As an Ex Div1 manager I would just like to say a few words.

Few Words.


So moving on I notice that 2 managers have doomed Aberdeen to relegation.
I would be surprised if that happens , suffice to say I'll buy the commish a new computer if ABE get relegated!

STJ> Yoav are you playing with No DF this season?

HEA> Bruce has done wonders with my old donkeys and turned the team around ,
but will he find div1 a bridge too far.

RAN> never write off James although this season he may struggle as he will miss the 6 easy points he usually gets from ROS.

Suffice to say I predict that a Scottish team will win DIV1

well lookie here, Rangers have drawn Berwick-Rangers in the Cecil Cup.
I is going to pummel you!
let battle commence

Is it possible to bribe the commish to get the results out early ??

I dying to see how my team perform

ANd i cannot wait to try out my 2 new players in the next matches

PS Mark when will you give use your preseason ramble ???

Nobody could or did predict such a close finish to Season 14 in Division 1 and with a number of quality teams and managers going for it again this season, who can say it won't be as exciting again.

Here is my thought on the runners and riders in Division 1 this season:

ABERDEEN
Aberdeen's strength this season will be their manager. If he can start off as he did last season the Dons might stave off automatic relegation as the squad looks somewhat threadbare.

CELTIC
I'd like to say that we will be making a strong title challange, but a more realistic target would be an improvement on last seasons 6th place finish, which in itself will be hard enough to achieve. Another steady year in the league and a couple of good cup runs is the aim.

DUNDEE
Dundee have good quality throughout thier squad especially in defence, the only possible low point being thier back up keeper. New manager Ivo came on board towards the end of last and couldn't quite do enough to push by a faultering Rangers team to win the tilte, so questions remain over wether he has what it takes at this level. Nevertheless I expect Dundee to be there or thereabouts this season.

DUNFERLINE ATH.
This could be the season for Mike to take the big prize. His squad has all the right people in all the right places, with only a slight hint of weakness up front. Big things were expected from this team last season and although close, 4th place will have been a disapointment, so I expect a DFA to be make amends this term.

DUNDEE UTD
DUU pipped my Bhoys on goal difference for 5th place last term and I reckon we'll be duken it out again this season. Lots of money spent in the LIVE! Auction, but was it invested wisely. Time will tell, but two UT players will come in handy over the course of the season.

FALKIRK
Falkirk look good going forward, as I can confirm after they put Celtic out of last seasons CECIL Cup, but will they be able to score more than they concede as they are a bit light weight at the back. One of my tips for the drop.

HEARTS
Hearts finally make it to the bigtime after more than a few years preparing in Division 2, don't know if it will be enough though as the squad doesn't have much in the way of cover. Think all the preparation might see them ok.

HIBERNIAN
If manager Peter's can do the business with his team selection and tactics like he does with internet chat rooms, I think his team will take all the beating this season.
Allowed Rangers to stumble over the line last season and must look at not making that mistake again. Title favourites.......I think.

Inverness
Two good quality keepers and an equally strong defence mean this team should be hard to beat, the lack of cover up front means we could be up against some Chelsea stile tactics, keeping clean sheets and trying to knick goals on the counter.
I think a much better season is in store for INV if manger Steve can forget last seasons dissapointing 12th place finish.

KILMARNOCK
Average keepers, average defence, average midfeild and average forwards means average team. The Ayrshire boys will be safe in an average mid table position.

MOTHERWELL
The Well's strongpoints are in attack with some good players in midfield and defence but not enough to be title challangers, a better season will be manager Lens outlook and a place in the top ten after last years low table finish.

PETERHEAD
New boys to the top league and they will need to hit the ground running, but should have enough to make it longer than a one season stay. Plenty good forwards and another team with good keepers but fairly average in between. Will have to make good use of all those CP, either on training or trading them to deserving managers for true and fair prices.(nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

QUEEN of the SOUTH
Another newly promoted team, but without the better players that other teams possess. A lot will depend on the forward trio to get the goals and theystill have the possibility to strengten the squad further with money in the bank. I don't think they will do enough and will go straight back down again.

