Sky Bet Championship 2016-17 Thread

by Fernando Sat 16 Jul 2016, 9:24 pm

With Sky announcing games and reaching page 20 limit figured open a new one.

FRI 5TH AUGUST

Fulham 19:45 Newcastle United
Championship, Sky Sports 1 HD (19:00)
SUN 7TH AUGUST

Queens Park Rangers 12:00 Leeds United
Championship, Sky Sports 1 HD (11:30)
Sheffield Wednesday 16:30 Aston Villa
Championship, Sky Sports 1 HD (16:15)
FRI 12TH AUGUST

Brighton and Hove Albion 19:45 Nottingham Forest
Championship, Sky Sports 1 HD (19:00)
SAT 13TH AUGUST

Norwich City 17:30 Sheffield Wednesday
Championship, Sky Sports 1 HD (17:15)
SAT 20TH AUGUST

Derby County 17:30 Aston Villa
Championship, Sky Sports 1 HD (17:15)
SUN 21ST AUGUST

Ipswich Town 12:00 Norwich City
Championship, Sky Sports 2 HD (11:30)
FRI 26TH AUGUST

Burton Albion 19:45 Derby County
Championship, Sky Sports 1 HD (19:00)
SAT 27TH AUGUST

Newcastle United 17:30 Brighton and Hove Albion
Championship, Sky Sports 1 HD (17:15)
FRI 9TH SEPTEMBER

Reading 20:00 Ipswich Town
Championship, Sky Sports 1 HD (19:00)

by Fernando Thu 21 Jul 2016, 3:53 pm

Wolves have been bought by Fosun International Group worth 7.7bn on the markets. Well that's going to put them in promotion hunt.

They invest in things like Cirque De Solais & Thomas Cook. Made £900m last year & around £24.5m a day...

Also now have linked to Cristiano Ronaldo's agent and linked with Benfica,Marseille & Monaco players...

by Guest Thu 21 Jul 2016, 4:39 pm

Can have all the money in the world, it's about buying players with championship experience & who have the right characteristics. Guess they will just throw a team together now, of players associated with these agents, but can't see them challenging for automatic places.

by westisbest Thu 21 Jul 2016, 5:29 pm

Gonna be an interesting season in championship.

Newcastle will be favourites.
Would hope we will be up there pushing for a quick return.

Sheff wedd, Brighton, Derby, Norwich,

All involved.

Champs Newcastle

Tough to say who the other 2 will be.

It's such a strange league that it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Newcastle don't win in.

Looking forward to it now.

Defiantly think Villa will be up there come may.

by GSC Fri 22 Jul 2016, 6:45 pm

Suspect Brighton will come back to midtable, Wednesday around the bottom of the playoff positions again.

Newcastle should win it comfortably, preseason odds reflect that. Norwich a playoff side, Villa feel like a mid table side to me. Not sure it all adds up there.

Picking a dark horse is tricky, I could see Brentford going well potentially. Like to see Burton do well.

As for us, mid table would be progress. Unless players like Britt and Osorn have big seasons, that's probably the ceiling.

by westisbest Fri 22 Jul 2016, 7:20 pm

If it clicks for us, which early days it is so far, then hopefully we will be round play off places at least.

Keeping Ayew is vital as I think he could score a lot of goals.

We shall see.

It's been coming for a while, now that we are here it's actually quite exciting, being in unfamiliar territory.

by GSC Fri 22 Jul 2016, 7:32 pm

The Championship is great fun Westi.

by NickisBHAFC Fri 22 Jul 2016, 8:33 pm

Agree, the league looks too strong for us to be up there again.

Fulham and Leeds will be surprise teams.

Think Forest and Ipswich could be 2 massive teams that struggle.

by GSC Wed 27 Jul 2016, 9:40 am

Hard to believe the season starts next week. Creeps up on me every year.

by westisbest Wed 27 Jul 2016, 10:25 am

I'm actually pretty excited, obviously i would rather still be in the prem.

Going into the unknown will be interesting.

Some good battles ahead.

Not sure who will go up, 3 to go down, for me.

Barnsley
Rotherham
Burton.

by Guest Wed 27 Jul 2016, 10:44 am

To be honest, I'm pretty happy we got relegated. An exciting project Rafa has taken on, we've removed some of the foreign deadwood & with a core of British talent like Lascelles, Darlow, Shelvey, Colback, Aarons, Ritchie, Gayle & Armstrong, I'm feeling quite optimistic about our future & how we would fare, if we got back to the PL.

by Geordie Wed 27 Jul 2016, 10:50 am

Im not totally confident with the favourite tags but I can understand why.

