Guardian League One Preview (1 Viewer)

[Otis]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/...0/league-one-2012-13-season-preview?fb=optOut


Picked up on this one comment from the Colchester fan:

'For once, the difference between an optimistic and realistic view is quite minimal. Clearly the likes of MK Dons, Sheffield United and Notts County will pose a threat, but the league is there for the taking.'


No mention of us. Maybe that's a good thing.

The Bournemouth fan is expecting play-offs minimum for his club. Wish I was as confident for us. I'm pretty much with the view expressed by the Sky Blues fan on there to be honest, apart from the play off thing obviously.

 

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[skybluelee]

The Bournemouth fan who sits opposite me is admant they will win the league. Backed by some Russian billionaire or something and they have been buying players for fun this summer.

 

[Otis]

While we buy players for peanuts.

 

[Diehard Si]

I just find it hard to ever consider Bournemouth and Colchester a threat.

 

[Otis]

You need to take off your rose-tinted Championship spec off then don't you!

This is League One and this is what we are now, a League One club. instead of Leshtur and Brum and West Ham being challenging games for us, we now have to face up to the fact that we could well be underdogs when playing MK Dons or Bournemouth or Sheff Utd or Notts County away.

Time to wake up and smell the extra strength premium coffee!

 

[skybluelee]

While we buy players for peanuts.

'Obtain players for free' probably more accurate.

 

[Sky Blue M]

Pretty much everyone on there expecting a push for play-offs.

 

[Otis]

Wish I was.

One of the main factors for me is that this club has had a losing mentality for many, many years and it has been so long since we had a winning season.

Personally I think we need to come flying out of the blocks. Just can't see it happening mind.

 

[skybluejohn]

The Bournemouth fan who sits opposite me is admant they will win the league. Backed by some Russian billionaire or something and they have been buying players for fun this summer.

Lee sad but true I have the same crap here just mention the only entertainment they had last season was Eddie Mitchel trying to take on the fans when he's pissed, I watched Bournemouth a few times last season (freebies) and they were dire but this is the league we are in now it will be tough a lot of teams play very negative away and try and steal a point/win. They have the biggest squad in the league and still looking at players to bring in now. maybe this is to give the billionaires missus a bigger audience at half time when she visits the changing rooms to give the players a dressing down! Before bringing players in maybe they should look at their ground and get it finished first, only having 3 sides is an embarrassment to the league.

 

[Paxman II]

Otis is right in so much that we need to get a good start to the season.
What Otis wants and what he beleives will happen though are two different things.

It's no good being critical when it's obvious or praising when it's obvious.
Courage of your conviction, standing by your stance is far more respected whether you are ultimately wrong or hopefully right.

Come on Otis get that fence you like to sit on and give us your prediction for the new season without the if's and but's

 

[FRY-CCFC]

You need to take off your rose-tinted Championship spec off then don't you!

This is League One and this is what we are now, a League One club. instead of Leshtur and Brum and West Ham being challenging games for us, we now have to face up to the fact that we could well be underdogs when playing MK Dons or Bournemouth or Sheff Utd or Notts County away.

Time to wake up and smell the extra strength premium coffee!

its not that people are in championship mode it's the fact that we have better players like fleck McDonald and others than other clubs in the league

 

[QUICKER_THAN_WRIGHTY]

You need to take off your rose-tinted Championship spec off then don't you!

This is League One and this is what we are now, a League One club. instead of Leshtur and Brum and West Ham being challenging games for us, we now have to face up to the fact that we could well be underdogs when playing MK Dons or Bournemouth or Sheff Utd or Notts County away.

Time to wake up and smell the extra strength premium coffee!

Are only realistic competition in this league is Sheffield united, mk dons, Preston, swindon and donny. These teams and us will make up the top six and the rest will fall way below the play offs like they usually do. Fact is people are over valuing the level of teams in this league, in recent years there have been lots of good teams in this league e.g soton, Wednesday and charlton but not this season. It is fans like you that give our club a losing mentality by never backing the team or manager

 

[Stevec189]

Don't care if Bournemouth are backed by a billionaire they can only spend 65% of income on wages. Their income won't be more than ours! I thing League 1 will be very tight his yer and a large slice of luck will be required. PUSB!!

 

[skybluejack10]

swindon will win the league, they've signed quality players and still have momentum from last season.
sheff united will be up there
so will MK dons
Bournemouth aren't expected to come anywhere according to the bookies
were 4th favourites to win the league and with jennings and another striker, possible poloskey then i can't see any reason why we shouldn't come in at least the top 4!

