Shifty's Season Preview Part 2 of This is going to take a while

Birmingham City

If their Championship campaign last season is anything to go by, then Birmingham will probably be one of the most binary teams in the league this season (as any computer geek will tell you, binary is a computing language consisting entirely of 1s and 0s): expect Alex Mcleish's side to be dour and unambitious yet resolute and organised. Up top, their front line will consist of sometimes 2, but more likely 1, from James Mcfadden, Kevin Phillips, new signing Christan Benitez, Garry O'Connor, Cameron Jerome and Marcus Bent: with the exception of the ageing Phillips, none of these men have ever been prolific in the Premier League, and with a lack of mobility and quality in the midfield, staffed by the likes of Lee Carsley, Damien Johnson and Barry Ferguson, they are unlikely to get the quality of service required to change that. Still, defensively they were very strong last season, and new keeper Joe Hart will be eager to claim a place at the 2010 World Cup, should the english qualify.

Verdict: A lot will depend on how the plethora of new centre-backs at St Andrews (Scott Dann, Roger Johnson and Geovanny Espinoza, along with left-back Gregory Vignal) adapt to the Premier League. If they quickly settle in, and the Brummies keep a few clean sheets, then they look best placed of the newly-promoted sides to stay up. If one can find them above evens to stay up, then take it

Blackburn Rovers
It's debatable whether Blackburn avoided relegation last season because of miracle-working by Sam Allardyce, or simply due to the fact that the teams who finished below them were simply awful. This writer is tempted to disagree with Allardyce and conclude that it was the latter. With this in mind, Rovers have seeked to strengthen an already solid rearguard with the permanent signing of Frenchman Gael Givet, as well as adding Dane Lars Jacobsen at right-back. The retention of left-back cum midfielder Stephen Warnock is crucial to Rovers hopes this season. Young French midfielder Stephen N'Znozi has also featured prominently in pre-season, and will be looking to compete with the likes of David Dunn and Stephen Reid to fill the Tugay-shaped hole in the Rovers midfield. Much will be expected of the mercurial Morten Gamst Pedersen on the left wing this season. Up front, Allardyce has inevitably lost Roque Santa Cruz to man citeh-al-magoo, and has reinvested a sizeable chunk of his transfer fee in Croatian forward Nikola Kalinic, for a figure that varies between £6 million and £12 million, depending on which newspaper you read, with Franco di Santo also joining on loan from CSKA London, thereby negating the need for the comedy show that was Christoper Samba in attack.

Verdict: Rovers didn't lose many games last season under Allardyce: expect this to continue, as Rovers contine to play something of a "pragmatic" style. Incidentally, they've been bottom of the league's disciplinary table for 4 of the last 5 seasons, and, as already mentioned in previous posts, this writer would advise you put money on them to "achieve" this again, especially given that Kiwi Ryan Nelsen, who may or may not strangle sheep in his spare time, has been retained. If they can find a regular source of goals, then mid-table should beckon.


Next update to follow at lunchtime