jimbo

us promotion? I feel it may. The centre of defence was by far the worst area of the team last season and the one area that virtually everyone seemed to agree was in need of strengthening. Now just 6 days from the start of a new season in which the transfer window closes untill January at the end of August we are looking at the prospect of going into the new season with the same central defence that was so woefull in the Premiership. What is going on? yes, we will be up against lesser opposition but their are still plenty of decent players in the Championship who will exploit defensive weaknesses. Fleming nor the Doc fill me with confidence and Charlton is too short to play CB due to the long ball merchants that inhabit this league. Maybe i am wrong but i would not be surprised if in a couple of months time letters are flooding in to the Evening News, callers are queing up on Canary Call, and these message boards are full of fans asking the question "why was the centre of defence not strengthened?" when it was blantantly clear from last season that it was not up to scratch. We will score loads of goals but will we keep enough out to keep us ahead of our rivals Palace, Wolves, Leeds and Southampton? cos make no mistake it is going to be very tough. I am concerned. Your thoughts?

As the guy mentioned above Sheffield Utd are going to be a threat. They already had a squad that was a play off contender and have added more quality in the likes of Ifill and Webber. Their squad still has Jagielka and Tonge but what they have missed over the last couple of seasons is a striker who can score 20 goals a season. They have in Webber and Shipperley (remember him with Connolly at Wimbledon?) not one but two strikers now capable of scoring 20 goals a season. Add to those 2 the skill and pace of Ifill and they could well challenge for automatic promotion. In a way they could well be like us a couple of seasons ago when before Hux, Crouch and Harper arrived we were a team that was challenging for play offs, then the additon of those 3 players turned us into title challengers and eventual winners. Shipperley, Webber and Ifill could have the same affect on Sheff utd. Potentially a big threat. Do''nt forget Leeds. Last season was a transition period for the club, players and fans alike. Now acclimatised to the rigours of division one and with a decent striker force in Healy, Hulse (6 goals in 13 appearances for them at the end of last season) and that swine Blake (20 goals for Burnley) they have a potent stiker force. Plus the fact that Bakke is now fit and raring to go they too are a big threat to add to the likes of Wolves and Palace. I can see as many as 5 or 6 teams competing for the TWO automatic promotion places. It is going to be IMO the hardest division one for many seasons, certainly harder than when we won the title. Any person who spouts talk along the lines "were going to walk this league" should be shot down immediately. Talk of this nature should not be tolerated, as a guy mentioned above barring a major injury crisis the biggest threat to NCFC''s chances of gaining promotion is a complacent, over confident attitude amongst the fans and players.

Everyone is going on about this guy, but i have never heard of him or took any notice of him up untill now. They thing that worries me is that on a Planet Football article about him, Tony Pulis says he is prone to lapses in concentration..... When we played Stoke at home and Green made that excellent save, the one player in the Stoke defence who caught my eye was John Halls. Hux was kept quiet that day. Although that may have been the fact that Halls had long hair that caught my attention as well.

I have it on good authority that Worthy will not sell Ashton for less than 8 million. So if no one can pay that he will be here next season.

I know this might sound outrageous, but do you think it was in Francis best interests for us to be relegated? and if so, knowing this would he deliberately play badly?

What makes you so sure? He has''nt come out and said his staying has he? Which says to me that if the right club comes in with a decent enough offer he might go.

I personally feel that the club must do everything in its power to hold onto Dean Ashton. Let Green and Francis go if they want to, as they imo are replaceable. You could get a decent keeper in to replace Green (such as Stuart Taylor who is available on a free from Arsenal and who is a very good keeper from what i have seen of him) and Francis could be replaced by a player such as Reo Coker or Sidwell. Ashton for me however is irreplaceable. If we sold him for lets say £6 million, where would we get another striker of his quality from who would play in the Championship? You could get in a guy who will score goals but how many tall strikers are there around in the target man mould who also have skill on the ball? If we sell Ashton we may struggle to get back up to the Premiership which would mean that the club would lose out on millions. Ok, lets be positive now and say that if we did sell Ashton we still won promotion back to the Premiership. We then have the dilema during next summer on where to find a striker who is going to get us 15 odd goals in a season at the level. All clubs are looking for these players and some like Charlton have never found one. Ashtons record of 7 goals in 16 premiership games indicates that he would get into double figures if given a whole season in the Premiership. If you have a striker on board that can get you alot of goals in the premiership then you stand a good chance of staying up provided other areas of the team are adequate. We have in Dean Ashton not only the man who can get us the goals to back to the Premiership, but if and when we get there the goals to keep us there. We must do everything in our power to hold onto him for at  least another 2 seasons. To sell him either now, or next summer if we are promoted is potencial suicide in terms of the clubs long held plans and ambition to become an establised Premier league club. Your thoughts please.

I am not absolutely sure about this but i beleive that Denmark are not in the strongest position in their qualifying group. If they lose to or draw with Albania this may make automatic qualification very difficult for Denmark, maybe the outcome of that game will have a bearing on Helvegs decision?

Well from what Worthy has said about his a/b lists it sounds to me as if they were drawn up several weeks before we were relegated. I doubt it very much that Ifill was even on his list. The guy is good i think when he is fit but he gets injured alot i think. I would like to see Ritchie Partridge and Bojan Djordjic here personally. Both traditional, pacy, tricky wingers, one plays on the left and the other on the right. People go on about Kris Commons but the guy is only 5 6", Partrdige is not much taller but he has a better pedigree. You dont get put in Liverpools Champions league squad if your rubbish.

and so is available on a free. We were linked with him last summer and he claimed we wanted to sign him along  with Palace. Pacey, left winger, worth a look. Also Wolves have decided not to sign Mickel Bischoff. He might be worth a look as well although the fact Wolves did''nt want him may not be a good sign, although Wolves did''nt want Eddy.....

at Watford according to sky sports planet football. If Svensson leaves (which i hope he doesn''t) Helguson would make an ideal replacement, not particualarly tall but very strong in the air, caused Chelsea alot of problems in the fa cup a couple of years back. They will probably want about a million for him so it will depend on whether we get some decent funds for when or if we sell Francis or Green. What do you think of HH as a replacement for Sven if he leaves?

