Ned Thomas : Cardiff City 2015/16 Championship preview

Here are my personal thoughts ahead of the new Championship season, which starts this weekend. All feedback would be welcome and would be good to hear your own thoughts.

WHAT’S HAPPENED OVER THE SUMMER?

At Cardiff City, it has been a much quieter summer in terms of transfers as over the last few seasons. Russell Slade received the backing of the club’s board following last season. His biggest boost, I would say, is that he has retained the services of Bruno Manga. Despite talk of moves to Wolves, Peter Whittingham and Joe Mason also look likely to stay.

The biggest outgoing, although not yet confirmed, looks likely to be long-serving goalkeeper and captain David Marshall. Other high-profile outgoings have been Adam Le Fondre on loan to Wolves and Tom Adeyemi to Leeds on loan.

What about new signings? Well there have only been three two date – Sammy Ameobi, Semi Ajayi and Jordan Blaise.

HOW HAS PRE-SEASON GONE?

If you disregard transfers, then you have to say it’s been a successful pre-season for Rusell Slade and Cardiff City. They were unbeaten in all of their matches, which ended with impressive wins over Premier League new boys Watford and Bournemouth.

Not many injuries have been picked up. Bruno Manga and Ben Turner are the only long-term casualties.

WHO’S NEW TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP?

QPR, Burnley and Hull were relegated from the Premier League and will be joined the teams promoted from League One – Bristol City, Preston and MK Dons.

MK Dons are the only team of the six who haven’t been at this level before, and it will be interesting to see how they adapt to the higher standard. Of course, we know the other five very well – particularly Bristol City and, in recent years, QPR, Hull and Preston.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED AT THE OTHER CHAMPIONSHIP CLUBS SINCE LAST SUMMER?

Since the end of last season, there have been a few managerial changes. Uwe Rosler replace Neil Redfearn at Leeds, Marinus Dijkhuizen replaced Mark Warburton at Brentford, Paul Clement replaced Steve McClaren at Derby, Guy Luzon replaced Bob Peeters at Charlton and Carlos Carvalhal came in for Stuart Gray at Sheffield Wednesday.

In terms of transfers, Middlesbrough have had a good summer. Boro have strengthened their team particularly with the acquisition of Stewart Downing from West Ham. They continue to be linked with Jordan Rhodes too.

Other key signings include Bobby Zamora to Brighton, Tom Ince to Derby, Chris Wood to Leeds, and Marco Matias to Sheff Wed. From a Wales point of view Jazz Richards has joined Fulham and Simon Church has gone to MK Dons.

CAN CARDIFF CITY BE PROMOTED? WILL WE BE RELEGATED?

There are a few on here who are optimistic about our chances, and far more who are pessimistic. The likelihood is that Cardiff City won’t be in contention for promotion. Other clubs have strengthened their squad a lot more than we have, and the bookies don’t fancy us at all.

Having said that, we were the favourites to win the league last season so never say never!

Although I’m not the most optimistic of fans under Slade, I can’t see us being relegated either. I believe there are at least three teams in this division who are worse than us – then again I’m sure Wigan fans said the same last season.

I think Middlesbrough, Derby and Wolves will go up with Rotherham, Huddersfield and Charlton going down. Cardiff City to finish 11th.

WHAT WILL OUR FANS EXPECT?

I think, with the vast majority of our fans, that all we expect is hard work. If we can see the team fighting and putting everything into it then we, as fans, can’t complain. It’s a lot easier to take defeats like that, rather than how we were losing at times last season.

I think its only a minority of our fans who expect promotion, and maybe we can do well without the pressure we had last season.

AM I EXCITED?

YES.  I know last season was painful to watch at times but it’s good to have Cardiff City back. If we start well, then hopefully more of the fans will come back and that can only help the team. It will be a good occasion on Saturday as Cardiff City kick off a season in BLUE for the first time since 2011.