It seems you can’t open a paper without reading about the Premier League. If your team is in the Championship however you can expect widespread indifference in the media.

For the benefit of RamZone regulars, here is a brief picture of what’s been happening this summer for our new rivals.

Note: As transfer activity is ongoing, I may have missed some of the more recent movements.  

Barnsley

One of the bookies favourites for relegation this season. The Tykes finished 18th last season although the season will be best remembered for their heroics in the FA Cup. Barnsley managed to defeat both Liverpool & Chelsea on their way to the Semi-finals only narrowly losing to Cardiff at Wembley.  

Last seasons top scorers were Brian Howard and former Ram John Macken who managed 21 between them.

Simon Davey has strengthened he squad by adding Iain Hume (Leicester), Hugo Roberto Colace (Newell 's Old Boys), Mounir El Haimour (Neuchatel Xamax) and Darren Moore (Derby).

Birmingham City

Everyone’s favourite to bounce straight back to the Premiership. Steve Bruce made a total of 12 signing in for the Premiership but resigned to go to Wigan. Alex McLeish came in but could not do enough to keep the Blues up.

He’s been far cagier in the transfer market bringing in Kevin Phillips (WBA), Kemy Agustien (loan from AZ Alkmaar), Rams target Lee Carsley (Everton) and Marcus Bent (Charlton).
McLeish expects big things of 16 year old midfielder Jordon Mutch and has named him in the first team squad.

Blackpool

Another one of the bookies favourites for relegation. The Tangerines only retained their hard won Championship position on the final day of the season courtesy of a 1-1 draw with Watford. One of the high points of last season for Tangerine fans was knocking the Rams out of the League cup on penalties – though beating Preston at Deepdale may be up there as well.

Simon Grayson has been busy in the transfer market bringing in Daniel Nardiello & Zesh Rehman (Both QPR), David Vaughan (Real Sociedad), Adam Hammill (on loan from Liverpool), Marlon Broomes (Stoke), Joe Martin (Spurs), Jermaine Wright (Southampton), Alex Baptiste (Crewe), Stephen Kabba (on loan from Watford), Matthew Gilks (Norwich) And Mohammed Camara (Derby).

Ex-Ram Ian Evatt is also swelling the Blackpool ranks. 

Bristol City

Gary Johnson’s team were very much the nearly men of last seasons Championship. Finally finishing fourth, they overcame a strong Crystal Palace side in the play off Semi’s before losing 1-0 at Wembley to Phil Brown’s Hull.

Surprisingly, the Bookies seem to think the Robins were a one season wonder and only expect them to finish mid-table this term.

Johnson has strengthened the team by breaking the club record for Nicky Maynard (Crewe £2.25m). He has also added Gavin Williams (Ipswich). Maynard & Bristol may surprise a few people this season.

Burnley

The bookies expect Burnley to be struggling in the relegation places this term. They finished a respectable 13th last season although a lot was expected of Steve Cotterill's squad last season. Poor form cost Cotterill his job and Owen Coyle was bought in to steady the ship.

Coyle has been busy in the transfer market, signing Diego Penny (Coronel Bolognesi), Christian Kalvenes (Dundee United), Kevin McDonald (Dundee), Martin Paterson (Scunthorpe United), Remco van der Schaaf (Vitesse) & the highly rated Chris Eagles (Manchester United). Besart Berisha who was out for all of last season may make his debut this season.

Burnley may well surprise a few people given as they are always difficult to beat at Turf Moor.

Cardiff

The bookies are predicting at least a play off place for the Bluebirds this season. Dave Jones team were on the edge of the play-offs for much of last season but fell away before the end, possibly due to the distraction of the FA Cup.

Cardiff was at Wembley for the first time since 1927 and had to overcome Premiership Middlesbrough to get there. In the event, they went down 1-0 to Portsmouth but gave a good account of themselves at Wembley.

This may be your last chance to visit Ninian Park; the new Cardiff International Sports Stadium is due to open in September 2009.

Dave Jones has signed goalkeeper Peter Enckelman (Blackburn) and back-up Tom Heaton (on loan from Manchester Untied). He’s also signed Jay Bothroyd (Wolves), Miguel Comminges (Swindon), Mark Kennedy (Crystal Palace), and Ross McCormack (Motherwell). Wilson Oruma (Olympique Marseille) is currently on trial.

