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Barnsley
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They will once again be one of the relegation favourites this season but manager Simon Davey has made extensive changes to his side ahead of the new season and in particular has again raided the European market with five of his signings coming in from outside of England.
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Kayode Odejayi from Cheltenham - £200,000
Marciano Bruma from Sparta Rotterdam
Andy Johnson from Leicester
Miguel Mostto from Cienciano - £400,000
Dominik Werling from Sakaryaspor
Rob Kozluk from Sheffield United
Rohan Ricketts from Wolves
Dennis Souza from Charleroi
Heinz Muller from Lillestrom
Lewin Nyatanga from Derby (loan)
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They won the last place with a play off win against Yeovil at Wembley and were always favourites after winning their last seven league games of the season. The play offs took that run to ten wins.
The new season is one where they hope to consolidate their position in this league and they will be hoping to do that with Wes Hoolihan who is currently in limbo after Livingston refused to allow him to sign despite an agreement having been made.
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Ian Evatt from QPR
Paul Rachubka from Huddersfield
Michael Flynn from Gillingham
John Hills from Sheffield Wednesday
Stephen Crainey from League One Leeds
Gary Taylor-Fletcher from Huddersfield
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It is eight years since they were last in this division, going down in 1999 after just the one year and they will be hoping that their stay will be longer on this occasion.
Although not expected to be pushing near the top of the league they shouldn't really have too many problems down the bottom end and will probably settle for a mid-table position this season under Gary Johnson.
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Stephen Henderson from Aston Villa
Ivan Sproule from Hibs
Marvin Elliott from Millwall £250,000
Michael McIndoe from Wolves £500,000
Lee Trundle from Swansea £1 million
Thomas Vasko from Ujpest Dosza (loan)
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The club is moving forwards with dramatic plans for the ground and the training ground and the manager can expect to be able to compete with a bigger and stronger squad than has been the case in the past.
To date he's added four new signings and is still looking for a couple more to bring the squad up to its biggest since the end of the 2001/02 season when we finished just a goal away from a play off position.
There's eager anticipation from most Burnley fans ahead of this weekend's big kick off.
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Gabor Kiraly from Crystal Palace
Besart Berisha from SV Hamburg £340,000
Robbie Blake from League One Leeds £250,000
Stephen Jordan from Manchester City
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He's been replaced now with Robbie Fowler who is one of the best strikers I've seen in many a year, but there have to be question marks over the signing. Surely a fit Fowler would still be playing for a top Premiership side, and not for a club in our division.
Cardiff fans should take a good look at what's happened at Leeds recently, after all Ridsdale started all that as well, although they shouldn't get lumbered with Bates as well.
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Tony Capaldi from Plymouth
Warren Feeney from Luton
Gavin Rae from Rangers
Steven MacLean from Sheffield Wednesday
Michael Oakes from Wolves
Trevor Sinclair from Manchester City
Robbie Fowler from Liverpool
Ross Turnbull from Middlesbrough (loan)
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The third of those managers Alan Pardew has made extensive changes to his squad and was able to fund much of it with the massive sale of Darren Bent to Spurs who incredibly brought in more than Arsenal received for Thierry Henry.
Pardew has won one promotion from the Championship with West Ham and will be in with a good chance of repeating that this season.
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Luke Varney from Crewe - £2.5 million
Chris Iwelumo from Colchester
Patrick McCarthy from Leicester £650,000
Yassin Moutaoukil from Chateauroux - £400,000
Jose Semedo from Sporting Lisbon
Martin Christensen from Herfolge Boldklub - £250,000
Chris Powell from Watford
Svetoslav Todorov from Portsmouth
Nicky Weaver from Manchester City
Dean Sinclair from Barnet £125,000
Izale McLeod from Franchise - £1.1 million
Zheng-Zhi from Shandong Luneng £2 million
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Whether their last season at the old ground will be anything like as good as last season remains to be seen but is highly doubtful. A superb first season at this level saw them come close to making the play offs but for next season much will depend on how their new look strike force plays.
Both Jamie Cureton and Chris Iwelumo, the main reason for their brilliant season, have moved on as has defender Wayne Brown. It could just be a struggle for them despite the signing of Teddy Sheringham.
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Clive Platt from Franchise - £350,000
Mark Yeates from Tottenham - £300,000
Teddy Sheringham from West Ham
Luke Guttridge from Leyton Orient
Danny Granville from Crystal Palace
Kevin Lisbie from Charlton
Bela Balogh from MTK Hungaria
Matthew Connolly from Arsenal (loan)
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The club are potentially set for a takeover in the near future, potentially more American money into the game, but for now money is still tight although Dowie has been able to make some serious changes to his squad ahead of the new season.
