Season Preview 2023 – Part 5

ROTHERHAM UNITED

INS: Cafu (Nottingham Forest, Free), Andre Green (Slovan Bratislava, Free), Grant Hall (Middlesbrough, Free), Dillon Phillips (Cardiff City, Free), Fred Onyedinma (Luton Town, Season Loan)

OUTS: Conor Washington (Derby County, Undisclosed), Wes Harding (Millwall, Free), Cheidoze Ogbene (Luton Town, Free), Josh Vickers (Derby County, Free), Richard Wood (Doncaster Rovers, Free), Robbie Hemfrey, Mackenzie Warne, Peter Kioso (Peterborough United, Season Loan), Conor Coventry (West Ham United, End of Loan), Tariqe Fosu (Brentford, End of Loan), Leo Hjelde (Leeds United, End of Loan), Domingos Quina (Watford, End of Loan), Bailey Wright (Sunderland, End of Loan)

OUR EX-MILLERS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Rob Scott (Head of Talent ID)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

Season	H	A	FAC	LC	OTH
2022-23	1-1	1-1
2020-21		4-1
2014-15	3-0
2004-05	0-0	1-0
2003-04	1-0	1-1
2002-03	1-2	1-2
2001-02	3-2	1-1
1996-97	2-0	0-0

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Johansson
Hall              Humphreys          Morrison
Peltier           Cafu         Rathbone       Wiles          Bramall
Hugill           Eaves

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: This is a relatively easy one.

Rotherham are a club that… aren’t exactly a yo-yo club, but do a surprisingly good job of regularly getting promoted to the second tier on small crowds and unspectacular resources by the standards of the third tier, let alone the Championship.

To stay up is itself no small achievement either of course, even if Rotherham continue to rely on basket cases to keep them away from the drop zone.  However things look dicey again this summer;  the chairman speaks boldly about having signed Championship level players rather than trying to assemble League One players into something greater than the sum of their parts but the recruitment at the time of writing has been limited.

The Millers, in common with several sides at the stage that I’m writing two-and-a-half weeks before the season starts, have a solid base.  Johansson is a good keeper, and any team that boasts Lee Peltier and Sean Morrison, at whatever age, is going to have a bit of nasty know-how about them defensively.  However they’ve lost Cheidoze Ogbene for nothing and weren’t starting from a high base either up front or in the wing-back roles.

It’s a prediction that will be neither unusual nor particularly insightful, but Rotherham are strong candidates for the drop.

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY

INS: Juan Delgado (Paços de Ferreira, Undisclosed), Reece James (Blackpool, Undisclosed), Pol Valentin (Gijon, Undisclosed), Di’Shon Bernard (Manchester United, Free), Ashley Fletcher (Watford, Season Loan)

OUTS: Jaden Brown (Lincoln City, Free), Ryan Galvin (Halifax Town, Free), David Stockdale (York City, Free), Dennis Adeniran, Sam Durrant, Ben Heneghan, Jack Hunt, Aden Flint (Stoke City, End of Loan)

OUR EX-OWLS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Antonella Brambilla (Goalkeeping Coach), George Byers, Roberto Cuesta (First Team Coach), Ashley Fletcher, Miguel Muñoz (Assistant Manager), Xisco Muñoz (Manager)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

Season	H	A	FAC	LC	OTH
2020-21	1-0	0-0
2014-15	1-1
2013-14	0-1
2012-13	2-1	4-1
2009-10	4-1
2008-09	2-2
2007-08	2-1
2005-06	2-1	1-1
2002-03	1-0	2-2
2001-02	3-1	1-2		0-4
2000-01	1-3	3-2
1999-00	1-0	2-2
1997-98			1-1/0-0

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Dawson
Paterson            Iorfa              Ihiekwe          Famewo
Delgado        Byers             Vaulks         Bannan      Windass
Smith

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: The Deeney goal doesn’t lose it’s shine, does it?  More than a decade on, the hairs still stand up on the back of your neck.  Special.  That we went on to lose a miserable final to bloody Palace is all but irrelevant, a footnote… although admittedly we might not feel quite the same way had promotion not followed a couple of years later.

