PREMIER PASSIONS
England’s sleeping giants hope to rise once more
The toughest league in soccer returns this weekend with one thing on everyone’s minds: a place in the Premier League. The Skybet Championship kicks off on Friday night with Reading hosting Derby County and ends on May 27 with the most valuable match in the world – the playoff final. Last year it was Aston Villa who experienced Wembley heartbreak, falling to Fulham at the last. The Birmingham side are one of the many teams that will hope to secure one of the two automatic promotion spots this season. While Villa have lost John Terry, they retained the highly rated James Chester and homegrown hero Jack Grealish as well as the services of manager Steve Bruce, despite speculation linking them to former Arsenal striker and Belgium assistant coach at the World Cup, Thierry Henry. That potential change was touted because of the other change at Villa Park, where Nassif Sawiris and Wes Edens have joined Chinese owner Tony Xia in the boardroom after purchasing a combined majority stake from the beleaguered Beijing-based businessman. Villa’s troubles since the playoff were well publicized. A lack of liquidity saw them struggle with tax bills and facing player sales in the face of meeting their Financial Fair Play commitments, concerns which have eased with the dilution of Xia’s ownership.
Youthful promise
There are reasons to be cheerful again for the claret and blue contingent but they face fierce competition in reaching the Promised Land.
All eyes are on the East Midlands where former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard takes his first managerial job at Derby County.
He’s joined by Jody Morris who makes the step up from Chelsea’s all-conquering youth team to assistant manager and the pair are expected to give youth a chance – not least the Chelsea loanee Mason Mount, a player key to England’s under-19 European Championship win last year and one Lampard has tipped to make Southgate’s full squad with Derby this season.
The Rams have threatened over the last few years but never got any further than the semifinals of the playoffs and owner Mel Morris will hope that he has finally got the right man for the job in Lampard.
One man who was deemed not up to snuff was Gary Rowett, who having earlier left Birmingham City in ignominious circumstance finds himself at newly relegated Stoke City, the favorites to win the division.
The Potters will have seen the statistics about needing to bounce back first time or face a fate worse than Sunderland, Portsmouth or Leeds United before them but in Rowett they have a young manager that will be expected to lead a challenge. They also have quality from back to front with England goalkeeper Jack Butland staying at the Britannia Stadium and striker Benik Afobe fresh through the doors from Wolves.
Boardroom bedlam
The aforementioned Leeds United appear to finally have put the boardroom bedlam of the Peter Ridsdale years behind them and established themselves as a solid Championship club. That’s not good enough for the fans, who see the club as having a rightful place in the Premier League.
They now have Marcielo Bielsa in place to help that homecoming. The Argentine’s appointment is a fascinating one given that he left his last three jobs with Marseille, Lazio and Lille so quickly – “El Loco” lasted just two days in Rome.
He straddles the line between genius and madman, and could be just the ticket for a return to the top flight if he stays at Elland Road the full season to show why he is credited as the inspiration for Pep Guardiola.
The club have just signed Patrick Bamford to help fire them up the table.
Strong and stable
Stability is the key at Nottingham Forest this season where Aitor Karanka takes charge for his first full campaign having taken over in January.
The Spaniard has been backed in the transfer market by owner Evangelos Marinakis and the club have copied the model with which Wolves were so successful last season: buying young Portuguese prospects.
Forest have tempted two from Benfica in Joao Carvalho and Diogo Goncalves.
Karanka’s former club Middlesbrough are also looking to build from a stable base and there is perhaps no safer pair of hands than Tony Pulis.
The Welshman took over the club in December and his experience got the side to the playoffs. A full season in charge should see them even higher up the table provided Pulis wrings everything he can from his enviable squad.
Many West Bromwich Albion fans think that they would still be a Premier League side if they had kept hold of Pulis in November.
Darren Moore could not keep them afloat after being brought in to replace the man who replaced Pulis, Alan Pardew, but did enough to get the job full time and guide them back to the top tier.
It’s a task made no easier by losing Ben Foster and Jonny Evans in the close season but Moore has kept their other big names and with a return of the iconic green and yellow away kit, why can’t the team whose fans sing “Boing, Boing” be the ones to bounce back?