RANGERS
You can say what you like about this sqaud but they continue to produce the goods season after season, but could this season be one too far for some of this squad. Midfield is a weakness but the tactical nouse and mangerial experience of James will again see the Forces of Darkness mount a typically feirce defence of thier title.

SAINT MIRREN
The Paisley Buddies did very well to survive last season with a negative GD, but I don't think they will get away with it this season. The squad as a whole does not have enough quality to keep them up and they will be in the bottom four come the seasons end.

SAINT JOHNSTONE
The Scottish "Tractor Boys" will be ploughing a hard furrow this term and one that could see them end the season fruitless. Yoav will need to TP up his yoofful defence sharpish as old Tomi will need some help as the rest of the defence isn't going to scare off anyone. Can Mr Hay score the goals to bail STJ out and keep them up with the cream of the crop or as I suspect will STJ's milk turn sour as the wheat gets seperated from the chaff and they get bundled down to Division 2.

I'm flattered at your comments but i don’t have the experience
in this league to win the title yet !

Trading ,CP,TP and Midseason play a huge part in this league and
I’m not so sure i have a grip on them

If i was a betting man my money would be on Mike DFA , or Ivo Dee
both experienced in this type of league and both have rock solid teams ! Mike understands the SESL managers, so if Mike does not mess around this season and does not underestimate his team he should take the title !!

As a newcomer to the first division, I am hesistant about making predictions, but since the predictions so far have been for QOS to be top 6 , midtable (twice) and relegated (twice) it is clear that nobody else knows what is going on either!

I am not going to attempt to place all sixteen teams in order. Instead, I have split the division into three.

Title Challengers

DUNFERMLINE have the best team, the best squad and reasonable resources. With three 1/19 players to train up, they are only going to get stronger. My tip for the title.

DUNDEE are very slightly weaker than Dunfermline with less cash. More seriously, they have an appentice keeper to train up which could cost them a few points here and there.

The HIBS first team is almost as good as Dundee's, with nine players at SL24 or higher, but the backup is weaker. They do have lots of CPs, but really need TPs to train up their five excellent age 1 players and their apprentice keeper.

INVERNESS are not going to let many goals in, with a simply amazing defence, but they will be relying on Bayne (3/26) and French (2/21) to score lots of goals. May need a little luck to get lots of 1-0 wins.

RANGERS are not quite as strong as the other four and also have an apprentice keeper, but it is hard to leave them out. They have plenty of CPs and TPs to improve the squad and should be near to the top again.

Mid Table

QUEEN OF THE SOUTH have had bad things predicted for us, and our defence is admittedly pretty ropy. However, the QOS team and squad is noticeably stronger than the remaining 10 teams and there is a lot of cash in the bank, so I will be disappointed to be fighting against relegation. Top half plus a decent SESL Cup run would be acceptable.

CELTIC have good players throughout the team, two good keepers and lots of cash, but the squad just doesn't look quite strong enough to break into the top 5. A couple of good auction purchases could change things.

DUNDEE UNITED look strong up front and their two utility players will make it harder for their opponents to work out good counter tactics, but neither keeper is very good and most of their money went on the UT 2/25. Shouldn't be in any danger of the play-offs, though.

MOTHERWELL are solid everywhere, without being really strong anywhere. The biggest problem is the complete lack of age 1 players, which will limit the scope for bringing on new squad players.

PETERHEAD were worthy winners of division 2 last season, and their new FW 2/22 plus their mass of CPs should mean that they will be back to four SL29 FWs fairly soon. However, they have no midfield and limited back-up in defence to cover their two excellent keepers. Should keep well clear of relegation.

Relegation Battlers

FALKIRK have an even weaker defence than QOS, but are likely to score goals as well. A play-off place is the most likely result, but they could easily climb higher or drop lower depending on the odd goal in high scoring matchs.

