Thats a fair shout mate! I work with alot of Rams and trees, and they think we will win the league this year too.
then followed by a comment along the lines of, with all that money you should do anyway!!

They not so confident about theiir own teams tho!

I agree with your top 3 teams, I also think the 2 promoted sides won't be far away either!

good luck to the Forest mate, afetyr August 20th tho!

Good comment - it's not always good to be favourites, although I'm very pleased with the financial backing and the squad assembled. Some very good championship players with a few premiership players thrown in. We are still a bit lightweight up front, but I'm sure Sven will rectify this - the owners will spend what it takes - I just hope this new team gels quickly!

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Leicester / West Ham to be there or thereabouts.

Forest aren't that close at the moment in my opinion - they need a few signings.

Birmingham and Cardiff will also provide a challenge.

Watch out for Donny with their Barnes & Sharp combo.

I think West Ham, especially as they still have Green, Parker and Cole may argue about who has the strongest squad. Birmingham probably are 3rd on paper. The disadvantage Leicester may have is bedding and but I think the season is long enough that they'll iron out the kinks and should go up.

Agree with your top three but suspect WHU will be champions.

Below that - three from about 10. I would nominate Brighton as my dark horses for the top 6.

comment by revspencer (U1885) posted 40 minutes ago

It's not nout the players, its about how they play as a team - if I were a Leciester supporter I would be very worried.

We have seen Sven's track record, he had the best players in the Country at his disposal with England, and yet he still couldn;t get them to play as a team and win anything.
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What about our Schteve then?

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"We have seen Sven's track record"

When he can throw money at a team he wins the league - Lazio.

He has had so much money to spend, and has signed some great players. Hargreaves was never going to play in this league but Fernandes is a real coup.

"Forest on the other hand, have virtually the same sqaud as last season"

Not true.

Lost some key players, 9 departures in total (including the captain and biggest goal threat) replaced with 3 good players.

Still waiting for the Forest striker, without a £3m man I can't see you finishing top 6.

Tell us the "key" players we've lost Dan

To say that Forest have virtually the same squad as last season is simply not true as it stands this morning. We do not have a goal-scorer. Last year, we had Earnie, one of the greatest ever scorers at this level. We also had the most prolific scorer in the SPL in the last decade for the latter stages. We now go into the season with Joe Garner as our ony recognised goal-scorer at any level. This is worrying. Every other club with ambitions of pushing for promotion this year have good strikers: Westham & Leicester have strikers who have played for England; Cardiff, Ipswich, Bristol City, Southampton, Reading, Doncaster, Leeds & Brighton have better strikers than we do. Doncaster have a better striker than we do and they're being tipped to go down. Goerge Boeteng is not that good. I hate to break it to people, but he's old, and hasn't been any good for a while now, hence, playing in the Greek league after being shown the door at Hull. They've notably replaced him with the younger, fitter Paul Mckenna. Chris Cohen is better than Boeteng, but he's going to be playing left back. The last time he plied his trade at left back, he was sacked after 5 games. Andy Reid is slow, lacks fitness and won't track back, meaning that our left side will be more exposed than ever. Morgan and Chambers lack pace and will be torn to shreds. They defend too deeply and this upsets the balance of the team. While I don't think we'll go down, if we get a couple of injuries we might. There are certainly no reasons that I can see that gives us hope of a top half finish.

It's not nout the players, its about how they play as a team - if I were a Leciester supporter I would be very worried.

We have seen Sven's track record, he had the best players in the Country at his disposal with England, and yet he still couldn;t get them to play as a team and win anything.

The point is, if Leciester don't gel as a team, they are in trouble - they've hada massive influx of players, and Sven is taking a huge gamble.

and once th money stops or it doesn't go according to plan, the Sven will be off

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If youreally knew anything about Svens track record (instead of just going along with the English media and everything they tell you) then you'd know he assembled a squad of players at Man City in a very short space of time, no where near the time he's had with us this summer, took in a huge amount of new faces and then took them to their highest placed finish in the premier league at that time.

I'm just worried about Davedarkly.

Stay away from tall buildings and medicine cabinets mate !

Don't worry about me mate, I have enough to occupy my life with 5 kids to raise. I'm just saying it as I see it.

I think Davedarkly has it almost spot on. Clubs all around us have superior firepower and many have sensibly strengthened in the close season.

