Premiership Sleepers Predictions
Can Derby, Sunderland, Birmingham or another small side Surprise?
Often one of the Premier League's lesser clubs has a very impressive season, but can Wigan, Fulham or any of the promoted sides succeed, or will Reading shine again?
Reading happy with more of the same
Last year Reading were the club who shocked everyone with their eighth place finish and final total of 55 points. With second season syndrome looming over the Royals, a lack of signings and the loss of influential midfielder Steve Sidwell to Chelsea on a free transfer, it will be equally impressive if they can repeat their performance this year. Thankfully their biggest weapon, manager Steve Coppell, remains quietly confident and while the progress of other sides over the summer may mean that the don’t finish quite as high this time around they will almost certainly continue to produce surprising results, such as the one on the first weekend of the season at Old Trafford, and hold a respectable league position.
Survival not enough for all three promoted sides
Before the start of the last season a number of commentators tipped Watford to be the ultimate potential sleeper side of the year but the loss of only a few important individuals, such as Marlon King and Ashley Young, cost them not only their hopes of an impressive campaign, but also their Premiership existence. With their compact squad, shortage of big name transfers and length of absence from the Premiership, Derby appear to be in a similar situation this season. To survive, and have any chance of being this year’s Reading, the Rams will have to hope that key men such as Barnes, Oakley and Earnshaw stay fit and perform to the best of their abilities.
Whilst a high placed finish for Derby may be more of a dream than an expectation and Birmingham boss Steve Bruce appears to have spent all he was allowed just to try and keep his side up, the other team freshly elevated from the Championship do not seem to regard themselves as a sleeper at all. Before their opening match against Tottenham, Sunderland manager Roy Keane stated that he would not be satisfied with a seventeenth place finish. While this may simply have been Keane sending a message to his players, the Sunderland board’s £20m plus outlay on new signings signals the fact that many associated with the club would probably be disappointed if they found themselves in a basement battle come next April.
Fulham and Wigan the only other contenders
From the large amounts being spent by almost all Premiership clubs during the transfer window, including Manchester City and West Ham, who finished fourteenth and fifteenth respectively last year, it appears that all but a few teams have set their sights on the top half of the table and that there will be some extremely disappointed people and some very big questions to answer at a number of clubs at the end of the season.
As a result, the only remaining teams who would be shock top ten finishers are Fulham and Wigan. Of the two, the Latics appear to be the outside bet with untested coach in Chris Hutchings at the helm and apparently neither the money nor the quality to make a big climb up the league. Fulham, by contrast, have seeming invested their greater funds wisely on players such as David Healy and Steven Davis and also have the possible return of Jimmy Bullard to look forward to. From his playing years at Wimbledon and his time in charge of Northern Ireland new manager Lawrie Sanchez virtually has a PhD in succeeding as an underdog and, as long as he can keep his side free of injuries, results from Craven Cottage may start raising more than a few eyebrows around the footballing world.