Ifill is always crocked, decent player though when fit.

Well Chopra has been offered a 1 year extension to his contract and i think he is going to take it, i would have fancied us to sign him if he was on a bozzy. Partridge can is a traditional, pacey, tricky winger who can play on the left and right. He would be a good signing imo as although he hasnt played much for Liverpool that don''t keep a player in their squad for the length of time they have (he is 25) if he was''nt any good. Would be affordable too i reckon and give us pace on the right as well as cover for Hux should he get injured, as we don''t have any other pacey, tricky players to replace him if he gets crocked. Rohan Ricketts is another one who is available and well worth a look. Also we were linked with a Hertha Berlin Hungarian, midfielder called Pal Dardai ealier in the season, He is a Gary Holt style work horse and is the anchor of the Hungarian midfield. He fallen out of favour at Berlin but i can''t see Worthy signing him as it is not his style and we are in the Championship. The links with him are on Planet Football under the German footy section if anyone is interested in knowing more.

Yes, i heard he had been released on the radio today and thought "would he be a good signing?". He is Swedish and Nige likes them, but his wages may be a problem although having said that he probably signed for Blackburn from a scandinavian club so his wages may be affordable. I think i read on Planet Football that some Championship clubs were looking at him anyway.

I would like to thank you for the contributions that you have made to NCFC (although each of you has contributed to different degrees) and wish all three of you the very best for the future.

No way. I am afraid i have not seen anything from Hendo to convince me that he will make it.

are so wrong. If Harry stays at Saints they will be very strong. If Dowie and AJ stay at Palace they will be very strong. Wolves will be very strong and today i see that Camara has gone back there. Now if Hoddle can sweet talk him in to staying for a season and it is an if they will be awesome in the Championship. I have been speculating that it is very possbile that the Championship next season will be the toughest it has been for a few years and that the race for automatic promotion will be as tight as the race to avoid the drop has been this season in the prem. The race for promotion could well go to the wire and will involve us, Wolves, Palace and Soton all vying for the top 2 places. For me it is impossible to start making predictions on how we will fair next season though at the moment. There too many uncertainties at the moment regarding players and managers coming and going at our club and other clubs for anyone to be able to make a sensible accurate prediction on how we and other teams will perform next season in the Championship. Just imagine this as a worst case scenario. Over the next 2 and half months we lose Green, Helveg, Francis, Svennsson and Ashton. These 5 players leaving is realistic. If we lose these five i will not be confident of us coming straight back up Hux or not.

Yep, spot on. It worries me too that alot of people do view going straight back up as a forgone conclusion. If Palace hold onto Dowie and AJ as Simon Jordan thinks they will according to an interview that i heard tonight, and Harry and Jim stay at Soton it is going to make our task of gaining auto promotion very hard. Sure Soton will lose a few players but Harry can wheel and deal as he did with Pompey and they will be a big threat imo. Then there is Wolves who have secured Hoddle on a year on running contract. There record under Hoddle i am pretty sure is just 2 defeats in 26 games. Yes, they have drawn alot of games but if Hoddle can bring a few players in during the summer as i am sure he will they will be able to i feel turn alot of those draws into wins. They are gonna be a hell of a threat and our rivalry with them will intensify 2 fold i feel next season. What these "we will walk the Championship" buffoons need reminding is that there are only 2 automatic promotion places and after that if you get in the play offs, anyone could win that. With Wolves, Palace and Soton to deal with let alone 3 from Ippo, Derby, Preston and Wham, going up automatically is going to be far from easy. Heres hoping that we can hold onto Dean as he will be for me the one thing that separates us from the aforementioned teams, if we lose him the task of getting auto promotion is going to be even harder than if we had him. I would''nt be surprised if we only made the play offs. Also pray that Harry and Jim leave Soton and that Dowie leaves Palace along with AJ, but the trouble is i can''t think where Dowie will go now, now that Man City have given Pearce the job. Your thoughts?

Hmmm, if he leaves he will go back to Sweden and play for Elfsborg. But i am not sure he will leave. We need to hold onto him imo, if Dean stays and he gets injured we don''t have another big striker to replace him.

Yep. i agree, the saints defence is very slow and i can see Johnson winning at least one penalty.

I can''t load it up. Anyone else having problems?

That Crouch is a real menace and extremely difficult to defend against. I would not rule out Soton beating Man U with him playing for them. All you have to do is boot it up to him and 8 times out of 10 he will win the ball and knock it down to a Saints player. Even Rio must struggle against him in the air.

Well i unlike most people do''nt hate Man U. I hate Chelsea and Arsenal, but after witnessing their knob end fans yesterday i now dislike them just as i do Chelsea and Arsenal. Just walking to ground there were lots of Manu fans giving it the big un and being unpleasent.

Michael Chopra will be joining us on a bozzy from Newcastle in the summer. Worthington will want him to form a partnership with Ashton that can get us the goals to fire us back to the Premiership. That is my strongest hunch for new signings. I also have hunches about Jan Kristiansen and Ritchie Partridge and a very slight one about John Halls. Remember these as i reckon at least two of the above mentioned players will be at city come the start of next season.

Yeah! well said. Where is he now the fool?