They ended 2006/07 in poor form, or they would have done but for the last day of the season 2-1 win at Burnley, a result that gave them the double over us last season.
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Demitrios Konstantopoulos from Hartlepool
Arjan de Zeeuw from Wigan
Ellery Cairo from Hertha Berlin
Donovan Simmonds from Charlton
Robbie Simpson from Cambridge City - £4,000
Leon Best from Southampton
Michael Hughes from Crystal Palace
Gary Borrowdale from Crystal Palace
Julian Gray from Birmingham
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I can't see them finishing anywhere near the top of the league and they could yet be facing a tough game at the wrong end of the table by the time we get to Selhurst Park on the last day of the season.
Somehow I don't expect the Legend to be around by then, Simon Jordan is unlikely to put up with things for much longer.
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Tony Craig from Millwall
Jeff Hughes from Lincoln
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The new man has been trying to bring in a big name signing and they were linked with Middlesbrough's former Brazilian World Cup star Juninho. It was all nothing more than a publicity stunt according to Juninho's representatives. That's not difficult to believe, they've been linked with other big names but their squad strengthening over the close season has been very much low key.
It could be another tough season for them, and they might be in need of winning the last game again to stay up.
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Dean Windass from Bradford City - £150,000
Bryan Hughes from Charlton
Richard Garcia from Colchester
Wayne Brown from Colchester - £450,000
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Too many players have been sold in recent years and Jim Magilton has had a difficult task since taking over from Long Ball Joe a year ago. He's brought back two of his former team mates to try and move them forward but it will be a difficult season for the Tractor Boys.
They will be very fortunate to finish the season in the top half of the league but I don't expect them to be in a battle down at the bottom.
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Pablo Counago from Malaga
Neil Alexander from Cardiff
Tommy Miller from RK Sunderland
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Nigel Worthington, brought in on a temporary basis towards the end of last season, didn't get the job and it went to Franchise boss Martin Allen although I'm not sure just how much say he has in playing matters with owner Milan Mandaric appearing to select the players.
Still, there's money available and Mandaric will do just what he did at Portsmouth and throw even more at it to try and get them promoted. I suspect it won't happen this season.
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Bruno N'Gotty from Birmingham
Jimmy Nielsen from Aalborg
Carl Cort from Wolves
Sergio Hellings from Apeldoom
Radostin Kishishev from Charlton
Ricky Sappleton from QPR
James Chambers from Watford
Jonathan Hayes from Reading
Hossein Kaibi from Perspolis
Shaun Newton from West Ham
Stephen Clemence from Birmingham - £1 million
DJ Campbell from Birmingham - £2.1 million
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This is a difficult one to consider. I do think they will finish the higher of the two East Anglian clubs but I don't think Norwich will be anywhere near the top of the league.
Peter Grant has a lot to prove. He didn't look to have made much improvement during last season but he'll be OK, they are not a club overkeen on sacking their managers. He might find himself under pressure from the fans at Carrow Road if things don't start too well, will they get their red cards out again?
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Jon Otsemobor from Crewe
Matthew Gilks from Rochdale
Jamie Cureton from Colchester - £750,000
Julien Brellier from Hearts
David Marshall from Celtic - £700,000
David Strihavka from Banik Ostrava
Darel Russell from Stoke
Jimmy Smith from Chelsea (loan)
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Ian Holloway talks a good game but he's not had much luck this summer and even missed out on Kevin Gallen who instead opted to go and play in League Two.
The manager is still popular with the Home Park crowd but that culd all change. Unless they make some improvements to the squad very quickly I can see them battling against relegation this season although I do expect them to avoid the drop.
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Peter Halmosi from Debrecen - £400,000
Krisztian Timar from Ferencvaros - £75,000
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Simpson is still strengthening his squad and has added Darren Carter just ahead of the first game, but whether Preston have another good season remains to be seen. Who will score the goals will be the big question. Will they ever get Neil Mellor fit for long enough?
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Billy Jones from Crewe
Karl Hawley from Carlisle
Kevin Nicholls from League One Leeds
Darren Carter from West Brom - £1.25 million
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They had a good run last spring to pull them out of trouble but there is going to have to be a big improvement if they are to avoid a similar sort of season.
I don't think there will be and it could be touch and go whether they stay up or not this time round.
