2014/15 Predictions Thread

[Panda]

The footy season is upon us so it's time to predict the ups, downs, ins and outs of the various leagues.

PREMIER LEAGUE
Arsenal
Aston Villa
Burnley
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Hull City
Leicester City
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Queen's Park Rangers
Southampton
Stoke City
Sunderland
Swansea City
Tottenham Hotspur
West Bromwich Albion
West Ham United

CHAMPIONSHIP
Birmingham City
Blackburn Rovers
Blackpool
Bolton Wanderers
Bournemouth
Brentford
Brighton & Hove Albion
Cardiff City
Charlton Athletic
Derby County
Fulham
Huddersfield Town
Ipswich Town
Leeds United
Middlesbrough
Millwall
Norwich City
Nottingham Forest
Reading
Rotherham United
Sheffield Wednesday
Watford
Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton Wanderers

LEAGUE ONE
Barnsley
Bradford City
Bristol City
Chesterfield
Colchester United
Coventry City
Crawley Town
Crewe Alexandra
Doncaster Rovers
Fleetwood Town
Gillingham
Leyton Orient
Milton Keynes Dons
Notts County
Oldham Athletic
Peterborough United
Port Vale
Preston North End
Rochdale
Scunthorpe United
Sheffield United
Swindon Town
Walsall
Yeovil Town

LEAGUE TWO
Accrington Stanley
Burton Albion
Bury
Cambridge United
Carlisle United
Cheltenham Town
Dagenham & Redbridge
Exeter City
Hartlepool United
Luton Town
Mansfield Town
Morecambe
Newport County
Northampton Town
Oxford United
Plymouth Argyle
Portsmouth
Shrewsbury Town
Southend United
Stevenage
Tranmere Rovers
Wimbledon
Wycombe Wanderers
York City

CONFERENCE PREMIER
Aldershot Town
Alfreton Town
Altrincham
Barnet
Braintree Town
Bristol Rovers
Chester
Dartford
Dover Athletic
Eastleigh
Forest Green Rovers
Gateshead
Grimsby Town
Halifax Town
Kidderminster Harriers
Lincoln City
Macclesfield Town
Nuneaton Town
Southport
Telford United
Torquay United
Welling United
Woking
Wrexham

SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP
Aberdeen
Celtic
Dundee
Dundee United
Hamilton Academical
Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Kilmarnock
Motherwell
Partick Thistle
Ross County
St. Johnstone
St. Mirren

SCOTTISH CHAMPIONSHIP
Alloa Athletic
Cowdenbeath
Dumbarton
Falkirk
Heart of Midlothian
Hibernian
Livingston
Queen of the South
Raith Rovers
Rangers

SCOTTISH LEAGUE ONE
Airdrieonians
Ayr United
Brechin City
Dunfermline Athletic
Forfar Athletic
Greenock Morton
Peterhead
Stenhousemuir
Stirling Albion
Stranraer

SCOTTISH LEAGUE TWO
Albion Rovers
Annan Athletic
Arbroath
Berwick Rangers
Clyde
East Fife
East Stirlingshire
Elgin City
Montrose
Queen's Park

[Tom]

Been waiting for this  No replies yet though

Will do PL predictions in a few weeks, but here are my FL/Conference thoughts... Don't know all the Championship transfers so not done a full table but gone with those I know, used Shireblogger's excellent managerial thread, plus gut feeling as a guide.

CHAMPIONSHIP
Top 2
Fulham with Wigan Athletic and Wolves challenging.

Playoffs
Derby County
Middlesbrough
Norwich City
Nottingham Forest and Reading challenging but missing out. Ipswich and Blackburn may also challenge.

Mid-table
Brighton & Hove Albion - something like this anyway, don't expect them to challenge for playoffs.
Sheffield Wednesday (lower mid-table)
Watford
Cardiff City
Bournemouth - possibly in a bit of a relegation scrap but should be absolutely fine and finish around lower mid-table.

Battling relegation but staying up
Brentford
Millwall

Bottom 3 in no particular order (well alphetical!)
Blackpool
Leeds United - depending on how long Hockaday lasts. But even then they're going to struggle without McCormack.
Rotherham United

The other clubs, Birmingham, Bolton, Charlton and Huddersfield either I don't know or they'll be roughly where they were last
season!

LEAGUE ONE

Don't know that much about Gillingham's ins and outs but still surprised they let Akinfenwa go, and think they may be in trouble this season.

