Angel (11) agree mostly with your probable team apart­ from Grif playing right back. I don't think­ we'll see much of Grif this season. Wilko or­ Shotton will play there. Not too happy with the signing­ of Whitehead either. I certainly wouldnt include him in­ the team at the expense of Whelan. And gaudrey39....our­ gaffer is always moaning...he's Welsh ffs­ wouldn't you? Seriously, TP likes to play up to the­ underdog image, and he's right about our inability­ to attract big players. Until we're an established­ prem team, (which we will be after this season) players­ may be wary of joining us. But this is slowly changing.­ Beattie was being mentioned in terms of an England­ recall last season, we may be able to tempt Dean­ Ashton, we sell out the ground every game, the standard­ of our infrastucture is growing etc. Again, Stoke is on­ the up.

As people have said before Stoke will stay up as they­ are nowhere near as bad as some of the other teams.­ Hull were extremely poor last season and only stayed up­ due to Newcastle and Boro somehow being worse! Burnley­ will surely have a similar fate to WBA, nice football­ but struggle at the top level.
Birmingham looked poor­ in the championship and don't look to have improved­ since last time they were in the prem.
Pompey are­ losing quality players and replcing them with very­ average ones, will struggle.
Wigan are losing players­ and replacing them with players from the championship.­ Could go either way with them.

Gaudrey39, what teletext misquoted about what Tony­ Pulis was saying, was it was harder to sign players­ with premiership experience and getting them to come to­ our club. It is easy to sign players from fizzy-pop­ league, but as we know, they don't always make it­ in the prem, you should know that at Wigan. Ok, you­ think your new boss is better than Bruce, but wait­ until you see how the 4 players you have signed fair,­ and I don't think Jason Scotland will score as many­ as he has in the past, nothing like that in the prem,­ so don't get ideas of being a top 10 team this­ season. As for Stoke, we will do ok this season, and­ anything above 15th place will do for me, 12th again­ will be a bonus.
Potters fan.

Personally, I think their line-up will be:

­ Sorensen
Griffin Faye Shawcross ­ Higginbotham
Lawrence Delap Whitehead ­ Etherington
Fuller Beattie

and­ Stoke will probably finish 15th.

Our club is growing, Wigan will plummet like a stone.­ Bruce is a good manager and you will miss him. All the­ fuss about Delap's throws make me laugh. You have­ just leapt aboard the cliche ridden bandwagon with that­ comment gaudrey39. Well done, give yourself a clap on­ the back for originality. You have a manager that­ couldn't get out of the fizzy pop league, ours got­ us promoted from it. We generate an atmosphere at home­ that is good overwhelming for the opposition, it's­ like a 1-0 lead before kick off. We have a solid­ foundation to our squad which we will add to, we aint a­ selling club like Wigan. Stoke have much more grounds­ for optimism than the pie men.

why are you going back to last season that counts for­ nothing,we still finished ahead of you last year.now­ into our 5th season and yes we have got a great rugby­ team as well.and as regards bruce thats just your­ opinion no wigan fans would agree with you on that­ one.heskey went at christmas and only managed 15­ minutes in most matches,valencia not a great loss with­ the players brought in.and if you think 2nd season­ syndrome wont affect you then your fooling­ yourself.think delaps throw ins are going to save you­ fizzy pop league waiting.

second season syndrome will not apply to us. What­ people forget is that Stoke had one of the best home­ records in the prem last season. We hope to improve on­ our dreadful away form, and if so, I think a repeat of­ last season's finish is a realistic target. @­ Gaudrey39, how did Wigan do against Stoke last season?­ If I'm not wrong, you got 1 point we got 4...you­ have lost one of the best English managers in the game,­ no Heskey, no Valencia, no atmosphere in the ground, in­ fact no crowd. You're a Rugby town and you're­ going down.

did stoke finish behind wigan last year ,well tell you­ what KEITH D they will finish a long way behind us this­ year.we have sold 1 player.and brought 4 in wigan are­ now twice as strong this year.so underestimate them at­ your peril we have been hearing drivel from so many­ about us going down,for the last 4 seasons.just lets­ see how stoke cope with 2nd season hoodoo,you will be­ lucky to manage 17th.

12th was where I predicted Stoke will finish ;my­ reasoning is based not on their ability , but on the­ inability of others; Hull were extremely fortunate to­ stay up last season -I feel they are down before even a­ ball is kicked.Pompey and Wigan have had the core­ ripped out of their sides and are left with­ insufficient in the locker to survive.The three­ promoted teams ordinarily would go straight back down­ so I see each of them just managing to keep above ­ .Blackburn and Bolton were disapointing last season and­ have not nuch better to offer .Sunderland have­ strengthened well and now have Bruce in charge which­ will see them improve -so 11th should see them nicely ­ behind the 6 who will be competing for the UEFA League­ spots (top 4 sadly will be business as usual ) leaving­ 12th as the likely spot for Stoke .

Getting mid-table twice in a row is a formidable­ achievement to behold. Many teams find the 2nd season­ back in the premiership harder than the 1st.

Good­ luck.