Charlton Athletic

The consensus among the bookies is that Charlton will not be troubling the Premiership or League one any time soon – mid table obscurity seems to be their fate. That seems an odd prediction for a team managed by Alan Pardew and containing players such as Izale Mcleod … well they may have a point!
Pardew himself is not happy about the transfer of Madjid Bougherra to Rangers for £2.5m. He said “It's disappointing but you have to manage the club as the board see fit.”

Charlton’s financial situation has meant Pardew has had to sell several players to balance the books.

Pardew has managed to sign Mark Hudson (Crystal Palace) and Stuart Fleetwood (Forest Green Rovers).

Coventry City

Coventry City only just escaped relegation on the last day of last season despite losing 4-1 to Charlton. The bookies think that they may manage mid-table this season. Last season was tumultuous for the Sky Blues with a transfer embargo to contend with and a buy out by SISU (remember them?).

Poor form cost manager Iain Dowie his job and Chris Coleman was barely capable of stopping the slide.

As with all long term Premiership clubs falling on hard times, it’s been difficult for Coventry. This is especially true if you take into account their fine new Stadium, the Ricoh Arena. The previous chairman made the claim that the club could fold if it wasn’t filled every week.

Chris Coleman has added to the squad commenting; “Tactically we need to knuckle down on things defensively and offensively.”

New players are Keiren Westwood (Carlisle United), Guillaume Beuzelin, (Hibernian), Freddy Eastwood (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Aron Gunnarsson (AZ Alkmaar), Danny Ireland, (Australia) and Donovan Simmonds (Charlton Athletic). 

Crystal Palace

Another team the bookies expect to see in mid-table. Palace finished in the play-offs last season, losing out to Bristol City in the semis.  Palace started last season badly and that resulted in the dismissal of Peter Taylor. Love him or loath him, Neil Warnock did an excellent job turning the team from relegation candidates to play-off material.

The bookies could be well wide of the mark with Palace and I expect them to be at least in contention for the play-offs.

Warnock bought the best out of several young talented players last season, including Lee Hills, Victor Moses, and Sean Scannell. He’s added Paddy McCarthy (Crystal Palace), José Fonte (Benfica), Nick Carle (Bristol City), Darryl Flahavan (Southend United), Calvin Andrew (Luton Town) and Johannes Ertl (Austria Vienna).

Doncaster Rovers

Doncaster are the Rams opening day opponents and winners of last years League One play-offs. The bookies expect them to go straight back whence they came but they may well be underestimating the Rovers. Defeat on the final day of the season cost them automatic promotion and they finished third behind Forest. They thrashed Southend in the semi and beat the highly fancied Leeds at Wembley.

They have been heavily backed by owner John Ryan and now play at the new Keepmoat Stadium. It’s taken them 50 years to make it back to the Championship and they won’t be keen to return.

Manager Sean O’Driscoll has been shrewd in the transfer market adding Jos van Nieuwstadt (Excelsior Rotterdam), Matthew Mills (Man City), James Chambers (Leicester City), Darren Byfield (Bristol City), Jo hn Spicer (Burnley) and Tomi Ameobi (Leeds United).

Ipswich Town

Ipswich finished eighth last season and the bookies expect pretty much the same from this year. That’s odd as the club has shown steady progress under Jim Magilton since the club sank to a low of 15^th under Joe Royle. Given Ipswich’s history, the fans and board would not accept another season of mediocrity.

Jim Magilton has been busy in the transfer market re-signing Richard Wright (West Ham) and Gareth McAuley (Leicester City) and Kevin Lisbie (Colchester United). At the time of writing, Magilton looked to have pulled off a coup by signing former Bolton player, Ivan Campo. Would the bookies care to reconsider?

Norwich City

Deliah’s boys are below the tractor boys because of the logic of alphabets - that probably annoys the Norwich faithful. That the bookies think they will still be there at the end of the season will probably have them frothing at the mouth.

Last season was a very disappointing one for Norwich who were awful for the early part of the campaign and it cost Peter Grant his job. Glen Roeder took over with the task of keeping Norwich in the Championship and he achieved it with only one game to spare.

Like the Tractor Boys, the Canaries will expect better this season.  Roeder has gone to town on the loans and made several shrewd signings.

Arturo Lupoli is there for the season and he’s still the last player to score a hat-trick in a Derby Shirt. Other signings are Dejan Stefanovic (Fulham), Sammy Clingan (Nottingham Forest), Wes Hoolahan (Blackpool), David Bell (Luton Town) , Stuart Nelson (Leyton Orient), Ryan Bertrand (on loan from Chelsea), Elliot Omozusi (on loan from Fulham), John Kennedy (on loan from Celtic) and just announced Omar Alieu Koroma (on loan from Portsmouth). 

