Season Preview 2024 – Part 3 (2024)

08/06/2024 04:00 AM

LUTON TOWN

INS: Shandon Baptiste (Brentford, Free), Reuell Walters (Arsenal, Free)

OUTS: Ross Barkley (Aston Villa, Undisclosed), Ryan Giles (Hull City, Undisclosed), Luke Berry (Charlton Athletic, Free), Gabriel Osho (Auxerre, Free), Admiral Muskwe, Fred Onyedinma, Dan Potts, Elliot Thorpe, Dion Pereira (Dagenham & Redbridge, Season Loan), Issa Kaboré (Manchester City, End of Loan), Albert Sambi Lokonga (Arsenal, End of Loan)

OUR EX-HATTERS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Rob Edwards (Manager), Richie Kyle (Assistant Manager), Dion Pereira, Andros Townsend

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Kaminski
Hashioka Mengi/Andersen Burke Doughty
Ogbene Clark Nakamba Chong
Adebayo Morris

BLUFFER’S GUIDE:Twelve months on, here we are again. Perhaps inevitably. A side promoted through the play-offs unexpectedly was going to struggle; “giving it a good go and going down anyway” always a plausible outcome. There will have been times no doubt when the novelty of being in the big league again waned a bit, not least in the second half of a season in which, almost unnoticed by anyone not paying acute attention, the Hatters only won once from the start of February onwards, an 18 game run which saw 14 defeats. Injuries bit hard, and anyone who remembers our campaigns in 1999/2000 or 2006/07 will remember the sense of bitterness, of unfairness that whatever slim chance an underprepared squad had was battered by a vindictive spate of injuries.

The new challenge for Rob Edwards will come in the burden of expectation which he will realistically be operating under for perhaps the first time in his career. Both of the Watford seasons mentioned above were followed by campaigns that stared well before collapsing badly as chickens came home to roost and the support discovered that the “at least we’ll win a few now” thing only took you so far. The Championship doesn’t get any easier just because you’ve spent a year out of it.

They look a decent side, obviously. But a decent side that have lost a few players and have a few patchy bits. “There or thereabouts”. Preferably thereabouts, obvs. Booo Luton, etc.

MIDDLESBROUGH

INS: Aidan Morris (Columbus Crew, £3,200,000), Delano Burgzorg (Mainz 05, Undisclosed), Luke Ayling (Leeds United, Free)

OUTS: Bryant Bilongo (Bristol Rovers, Undisclosed), Hayden Coulson (Blackpool, Undisclosed), Jamie Jones (Salford City, Free), Paddy McNair (San Diego, Free), Liam Roberts (Millwall, Free), Zach Hemming (Leyton Orient, Season Loan), Sammy Silvera (Portsmouth, Season Loan), Sam Greenwood (Leeds United, End of Loan), Lewis O’Brien (Nottingham Forest, End of Loan), Luke Thomas (Leicester City, End of Loan)

OUR EX-BORO: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: None

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Dieng
Ayling Van den Berg Lenihan Engel
Hackney Howson
Jones Azaz McGree
Latte Lath

VERDICT: I thought Boro would go up last season.

They didn’t you’ll have noticed. Boro fans would cite a bad year with injuries but nonetheless. Injuries happen. They never really looked in with a shout despite a good run in October and a strong finish that might have bundled them into the play-offs after all if the season had been a bit longer.

I used the word “sensible” in last year’s preview though, and I’d stand by that. Michael Carrick remains at the helm, there’s wily old buggers where you’d want wily old buggers, young players where you want a bit of oomph and increasing strength in depth. Finn Azaz hasn’t entirely convinced since his arrival but obviously extrapolating from the ridiculous goal we saw at Home Park on New Year’s Day counts for far more than the half-a-season or so that Boro witnessed having being recalled by Villa and sold on four days later. Luke Ayling is the sort of signing that any side would welcome irrespective of strength in depth at right back, you can’t beat a buccaneering pirate, whilst there’s talk at the time of writing of financially compromised Hull selling on Ryan Giles having triggered an obligation to buy as part of last season’s loan from Luton. That leaves a side without too many glaring weaknesses.

A lot rests on the shoulders of Latte Lath who arrived a year ago and picked up speed as the season ended. There’s perhaps no senior competition for his place, although youngster James Coburn dragged us all over the place at the Vic last season. All in all, automatic candidates with a prevailing wind. Play offs at worst.