Wednesday’s own play-off semi-final in May was no less dramatic.  It always seemed possible that Posh would capitalise on the nagging voice in the Owls’ head, the “you’re gonna f*** it up” voice after the Owls had lost out in the monumental three-way tussle for automatic places.  So it proved as the home side won 4-0 at London Road, only for roles to be reversed as Wednesday revelled in the nothing-to-loseness of the second leg at a febrile Hillsborough, progressing on penalties after Liam Palmer had levelled the tie eight minutes into added time at the end of the ninety.

And Wednesday won the final to boot with much of the credit for the mental fortitude of the squad being laid squarely on boss Darren Moore’s broad shoulders.  Always a challenge to prepare for a season after promotion through the play-offs, starting weeks behind your rivals in terms of squad rebuilding, but Wednesday should have been going into the campaign flying.

Instead, Moore has gone – reportedly following a conflict of ambition with the manager not sharing his chairman Dejphon Chansiri’s assessment that successive promotions were a realistic target.  More bizarrely still, Xisco enters stage left to take the reins, an appointment so peculiar that it might almost have been awarded via a raffle.  You will have your own views on his time at Watford and as previously mentioned that promotion deserves to be held in higher regard than it is…  but beyond dispute is that whatever credit he takes for the successes of his tenure, they were achieved in the context of a very strong squad, arguably the strongest in the division, that needed to get out of its funk and start feeling good about itself.

Chansiri, in his defence, clearly believes that he has one of the strongest squads in the division in which case the Xisco appointment makes a bit more sense but few would share his optimism.  This is a club whose promotion buzz has been doused, and for all the relative successes of the last domestic campaign a side short of zip and goals.  The pre-season has been flat, with reports talking of a change to the playing style that is yet to look convincing and which, perhaps crucially, fails to use the skills of the talismanic Barry Bannan.

The Sheffield Star reflects that a top six place looks a tall order, which is either a dramatic understatement or a bit of mischief written by a Blades fan.  This may be the move that resurrects Ashley Fletcher’s career but nothing in either his time at Watford or his loans over the same period suggest a transformative effect on Wednesday’s goalscoring issues.  Getting out of the bottom six, let alone reaching the top, looks a very tall order at the moment.  One wonders how the Peterborough games will be regarded by Owls fans in ten years’ time.  Strong relegation candidates.

SOUTHAMPTON

INS: Shea Charles (Manchester City, Undisclosed), Derrick Abu (Chelsea, Free), Ryan Manning (Swansea City, Free)

OUTS: Mohamed Salisu (Monaco, £17,000,000), Dan Nlundulu (Bolton Wanderers, Undisclosed), Mislav Oršić (Trabzonspor, Undisclosed), Kegs Chauke (Burton Albion, Free), Mohamed Elyounoussi (FC Copenhagen, Free), Matthew Hall (Bristol Rovers, Free), Will Tizzard (Queens Park, Free), Jack Turner (Queens Park, Free), Goran Babic, Sam Bellis, Zuriel Otseh-Taiwo, Leon Pambou, Fedel Ross-Lang, Jak Stewart, Theo Walcott, Caleb Watts, Nico Lawrence (Colchester United, Season Loan)

OUR EX-SAINTS: Wesley Hoedt

THEIR EX-ORNS: Carl Martin (Possession Coach)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

Season	H	A	FAC	LC	OTH
2021-22	0-1
2019-20	1-3
2018-19	1-1	1-1
2017-18	2-2	2-0
2016-17	3-4
2015-16		0-2
2011-12	0-3
2008-09	2-2	3-0
2007-08	3-2
2005-06	3-0	3-1
2004-05				5-2
2002-03			1-2
1999-00	3-2	0-2
1982-83		4-1
1980-81				7-1

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Bazunu
Livramento         Caleta-Car          Bednarek          Manning
S.Armstrong      Lavia          Ward-Prowse     Sulemana
A.Armstrong          Adams

VERDICT: One of the consequences, as previously discussed, of the mega-investment in Premier League clubs is the shifting of the battle lines.  Specifically, if these heavily backed sides can be considered, barring complete disaster, safe from relegation before you start there’s not a lot of wriggle room left for everyone else.  A promoted side with a bit of oomph and a prevailing wind could have expected to finish safely clear of trouble a decade or so ago, not any more.

