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The EPL new boys: Welcome to the big stage

Roar Rookie
23rd July, 2016
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Hull City
Roar Rookie
23rd July, 2016
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The English Premier League back three former EPL clubs to the fold, and they’ll be fighting hard for every win this season. Who are they, and what can we expect?

Middlesbrough Football Club
Middlesbrough are returning to England’s top flight of football for the first time in eight seasons under the guidance of manager Aitor Karanka.

Their fans would be chomping at the bit to witness top flight football at Riverside this season, and for good reason too.

Middlesbrough have signed some top talent to bolster their squad so far signing five players including Champions League and La Liga winning goal keeper Victor Valdes as well as Viktor Fischer who was a highly touted youngster for Ajax. Former Manchester Striker Alvaro Negredo has recently signed a year long loan to Middlesbrough bolstering their attacking options.

Middlesborough have also rumoured to be close to signing Borussia Dortmund centre back Neven Subotic.

Last season in The Championship, Middlesbrough managed second position which means automatic promotion, largely down to their home form. Conceding only eight goals at Riverside, they had even spread of goal scorers with Christian Stuani bagging 11 in all competitions while David Nugent led their league scoring with eight goals. Its obvious though their promotion was built on defence and home form.

A player to look out for this year is Scottish striker Jordan Rhodes at age 26 has scored 185 goals in 353 appearances mainly for Huddersfield, Blackburn and Middlesbrough. He will be wanting to prove himself on the big stage after dominating the lower leagues of English football scoring over 20 times a season six times in his career including one season where he bagged 40 goals in 45 appearances for Huddersfield Town.

If Middlesbrough manage to make their new signings click and form a cohesive unit early they can look to a mid table finish. They have been most active transfer wise of the newly promoted clubs and cohesion from the new players should see them safe from the drop.

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Prediction: 13th
Burnley Football Club
Burnley return to the premier league after a one season hiatus bouncing back in the strongest fashion possible after winning The Championship under the guidance of manager Sean Dyche. The fans would be proud to see Premier League football back at Turf Moor after only a season out, a massive credit to Dyche, his coaching staff, and the players.

Although there is plenty of time left in the transfer window Burnley have only managed two signings; Jack Leitch a central midfielder from Scottish club Motherwell, and Johann Gudmundsson, a winger from Charlton who provided 11 assists last season and also represented the fabulous Iceland at Euro 2016.

Burnley’s player to look out for this season is striker Andre Gray. He joined Burnley at the start of the 2015/16 season for a reported club record six million pounds. Grey netted 23 goals in 43 appearances for Burnley firing them to a first place finish and straight back into the Premier League.

Burnley could find themselves in a relegation scrap this season without some more investment in their squad. On the other hand of they can form a very cohesive unit and stick to their game plan they could stay up similarly as Bournemouth have done last season.

Prediction: 19th

Hull City A.F.C
Hull City are returning to the Premier League after a one year absence, after winning the play off finals at Wembley Stadium. Hull finished the regular season in fourth, going on through the play offs to beat Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 at Wembley thanks to a goal from Mohamed Diame.

Hull’s biggest job this off season will be securing a new manager as Steve Bruce has resigned somewhat out of the blue. This is obviously not ideal as they are well into pre season, and already facing an injury crisis.

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Hull have been very quiet on the transfer front thus far, signing no one and losing experienced players in Ryan Taylor and Sone Aluko. As mentioned before still plenty of time in the transfer window, but with club friendlies coming ideally the new manager would love his transfer targets together and gelling with the rest of the team.

Hull City’s player to look out for is Abel Hernandez. Hull signed him at the start of the 2014/15 Premier League season for a club record 10 million pound. He failed to live up to expectations only scoring four times in 27 appearances. He surprisingly stayed on at Hull when they got relegated during the 2015/16 season, having a much better season scoring 22 times in 45 appearances. He has undeniable talent it’s just a question of whether he can display it in the Premier League, he will be eager to do that this year.

Similar to Burnley I feel Hull will be in a relegation scrap this without reinforcements. If they form a cohesive unit who knows, perhaps they could survive but it will be an up hill battle for the team from East Yorkshire.

Prediction: 18th

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