The 3 promoted teams

[Pompeyblueboy]

Anyone going to have a guess as to where they'll finish?

I'm a bit worried about us. We haven't really made any fancy signings. I reckon we'll struggle hopefully just above bottom 3.

I fancy Oxford as dark horses. They've made some good signings. I reckon they'll finish midtable.

Don't know much about Derby accept would be expected to do well. It's all guesswork thou.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I like what Oxford have done with their signings, signed some good players although perhaps lack a bit of championship experience amongst them

 

[BarrieOwl]

I like what Oxford have done with their signings, signed some good players although perhaps lack a bit of championship experience amongst them

Loads of Championship experience in Vaulks and Phillips.

 

[Bar Carousel]

It looks like we are playing the long game and waiting for targets to become available later in the window. In the short term we appear extremely weak going in to the opening fixtures.

Hopeful that Kamara could still be a possibility once Norwich have assessed him in pre-season.

We have no aspiration to challenge the top spots so points lost with a weakened squad early on seem a necessary evil to ensure we have the strongest squad possible by the close of the window. Our opening fixtures were tough to begin with, but with a squad still to be fully assembled it looks even tougher and you would have to think we'll finish August in the bottom three.

It's the midfield we need quality the most. That said, Bishop will be a big loss and its now a gamble as to how Yengi and Sorenson adapt to this level up top.

Realistically we'll be hovering in and around the bottom third all season i'd imagine.

 

[SF_]

Can't see any troubling the top half but also not certainties to go down.

 

[BarrieOwl]

Going off what I've read online I think Pompey and Oxford will be ok, they may flirt with the drop but won't go down but I feel Derby maybe undercooked and will replace Warne before the Christmas decorations are down.

 

[91SPP]

I suspect that we haven’t done as much business as we would’ve liked, but we have made significant improvements to our midfield which was our weak link last season. Ozoh and Goudmijn are extremely high calibre players, in particular.

I think there is still some relatively considerable business to come from ourselves, certainly in the centre forward and goalkeeper positions. We had agreed a fee for Zetterstrom and he’s had a medical, but it seems his side are reluctant to let him go whilst they’re in Europe which has seemingly caused us to start looking elsewhere.

We have no ambition of a promotion push or even a top half finish. I suspect we will get to a position by the end of the window where we are competitive and on any given occasion can cause problems. I think there’s about 12/14 clubs in the same boat so there’s every chance we end up in a relegation battle.

 

[Pompeyblueboy]

I suspect that we haven’t done as much business as we would’ve liked, but we have made significant improvements to our midfield which was our weak link last season. Ozoh and Goudmijn are extremely high calibre players, in particular.

I think there is still some relatively considerable business to come from ourselves, certainly in the centre forward and goalkeeper positions. We had agreed a fee for Zetterstrom and he’s had a medical, but it seems his side are reluctant to let him go whilst they’re in Europe which has seemingly caused us to start looking elsewhere.

We have no ambition of a promotion push or even a top half finish. I suspect we will get to a position by the end of the window where we are competitive and on any given occasion can cause problems. I think there’s about 12/14 clubs in the same boat so there’s every chance we end up in a relegation battle.

I know nothing is won or lost in September but we are in for a long season. Burnley next then Sheff Utd

 

[91SPP]

I know nothing is won or lost in September but we are in for a long season. Burnley next then Sheff Utd

Objectively, going into the season I thought Portsmouth have/had the weakest squad in the league and I expected a much better summer window than you put together. Don't get me wrong, some clubs will spend a lot of money and get players that fit their system badly or just sign bad players on good money. I just felt Portsmouth under-estimated the scale of the challenge/opportunity and the size of the investment was roughly a quarter of what I anticipated you would do.

We didn't invest too much either, certainly not close to what I anticipated, but we did have a top 6 net spend in the league. The signings of Phillips and Yates would've been costly on wages, particularly Phillips who is supposedly on £60k plus a week at Liverpool. Yates was probably one of Swansea's highest earners. Ozoh, Chirewa are highly rated Premier League prospects who had multiple games for their teams last season and would've likely cost a decent loan fee. Zetterstrom and Goudmijn were our two big permanent investments and they've both hit the ground ridiculously well.

Oxford have surprised me, they've been very good largely with the team they had last season. I thought it was smart to integrate the new players in slowly, it keeps a relative familiarity between the starting players while they blood in the new, probable better players in time. They did finish last season in decent form, especially the three play-off games, where they were the underdog in both and came out on top. I never expected them to be as competitive as they are, the win against Stoke is hugely impressive given the investment into their side. They now have a chance to put the final nail in their old manager's coffin at Bristol City and I'd be more surprised if they didn't win that game than if they did.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Having seen a quarter of the league in person now, this season feels as competitive as any, if not more so.

Luton played Portsmouth in their first home game back at this level, so maybe not comparing apples with apples, but they didn't come across as a genuine bottom three side.

In fact all of the teams I've seen have felt pretty even.

In terms of investments, bar Fulham and maybe Forest, I don't recall so much spending at this level as this summer. Presumably there's been a good bump in TV money this season, but more seems to be filtering down from above.

 

[HoxxySoxxyOxxy]

5 games in, normally I'd wait for 10 games, but I'm young enough for this to be a new experience.
I am absolutely buzzing with our start. Been competitive in every game, outclassed once and even then only lost to a suicidal backpass.
Buckingham might be a genius. We've still got work to do on the ball and game by game we are improving, but our work off the ball has been immense from the off.

I see we're a single goal above Derby, who've also started the season competitively, but poor Pompey have been hit hard by injuries and yet to win. Every point is vital so I hope this doesn't hamper them too much - I want them to stay up.

9 points out of 15 from Norwich, Coventry, Blackburn, Preston & Stoke - given we are tipped as relegation favourites that's brilliant.

Next is Bristol, Burnley, Luton, Pompey, West Brom - is 6 points too much to ask??