Having ended their spiral down the divisions, Leeds came to the conclusion some of their long serving personnel were no longer needed. Surprisingly one of which was their tops scorer for the last 3 seasons; Jermaine Beckford, who was released to sign for EPL side Everton. Also the likes of Rui Marques and Casper Ankergren were set free.

Alternatively, Leeds were busy in the market signing new deals to bring in the liked of former Man City keeper Kasper Schmeichel, ex-Swindon striker Billy Paynter, former Derby right back and skipper Paul Connolly, ex-Swansea left back Fede Bessone, former Charlton winger Lloyd Sam, and former Ipswich player Alex Bruce.

The Peacocks also finalised a permanent deal with Neill Collins (formerly on loan from Preston) and renewed Sanchez Watt’s loan deal from Arsenal to complete their summer signing spree.

Their friendly win over Wolves (last Saturday) indicates the team has gelled together well and is ready to make a serious assault on the top of the table in a bid to rejoin the top tier Leeds have been missing for sometime now.

The Rams simply are not good enough to take advantage of the ’1st home game’ syndrome like Watford did to Norwich last night. However, coach Nigel Clough is well known to build his best performances on a -basically- defensive approach.

However, the key defensive duo of Shaun Barker and Miles Addison are sidelined with respective injuries, along with Stephen Pearson and Steve Davies. This will -once again- tilt the scales towards the home side who will enjoy a dazzling home crowd support and are generally the side with less pressure on them, having just been promoted and thus not expected -by many- to actually earn a promotion ticket (we see value in backing Leeds for a play-offs finish though).

absence particularly of Barker and Addison leaves them a bit short in defense where they would be vulnerable to leak in goals especially with the crowd and pressure that will come in their visit to Elland Road.

Leeds United will want to gift a victory to their fans as a result of their tremendous support over the past 6 seasons of turmoil, and expect the fans to give the visitors a hard time, as Leeds should go on to secure their first 3 points of the season.

The very opposite can be said about Derby who have been trying for two seasons to just escape relegation, rather than push for promotion, and with bitter-rivals Nottingham Forest already favourites to earn their ticket upstairs, it is only heaping more pressure on Derby to try and do the same, but they certainly do not have the means for it.

Confidently backing Leeds to win comfortably.

The following names have been added to the Sky Blues squad:

Lee Carsley (Birmingham), Gary McSheffrey (Birmingham, last o-loan to Leeds), Lukas Jutkiewicz (Everton, last on-loan to Motherwell), Richard Keogh (Carlisle), Clive Platt (Colchester), Stephen O’Halloran (Aston Villa, last on-loan to Swansea) and Roy O’Donovan (Sunderland, last on-loan to Hartlepool).

Obviously some are (or have been) good enough to play in the Premiership before (Carsley, McSheffrey and Keogh) and could have a great impact on the Coventry new campaign.

The newly relegated side of Pompey had to offload a number of their highest earners to compensate for the reduced income. they still are under administration, and cannot bring any big names, so they have limited themselves to young and relatively unknowns.

Out went Tal Ben Haim, David James, Nadir Belhadj, Papa Bouba Diop, Jamie O’Hara and Aruna Dindane to name a few. They currently have only 14 players in their senior squad. These are Jamie Ashdown (Goalie), Aaron Mokoena, Matt Ritchie, Marc Wilson, Hayden Mullins, Danny Webber, David Nugent, Michael Brown, John Utaka, Tommy Smith, Richard Hughes, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Ibrahima Sonko (on loan from Stoke) and Liam O’Brien (Goalie), while the satus of Hermann Hreidarsson and veteran Nwankwo Kanu are unknown.

Still a few quality players remain at Fratton Park, but how settled they are and how long they will be still in are some of the questions that need to be addressed.

Manager Steve Cotterill thus remains adamant his objective of the season is to avoid relegation as he stated: “It’s almost an impossible situation but I’ve got to make it work,” adding “I have only seven players who are good enough for the Championship, eight if you include Ibrahima Sonko who I’ve just taken from Stoke.

“I need another three players for a proper team. The kids are not up to it yet. They will be going out on loan so I can replace them and bring the squad up to the 20 we have been allowed by the Football League under special dispensation.”

That pretty much sums it all up. Portsmouth are nowhere near a complete squad and are not ready to fight for a top position this season, and thus will probably be found needing in the opening game at Ricoh Arena. Home win.

Burnley of course have just surrendered their top tier status after spending just one season up, and will want to get back up there before things ‘cool down’ for them.

The Clarets coach Brian Laws promises a ‘big season’ ahead, but he has hardly brought in any notable new faces. He has quite a few loaners returning to Turf Moor though.

Former Hull (and Spurs) player Dean Marney joins the club, as well as Chris Iwelumo (Wolves), Ross Wallace (Preston) and Lee Grant (Sheffield Wednesday), so while The Clarets may still ‘dare to dream’ it could be that it’s nothing more than a dream to go back up, as they appear more reliant on the support of their crowd in home games (average of 17,500) and a history that says they are one of only 3 sides that had won all 4 divisions titles in England (the other two being Wolves and Preston).

Forest finished 3rd last term, and thus are top candidates (along with Boro, who didn’t even come close to promotion last season) to lift the trophy. It still is wide open to debate as to why the play-offs system is implemented to begin with, as the 6th positioned squad after 46 games gets as much a chance to get promoted as the side finishing 3rd, but that’s another story altogether.

Also backed by a rich history, Nottingham appear to have been totally inactive in the summer transfer market. Coach Billy Davies only brought in Ryan Bertrand on loan from Chelsea. Bertrand has been a Chelsea player since 2006, but has never played a game for the Blues and has been on-loan since (to Bournemouth, Oldham, Norwich and Reading respectively), so we deduce that Davies in content with his somewhat limited squad (23 players in total) with his most noteable aces being Nathan Tyson, Paul Earnshaw, Chris Cohen and Radoslaw Majewski.

The squad however has enough experience at this level (having already spent 2 seasons in the Championship) and if they can get off to a better start than last season’s they should very well justified favourites to win the title and get automatic promotion.

Backing the visitors not to lose (+0.25 A.H.)

Bristol are a strong home side, and last season’s last 6 games for them yielded 4-2-0, with the 2 draws coming against Newcastle (eventual champions) and Nottingham Forest (finished 3rd). They have kept their valuable asset of Nicky Maynard as their main hit-man (albeit releasing as many as 9 players including Hartley in a bid to trim their squad down to about 24 players), and will be looking to start the season well with a good home win over Millwall.

Coppell also brought in Cisse (from Reading), D. Stewart (from QPR) and Adomah (from Barnet) to add a bit of talent to the mix, but the addition of former Bolton right back Nicky Hunt (who spent loan spells at Brum and Derby in the last 3 seasons) is probably his best signing of the summer (apart from James who -at this level- must be a cracking deal for The Robins).

The downside though is that Carey, Hunt, Cisse and Maynard are all on the injuries list for now, so it could affect the overall performance quality of the squad for the opening few games, but still they should be able to keep their home record of last season.

The visitors are a good side that has just been promoted. It usually is the case that you don’t do too well in your 1st season up. Finishing in the middle of the table is what looks more likely to be Millwall’s destiny. Their current squad members lack the proper experience of the Championship, having not brought in any new players.

Admittedly not the best bet available for today, but still a decent one. Home win.