Tuesday, 26 May 2009

Championship new-boys: Peterborough United

In my last post I had a look at Leicester City, who I think should be able to survive in the Championship without too much difficulty. The Posh represent a different kettle of fish all together and predicting where they’ll end up next season is much harder.

They played some neat football in League One last season and as long as they hold on to Darren Ferguson as boss that should continue next year. Irish owner Darragh MacAnthony is certainly willing to splash his considerable cash around. Since he has taken over at the London Road Stadium about £2million has been invested into the squad and they paid around the £500,000 mark for goalkeeper Joe Lewis and a similar fee for defender Gabriel Zakuani.

There is no doubt they need to spend a bit of money in the summer but I don’t think they need to make massive changes to their side. Peterborough will have looked at the way teams like Doncaster have come up and survived this season. It will be a big task for a club that size to compete in the Championship but they’ve got a good manager and owner so the set up is there to succeed.

They will be relegation candidates with the bookmakers, that’s a certainty, but I would argue they have a decent chance of survival. For the Posh keeping hold of Ferguson will be crucial and he is fast becoming one of the most sought after managers in the lower leagues, with QPR among the clubs said to be keen.

Personally I reckon Ferguson will stay and try and establish them in the Championship, but it seems a good Championship bet that he’ll need more funding from MacAnthony if he is to achieve that.

1 comment:

Lord Hutton said...

I am happy for Leicester to be in Division 2 for now. We certainly wont be DOWN THERE again!
Look forward to see Pilgrims vs Leicester next season (I have the opportunity for a season ticket borrow so may even sit next to you!)
(been away for a long time, hence no comment)