board more than a little twitchy. A dark horse for first sacked.

(12). QPR – Ahh, the bookies’ favourites. The title no fate-tempting theorist wants to be lumbered with. The team that probably has more money than Queen Liz herself and all the Park Rangers in the world combined have employed Iain Dowie to do the honours of leading them to an end-of-season open-top bus parade. QPR have an abundance of talent in their squad, one which most managers worth their salt would love the task of utilizing. There’s no doubting that Iain Dowie is a manager in touch with the modern world of football: He has a degree and focuses stringently on the most minor details (most notably in fitness training). But like Avram Grant at near neighbours Chelsea, is Iain Dowie sexy enough to survive a dip in form? I very much doubt it, no matter how significantly he steadies a heavily overloaded vessel. The R’s must remember that you learn to walk before starting to run and in retrospect, Luigi De Canio did very well last time out to navigate them away from the relegation zone in a year marred by the tragic loss of superstar-in-waiting Ray Jones. Jogging is the next step, so a challenge for a play-off spot should be ample. Comments from the board about reaching the Champions League in X number of years should be reserved until the team gets to the League in which they can even qualify for the competition itself, and this is my chief reason for believing QPR won’t even make the play-off’s – unnecessary pressure and unjustified expectations. They’ll be very, very close mind.
Main Man – Rowan Vine. A man Birmingham City once signed and regularly benched to deny a certain fellow automatic promotion challenger (some team from a city in Wales I think) the opportunity to snap him and the goals he’d have brought up. Time moves on, and Vine now finds himself at Rangers. A real handful for defenders, QPR shouldn’t underestimate the joy of having one of the League’s cleverest strikers in their ranks.
Surprise Man – Hogan Ephraim. A tricky and resilient customer, Ephraim was pinched off the famed West Ham production line. An England youth international at more than one level, you’ll hear tons more this season about the man in the Team Most Likely To Get Championship Media Coverage.
Iain Dowie – 4th. With Gordon Ramsey, Marco Pierre White and Gary Rhodes presiding over the saucepan, what chance does the potato peeler have in getting his say?