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Chris Barker from Cardiff
Daniel Nardiello from Barnsley
John Curtis from Nottingham Forest
Ed de Goey from Stoke
Lee Camp from Derby - £300,000
Simon Walton from Charlton - £200,000
Michael Mancienne from Chelsea (loan)
Ben Sahar from Hapoel Tel Aviv (loan)
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They achieved mainly because of their strike force but sadly for them it has now left. Firstly Andy Keogh and then Billy Sharp and it is hard to believe they will be able to find themselves adequate replacements.
This is possibly the only season they will get in the Championship, avoiding relegation will be a major achievement.
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Kevan Hurst from Sheffield United - £200,000
Ezomo Iriekpen from Swansea
Paul Hayes from Barnsley
Martin Paterson from Stoke
Jonathan Forte from Sheffield United
Kelly Youga from Charlton (loan)
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They haven't, and neither do they have Neil Warnock who we learned this week is a legend between his own ears. Warnock's gone, and with no new job I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of him on television. He's been replaced by one of the most boring and miserable of characters, Bryan Robson. His appointment press conference only attracted one question from the gathered media.
They've got money to spend, and they've spent a lot of it. Despite Robson it could be a good season for them.
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Billy Sharp from Scunthorpe - £2 million
Gary Naysmith from Everton - £1 million
Lee Hendrie from Aston Villa
James Beattie from Everton - £4 million
David Carney from Sydney
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Laws though hadn't been able to strengthen his squad as he would have liked. A striker had been a priority and right on the eve of the season he's finally got himself one with the signing of Francis Jeffers from Blackburn.
Whether he scores goals for them is debatable but he should at least be guaranteed a noisy reception when Wednesday play at Burnley.
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Rob Burch from Tottenham
Lee Grant from Derby
Richard Hinds from Scunthorpe
Francis Jeffers from Blackburn
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Meanwhile it has meant a difficult time for George Burley this summer although he was finally able to get the money together to sign Marek Saganowski just as we thought we might be on the verge of signing him ourselves.
The Saints were in the play offs last season but I think they will be hard pushed to get there again.
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Marek Saganowski from Troyes - £680,000
Youssef Safri from Norwich
Adam Hammill from Liverpool (loan)
Gregory Vignal from Lens (loan)
Alan Bennett from Reading (loan)
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He has made two signings, strikers Jon Parkin and Richard Cresswell, and has already started his loan campaign with the captures of right back Stephen Wright, a player often linked with us, and Manchester United's Ryan Shawcross.
Loans seem to be the way forward for Pulis again, he's going to need a few more to continue the good form of last season.
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Jon Parkin from Hull - £275,000
Richard Cresswell from League One Leeds
Stephen Wright from RK Sunderland (loan)
Ryan Shawcross from Manchester United (loan)
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They didn't even threaten to stay up and they were the first side to be relegated last season, although they did get a few more points than they had done in their previous Premiership campaign.
Boothroyd has added to his squad and they should be strong, but I'm not so sure whether they will be going straight back up again this season, they might just have to settle for a play off place again at best.
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Mstt Jackson from Wigan
Mart Poom from Arsenal
Jobi McAnuff from Crystal Palace - £1.75 million
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Jason Koumas, Diomansy Kamara and Paul McShane have all said their goodbyes to the Hawthornes and whilst others such as Paul Robinson and Curtis Davies are keen to follow them.
The sales have allowed Tony Mowbray to bring in no fewer than nine new players and there's no doubt it will be a new look Baggies that take to the field at Burnley tomorrow for the first game of the season.
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Tininho from Beira Mar - £230,000
Shelton Martis from Hibs - £50,000
Craig Beattie from Celtic - £1.25 million
Felipe Teixeira from Academica Coimbre - £600,000
Leon Barnett from Luton - £2.5 million
Carl Hoefkens from Stoke - £750,000
James Morrison from Middlesbrough - £1.5 million
Pele from Southampton - £1 million
Bostjan Cesar from Marseille (loan)
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He's done it once when he was with Sunderland and one season in at Molineux he looks to be doing very well again. He's made some astute signings again this summer and with money available to add even more players this could be a very good season for Wolves.
How good is very good? Don't be surprised to see them heading for the Premiership next May.
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Matthew Jarvis from Gillingham
Darren Ward from Crystal Palace
Freddy Eastwood from Southend - £1.5 million
Stephen Elliott from RK Sunderland
Michael Gray from Blackburn
Graham Stack from Reading (loan)
