In the Championship – All ready to go

Peter Thorne - one of six new signings at relegated Norwich

It is difficult to determine just who will be the winners and losers and even early season form could be of no use. Sunderland made a miserable start last season winning only one of their first six games which found them very close to the bottom of the table whilst at the same time Gillingham were riding high in the top half.

There’ll be no predictions from me but I do think that two of the relegated teams, Norwich and Palace, will be strong although I suspect Southampton could have problems with the team of Rupert Lowe, Sir Clive Woodward and Harry Redknapp hardly leading to a smooth running operation.

Wolves have only lost once since Glenn Hoddle took over and they should be there or there abouts and what a boost Leeds received recently with the signing of Robbie Blake. We all know just how good a signing that is.

As for the bottom then obviously the likes of Brighton and Crewe will be down there and Luton could face a battle to stay up if they don’t make a good start. Stoke and Millwall have hardly had good summers and again a poor start could see them in serious trouble.

There are new signings at all the clubs, and much can depend on how they settle in – those new signings are:

Brighton

Jason Dodd (Southampton), Colin Kazam-Richards (Bury)

Burnley

Wade Elliott (Bournemouth), Garreth O’Connor (Bournemouth), Wayne Thomas (Stoke), Gifton Noel-Williams (Stoke), Danny Karbassiyoon (Arsenal)

Cardiff

Jeff Whitley (Sunderland), Andrea Ferretti (Parma), Jermaine Darlington (Watford), Neil Cox (Watford), Phil Mulryne (Norwich), Darren Purse (West Brom)

Loans: Glenn Loovens (Feyenoord), Jason Koumas (West Brom)

Coventry

James Scowcroft (Leicester), Clayton Ince (Crewe), Matt Heath (Leicester)

Loans: Richard Duffy (Portsmouth), Stephen Bywater (West Ham)

Crewe

Matt Bailey (Stockport), Juan Ugarte (Wrexham), Luke Rodgers (Shrewsbury), Pavel Suhaj (AS Trencia)

Loans: Eddie Johnson (Man Utd), Ross Turnbull (Middlesbrough)

Crystal Palace

Darren Ward (Millwall), Jobi McAnuff (Cardiff), Jon Macken (Man City)

Derby

Marc Edworthy (Norwich), Kevin Poole (Bolton)

Loan: Andrew Davies (Middlesbrough)

Hull

Curtis Woodhouse (Peterborough), Steve McPhee (Beira Mar), Keith Andrews (Wolves), Mark Lynch (Sunderland), Sergio Leite (Charlton), Daniel Coles (Bristol City)

Ipswich

Nicky Forster (Reading), Sam Parkin (Swindon), Dean McDonald (Arsenal)

Loan: Jimmy Juan (Monaco)

Leeds

Rob Hulse (West Brom), Ian Bennett (Birmingham), Eddie Lewis (Preston), Steve Stone (Portsmouth), Robbie Blake (Birmingham), Rui Marques (Maritimo)

Leicester

Paul Henderson (Bradford), Morno Sylla (Celtic), Rab Douglas (Celtic), Nils-Eric Johansson (Blackburn), Peter Gilbert (Plymouth)

Luton

Carlos Edwards (Wrexham), Rowan Vine (Portsmouth), Markus Heikkinen (Aberdeen), Dean Morgan (Reading)

Millwall

Sammy Igoe (Swindon)

Norwich

Jason Jarrett (Wigan), Matthieu Louis-Jean (Nott’m Forest), Peter Thorne (Cardiff), Jurgen Colin (PSV Eindhoven), Andy Hughes (Reading)

Loan: Dean Marney (Tottenham)

Plymouth

Bojan Djordjic (Rangers), Anthony Barness (Bolton), Rufus Brevett (West Ham), Taribo West (Al-Arabi), Nuno Mendes (Santa Clara)

Preston

Dave Hibbert (Port Vale), Joe Ayinsah (Bristol City), Danny Dichio (Millwall), Lewis Neal (Stoke)

Loan: David Jones (Man Utd)

QPR

Simon Royce (Charlton), Ian Evatt (Chesterfield), Stefan Moore (Aston Villa), Tom Doherty (Bristol City), Marc Nygaard (Brescia)

Reading

Kevin Doyle (Cork), Shane Long (Cork), Steve Hunt (Brentford), Leroy Lita (Bristol City), Brynjar Gunnarsson (Watford), Chris Makin (Leicester), John Oster (Burnley)

Loan: Graham Stack (Arsenal)

Sheffield Utd

Lilian Nalis (Leicester), Paul Ifill (Millwall), Danny Webber (Watford), Craig Short (Blackburn), Gary Mulligan (Wolves), Karl Nix (Aston Villa), Neil Shipperley (Crystal Palace), San Lee (Brentford)

Sheffield Wed

John Hills (Gillingham), Drissa Diallo (Ipswich), Graham Coughlan (Plymouth), Burton O’Brien (Livingston), Frankie Simek (Arsenal), Ritchie Partridge (Liverpool)

Loan: Chris Eagles (Man Utd)

Southampton

Dennis Wise (Millwall), Darren Powell (Crystal Palace), Ricardo Fuller (Portsmouth), Tomasz Hajto (Nuremberg)

Stoke

Mamady Sidibe (Gillingham), Peter Sweeney (Millwall), Carl Hoefkens (Germinal), Marlon Broomes (Preston), Bruce Dyer (Preston)

Loans: Martin Kolar (Anderlecht), Gabriel Ngalula-Mbuyi (Anderlecht), Luke Chadwick (West Ham)

Watford

Martin Devaney (Cheltenham), Jordan Stewart (Leicester), Junior (Derby)

Loan: Marlon King (Nott’m Forest)

Wolves

Rohan Ricketts (Tottenham), Jackie McNamara (Celtic)

Loan: Gabor Gyepes (Ferencvaros)