CONFERENCE PREMIER

Having had a reprieve Dartford would appear to have it all to do this season. Dover became the first team to finish 5th and win promotion (presume this is from Conf South). Whilst I think they're capable of pulling off the odd shock result they're going to find it very tough to stay up unless they improve their home form. The reprievals may well help them though. Welling have got to be aware of the difficulty Dartford had in their 2nd season after promotion.

[Shireblogger]

CHAMPIONSHIP

1. Fulham
2. Wigan
==========
3. Cardiff
4. Blackburn
5. Nottm For
6. Brighton
==========
7. Derby
....
21. Charlton
==========
22. Birmingham
23. Rotherham
24. Blackpool


LEAGUE ONE

1. Sheffield Utd
2. Peterborough
PO. Barnsley


LEAGUE TWO

1. Portsmouth
2. Oxford
3. Plymouth
PO. Southend


CONFERENCE

1. Grimsby
PO. Bristol Rovers

[Maximo Mark]

Championship:

Up: Wigan, Norwich
Play-offs: Derby, Watford, Forest, Boro
Challenging: Brighton, Cardiff, Reading, Bournemouth, Wolves, Brentford
Mid-table: Ipswich, Huddersfield, Blackburn, Bolton, Fulham
Surviving: Leeds, Charlton, Rotherham, Sheffield Wednesday
Relegated: Birmingham, Millwall, Blackpool

[Maximo Mark]

Interesting people saying Fulham for automatic, I know they've £23m worth of strikers and some great youth prospects (Woodrow, Dembele, Roberts) but I think their manager is ruining them.

[Razzle Dazzle]

CHAMPIONSHIP

1. Cardiff

2. Nottingham Forest
3. Wigan

4. Watford

5. Derby

6. Norwich City
7. Reading

8. Middlesbrough
9. Ipswich Town

10. Fulham
11. Blackburn Rovers
12. Brighton & Hove Albion
13. Bournemouth
14. Bolton Wanderers
15. Wolverhampton Wanderers
16. Millwall
17. Brentford
18. Leeds United
19. Charlton Athletic
20. Sheffield Wednesday
21. Huddersfield Town
22. Birmingham City
23. Blackpool
24. Rotherham United

[Razzle Dazzle]

Aug 8, 2014 18:11:19 GMT 1 Maximo Mark said:

Interesting people saying Fulham for automatic, I know they've £23m worth of strikers and some great youth prospects (Woodrow, Dembele, Roberts) but I think their manager is ruining them.

I agree, although I can see them getting into the playoff if they have a good season but I have wigan under rosler running cardiff close, third I have forest, asombalonga, burke and mancienne are particular good signings, I have always been a massive fan of matty fryatt aswel

other than that I have fulham, derby and norwich making the rest of the playoff

[Panda]

Like everyone else, I'll wait until that pesky window's closed to do the Premier League. I'm leaning towards Chelsea for the title, though.

Here's the other divisions. Most of it guesswork, some of it is based on stuff I've actually been paying attention to. As ever, I reserve the right to change these predictions at any time.

CHAMPIONSHIP
Promoted: Wigan, Derby
Playoffs: Fulham, Norwich, Forest, Blackburn
Relegated: Birmingham, Leeds, Blackpool

LEAGUE ONE
Promoted: Sheff Utd, Preston
Playoffs: Peterborough, MK Dons, Leyton Orient, Bristol City
Relegated: Rochdale, Swindon, Coventry, Colchester

LEAGUE TWO
Promoted: Portsmouth, Plymouth, Bury
Playoffs: Luton, Southend, Newport, Burton
Relegated: Carlisle, Accrington

CONFERENCE
Promoted: Kidderminster
Playoffs: Grimsby, Eastleigh, Bristol Rovers, Barnet
Relegated: Dartford, Macclesfield, Welling, Nuneaton

SCOTTISH PREMIERSHIP
2nd: Dundee United
Playoff: Hamilton
Relegated: St. Mirren

NORTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION 1
Champions: West Auckland
Top 5: Shildon, Consett, Ashington, Jarrow Roofing
Relegated: Crook, Newton Aycliffe, Penrith

NORTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION 2
Promoted: Seaham, Washington, Ryhope
Relegated: Alnwick, Esh Winning

WEARSIDE LEAGUE
Champions: Stockton
Promoted: Redcar Athletic

TEESSIDE LEAGUE
Champions: Redcar Newmarket

[Razzle Dazzle]

Aug 8, 2014 18:11:19 GMT 1 Maximo Mark said:

Interesting people saying Fulham for automatic, I know they've £23m worth of strikers and some great youth prospects (Woodrow, Dembele, Roberts) but I think their manager is ruining them.

