S-Clarke

At least they have a decent half time meal (WTF @ THIS?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRkZ21RJQ0g

Last season you had an awful relegated Portsmouth team, who struggled to compete at the start of the season. Burnley were poor and not up to much with Laws in charge tbh, they only really got going on a late surge once Howe was there. Hull wern't much better either, a really poor squad last season - and had the drain of someone like Bullard on their wage bill which is why the struggled to bring anyone in. Compare that to the clubs coming down this year....West Ham, will be very very hard - still the basis of a mid-table premiership squad there. Blackpool still have a decent team, and have made a couple of good additions. With holloway at the helm they'll still be a threat. (and they'll score lots of goals). Birmingham are the team you'd have more of a question mark over, but they still have a bloody decent squad there and the fire sale hasn't happened to the extent people were expecting. I also like their manager and I think they'll end up being a very hard team to beat this year. So IMO the 3 relegated teams are already stronger than the 3 from last year. Then you add the likes of Leicester city who are going mad, Ipswich have recruited really well and seem to have got over their Keane debacle and Burnley under Howe will be more of a threat than they were under Laws. I think a lot of clubs are in a much better position than they were last year, add to that the quality of players being relegated into this league and Leicesters Man City impression. It is tougher, and the chances of anyone doing a ''Norwich'' are slim to say the least. Top half mid-table for us and Brighton would be a fair reflection IMO.

Much, much tougher league this year though.

Their owner is going to destroy that club, It will all end in tears.

At least we're not Sheffield Wednesday???!?!?! Alfreton Town 14 - 0 Sheffield Wednesday (I assume that it's some sort of reserve/first team mix...but jesus christ!)

I'm quite comfortable with how it stands at the moment. In Fonte you have one of the better CB's at this level when he was at Palace, Butterfield was a really solid RB at Palace and Harding has proven himself to be championship quality. The question mark is over Fonte's partner, which I assume will end up being a new addition, but even if it's not in time for the Leeds game, Seaborne has really impressed me in the games I've seen during pre-season. He's always had excellent composure on the ball, but during pre-season he seems to have improved his distribution rather than just aimlessly hoofing. He's probably the quickest CB at the club. IMO We'll end up having Fonte/New Signing with a backup pair of Jaidi and Seaborne (I expect Martin to be loaned at at some point).

I think you're in the minority with that view mate, I always felt pretty sure we'd see a game out. The team never really made me nervous last year (apart from the first few games of the season). I'll tell you a team that should be ****ting themselves this year re: their defense.....P'Boro, no defensive additions, just the same back 4 that conceded 80+ last year!!!!!!!

I bet we wouldn't be having this debate had we beaten Yeovil 2-0 We had a very good defence last year so the coaching isn't an issue. We will bring in another CB next week, of that I'm sure.

It's easy to read too much into pre-season games, Adkins is tweaking and playing around with things, players positions, formations etc.. - but not making it obvious to us that he is. People forget too quickly - last year we had an astonishing defensive record in the 2nd half of the season and one of the things Adkins did when he came here is stopped us leaking goals. He's made it pretty clear from day 1 that teams with a good ''defense'' win things. I know this is a level up, but whenever i see us competitively we have a great shape, everyone works their frigging socks off closing down and we are incredibly hard to beat - that won't change when the real fixtures start.

Because they've been relegated, he's a high earner, and they're desperate to get rid of him to ease their financial problems.

I would definitely take a gamble on him. He was incredibly highly rated a few years ago after his loan spell at Norwich, I remember watching him at St Mary's (he scored for Norwich too!) was the best player on the pitch and looked like he was going to be a real talent. Didn't work out for him at Sheff U for whatever reason, he did cost them around 3-4m too, so he wasn't cheap. As you said, he's still young and the talent he had is still in there somewhere....he just needs a change of scenery.

Dicko's account has actually vanished from twitter. This Jamel bloke can also play at LB, so he may have been advised he's not a first team regular anymore....(And we still have mills)

Barnard has a slight problem with his ankle, but will be ''there or there abouts for Saturday'' - Chambo ''should be ok for Saturday'' - no mention from Adkins on deano or dickson

He's got a slight niggle with his ankle but will be there or thereabouts for Sat.

Don't convince yourself over Maynard, you're only setting yourself up for an underwhelming fall as anyone else isn't going to be as ''wow''.

We'll now have a week of dissecting this result, arguing about why we didn't win, and demanding a new team of 11 players.

Conners is having a terrific pre-season, looks to have carried on his end of season form.

He kind of matches what we're trying to do though, young talented players that can be with us for a good few years - rather than old has beens. TBH you could probably get him for less than £4m, which is cheaper than both Maynard and the asking price for Jerome - when you see the prices on those two, it kind of shows why we're having to shop abroad.

Jesus christ, what a waste of good money.

He's listed in the squad on the OS to play at Yeovil tomorrow, so I assume he's recovered enough to play some part.

I can't see us parting with the money they want, which is upwards of £6m (they've already rejected a bit worth up to 5.2m from Leicester a few weeks ago)

He's not that bad, scored 15 odd goals for them last year. Mental signing for Swansea at up to £2m though. Boro keep being made favourites, but they are loosing their best players...and only recruiting loans and frees.

He isn't at all, but he's not the sort of player we're looking for at the moment.

Yep - great policy too. It's a duff rumour

Brighton away when Fonte scored, from that moment we'd stepped over the toughest hurdle we had left, and that's when I knew we'd get 2nd.