Taylor Wimpey
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BACK THE LADS FOR SUCCESS

Posted on: Mon 13 Jul 2009

By the time you read this you will have no doubt had your fill of people 'keeping their feet on the ground' and 'taking it one game at a time' as the Cobblers bid to bounce straight back to Coca-Cola League One.
You'll get none of that falsely-tempered optimism here. The view around the Chron campfire is that Northampton Town should, all being even, comfortably finish inside the division's top three.
I'm happy to go one better than that and say they can - and maybe should - win the league.
While compiling the annual preview of the division I noticed many things about the nature of the clubs who will be competing with Stuart Gray's men for the silverware.
It would seem at least half of them are just happy to be there. League two is a league where words like 'company voluntary agreement' and 'points deduction' feature as often as 'hamstring strain' and 'hotly-disputed penalty'.
This is a league where half the clubs last season had to survive on gates of fewer than 4,000 and three of them on less than 2,000.
This is a league where the top scorer last year was Grant Holt, where the best four teams from last year have gone, to be replaced by the Cobblers, and three sides they did the double over in 2008-09.
So my 50p each-way bet this season will be going on Northampton, because of the reasons outlined above, and because they have genuine class like Danny Jackman, Adebayo Akinfenwa, Luke Guttridge and Andy Holt in the team, all of whom should be nothing short of stars in League Two.

With the best player in the division having left, the Premier League should be more open this season than it has been for a long time.
Everything that needed to happen for the above statement to be true has happened. The champions are undoubtedly a weaker team - Antonio Valencia is a good player but totally unproven at elite level, while Michael Owen won't be any kind of replacement for the two strikers to leave Old Trafford, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.
Losing Tevez obviously won't be as damaging as the departure of Ronaldo to United, but it will hit them hard.
The Argentine's contribution to the Red cause last season was not limited to running around a lot and banging in the odd one in a four or five-goal rout against some of the division's minnows.
Tevez bagged a crucial late equaliser at Wigan in a game they went on to win; a late, late winner at Stoke City; and a vital goal in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Porto.
So while he doesn't score a lot of goals, he scores some vital ones and that contribution will surely be missed.
Chelsea will be a different beast under Carlo Ancellotti, and are, I believe, in pole position to cash in on the weakening of United, although Liverpool will of course fancy their chances.
Arsenal, with the addition of Thomas Vermeulen, will be much stronger than last year, and if players like Eduardo and Tomas Rosicky can stay fit they will be a serious team.
The dark horse - or maybe not - is Manchester City, a club who have skewed the market for the middle-to-top level players beyond all recognition.
If they can get one or two decent defenders in, they too can challenge the big four, and maybe even the dominance of United in that city.
Crikey, did I just write that last sentence? The heat must be getting to me…

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