Until todays game I wasnt aware how weak their starting lineup looks! Where have all their players gone

[Maximo Mark]

That's what I mean. Stockdale (+ now Stekelenberg!), Reither, Karagounis, Duff, Hangeland, Hughes, Riise, Sidwell, Briggs, Richardson, Kasami, Dejagah all gone + loanees of Holtby + Kvist, replaced by McCormack and a load of players from abroad. Mid-table fodder.

[Shireblogger]

^^^ If I'd done my research properly, there's no way I would have tipped Fulham to win the League. Because I hadn't read anything to the contrary, I assumed they'd kept most of their squad together.

[Earl Purple]

From what I saw yesterday I think the relegated teams from the Championship are likely to be Blackpool, Birmingham and Huddersfield, that they'll go down with a wimper, all 3 of them.

I can't say at this point who will go up.

[frag]

1 Chelsea (strenghtened in the places they needed to. the team to beat)
2 Man City (very close to buying the league again)
3 Arsenal (if we get the mythical "top DM" and any centre back, 1st)
4 Man Utd
5 Liverpool
6 Everton
7 Spurs
8 Newcastle
9 Stoke
10 Swansea
11 Crystal Palace*
12 Hull
13 Sunderland
14 West Ham*
15 Southampton
16 Burnley
17 Aston Villa
18 West Brom
19 Leicester
20 QPR

FA Cup: Man Utd
League Cup: Man City
European Cup: Real Madrid
Sack race: Lambert

* - revised Palace and West Ham downwards because of managerial changes and reading about hammers' problems in other threads.

[Razzle Dazzle]

1. Chelsea
2. Man City
3. Arsenal
4. Man u
5. Liverpool
6. Tottenham
7. Everton
8. Newcastle
9. Stoke
10. Hull
11. Southampton
12. West Ham
13. Sunderland
14. Swansea
15. QPR
16. Crystal Palace
17. Aston Villa
18. West Brom
19. Burnley
20. Leicester

[Shireblogger]

1. Man City
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Man Utd
======
5. Liverpool
6. Everton
7. Tottenham
======
8. QPR
9. Sunderland
10. Newcastle
11. Southampton
12. Hull
13. A Villa
14. Leicester
15. Stoke
16. Swansea
17. West Ham
=====
18. WBA
19. Burnley
20. C Palace

[Maximo Mark]

1 Chelsea
2 Arsenal
3 Man City
4 Liverpool
5 Man Utd
6 Spurs
7 Everton
8 Newcastle
9 Stoke

Might as well pick the rest out of a hat!

10 Southampton
11 Swansea
12 West Ham
13 QPR
14 Hull
15 Villa
16 Palace
17 Sunderland
18 Leciester
19 Burnley
20 West Brom

[Mic1812]

I dont know that much about football as i do music but i do think the team i support WBA will most likely drop this time. They were lucky last time. They have this knack of playing ok up till xmas and then throw in the towell.

[Tom]

Aug 10, 2014 8:02:19 GMT 1 Shireblogger said:

^^^ If I'd done my research properly, there's no way I would have tipped Fulham to win the League. Because I hadn't read anything to the contrary, I assumed they'd kept most of their squad together.

Looks like you spoke on my behalf without knowing it. I didn't know who they had lost and had forgotten that Sidwell had gone. Patrick Roberts is a great prospect but I wasn't expecting him to be playing week in week out when he's only 17. Their team has been more inexperienced than I realised.

On another note, having said I would do my Prem predictions before I won't be doing them now... From memory at the start of the season think I had Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd Top 4 with Liverpool 5th. Palace and Burnley bottom 2, with probably Palace bottom, but didn't have a clue about the other team going down or the other European places (assuming they were dependant on league position rather than cups).

[o]

I missed this, but would have picked Carlisle and Exeter to go down from league 2, and my tip to do well in the Conf was Eastleigh, think I mentioned those 3 facts in the football thread

[Razzle Dazzle]

I think my top 7 and bottom 5 are looking good in the premiership, the rest could finish anywhere