This coming Saturday sees the induction of the 23rd Premier League season and as always fans and pundits alike look forward to seeing how new signings fit into their sides, how new managers begin their life at the club, others laugh mercilessly at those who are hanging by a thread (hi Big Sam) whilst others worry that the Premier League has gone mad after twelve million pounds had been shelled out by Southampton for Shane Long. Anyway, an always interesting experience is viewing how the three promoted Championship outfits deal in a higher division, Leicester City, Burnley and QPR. Let’s introduce the “new” boys (I say new, but they’ve all been here before).
Leicester
It’s fair to say the Foxes should have been a Premier League side two or three seasons ago with all the resources at the club. Their last spell in the Premier League was more than a decade ago under now Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’ Neill. However, Nigel Pearson triumphed (eventually) in his second spell at the club and will be looking to keep the club in the top division. He may be collecting his redundancy payment otherwise.
Pearson hasn’t been afraid to make a marquee signing this summer, landing Leonardo Ulloa from Brighton for a whopping fee of £8 million. Your old fashioned target man, Ulloa should contribute at least 10 goals alongside his new strike partner, David Nugent, who is eyeing a return to the England squad after his last call up, that extraordinary night against Andorra. Im sure David knows Johan Djourou will be quaking in his Switzerland boots when the two undoubtedly meet up in the Euro 2016 qualifier in September. Undoubtedly. Matthew Upson is an astute signing, also arriving from the Gulls on a costless transfer whilst the famous scorer of the Premier League’s 2000th goal, Marc Albrighton, joins from Aston Villa, to round up Leicester’s notable transfers.
Key men
The complete midfielder, to use the worn out cliche, is my description of Championship player of the year nominee Daniel Drinkwater. Passing, shooting, tackling, you know, the works. There was seemingly little interest in the 24 year old Mancunian (we all have to start somewhere) who signed a new four year deal with the club, keeping him at the King Power stadium until the end of the 2017/18 season. His partnership with Matty James, who has been playing with Drinkwater for more than a decade at both Manchester United and Leicester City, is a key cog to the side and both are talented enough to be able to cope with the physical demands of top flight football. Esteban Cambiasso has played with a few of the world’s best and is a welcome addition even at 33. Anthony Knockaert is a tricky French winger and club captain Wes Morgan is a boulder, to be quite frank at the back. Kasper Schmeicel, who as Im sure you know is the son of Peter, attracted the interest of Arsenal in the summer and was magnificent as always in the promotion campaign of last season and is the “new David Marshall” with regards who to select in your fantasy team. Keep that one on the quiet though.
Prediction
They have a capable team worthy of staying up as it is; stay cohesive as a unit and uphold the strong team spirit and a 15th place finish is how Leicester’s season will probably culminate. Their Thai billionaire owner should be ready to whip out the cheque book in January if needs be, though.
Burnley
Dissimilar to a irritable Will in the Inbetweeners movie, I quite like Burnley. Quite fancied for relegation to League One at the start of the 2013/14 season, Sean Dyche wowed many with Burnley’s impressive performances in a wonderful mix of hard grit and quality. The loss of the outstanding Charlie Austin left the fans wondering where the lions share of goals were going to come from but the perfect partnership of Sam Vokes and Danny Ings contributed to 44 of Burnley’s 72 goals. Despite making some 500 phone calls about possible transfers, the former Watford boss has strugggled to add quality to his team this summer, his main targets being Derby’s 16 goal midfielder Craig Bryson, who after Derby knocked back Burnley’s bid for him signed a new contract, and Troy Deeney of Watford, a rumoured target of Leicester also, who was made captain.
Key men
Last season, Ings and Vokes without a shadow of doubt in the offensive sense, but with only 37 goals conceded from 46 games you have to sit back and admire Burnley’s defensive work. Tom Heaton was signed and turned out to be a fantastic replacement for Lee Grant, who left for Derby, but the back four of Trippier (already certain Premier League quality in my eyes) , Shackell, Duff and Mee were stronghold’s in front of Heaton and veteran Dean Marney marshalled his side brilliantly. There may be no outstanding signings for the Clarets but the permanent additions of Matt Taylor and Michael Kightly provide the team with depth and quality on the wings. Burnley had to shoo away Southampton, a side Ings played for in his youth, and Newcastle from taking their star man Ings away from them, and you would expect the club to be reliant on the 22 year old, who will have to make do with Lucas Jutkiewicz, a summer signing from Middlesbrough as a strike partner after Sam Vokes got that one injury you want to avoid in football, damaging his anterior cruciate ligament in March. Marvin Sordell has been acquired as back up, though Im not so sure about his talent at this level.
