This Sporting Life: The New Boys

Forget Man Utd, City, and Chelsea...here come the New Boys of the English Premier League 

by Graeme Jamieson

Top Canary Paul Lambert

This weekend marks the commencement of the English Premier League, a series of missiles floating through space accompanied by the heave and moan of the terracin’ and the neighborhood surrounding. The great cheer of the working man, the pitch of the crowd, an arc on the pitch. Manchester United. New Boys Young, Jones, and De Gea. Chelsea, Andre Bish-Bosh. City, Aguero, Christ.
 

Down the bottom, every year, last three get re-le-ga-ted. Bad news. Travesty, eh? West Ham went donm. Balls. So did Birmingham, a dour team with a nice man manager, and Blackpool, the romance of last September. Replacing come two of the inaugural English Premier League members, Queens Park Rangers and Norwich City – while through the play offs, Swansea City A.F.C. arrive in the top flight as not a new Sunderland but the first Welsh side in the competition’s history.

Despite coming up as champions, Q.P.R. could be on a hiding to nothing. The so-called “richest club in world football” (owners include Bernie Ecclestone) is up for sale, and that can prove to be unsettling for any team (just ask Liverpool), but maybe Tony Fernandes (a lifelong West Ham man) sees value in the Rs. Regardless, fans at Loftus Road are joyously welcoming back big time football for the first time in 15 years. In a 125-year existence, the team that should be AKA the Nomads,- - they’ve called more parks home than any other professional club in England -- were once of Wormwood Scrubs, for years played on fields, farms, greens, even gun clubs. This summer, manager Neil Warnock surprisingly failed to splash in the market with any great impression, picking up slim on confidence and injury-prone Kieron Dyer-plus-mistake-prone Danny Gabbidon; D.J. Campbell (Blackpool) and Jay Bothroyd (Cardiff) look better acquisitions. But they will need one or two reinforcements before the end of the August transfer window, or a team built around the mercurial Moroccan, Adel Taarabt, will be sent back to whence they came. Let’s just hope for bicycle kicks.
 

QPR - How long can they last?

Of the three promoted teams, Norwich are best equipped to stay up. The Canaries, on the back of two successive promotions characterized by adventurousness, will start automatically and force East Anglian glory. The well run club have an ace up their sleeve, too, in manager Paul Lambert. As a player, he accrued some 40 caps for Scotland. One of few Britons to successfully forge a career on the continent, Lambert won the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund in ‘97, and went on to become the lynch pin in a glittering Celtic team. A hit too in his first English managerial position at Livingston (sort of) and Wycombe Wanderers, Lambert’s rise through the ranks is impressive. At Celtic, he played under Martin O’Neil, and if there are lazy similarities portrayed upon their approach to the game, the marked parallel is their teams roll up their sleeves and give it a go. If Norwich can hold on to Lambert, his Carrow Road outfit can go from strength to strength. On the pitch, this team wearing yellow and green used to have Colman’s Mustard on their shirts. This season, look for the shoulders of Grant Holt and new signings Morison, Vaughan, and Pilkington, as well as loanees de Laet (Manchester United) and Naughton (Tottenham Hotspur).
 

Swansea City are an intriguing side managed by Brendan Rodgers, a bright young Northern Irish coach who blossomed near the heels of the “Special One”. His team are also supported with the kind of fervor that can make Liberty Stadium a fortress. Away, they’ll take a few ton kings, but like Lambert at Norwich, Rodgers must be there at the end of the season for the Swans to stay up. Long shot. On their travels, the Wales' finest boast a clutch defense to build from, and, in former Watford front man Danny Graham, almost the best striker outside the big league last season. They start with a visit to billionaires of Man City, very probably the eventual champions.

Last season, the three relegated sides set a precedent for patience with the men in charge. Certainly, Neil Warnock at Q.P.R. is most in risk of losing his job. Their tenth manager in seven years will know he's got 15 games to get 20 points, then, if new money man Tony Fernandes is unimpressed, he'll bring in Gianfranco Zola. The one board stout of loyalty for their breadwinner, are the yellow & greens, NC.