MILLWALL

INS: Lukas Jensen (Lincoln City, Undisclosed), Macaulay Langstaff (Notts County, Undisclosed). Liam Roberts (Middlesbrough, Free), Japhet Tanganga (Tottenham Hotspur, Free)

OUTS: Alex Mitchell (Charlton Athletic, Undisclosed), Bartosz Bialkowski, Kamarl Grant (Bromley, Season Loan), Allan Campbell (Luton Town, End of Loan), Ryan Longman (Hull City, End of Loan), Brooke Norton-Cuffy (Arsenal, End of Loan), Michael Obafemi (Burnley, End of Loan)

OUR EX-LIONS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: None

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Jensen
Leonard Tanganga Cooper Bryan
Esse Honeyman Saville Watmore
Flemming Bradshaw

VERDICT:The single most significant moment of Millwall’s summer was the tragic passing of goalkeeper Matija Sarkic in Montenegro in June. Difficult to write anything that isn’t trite – most Hornets will only have seen him play, if at all, during the Lions’ 1-0 win at the Den in March (see link above), but those of us old enough to remember will know the impact that such a devastating thing can have on a squad. Sarkic had “only” been with the Lions for a season, but Jimmy Davis hadn’t played a competitive game for us at the time of his fatal car accident at the start of 2003/04.

And yet the impact on the club was palpable, even from the stands. There was a sense of horror and disbelief in the immediate aftermath that permeated the atmosphere long beyond the start of the season. Even, now “Gangsta’s Paradise” provokes echoes of that event.

Neil Harris has a job on his hands in focusing attention on matters in hand, but you fancy he’s not a bad man for the job. His own managerial career has had highs and lows but he’s playing on home turf here and has the personality to mobilise the “us against them” nature of the Millwall crowd. I fancied the Lions to do far better than they did last season, but fuelled by five consecutive wins at the end of the last campaign and a decent summer recruitment-wise they will be very awkward customers at worst.

NORWICH CITY

INS: Ben Chrisene (Aston Villa, Undisclosed), José Cordoba (Levski Sofia, Undisclosed)

OUTS: Gabriel Sara (Galatasaray, £15,300,000), Danny Batth (Blackburn Rovers, Free), Dimitris Giannoulis (Augsburg, Free), Ben Gibson (Stoke City, Free), Sam McCallum (Sheffield United, Free), Jon McCracken (Dundee, Free), Sydney van Hooijdonk (Bologna, End of Loan)

OUR EX-CANARIES: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Adian Manning

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Gunn
Stacey Hanley Córdoba Chrisene
Núñez McLean Sainz
Fassnacht Rowe
Sargent

VERDICT: For a while, it seemed as if our fates were tied together. Norwich were taking the same path as us, but more so… we’d get relegated, Norwich would getmore relegated. We got promoted, but trailing in City’s wake. Even in 2022/23 when we slumped into mid-table pathetic-ness, unable to capitalise on a weak division, City finished two places, one point and a couple of grumbles behind us.

Last season was a bit of an aberration. Whatever its frustrations I’d rank it higher than the season before… Val was doing some good things until he wasn’t, Tom breathed some life into the side at the end of the season, there were clear failings but not the sense of missed opportunity. And this despite Norwich, who on the evidence of our two games against them really weren’t very good at all, sneaking into the play-offs. A sort of aberration, a glitch in the space/time continuum confounding the opprobrium of then head coach David Wagner. As an aside, I still don’t accept that Ashley Barnes’ opener at Carrow Road crossed the line, goal-line technology my arse.

Despite this aberration it is no great surprise to see circ*mstances conspiring to leave Norwich in a similar state to ourselves… needing to cut cloth, moderating expectations, selling players off. Writing a fortnight before the season starts there is cautious optimism that offers haven’t come in for any of Josh Sargent, Jonathan Rowe or in particular Gabriel Sara (edit: oops), but no expectation that at least one of them wouldn’t go if the write offers came in. The squad feels like the one that Ray Lewington worked with at Watford… a patched up combination of stars who haven’t got around to leaving, ageing stalwarts past their best and a few kids filling in the gaps.

Norwich shouldn’t struggle unless circ*mstances conspire against them. But they won’t be at the business end of the table either. Fourteenth. Ish.