HEARTS performed well above themselves to win promotion last season, and should probably have been awarded manager of the season. With only five SL20+ players, the least in the division, Bruce Allen will need to do just as well this season to stay up.

KILMARNACK's team is similar to Celtic's, but the backup players are weaker. Again, they have plenty of cash to spend and some new good squad players will be critical to avoiding relegation.

SAINT JOHNSTONE have an ageing forward line, a non-existent midfield and a very weak defence with lots of youth to bring along. They will probably leak goals in the first half of the season and although things should get better as the season goes on, it will be hard work to stay up.

SAINT MIRREN are another team will a fairly weak defence. The rest of the squad is OK but is simply not strong enough to compete with some of the powerhouses at the top of the division.

ABERDEEN, with the weakest team, the weakest squad, an apprentice keeper and no obvious goalscorer, must be the favourites for bottom spot. They will do well to reach a play-off spot.

Just to clarify, post your previews, reviews and comments and earn your team upto 300k cash to paid before live auction 2 mid season.

Cash will be added before "live auction 2 mid season" scheduled for November 6th.
see season schedule dates at www.sesl.info

I have had about a dozen emails on this, so apologies for any confusion.
In summary, teams still have 6 weeks to post reviews and detailed comments to earn their team free money.

Having taken over St.Mirren and being the New Kid on the Block (poetic licence) in Div1, I would just like to add a few thoughts to the current season.

Being bottom of the league is no surprise as SM started the season with one of the lowest SL 313 and with several clubs over the 400SL mark it was likely to be an uphill struggle.

The only exception to this is the current nutty ABE manager who flogs his players to the bone and they perform miracles.

Ex manager Mark Boland had opted for a youth policy, introducing 4 new young players to the squad which was very necessary as the team lacked any young players. This does bode well for the future, but the present is the task in hand and points are needed.

We need to get some points on the board soon or we could get left behind completely and MSA will hurt us quite badly.

What we do lack are some "BIG" players as we have only got the one on
our books Alan Russell a 3,27 MA. This needs to be rectified or we will find it an uphill struggle. It could be that we might have to accept relegation but Mark has left the team with some cash and a solid youth program so the future is not that bad.

As for the rest of the Div.

Behind the scenes moves at DFA suggest that they are going to be very
difficult to beat, I expect them to be out on top come MSA.
If they have the CP available following MSA then they could sweep all
aside in div1.

At the other end of the table, other than ourselves, I don't see much change in the current situation, but if STJ continue to play with no DF they could find themselves in the bottom 4.

After being tipped as favourite last season, and failed (1 pt apart from the top but ended up 4th).

It is not going to be easy as well this season. I obviously don't handle pressures well and I don't want DFA to suffer as a result of that. We were doing fine at the start of last season, but went through a tough runs in the middle of the season which caused us the title. I hope I can avoid doing the same mistake and bring more stability to the team this time around.

To be fair, we have a stronger (but older) team than last season but I have also acknowledged the facts that INV, HIB and DEE are also much better this season. Add to that, the constant threath of RAN and capable teams in the likes of DUU, CEL and PET, I can only expect the best for DFA.

The competition is fierce and it is probably too early to judge on the performance of the title favourites at this early stage. We might be top at the moment, but teams are definitely breathing down my neck and waiting for me to slip.

We are still in the CECIL cup up to now, and has been drawn to play INV. It will be very hard to rotate and still play a strong team in the CECIL cup, but I am looking forward to move on to the next round. Hope it will not disrupt my plan in the league.

More views on the division in a few weeks. Until then, take care.

The first division is going to be wide open for ages. With Rangers and Hibernian in 9th and 10th place but amonst the strongest sides, skill level-wise and only 7 points behind the leaders a lot is going to depend on players getting injured or suspended and how many free kicks you give away.

Dunfermline are still my (and most managers) favourite for the title. With 4 SL 29 defenders, and a 5th to come + an SL 25 they will be hard to beat. Only my own Inverness (with 3@27, 2@25 and 1@23) and Rangers (2@29, 4 from 25-28) can compete. Our midfield is slightly stronger and we have two excellent GK rather than one excellent and one average.

