Who's going down to League One in 2019? Bolton?

[mullayo]

Hull lose their top striker Abel Hernandez. I know he only played 10 times last year but he got 8 goals earned them 6 points. Probably saved them from a relegation battle. Too good and goneburger.

[jmjhb]

For all the reputation the last time he won anything as a club manager was in 1991

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

So Bielsa to Leeds is happening. Utterly mad, tremendous stuff.

That could go either way. As big a fan as I am, hopefully badly. Presumably they'll spend big.

Guess where we're going in the League Cup?

[Bruce Rioja]

So Bielsa to Leeds is happening. Utterly mad, tremendous stuff.

That could go either way. As big a fan as I am, hopefully badly. Presumably they'll spend big.

Guess where we're going in the League Cup?

Argentina?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

So Bielsa to Leeds is happening. Utterly mad, tremendous stuff.

That could go either way. As big a fan as I am, hopefully badly. Presumably they'll spend big.

Guess where we're going in the League Cup?

Argentina?

Sort of. Former Argentina manager Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds, w/b Aug 13.

[mullayo]

READINGS SIGNINGS SO FAR
Andy Yiadom (free, Barnsley)
David Meyler (free, Hull City)
John O'Shea (free, Sunderland)

Better than ours?
I'd take Meyler ahead of Lowe or Oztumer
Yiadom is 26 year-old fullback (5ft 11in, 75kg) and has had a Championship season under his belt albeit a Moneyball one.
John O'Shea was Scum but is 37 now.

Meanwhile across the country at 'Ull. They've lost 3 names.
Out
David Meyler (free, Reading)
Michael Dawson (free, Nottingham Forest)
Sebastian Larsson (free, AIK Solna)

[mullayo]

Some promotion odds have been released.
As far as I can tell Ipswich Town 28/1 Bolton 40/1 and Rotherham 66/1 are the worst three.
Does that directly correspond (ie inverse) to relegation odds?

Which begs the OBVIOUS question what's wrong with Ipswich?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Some promotion odds have been released.
As far as I can tell Ipswich Town 28/1 Bolton 40/1 and Rotherham 66/1 are the worst three.
Does that directly correspond (ie inverse) to relegation odds?

Which begs the OBVIOUS question what's wrong with Ipswich?

They've lost Mick McCarthy, who is well-regarded by bettors. Their owner is determined not to lose money although the division demands it. And statistically, they overachieved last season, scoring more goals and conceding fewer than they "ought" to considering the efforts going in at either end. Same thing had happened to Reading the season before last, and look what happened this time; it's also happened before in the Premier to Newcastle (Tim Krul as best shot-stopper one season, they got relegated the next) and, more painfully, to us. The season before Coyle took us down Jussi had one of the division's best shot-stopping records, while Holden and Muamba led the league in tackles and we had strikers scoring at above-average conversion rates. Then that stopped, and so did our Premier League stay.

[mullayo]

Some promotion odds have been released.
As far as I can tell Ipswich Town 28/1 Bolton 40/1 and Rotherham 66/1 are the worst three.
Does that directly correspond (ie inverse) to relegation odds?

Which begs the OBVIOUS question what's wrong with Ipswich?

They've lost Mick McCarthy, who is well-regarded by bettors. Their owner is determined not to lose money although the division demands it. And statistically, they overachieved last season, scoring more goals and conceding fewer than they "ought" to considering the efforts going in at either end. Same thing had happened to Reading the season before last, and look what happened this time; it's also happened before in the Premier to Newcastle (Tim Krul as best shot-stopper one season, they got relegated the next) and, more painfully, to us. The season before Coyle took us down Jussi had one of the division's best shot-stopping records, while Holden and Muamba led the league in tackles and we had strikers scoring at above-average conversion rates. Then that stopped, and so did our Premier League stay.

Cheers DSB. Welcome to the bottom of the barrel Ipswich! Please take our seat in 22nd place.., I insist...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Birmingham put under transfer embargo. <cough>Arry

[bristol_Wanderer3]

Birmingham put under transfer embargo. <cough>Arry

That is quite interesting. When I saw them strongly linked with £6m Grabban and £3m Bialkowski I was thinking "Shouldn't they be making austere Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, Villa like noises?". £3m Krisitan Pedersen was in the final stages of his transfer.

Suggests the people who run them are proper head in the sand types. Pretty embarrassing to go from looking to make a number of expensive signings, to "Oh it seems we've busted our FFP limit sone time ago".

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Birmingham put under transfer embargo. <cough>Arry

That is quite interesting. When I saw them strongly linked with £6m Grabban and £3m Bialkowski I was thinking "shouldn't they be making austere Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, Villa like noises?". £3m Krisitan Pedersen was in the final stages of his transfer.

Suggests the people who run them are proper head in the sand types. Pretty embarrassing to go from looking to make a number of expensive signings, to "oh it seems we've busted our FFP limit sone time ago".

Yeah, pity about Bialkowski - we could do with him leaving them and them taking Amos off us.

[mullayo]

Birmingham put under transfer embargo. <cough>Arry

Brilliant news for us. Drag them down to our level and beat them with experience...
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/ ... o-14885448
I note they only want four more signings, we want 8.
Any players they may offload we'd be interested in?