Another facet of this development is evidenced here.  Southampton were demonstrably the weakest team in the Premier Division last season but…   you look at the side above, and the names that don’t make it and there’s an awful lot of quality there.  With a month left of the window, this lot almost certainly won’t all be around for the duration – at least half of them have been prominently linked with moves – but there are decent replacements in many cases in the squad already, and given the fees likely to be recouped there will be ample scope to rebuild and replace.

Saints messageboards worry about a defence that was too porous and a forward line that didn’t score enough goals last season but that midfield, or anything like it, in the Championship should see the Saints facing fewer shots and creating more chances this time around, and that against weaker opponents.

Unimaginative as this prediction is, it’s hard to see Southampton doing anything other than challenge for automatic promotion.  From a Watford point of view the main hope is surely that someone picks up James Ward-Prowse to reduce our expected goals against tally for the season by at least two;  signing Tom Ince already a win in that regard, but Ward-Prowse may be slightly out of our price-range.

STOKE CITY

INS: Ben Pearson (Bournemouth, Undisclosed), André Vidigal (Maritimo, Undisclosed), Wesley (Aston Villa, Undisclosed), Daniel Johnson (Preston North End, Free), Michael Rose (Coventry City, Free), Enda Stevens (Sheffield United, Free), Chiquinho (Wolves, Season Loan), Ki-Jana Hoever (Wolves, Season Loan), Luke McNally (Burnley, Season Loan), Mark Travers (AFC Bournemouth, Season Loan)

OUTS: Demeaco Duhaney (Istanbulspor, Free), Morgan Fox (Queens Park Rangers, Free), Douglas James-Taylor (Walsall, Free), Nick Powell (Stockport County, Free), Sam Clucas, Phil Jagielka, Tashan Oakley-Boothe, Tom Edwards (Huddersfield Town, Season Loan), Will Smallbone (Southampton, End of Loan),  Axel Tuanzebe (Manchester United, end of loan), Dujon Sterling (Chelsea, End of Loan)

OUR EX-POTTERS: Daniel Bachmann, Tom Ince, Dean Whitehead (Assistant Head Coach)

THEIR EX-ORNS: Jack Bonham, Ben Wilmot

Season	H	A	FAC	LC	OTH
2022-23	2-0	4-0
2017-18	0-1	0-0
2016-17	0-1
2015-16	1-2
2007-08	0-0	0-0
2005-06	1-0	3-0
2004-05	0-1	1-0
2003-04	1-3	1-3
2001-02	1-2	2-1
1995-96	3-0

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Travers
Hoever       Rose            Wilmot          Tymon
Thompson       Pearson        Laurent
Brown               Wesley             Vidigal

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: Amongst Crystal Palace’s many crimes (for which they will, one day, be held accountable) was not collapsing into a muddy heap a couple of seasons ago when half of their squad departed at the end of their contracts.  I’d anticipated catastrophe with no small glee as a load of senior players moved on for nothing.  What I’d failed to account for was that a lot of those players were inadequate… but also that there’s something to be said for a blank canvas and a liberated wage bill.

Quite whether the same trick – losing half your squad out of contract but using the leeway this grants you to remodel perfectly adequately – is as easy in the Championship without the allure of Premier League football, Stoke’s fortunes might inform us this season.  As Palace did two years ago Stoke have cleared the decks over the summer and begun to assemble an array of bright new faces.

On the plus side, Ben Pearson is an annoying git but he’s now Stoke’s annoying git which will have changed their position on him markedly – a midfielder who can both play football and run around kicking people is always going to be a popular thing.  On the down side….  Stoke’s recent history suggests that a well-navigated summer in this most pivotal of pre-seasons given the state of the squad would be a turn up for the books.  Less of a surprise is that the perpetually glum Alex Neil looks ever more like a bloke who’s come into his local primary school to complain about parents parking in front of his drive at drop-off but has bee waiting fifteen minutes for the receptionist to get off the phone.

Wide margins of error on any prediction at this stage, but you’d guess that Stoke fall squarely into to the box of sides that are good enough to believe that they can reach the play-offs but are unlikely to do so.