Prediction
Dyche is a wonderful manager, but additions have to made in order for them to compete- and quickly. Relegation looms, though I hope that isn’t true come May.
QPR
“Last season QPR played, at times some of the worst football I have witnessed in the Premier League. There was a nonchalance about the way ‘Rangers players played; They didn’t seem to care about what the result was, just as long as their wages reached their bank account every week – That is exactly what happens when a club brings in a mass influx of players and doesn’t worry about making sure you have the right squad – the right ingredients to be able to mix it with the best-You need players who care about the badge they are representing week in and week out, and QPR’s players didn’t have that mentality – some of the many reasons why the London club are back in the Championship” I wrote that in a mass Championship preview at the beginning of last season. 12 months or so on and although it was not the smoothest of rides for Harry Redknapp’s side they achieved promotion, this time through the “lottery of the play offs” scraping past an entertaining Derby County side 1-0 at Wembley in the 90th minute of the game. The club seem to have learned from their mistakes and have acquired some talented players.
Key men
I wasn’t sure if Harry was joking or not when he claimed to only see Austin in YouTube clips when signing him last August for around £4m, but the prolific former Swindon striker fired home 19 goals in his debut Championship season, sometimes dragging QPR to the finish line, and it was his two goals in the play off semi final second leg against Wigan Athletic that saw the R’s through to the final against Derby. He was the only one in QPR’s line up that day not to have played in the Premier League, but much like Ings at Burnley the team will look to give him the opportunities to extend QPR’s stay for more than one season. Mauricio Isla has been signed on loan from Juventus, no doubt a coup after his impressive World Cup, Steven Caulker joins from Cardiff to shore up the defence while Rio Ferdinand links up with Redknapp once again after their time together at West Ham. Jordon Mutch is a very impressive recruit after an outstanding season with Cardiff also, arriving at the cheap price of £5m. One to look for the upcoming season.
Prediction:
More than enough quality to survive. That was said previous, but they should perform as a team this time round.
Opening games:
Leicester: A very challenging game at home to Everton. The Merseyside club have added Romelu Lukaku and Gareth Barry permanently after successful loan spells, whilst Bosnian Muhamed Besic has arrived from Ferencvaros. Leicester’s support will back them all the way is their twelfth man, but Roberto Martinez’s side should be too strong for the Championship winners. 2-1 Everton.
Burnley: I can imagine easier places to go to than Turf Moor on a Monday night, but with money available and lots of it, Jose Mourinho has well and truly splashed the cash this summer, signing Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa, Filipe Luis, and Romelu Lukaku’s replacement, Didier Drogba. Thibaut Courtois has returned to Stamford Bridge following a massively successful loan spell at Spanish champions Atletico Madrid. Burnley will do their best to return with a bang but this is a routine victory for Chelsea on paper. 3-0 Chelsea.
QPR: They face Steve Bruce’s Hull, who avoided relegation comfortably enough in 13/14. They’ve lost Shane Long but have received an extortionate transfer fee from Southampton, 7 months after landing him for half that from West Brom. Robert Snodgrass is a good player at this level, arriving for an undisclosed fee and Bruce has done brilliantly to secure Jake Livermore permanently from Tottenham after his sterling performance in midfield with Tom Huddlestone. Andrew Robertson has been added at left back for near to £3m from Dundee United and Harry Maguire earned his much deserved move to the Premier League in a £2.5m deal from Sheffield United, following in the footsteps of Phil Jagielka, Kyle Walker, Matt Lowton and others to move to the top flight from Sheffield’s League One representatives. Tom joins Hull on a costless from Blackpool after a loan spell at Crystal Palace, turning down Inter Milan to enjoy the luxury of the KC Stadium. We’ll leave that one at that. Both are good teams, but will be happy to the game to finish all square to kick start the camaign. 1-1 draw.
To finish, a wonderful stat from the Guardian: Not since the 2007‑08 season when Birmingham City and Derby County – the latter with a record-breaking low of 11 points and a solitary victory – went straight back down has more than one promoted club failed to survive in their debut season. There’s hope for two of these three, at least.