Many of our squad are unproven or have shown massive inconsistencies over the last

Perez for example needs to show his ability on a much more regular basis.
Mitrovic needs to erase that wreckless streak (whilst still keeping up his aggression and passion)
Laschelles for me could be outstanding and is captaincy material...but he's young.

I could list the whole squad really...but...if Rafa can get them together and make them click then I think we'll be difficult to beat and have a better depth to our squad than last season.

Just need to get rid of Le Sulk (Sissoko)

by westisbest Wed 27 Jul 2016, 12:05 pm

Think Ritchie is a hell of a signing.

Quality player and also has that championship experience.
With a winning team to.

by Geordie Wed 27 Jul 2016, 12:50 pm

Yes he is a good signing that's for sure.

We have some "potentially" very good players...but until we see them going this season that's all they are..."potential" .

Rafa needs to get them realising that very quickly..as this is not an easy league.

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Wed 27 Jul 2016, 9:26 pm

Like all I am looking forward to this season - we haven't really done much business in or out really, not surprising as we have a quality championship squad, and really are in no position to sell the very few players we have that are PL quality (had to sell Redmond due to contract, but Brady we are in a position to slap a 20m price tag on for example)

Excited to see how some of our youngsters make the step up - by all accounts James Maddison is an excellent prospect, Josh Murphy too. His brother Jacob and Carlton Morris may get a shot (likely to be out on loan), and this young kid Canos we've signed from Liverpool seems a player

Still a striker short - hopefully get McCormack or Assombalonga in - proven goalscorer at this level is what we need (already have Jerome who will be good for at least 15 goals this year)

Predictions -

Winners - Newcastle
Runners up - Derby
Playoffs - Norwich, Brentford, Brighton and QPR

Relegation - Notts Forest, Burton and Rotherham

by westisbest Wed 27 Jul 2016, 10:32 pm

Id be very surprised if QPR make the play offs, likewise Forest to go down.

Id still fancy us to be up there.

by Guest Sat 30 Jul 2016, 8:17 am

Kenny Jackett sacked last night. Walter Zenga is the new head coach

by GSC Sat 30 Jul 2016, 10:03 am

Somewhat inevitable, given the new regimes targetted new signing and Jackett's lack of fame as a manager.

Good manager though, he'll land on his feet in this division.

As for Wolves, you'd guess it'd end up in a Leeds like scenario, but Watford proved you can defy popular convention and go up.

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 30 Jul 2016, 10:23 am

A heck of a gamble of a managerial appointment that - Zenga hardly had a stellar record recently...

Would've thought Bruce made much more sense

by westisbest Sat 30 Jul 2016, 4:54 pm

Walter, what's the score? Walter Walter what's the score?

Ah great night.

by TopoftheChops Sun 31 Jul 2016, 9:27 pm

Ipswich will surprise a few teams, we unfortunately have zero wingers so will inevitably use strikers such as sears on the wing. Look out for teddy bishop this season, he is quality

by Guest Fri 05 Aug 2016, 6:52 pm

Newcastle team to play Fulham: Sels; Janmaat, Hanley, Lascelles, Dummett; Anita, Hayden, Colback, Ritchie; Perez, Gayle

Ok side, not amazing. I'd expect Aarons, Diame, Mitrovic & Shelvey to make that side in the next few weeks

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Fri 05 Aug 2016, 8:11 pm

Where is Darlow?

by Guest Fri 05 Aug 2016, 8:18 pm

Benched for our £5m Sels. Not happy with the line up, Anita on the right is awful & having two holding midfielders against this opposition is terrible. Shelvey would be controlling this game. As I said, I expect this side to change massively over the next few weeks.

by GSC Fri 05 Aug 2016, 8:23 pm

Don't get as much time on the ball in this league, Newcastle getting a wake up call so far. Need to get used to this, everyone will be targetting them this season

by Guest Fri 05 Aug 2016, 8:35 pm

Fulham 1-0 Newcastle - Benitez has got the selection wrong tonight, way too cautious

As for it being a wake up call, half the side has championship experience. It's more a mixture of rustiness of a new side & Rafa's negative approach, especially with Anita, Colback & Hayden.

by GSC Fri 05 Aug 2016, 8:44 pm

Championship experience is one thing, the whole side having the right mind set is another. Rafa has 15 minutes to change that.

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Fri 05 Aug 2016, 8:51 pm

Is this more of a sign to why Gayle never got a huge chance in the Prem? Hes a lovely finisher, but I think he might need a partner up top with him

by Guest Fri 05 Aug 2016, 8:54 pm

Not really going to worry about what happens tonight, side will massively evolve over the weeks ahead. Gayle needs Mitrovic alongside him, for sure.

by GSC Fri 05 Aug 2016, 9:19 pm

Looking for the leaders in this Newcastle team to stand up. This isn't a league you can hide in.