Dunfermline are stronger than Inverness up front but Rangers stronger yet.

The Cecil Cup has proved useful in playing weaker players to keep the strongest for the league but two of the top 6 will drop out as Dunfermline play Inverness and 6th place Queen of the South play 2nd place Peterhead. As Michael says above it will be hard to juggle players and compete in both competitions.

So far Hearts have performed better than I expected and Rangers and Hibernian worse. The bottom 6 are as I predicted, if not in the correct order, and I expect these to fall away as the season progresses.

And although I never predicted my position I would have been disappointed if I thought we'd be out of the top 4 at the end of the season. My tactics seem to be coming off this season (luck of the Olmec gods notwithstanding).

With a month to go until money added to banks before live auction on Nov 6,
here is a list of cash banked thus far.

MOT 50k
HIB 100
PET 100
SM (Ros) 175
STJ 50
INV 125
HEA 50
CEL 100
QOS 100
DFA 50

This is my review of my preview with a third of the season gone.

ABERDEEN
The main players in this squad are running on empty already, and with the team only 3 points above the drop zone, Aberdeen's manager will have his work cut out keeping his team up once injuries, suspensions and MSA kick in.

CELTIC
With an improved run in this season's CECIL Cup and an unlikely second spot in the league (at time of writing) this season is going along nicely. If we can continue to pick up some good results my prediction of an improved final league placing of sixth will not be far away.

DUNDEE
Dundee are in a position of underachievement just now, with the squad and resources Ivo has at his disposal he really should be doing better. There's lots of games to go but Dundee are already 11 points behind DFA and will have to put a very good run together to get back in contention.

DUNFERLINE ATH.
Mike's team is in pole position at the moment, with a gap of five points already to unlikely second placed teams CEL and PET. Up front Sebastian Kneissl is taking all the plaudits as he is the leagues top scorer at the moment and mocking my suggestion that DFA were a bit light weight up front. Is this the season for Mike??? Can he take the big prize or will he blow it again??? We will have to wait and see.......

DUNDEE UTD
DUU haven't really got going this season of yet, a bit up and down. The leagues top scorers could possibly be doing a bit better. The big UT played up front is already paying back that large fee at the first LIVE! Auction. Is manager Cheung saving up for another big spending spree at the next one?

FALKIRK
One of my tips for the drop and they sit in the drop zone, but only on goal difference. Falkirk have a 5 point gap from the third bottom team so if they can keep up the scoring rate and shore up the defence they might prove me wrong, but I doubt it.........

HEARTS
Hearts were the early season pace setters but have fallen away in the last few sessions. Manager Allen will have to sort this slump out if he is to stop his team being sucked into the relegation battle.

HIBERNIAN
Major disappointment from Easter Rd as Peter's team struggle at the wrong end of the table, like Dundee underachieving. If manager Peter's is trying to convince others that tipping Hibs for the title was far wide of the mark he sure is going the right way about it!!!
Title favourites.........I thinks not.
The way Hibs are playing at present they'll be lucky to stay up!!!

INVERNESS
A much better season IS in store for INV as this year they're challenging at the right end of the table. Predictably solid at the back and plenty of attacking options upfront now, could Steve force INV into the title race.

KILMARNOCK
Average this team are NOT, well below average they are at present. 5 points adrift of safety already and showing no signs of revival, this team are already doomed to spending Season 16 in Division 2. If we still have a Division 2 in Season 16????

MOTHERWELL
Another season spent fighting for survival means my prediction is well off. The Well frontline are just not producing the goods, the leagues low scorers have managed only 11 goals all season with the forwards only contributing 4 of them. Only ONE win at this stage of the season is relegation form, can tactical supremo Lear turn things around? I don't know, but if they put in more performances from the start as they did after being 3 down to us on Saturday things might just get better.