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

Courage of your conviction, standing by your stance is far more respected whether you are ultimately wrong or hopefully right.

I still think Gael is a potential £25m player

 

[Sky Blues]

Pretty much everyone on there expecting a push for play-offs.

I was noticing that too, so I noted down the following interpretation of the contributors' predictions:

Promotion

Play-off
Bournemouth (promotion?)
Brentford
Carlisle (just)
Colchester
MK Dons (promotion?)
Notts County
Scunthorpe
Sheffield United (promotion?)
Swindon (just)

Top-half
Coventry
Crewe
Preston
Tranmere

Mid-table
Bury
Crawley
Doncaster
Hartlepool
Shrewbury
Stevenage
Yeovil

Bottom-half
Leyton Orient
Oldham

Survival in any form
Portsmouth

Struggling to stay up
Walsall

Relegation

Clearly some are going to be disappointed and some are maybe being modest about their teams, Swindon maybe? I really, really don't want to let this idea take hold in my head because I too fear disappointment, but reading that I have this tiny suspicion that if we gel, Cov might actually do really well. Though to temper that the other nagging suspicion I have is if we don't gel we'll have another year of struggle!
Was an interesting read (thanks for posting it Otis), particularly how so many teams have had large clear outs/rebuilds. The performance of many in this division might turn on how quickly they hit the ground running...

 

[Nonleagueherewecome]

I think that 3 or 4 teams whose supporters are less optimistic than us about their league position will finish above where we think we'll finish...

 

[skybluejack10]

walsall are almost definitely going to go down, as are pompey
scunthorpe will come nowhere near the top
cov should be in the playoff section at least!
notts county may scrape playoffs and carlisle will struggle to reach it
crawley will finish top half at least. So will preston

 

[skybluejack10]

swindon signed two strikers who were top scorers from each of their respective teams, one being James collins!
they signed gary roberts, the winger who helped huddersfield clinch promotion last season and a few more good players
Mk Dons have one of the strongest midfields in the league but with jennings aswell i think we should be tough but hopefully creative at the same time if we get our tactics right!

 

[Colonel Mustard]

'Obtain players for free' probably more accurate.

Nothing wrong with that, though.

 

[stupot07]

Pretty much everyone on there expecting a push for play-offs.

Pretty the same in the championship, anyone from 15th up think that they have a fighting chance of a play off place if everything clicks

 

[Otis]

Are only realistic competition in this league is Sheffield united, mk dons, Preston, swindon and donny. These teams and us will make up the top six and the rest will fall way below the play offs like they usually do. Fact is people are over valuing the level of teams in this league, in recent years there have been lots of good teams in this league e.g soton, Wednesday and charlton but not this season. It is fans like you that give our club a losing mentality by never backing the team or manager

I have never heard such tosh in my entire life.

What a stupid statement. You haven't got a clue. I always, always, always back the team, always have, always will. I have been there come rain or shine, been there when other people have turned their backs on the team. Even at Christmas when I said we were going down I still went to every game and backed the team every game.

How on earth can you come out with such ridiculous sweeping statements as this when you don't even know me.

I always back the manager too and have never ever chanted for any manager's head ever.

It's so ridiculous all i can do is to sit here and laugh at how ridiculous what you've just said is.

What a lemon. So wide of the mark it is just purely laughable.

:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:

 

[stupot07]

I have never heard such tosh in my entire life.

What a stupid statement. You haven't got a clue. I always, always, always back the team, always have, always will. I have been there come rain or shine, been there when other people have turned their backs on the team. Even at Christmas when I said we were going down I still went to every game and backed the team every game.

How on earth can you come out with such ridiculous sweeping statements as this when you don't even know me.

I always back the manager too and have never ever chanted for any manager's head ever.

It's so ridiculous all i can do is to sit here and laugh at how ridiculous what you've just said is.

What a lemon. So wide of the mark it is just purely laughable.

:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:

I've noticed a lot of this lately Otis, If your not mega positive, believe that we'll win the league by a country mile then you get slated and labelled negative and accused of wrecking the club with your negativity.

:facepalm:

 

[Otis]

Yup.

When Thorn has got it right i am usually the first on here after games to tip my hat to him. When he has got it wrong i have rightly criticised him.

I have never called for his head and cheer on the team every game. How on earth is that not backing the manager and the team just because I criticise the things that went wrong after games?

As i say, it's ludicrous and totally laughable.

 

[QUICKER_THAN_WRIGHTY]

I have never heard such tosh in my entire life.