On a cynical note, have a 'smoke and mirrors' feel about this Miller 'bid'.

Glad to hear it Dave.

Agree with you RedExe - I'm pretty certain the consensus in these parts is "please stay put Ishmael"

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RedExe7 and Davedarkly is this the age old trick of pretending you think we are going to lose so people dont have strong banter with us but really you think we will do well. i.e go under the radar and take the pressure of us?

If so, well played, if not - I sincerely hope I dont sit next to at the games. I think I would ask to be ejected from the stadium than listen to that negativity.

Its the worse I have heard this pre season. I am not overly confident but that is just too much.

I BELIEVE for 90 minutes every week.

Please please tell me your joking?

Dessy, read my post. Maybe my wording was unwisely chosen.
I was referring to the point concerning our firepower. I said earlier that I was happy with the players brought in. Reid and Greening are class and Boateng solid.
As for the sitting beside me, due to geographical location unlikely. Move to Nottingham had been on the cards, but fell through!
Like yourself, I always believe we will win. Always have done!

RedExe7 apologies I did miss read it and to be honest it wasnt really aimed at you more at DaveDarkly.

We have to believe or we get on the players back. I have watched many a game of football, from West Ham, Tottenham and I have to say Forest fans during a game (not all of them) but enough moan more than any other club... Sometimes I moan of course but when I watched Millwall 2 seasons ago they were 2 nil down and you would never have known it. The fans sang away and then were joking about certain players. If we dont have some humour football will be the death of us and its the most painful thing to be a football fan.

I would say West Ham are favourites. They still have a Premiership squad and a Premiership manager. If they lose Green, Parker and Cole (which is likely), I think they'll still have good enough players and will use the money to replace them.

Leicester have bought some good players for this level. It does feel a bit like Sven is playing Championship Manager and signing anyone he's ever heard of. But can you blame him with the money he's been given? They should finish top 4 easily.

The teams that come up are bound to be dangerous and Southampton and Brighton have already been mentioned. Both will get decent crowds this season and I can see both finishing top10 minimum.

I can't see Birmingham getting promoted this season. Too many important players have left and more will leave by end of August. Hughton will find it much harder than with Newcastle I'm sure.

Cardiff and Reading will compete again. Cardiff will be a different side with new players and a new manager but in Earnshaw and Miller they two out and out goal scorers so will be dangerous. Expect both to be in or close to top 6.

This division is always wide open and anyone can go up or down. As for Forest we've lost some important players in Earnshaw, McKenna and Boyd. And some useful squad players in Adebola, Bennett, Wilson (although the latter two barely played last season). I'm fairly pleased with the signings of Reid, Greening and Boateng but buying three midfielders is not enough to see us promoted. We need another CB, a LB and a striker. Without those three signings I can't see beyond a top 10 finish which would be a huge disapointment for the club and particularly McClaren - who already sounds frustrated. Did he know what he was getting himself in to when he took the job. Was he promised more money than he's now got? Or is he just frustrated that we can't attract the right players?

'Davedarkly' actually summed it up when he put
'every club with ambition', our only ambition IMO is to try and not get into a relegation scrap, and let the AP save as much money for ND as possible. If we finish in the top 10 (assuming no new faces), I will be very surprised, I doubt we'll lose that many games, excellent keeper, decent defence, strong midfield, just can't see us scoring enough goals to stay in contention, similar problem to last season really.

According to most betting sites Leicester and West Ham are both favorites. Forest and Birmingham are second favorites.

Don't get me wrong guys, I'm not negative. I have criticism, sure, but I'd like to think that it's constructive. I believe that we have certain weaknesses that could be exploited this season, but that doesn't mean that I expect us to lose. We struggled to score goals last year, and we don't have an Earnie or a Boyd in our ranks now. I'm hopeful that our delivery with the ball will be better with the addition of playmakers Reid and Greening, but I'm not convinced we have the personel to put these chances away. Our shape and balance when we concede possession concerned me last year aswell, and I'm not sure the players we have brought in will address this. Again I'm hopeful, that Steve Mclaren has a fresh insight and new strategy that makes us a lot harder to counter against and I'm also hopeful that we'll see emerging stars come through the ranks and fill some of the positions we have available, but for me, none of this adds up to a promotion push.