Nottingham Forest

The Trees are finally on the up. Did you know they’d won the European Cup? Twice? They looked to be resigned to the lottery of the play offs but sneaked Doncaster’s automatic place when they slipped up towards the end of last season.

The bookies predict mid table obscurity however a team like Forest will probably play better against the football sides in the Championship than the cloggers in League 1.

Colin Calderwood has signed several players including Rob Earnshaw (Derby). As Kris Commons has come the other way, both sets of fans are hoping each others signing falls on their arse. Calderwood has also taken the promising Liverpool winger Paul Anderson on loan from Liverpool as well as Joe Garner (Carlisle United), Andrew Cole (Sunderland), Guy Moussi (Angers SCO).

Cole could be a gamble but if he can form a partnership with Earnshaw the Trees may go straight through the Championship.

Plymouth Argyle

The Green army will be getting ready for their long march again. Apart from the ‘nearby games (200 miles to Southampton and Cardiff), every away game is a marathon trip. The Argyle fans are one of the most cheerful bunch of fans you could hope to meet.

Tenth last season, the bookies think they could struggle in the bottom half of the table this year. Again that doesn’t make much sense - Argyle has finished higher every season since the Millennium. Ian Holloway’s team started well last term but fell away when he resigned to go to Leicester.

Former manager Paul Sturrock rejoined the Pilgrims and has steadied the ship. Argyle could surprise a few bookies next season.

Sturrock has signed Karl Duguid (Colchester), Simon Walton (QPR), Jason Puncheon (Barnet), David McNamee (Coventry), Graham Stack (Reading) and Yala Bolasie (Fliorana).

Preston North End

After the 'oh so near' years under Billy Davies, Preston seem to have come back to earth with a bang. Paul Simpson could not get the same sort of play from North End as Billy Davies and so got the sack. His sacking was possibly reasonably unfair considering events such as how David Nugent was sold to Portsmouth.

North End finished 15^th and the bookies don’t expect much else from them. Alan Irvine was Simpson’s replacement. He’s not been too active in the transfer market - Barry Nicholson (Aberdeen) and Ross Wallace (on loan from Sunderland). Preston may struggle this year.

Queens Park Rangers

Being widely predicted as Champions this year. This is down to their new found moneybags status.

After years of struggling with debt with everything from guns in the boardroom to allegations of Colonel Gadaffi taking over, The R's finally seem to have some stability with billionaire Vijay Mallya part of the consortium that has taken over the club. The consortium includes Formula 1 businessmen Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone.

With several lucrative sponsorship deals in place, the club now seems to have the infrastructure to mount a serious promotion challenge. Iain Dowie was bought in to manage the promotion push and has been active in the transfer market.

In have come Radek Cerny (Slavia Prague), Peter Ramage (Newcastle United), Emmanuel Ledesma (on loan from Genoa C.F.C.), Christian Nanetti (Unknown), Matteo Alberti (Chievo Verona), Lee Cook (On loan from Fulham), Daniel Parejo Muñoz (on loan from Real Madrid) and Samuel Di Carmine (on loan from Fiorentina).

Dowie is on record as saying that one or two signing may be needed before the team is ready. A lot is expected of QPR this year and given the investment, the pressure may soon mount on the team if things don't go the way that is expected.

That said, I would be surprised if QPR don't make at least the play-offs.

Reading

Our fellow relegatees, the Royal’s thrashed us on the last day of last season; however Fulham’s victory made it worthless. In their last promotion season they looked unbeatable - Ironically they thrashed us 5-0 to achieve promotion.

Under Steve Coppell they did well in the Premiership for a while. Royal’s fans were concerned that Coppell might have thought it was time to move on in the summer however a protest from the fans convinced Coppell to stay for at least another year.

The bookies expect Reading to finish just outside of the automatic promotion places but shrewder people have tipped the Royals to bounce straight back. Coppell hasn’t gone to town on signings - at the time of writing, only Noel Hunt (Dundee United) had signed. Influential defender Nicky Shorey left to go the Aston Villa.

Sheffield United

The bookies expect the Blades to improve on last years ninth place into play-off contention this term. They may be right.