[mullayo]

So who's the other candidates so far.
Rotterham, Ipswich, Birmingham... And I assume us right in the mix...

Any other teams likely to follow the Brummies down the slippery FFP slope?

[mullayo]

Birmingham put under transfer embargo. <cough>Arry

That is quite interesting. When I saw them strongly linked with £6m Grabban and £3m Bialkowski I was thinking "shouldn't they be making austere Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, Villa like noises?". £3m Krisitan Pedersen was in the final stages of his transfer.

Suggests the people who run them are proper head in the sand types. Pretty embarrassing to go from looking to make a number of expensive signings, to "oh it seems we've busted our FFP limit sone time ago".

Yeah, pity about Bialkowski - we could do with him leaving them and them taking Amos off us.

Doesn't this embargo likely mean Bialkowski will still go somewhere... Thereby dragging them down at least...
Dammit wish they got the Amos deal done first

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Birmingham put under transfer embargo. <cough>Arry

That is quite interesting. When I saw them strongly linked with £6m Grabban and £3m Bialkowski I was thinking "shouldn't they be making austere Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, Villa like noises?". £3m Krisitan Pedersen was in the final stages of his transfer.

Suggests the people who run them are proper head in the sand types. Pretty embarrassing to go from looking to make a number of expensive signings, to "oh it seems we've busted our FFP limit sone time ago".

Yeah, pity about Bialkowski - we could do with him leaving them and them taking Amos off us.

Doesn't this embargo likely mean Bialkowski will still go somewhere... Thereby dragging them down at least...
Dammit wish they got the Amos deal done first

The embargo's on Birmingham, the club who were buying Bialkowski, not Ipswich.

As for who else might be in trouble, the more I look at Norwich the more I think they might be involved. They quietly bobbed along between 11th and 16th from September on last season – they and Ipswich were the division's first teams to avoid both relegation and promotion, on April 14th – but they've got problems.

They've lost their goalkeeper (Angus Gunn's gone back to Man City and will be sold for £10m to Southampton). They've lost their creative department: Alex Pritchard joined Huddersfield in January, Josh Murphy's off to Cardiff, James Maddison's off to Leicester and Wes Hoolahan is off to the retirement home. They didn't have a goalscoring striker – after Maddison and Murphy, their next highest scorer was Nelson Oliveira on eight. They scored three fewer than Sunderland. They're also not entirely sure about the manager, Daniel Farke.

And the parachute payments have finished; at last November's AGM, chairman Ed Balls (yes, that one) warned the club faced “a substantial financial challenge... Tough decisions will have to be made.” Hence the sales. But having lost their best players and presumably with little money to hire new ones, what next?

[mullayo]

The embargo's on Birmingham, the club who were buying Bialkowski, not Ipswich.

As for who else might be in trouble, the more I look at Norwich the more I think they might be involved. They quietly bobbed along between 11th and 16th from September on last season – they and Ipswich were the division's first teams to avoid both relegation and promotion, on April 14th – but they've got problems.

They've lost their goalkeeper (Angus Gunn's gone back to Man City and will be sold for £10m to Southampton). They've lost their creative department: Alex Pritchard joined Huddersfield in January, Josh Murphy's off to Cardiff, James Maddison's off to Leicester and Wes Hoolahan is off to the retirement home. They didn't have a goalscoring striker – after Maddison and Murphy, their next highest scorer was Nelson Oliveira on eight. They scored three fewer than Sunderland. They're also not entirely sure about the manager, Daniel Farke.

And the parachute payments have finished; at last November's AGM, chairman Ed Balls (yes, that one) warned the club faced “a substantial financial challenge... Tough decisions will have to be made.” Hence the sales. But having lost their best players and presumably with little money to hire new ones, what next?

Doh! I knew that I got confused. Norwich sound like drop contenders. The Champ really has become a league of just hold on and hope rivals implode next year.

Rotterham, Ipswich, Birmingham, now Norwich... There is still hope (albeit lower case)

[boltonboris]

Birmingham put under transfer embargo. <cough>Arry

That is quite interesting. When I saw them strongly linked with £6m Grabban and £3m Bialkowski I was thinking "shouldn't they be making austere Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, Villa like noises?". £3m Krisitan Pedersen was in the final stages of his transfer.

Suggests the people who run them are proper head in the sand types. Pretty embarrassing to go from looking to make a number of expensive signings, to "oh it seems we've busted our FFP limit sone time ago".

Yeah, pity about Bialkowski - we could do with him leaving them and them taking Amos off us.

Unless they're in the market for a loan 'keeper now?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Birmingham put under transfer embargo. <cough>Arry

That is quite interesting. When I saw them strongly linked with £6m Grabban and £3m Bialkowski I was thinking "shouldn't they be making austere Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, Villa like noises?". £3m Krisitan Pedersen was in the final stages of his transfer.

Suggests the people who run them are proper head in the sand types. Pretty embarrassing to go from looking to make a number of expensive signings, to "oh it seems we've busted our FFP limit sone time ago".

Yeah, pity about Bialkowski - we could do with him leaving them and them taking Amos off us.

Unless they're in the market for a loan 'keeper now?

Nice idea Boz but after his last season I reckon his agent might be pushing for a better deal than a team in embargo can offer.

[boltonboris]

Anything to cover a chunk of his wages is good for us