PLFantasy

I am somewhat disappointed to admit that I don't follow the Championship as I used to as some of my favourite footballing memories come from Bolton's time spent chasing promotion from the old First Division*. Alas, the move to Canada and the availability of countless other sports to fill the hours have taken their toll on my viewing hours. * Incidentally, you can get an idea of someone's age in England by what they call the second tier of English football. To youngsters it's the Championship, to anyone in their late 20s - 30s it's the First Division and beyond that it's the Second Division. So it's with each new Premier League prediction season that I approach with some dread the issue of the newly promoted sides. I generally don't know much about teams unless they have yo-yoed back from a couple of years ago, and even then my knowledge of the individual players involved tends to range from decent familiarity (particularly with Allardyce's Bolto...

So here is the final team previews, brought to you just one day before the start of the new season (apologies for cutting things a bit close). I will post later tonight a review of all the last minute injury news, as well as tweeting them tomorrow morning before the 11:30 deadline. Today's previews lack the star power of yesterday but plenty of bargains can be found, and each team has something to offer Sunderland Projected Team: Fulop, McCartney, Collins, Ferdinand, Bardsley, Richardson, Cattermole, Cana, Malbranque, Bent, Jones After being given a substantial war chest by the board, Steve Bruce has spent very well on Weirside and his team look stronger than they ever have. It would not be surprising at all to see Sunderland pushing Fulham and West Ham for top half spots rather than scrapping at the wrong end of the table. At the back the team is largely unchanged, which is disappointing for a team who ranked just 13th in total defense (16th home, 12th away) last season. Paolo de ...