After the appointment of Kevin Blackwell, (replacing the sacked Bryan Robson), the Blades didn’t look back and only Hull took more points in the second half of the season. Another factor is James Beattie who scored 22 goals last term.

Blackwell has shrewdly added David Cotterill (Wigan Athletic), Greg Halford (Sunderland), Sun Jihai (Manchester City) and Darius Henderson (Watford). Sun Jihai could be the key if he can provide the ammunition for Beattie.

Sheffield Wednesday

If ever a team could be described as a sleeping giant, Wednesday is it. Currently without a chairman, everything about the club screams Premiership except the team. Last season, Wednesday were widely tipped for promotion but managed to lose their first six games.

Off the field, fans were being banned or sued for protesting on the Internet - somehow through all the turmoil, Wednesday managed to pick up enough points to survive.

There’s a feeling among Wednesdayites that the worst is behind them now and a season of stability is a possibility. The bookies feel that mid-table is the best they can expect.

Manager Brian Laws has picked up some good signings including another former Ram in Adam Bolder from QPR. He’s also added Ben Sahar & Jimmy Smith (Chelsea), Franck Songo'o (Portsmouth), Bartosz Slusarski (WBA) and James O'Connor (Burnley).

Southampton

Another Premiership team fallen on hard times. Relegation has not been easy for the Saints. Failure to progress from the Play-offs two seasons ago meant that many of Saint’s better players had to be sold. George Burley fled to Scotland and his replacement Nigel Pearson had to fight to the last day of the season to ensure survival by beating Sheffield United (and sending Leicester down).

His reward was a terminated contract and little known Dutchman Jan Poortvliet was bought in as a replacement. Some people saw this as a cost cutting excursive however he has gone to town on the team by signing key players including Lee Holmes from the Rams.

Other players are Ian Pearce (Fulham), Richard Wright (West Ham United), Chris Lucketti (Sheffield United), Chris Perry (Luton Town), Paul Wotton (Plymouth Argyle), Morgan Schneider in (Strasbourg) and Tommy Forecast (Spurs).
Southampton may struggle this year.

Swansea City

Last seasons League one champions and deservedly so. Whether Rams target Ferrie Bodde can make the step up to the Championship remains to be seen. Paul Jewell must have thought so given how long we spent chasing him. Swansea fans rate Bodde highly although perhaps not as the top four Premiership player the chairman described him as.

There is no doubt Swansea are on the rise. Prior to last season’s promotion, they managed to get out of the second division under Kenny Jackett. He left to be succeeded by Roberto Martinez. Swansea would like to beat their Welsh rivals Cardiff into the Premiership and Martinez has added several players to his squad.

Ashley Williams (Stockport County), Mark Gower (Southend United), Federico Bessone & Albert Serrán (Espanyol), Stefan Morrison (WBA) and Febian Brandy (Manchester United).
Time will tell if Swansea’s confidence is misplaced however the bookies have given the Swans long odds and they could be paying out come next May.

Watford

Losing semi finalists in last Years play-offs, the Hornets are not favourites with the bookies to repeat that feat. Rumored financial problems at Vicarage Rd have m meant that they have had to sell in the summer - with the Rams snapping up Nathan Ellington & Jordan Stewart, while Danny Shittu and Darius Henderson also left.

Watford was one of the Championships better teams last season and it’s hard to see where Aidy Boothroyds men went wrong. In the play-off game at Vicarage Rd, Watford were clearly the better team but somehow contrived to lose 2-0. At the KC stadium they took the lead but then fell apart - conceding 4 goals and losing 6-1 on aggregate.

At the time of writing, only Jon Harley has been signed from Burnley however Aston Villa’s Ulises De La Cruz is on trial with the club.

Wolverhampton Wanderers 

Just missed out on the play offs last season and the bookies think they will again - they expect us to beat them into sixth. Wolves started the season well and reached as high as third however key injuries and a wretched Christmas severely dented their chances. Conceding late goals cost them dearly and if they’d managed two more goals they would have made the play offs.

Mick McCarthy is a shrewd manager and has made several key signings that could improve his team. Wolves have no money worries after last seasons £30m takeover. He’s added Sam Vokes (Bournemouth), Richard Stearman (Leicester City), Chris Iwelumo (Charlton Athletic) and Dave Jones (Derby).

Many Rams fans were surprised Jones was let go. On his day he is a great box to box player however his confidence took a knock in the Premiership and it remains to be seen whether McCarthy can inspire him. If he can, Wolves may well be challenging this year.

Photo: Action Images

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