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Leeds

Championship Preview 2023/24

Just for full transparency, I am for my sins, a Sunderland fan so I will try to write this as unbiased as possible!

 

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Leicester, Southampton. 

 

Both of these teams represent a huge risk and the squads are still in progress. Leicester City have a new manager, Enzo Maresca who has never managed in this league and has extremely limited experience but recently worked with Pep at Man City, so has the best schooling. Southampton have a terrific, young squad and with Russell Martin as manager have a good fit there with his style and approach to the game. The main concerns are that James Ward-Prowse and Romeo Lavia are likely to go out the door still and how will they replace them? Leicester have made some shrewd signings though, in Harry Winks, Conor Coady and a couple of others and I think they will have too much for the rest of the league.

 

Playoffs

Leeds, Sunderland, Stoke, Norwich

 

Let’s be honest, the Championship is one of the most open leagues in world football, and super competitive so any prediction is almost impossible to get right. I do think even though Leeds are in flux, they have managed to retain some very exciting players, and they have players with recent experience at this level. Keeping Willy Gnonto and Crysensio Summerville will be key though. 

 

Now on to my babies, Sunderland. I genuinely think we have improved since last season when we finished 6th. Ross Stewart is my only concern, a prolific striker at this level but refusing to sign a new deal. Do we keep him and let him go for free next Summer? Or do we cash in and get a new guy? We were hit hard by injuries last season and the majority are back and our squad is the youngest in the league but has a very good balance and depth, pre-season has also gone really well. 

 

Stoke are sort of my dark horse pick. I know a lot of pundits are saying Ipswich and I can see why, but they just don’t have the quality to make the leap this season, Sunderland did last year but the league was not as strong as it is this year. Stoke however on paper have a great squad, and a great manager in Alex Neil, i know him well as a former Sunderland manager, sadly he showed no loyalty and went to Stoke for a few more quid but he is class. I think this might be the year they get it right. 

 

Norwich again are a team with a great squad, but last season they were just poor and inconsistent. Again, I think they will have learnt lessons and they have some top young players, like Max Aarons and Andrew Omobamidele (try saying that 3 times quickly!). Pukki has gone but they have Josh Sargent who I am predicting will get at least 20 goals this season.

 

Relegation

Rotherham, Sheffield Wednesday, Huddersfield

 

These all seem pretty obvious to me, there is just a difference in level between all of these and the rest of the league. Huddersfield flirted with relegation most of the year before Warnock worked his magic and i just think now he has the job full time standards will slip and they will be bang in trouble, also their squad is really poor, no stand out players or anyone you can say “that’s the guy that will pull us up”. Sheffield Wednesday are in deep trouble, they have the oldest and least valuable squad in the Championship, they have lost Darren Moore who got them out of League 1, especially after a remarkable turnaround from 4 goals down against Peterborough in the playoffs. The owner is disengaged, no money is going into the club, and no transfers in, if nothing changes then I think most people will agree with this prediction. Lastly is Rotherham. Again, its just a matter of quality, manager Matt Taylor deserves credit for keeping them up last season, but they have lost Ogbene who was their best player last season to Luton on a free, and no real investment coming in. They are a club who do things right though, they only spend what they can afford and their sponsor which is “The Rotherham Hospice” shows they care about their community. Even so, there is no sentiment in football and they are going down.

 

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I think if Ross Stewart wasn’t unsettled I’d have to go with him but i think it is going to be Iheanacho of Leicester, they are going to be up near the top of the league, they will play expansive football and he is a class above. If not him then I will be interested to see how Ellis Simms gets on at Coventry.

 

Players to Watch

I’m very interested in how Xavier Simons and Liam Delap are going to get on at Hull City (on loan from Chelsea and Man City respectively). Another Chelsea loan signing im excited to see get some game time is Omari Hutchinson at Ipswich. Luis Hemir Semedo at Sunderland too is going to be exciting, as if it plays out how I think, he will start the season up front and he looks extremely lively. Ross Stewart misses the first few weeks of the season so he could get a few goals and we sell Stewart anyway, which is my guess.

 

I hope you enjoyed this, and feel free to comment and tell me how wrong I am! Stay tuned to Football Kids for more News, previews, updates and transfers!

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Arsenal

Summer Transfer Talk 14th June 2023

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Well a lot changes in a week in football. Developments and steps have been made in the market. Declan Rice looks on the verge of joining Arsenal. I reported as much last week however I had my doubts as to whether Arsenal could win trophies and he would actually sign. Looks like £100m up front with a few add-ons is enough to get this deal over the line, and Arsenal are continuing to build an exciting young squad. They are still hopeful of signing Moises Caicedo, too from Brighton to fully overhaul that central midfield but we shall see as they have lots of competition for his signature.

 

Tottenham are rumoured to have agreed personal terms with David Raya of Brentford, who in my opinion was the best goalkeeper in the Premier League last season. His distribution is exceptional and he had the highest save percentage in the whole league. But David De Gea wins the Golden Glove? Don’t get me started on that! So just a fee to be agreed between the clubs, Tottenham want to pay £20m, Brentford want £40m, but a deal looks close.

 

The Harry Kane interest seems to have died down, and it looks ever more likely he will stay at the club. With only a year left on his contract though, will he sign a new one or leave for free next Summer? Daniel Levy is insistent he will not sell to a rival and Real Madrid look like they are now on high alert with Kylian Mbappe as a replacement for Benzema, who departed for the Saudi League.

 

And what’s going on with that now? Benzema and Kante this week have gone, Lukaku, Aubameyang, Hakim Ziyech and more are being strongly linked. No one was taking them seriously but if this keeps happening for a few years then they may become a serious threat to European leagues. Not necessarily the premier leagues best stars, as the economics are far higher than other leagues but one to be wary of.

 

Newcastle have been linked with a couple of players. Harry Maguire for £30m, seems a strange one for me, but he would certainly have a point to prove and under the right management he may still have a lot to offer. Great experience, in both International and European competition, he would aid in thickening their squad for the Champions League campaign this season. Talks of a double raid from Leicester City emerging for both Harvey Barnes and James Maddison, although Leicester ant £60m for the latter. For a man with one year left on his deal, it looks to be a waiting game there, Leicester can’t afford to lose him for nothing but £60m is unrealistic given their position.

 

Chelsea are busy as usual, many ins and outs on the cards. Outs will include Kepa, Edouard Mendy, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mason Mount, Hakim Ziyech, Aubameyang and possibly Trevoh Chalobah. Mateo Kovacic looks close to signing for Manchester City, seems kind of a strange deal to me, but perhaps he is a replacement for Gundogan who hasn’t renewed a contract yet. Andre Onana, Inter Milans superb keeper has reportedly agreed personal terms and a fee should be agreed. They are also looking to raid the other half of Milan for their keeper Mike Maignan but the player and club seem much more resistant. A much more exciting development might be the Victor Osimhen rumour. It will take a fee over £100m but they need a number 9 and he would be exceptional for many years.

 

The main story this week though is still the ongoing saga with the Manchester United takeover. It still isn’t completed but it doesn’t seem to be stopping them in the market. The thought I’ll leave you with this week though is if they do get taken over should they go all out for Mbappe and really try to challenge Man City?

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