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Fri 05 Aug 2016, 9:34 pm

Thats another should be pen missed

by GSC Fri 05 Aug 2016, 10:04 pm

By no means is it close to terminal for Newcastle. But they're going to get everyone's best efforts this season. Need to discover some spine to go with their talent.

by Geordie Fri 05 Aug 2016, 10:17 pm

Lots of debutants in that side tonight. The team needs to gel.

We created chances...but need to get better quickly

Perez is a massive concern for me. For all his "potential" and "ability" hes too easily brushed off the ball and his first touch is not often as it should be. He just continued as he left off last season! Poor

Mitrovic was a huge miss in this game. A big physical guy as the focal point.

Colback was poor but I was very impressed with Hayden. Looks like he could become a very cultured defensive midfield.

And we have Diame to come in. We missed a real powerhouse driving force in the midfield. Diame will provide that.

Oh and once again...Dummet is not great....

But despite that...im confident once we get some familiarity etc in the side...we'll be very difficult to beat and should confirm our favorites tag. (Hope that doesn't come back to bite me on the a$$)

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Sat 06 Aug 2016, 3:14 pm

Jacob Murphy has scored a screamer for Nodge...Olly has cum

by Guest Sat 06 Aug 2016, 3:18 pm

Blackburn seeing the effects of having no Hanley picard

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Sat 06 Aug 2016, 3:26 pm

Wessi has scored, Olly will be screaming for days. And now its 3, CamJam back at his level

by GSC Sat 06 Aug 2016, 3:52 pm

Well, that half happened.

We look more than slightly fragile in midfield, 3 CMs but none of them defensively minded. Kasami and Cohen to come still. Oliver Burke looks a real player though

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 06 Aug 2016, 4:07 pm

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Wessi has scored, Olly will be screaming for days. And now its 3, CamJam back at his level

Genuine fear the season has peaked already Laugh

by Guest Sat 06 Aug 2016, 4:24 pm

Hopefully Norwich can take the 'favourite' tag now, not sure why our new squad warranted the tag in the first place

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Sat 06 Aug 2016, 4:27 pm

It warranted it cos youve spent £40m!

by GSC Sat 06 Aug 2016, 4:30 pm

And the CL winning manager thing. Granted Villa do too.

by Guest Sat 06 Aug 2016, 4:33 pm

Tv deal raised the prices massively on our existing players, we've spent £40m, but actually made profit. Clark, Hanley, Sels, Gamez haven't improved the squad, we spent £40m & people immediately thought, 'they've spent £40m, so they must be favourites'. Give me Norwich's squad stability & experience everyday of the week. You're the won who claimed we would walk the title, I didn't, because I actually saw who we were buying & whether or not it actually improved us.

As for the CL manager thing, playing Anita as a winger & playing two defensive players in the name of Colback & Hayden, against the side who finished 20th & lost McCormack & Dembele, is not promising. Even I'm now reconsidering whether Benitez is the right man for the Championship.

by GSC Sat 06 Aug 2016, 4:38 pm

Bit early to be calling the season John Wink

by GSC Sat 06 Aug 2016, 4:41 pm

God i love Britt

by Guest Sat 06 Aug 2016, 4:42 pm

coming from the person who posted post-match last night, the words 'by no means terminal' in a sentence. Thought we'd played 30 odd games with that assessment & had no chance of making the playoffs

by GSC Sat 06 Aug 2016, 4:48 pm

Eh? That means the future is still wide open no?

by GSC Sat 06 Aug 2016, 4:51 pm

Still be an upset if you didn't go up. If Redknapps QPR side can get the job done, then Newcastle can iron out their kinks in short order.

by GSC Sat 06 Aug 2016, 5:00 pm

Well that game happened.

We might not be any better than last year but at least itll be entertaining this time.

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Sat 06 Aug 2016, 5:05 pm

John wrote:Tv deal raised the prices massively on our existing players, we've spent £40m, but actually made profit. Clark, Hanley, Sels, Gamez haven't improved the squad, we spent £40m & people immediately thought, 'they've spent £40m, so they must be favourites'. Give me Norwich's squad stability & experience everyday of the week. You're the won who claimed we would walk the title, I didn't, because I actually saw who we were buying & whether or not it actually improved us.

As for the CL manager thing, playing Anita as a winger & playing two defensive players in the name of Colback & Hayden, against the side who finished 20th & lost McCormack & Dembele, is not promising. Even I'm now reconsidering whether Benitez is the right man for the Championship.

I think if you dont walk the title its an indictment of Benitez and may even suggest hes lost the plot completely

by Guest Sat 06 Aug 2016, 5:08 pm

One game in and John is already whining. Shock!

Newcastle will go up. Chill, the night is young.

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