What a stupid statement. You haven't got a clue. I always, always, always back the team, always have, always will. I have been there come rain or shine, been there when other people have turned their backs on the team. Even at Christmas when I said we were going down I still went to every game and backed the team every game.

How on earth can you come out with such ridiculous sweeping statements as this when you don't even know me.

I always back the manager too and have never ever chanted for any manager's head ever.

It's so ridiculous all i can do is to sit here and laugh at how ridiculous what you've just said is.

What a lemon. So wide of the mark it is just purely laughable.

:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:

Granted I don't know you but for you to make such a stupid statement as we will be underdogs against notts county and bournemouth highlights your inept knowledge of football. Notts county have just signed two players released by league 2 clubs and 1 player from non league, yes they might give us a good game but underdogs - utter rubbish. Fact is we have players like Fleck, macca, cody, baker, barton, Jennings, Elliot that when fully fit will be too good for the majority of teams in this league. Compare this too bournemouth, whose two best players eunan o'kane and Lewis grabban were playing in league 2 last season. Your not being realistic, your being negative for no apparent reason

 

[Otis]

i said we could find ourselves being underdogs in these games, not that we will be.

Haven't looked at the fixtures, but if say Bournemouth are top 2 and we are 10th or 12th we would surely go in as underdogs wouldn't we?

I said in another thread that we need to come out of the blocks firing on all cylinders, but that I fear we won't. Losing mentality for too many years. We need to blow those cobwebs away. If we don't we will be midtable probably and therefore would indeed go into games against the top sides as underdogs.

How an I being negative? Bournemouth are expecting promotion not just top 6. We didn't win a single away game last season.

We are aiming for the play-offs and we could well do it of course, but I don't think too many of us are expecting it.

And how is my knowledge inept? You are saying 'Fact is we have players like Fleck, macca, cody, baker, barton, Jennings, Elliot that when fully fit will be too good for the majority of teams in this league. '

How on earth can you say that? Do you know that as fact? They should be too good, but who knows? How many 'good' players have we had here that have been abject failures?

David Bell is a great player apparently and in Sammy Clingan we had one of the best midfielders in the whole of the Championship last season and McSheffrey should be one of the best players in the Championship.

Think you will find the game isn't played on paper however.

We have no idea how these players we have brought in are going to do.

Losing mentality for too long, late in bringing players in so could take a while to gel, jury still out on Thorn.

Not negative. Realistic.

 

[stupot07]

Granted I don't know you but for you to make such a stupid statement as we will be underdogs against notts county and bournemouth highlights your inept knowledge of football. Notts county have just signed two players released by league 2 clubs and 1 player from non league, yes they might give us a good game but underdogs - utter rubbish. Fact is we have players like Fleck, macca, cody, baker, barton, Jennings, Elliot that when fully fit will be too good for the majority of teams in this league. Compare this too bournemouth, whose two best players eunan o'kane and Lewis grabban were playing in league 2 last season. Your not being realistic, your being negative for no apparent reason

You've forgotten Miles Addison from championship derby, Josh McQuoid from championship Millwall and Frank Demouge from FC Utrecht (holland top division)

 

[Big Mo]

Good summary by the cov fan, we seem to have assembled a squad equipped for a promotion challenge but years of failure take their toll and I find it hard to truly believe we can be successful.

Think our season will hinge on how quickly the new players gel and whether we are still in touching distance by xmas.

 

[Otis]

Thanks, Stu.

Is a certain person's football knowledge somehow inept themselves perchance?

The bookies have us at 10/3 for promotion, MK Dons at 9/4, Bournemouth and Notts County at 9/2.

Is their football knowledge inept I wonder?

Bookies are more often than not correct rather than wrong.

 

[FRY-CCFC]

bookies base odds on how much money is put on them :jerkit:

 

[QUICKER_THAN_WRIGHTY]

Thanks, Stu.

Is a certain person's football knowledge somehow inept themselves perchance?

Well we will just have to wait for the season to start, but i'll tell you this I will love it LOVE IT if we get promoted and the club attain a winning mentality like southampton and norwich

 

[Otis]

We have to attain a winning mentality. We simply have to.

No more feeling sorry for ourselves and more steel and grit and having the ability to grind our results.

 

[Otis]

bookies base odds on how much money is put on them :jerkit:

Are they right more often than wrong or not?

 

[stupot07]

Well we will just have to wait for the season to start, but i'll tell you this I will love it LOVE IT if we get promoted and the club attain a winning mentality like southampton and norwich

Wouldn't we all, but even if we go up we won't do a Norwich or a Southampton while Sisu are in charge.

 

[Otis]

Too true. Too true.