 | Baldy's Blog Episode 1 |
Welcome to the very first Baldy's Blog, I'll be having a rant and moan throughout the season not just all things Sheffield Wednesday, but the whole Championship and football in general...whatever mythers me at the time can expect a tongue lashing.
It won't all be doom and gloom though, there'll be plenty of general thoughts on football and I hope there'll be some praise as well...certainly for Wednesday anyway....if there is, it should mean we're having a good season and who want's to spend the whole season moaning?
I'm gonna kick off with my thoughts on the Championship race, the ups and downs...
I bet Simon Davey
can’t believe his good fortune
every day when he wakes up and finds himself employed as a full time
football
manager. Lucky to be in this division at all and now the fixture
computer
hasn’t given them very favourable dates to play us I fully expect them
to
struggle and find themselves relegated. 
Don’t quite
understand how they are still here but seeing
as their survival last season involved Leeds’ failure I’m glad they
did. This
is surely their final year at this level though. Even if Holloway will
make
us all laugh a little bit throughout the season he won’t keep them up. 
The reaction of the
Bristol City fans at the full time whistle last
season, when it was their last home game, told me that they have got a
little
ahead of themselves. They should have been delighted to consolidate
their
status in the Championship but they seemed disappointed to be not in
the
play-offs. I expect a similar amount of gentle backward stepping this
season,
finishing somewhere around the middle of the league. 
Despite Dave Jones’
apparent mental breakdown at the end
of last season when they managed to completely throw away a guaranteed
play-off place, I still rate him as a manager and they always have the
potential to threaten the top end of the table. Losing Roger Johnson
won’t
help though and a lot could depend on them keeping Ledley. I still
expect a
top 6 challenge though. 
Christ I nearly fall
asleep just at the mention of their
name. The dullest ground in the league and if they continue to play
like last
season they could be the dullest team too. Won’t go down but could
well be
bottom half. Although Morrison will still score against us at least 11
times. 
Their squad doesn’t
look great but Warnock can never be
written off. However I thought they would challenge last season and
they
didn’t and I don’t think they are stronger this year. Likely to go on a
good
run at some point though. Somewhere in the top half but not troubling
the top
4. Sears will score against us though. 
Clough knows what
he’s doing and they could be dark horses for promotion,
although I don’t think they have the quality to lead the way. Will
take
points off us though, and probably in a really annoying way. 
Last season they were
shite for half of it and then brilliant for the other
half. I don’t expect them to be as brilliant or as shite as they were
in both
extremes but they will still struggle to score goals and look weaker
with the
sale of Wellens. Should stay up but a bottom half finish beckons. 
The Keane effect
will certainly help boost their
chances but they don’t seem to have added too much to their squad.
Should be
around the play-offs but may flatter to deceive. Great away day
though. 
Every season one team
comes up and just keeps on
going and I expect this team to be Leicester this year. They will be
confident, and Pearson has proved he plays the loan market very well
too. Top
8. 
Far too shite for the
Premier League, they may turn out to be a West Brom and
be too good for the Championship. They always produce good young
players and
seem to have keep most of their squad so I expect them to be
challenging at
the top. 
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Will continue to be in disarray until The Saviour returns and by then
it will
be too late. Bottom half and could even slip straight through. Should
have
enough quality to avoid that though, even if none of them want to be
there.
They’ve spent some
money this summer and most of the signings look like they
should be able to cut it at this level. Mid-table mediocrity beckons,
as does
a great away day. 
Another side that
will come up full of confidence
and should do perfectly well, without challenging at the top. If
things
aren’t going well then expect a couple of loans from Daddy Twat in
Manchester
to help secure their status. 
Shotgun wielding new
signing Bradley Wright-Phillips
could prove to be a good value freebee but they looked poor for a lot
of last
season and will struggle again. Sturrock was hanging on to his job at
one
point so a bad start could see him as first to go this season. 
Every year I think
this should be the last time that
Preston challenge in the top half, and every year they carry on doing
it.
Alan Irvine is a good manager and I expect him to have them well
organised
and they will win enough games to think they can challenge for the
play-offs,
but they won’t go up. Their deluded fans won’t be happy if they don’t
though. 
They’ve got loads of money so they’ll win it. Except they haven’t
spent any
of it and Jim Magilton is their ‘Manager’, so they won’t. 
A new and relatively
untried manager but a squad that should still be good
enough to go up automatically, although a lack of signings so far
seems to
have weakened them. Potential play-off winners. 
Expect a carbon copy
of their last season at this level: play nice footy, win
a few home games, get relegated . 
The pressure is
really on Blackwell this season and he
could either sink or swim. I don’t think he will be their manager at
the end
of the season so it depends on who they get to replace him when it’s
not
looking great at Christmas. Probably Warnock, and then anything could
happen.
Dirty, sweaty, whinging fookin piglets. 
Will suffer from 2nd
season syndrome, especially with a new manager. Don’t
seem to have got anyone to replace Scotland so goals may be a problem.
Bottom
half but will survive. 
Will float around the
middle of the table like a
wasp at the end of summer trying to find some bread to vomit on. Won’t
trouble anyone but will probably annoy us in some way or another. 
Still a good squad,
still good enough to go up but it all
depends on how Di Matteo takes to the step up. Luckily this division
will
allow him the time to find his feet. The Yo-yoing will continue.
And finally....
The squad is stronger
than last year, although not hugely.
Injuries will dictate our final position. A mostly fit squad could see
us
flirt with the top 6 at some point, a bad run of injuries could see us
flirt
with the bottom 6 at some point but ultimately we should end up
roughly where
we did last season. I’d be happy to take some form of progress –
another 6
points this year perhaps. The key will be keeping the squad together –
if
they all disappear for peanuts in January it could all go wrong, but a
couple
of sly loan additions and we could surprise a few.
Baldy.
Owls Alive