PETERHEAD
Surprise packages PET sit joint second and have plenty points on the board to make sure they stay in the top league for longer than a fleeting one season visit. An impressive forward line is being backed up by an equally impressive effort at the back, with the defenders and goalkeepers making PET a hard team to beat. Still got plenty of CP........Now if you're not going to use them Ciril, be a sport and let me buy some off you:-):-):-)

QUEEN of the SOUTH
QOS are trying very hard to prove me wrong and presently occupy a very lofty sixth place, which is a really good effort from the early part of the season which will give them some breathing space for the latter stages of the season when the effects of MSA on not the best squad bite in. Have they done enough already and can they keep it going to ward off relegation.........this is one to keep an eye on.

RANGERS
Not the best of starts from the reigning champs. 8 points off top spot and a lowly fifth spot in the league are not what you call championship form. A bit of squad rearranging from James this season, maybes an indication of how he thinks this season will go. Not out of it yet though.......

SAINT MIRREN
Bottom of the table with 1 win, 1 draw and TEN losses, this team is RELEGATED. Although there has been a change in management at the club and home town boy Dewar secured SM's first league win shortly after his return, normal service resumed next session when another LL was added to the team form chart. Too much to do to get this team out of trouble.

SAINT JOHNSTONE
Sitting just above automatic relegation, I bet Yoav wishes the season would finish right now, as I think this is as best as he can expect from his struggling team. MSA will see all those 30+ SL guys badly effected and those new apprentices are not yet ready to do much more than tread water. Yoav will do very, very well to keep his team in a playoff place. I don¡¦t think it will happen and STJ will finish the season in the drop zone.

Celtic - Currently 2nd

Bill has done a great job with Celtic when he took over last season, and won the SESL Cup. With flexibility of playing Normal and Longball, I think Celtic will end up within the top three this season.

Peterhead - Currently 3rd

Ciril has a lot of good FWs at his disposal, and Peterhead shall continue its great run. With 52 CP still left, this is a team with an outside chance of breaking into the top 3.

Inverness - Currently 4th

The favourite for this season title. Two great goalies, impressive defence, and Steve also has an outstanding attack force now. Looking set to defend the CECIL cup, things will heat up once that is over.

Ranger - Currently 5th

James has a few youngsters coming up and will soon dominate SESL again. This season, will be a challenge for Rangers to try to squeeze into the top 5 or even top 3.

*****

From 6th to 13th place, teams are only separated by 4 points and MSA will hurt some of the teams badly. Aberdeen and Saint Johnstone will have to be very careful, and the two early season favourites in Dundee and Hibernian will need to turn the results soon.

Out of these teams, I think Dundee United will have a great chance to go higher in the table. Walter Bassegio has been the league's star so far and Christian will have a few tricks up his sleeve to use him to the advantage.

As it currently stands, Saint Mirren looks very likely to play second division football next season and Kilmarnock/Motherwell will also find it hard to escape relegation if they don't pick up the points soon.

With only 1 match remaining until mid-league season, I think it is a time for rewised predictions. I have also include my original prediction in parenthises.


1.DFA(1): Nothing more to say here. DFA were and are my favourites for this season league title.
2.INV(3): 6 points are separating them from the top currently. But DFA will not loose many points this season anymore.
3.RAN(4): they are working heavy on youth policy and will be probably main candidate for title next season.
4.HIB(2):their start was real poor. But seems that they found their form recently and are already at 6th place.
5.CEL(5):I predicted 5th place fot them and didn't change my mind
6.PET(11):we strengthen our squad with some quality players, so 6th place is probably our maximum this season.
7.QQS(7):they finally fixed some holes in their defence. Same prediction as at the start of the season, again.
8.DEE(6):they are probably the biggest underachiever so far. I predicted at the start of the season, that training apprentice GK is the only reason why I am putting them so low. But heck, they are only at 11th place at the moment and their apprentice GK is still at SL5. What is going on here?
9.DUU(10): this club is performing very well at the moment and I think they will easy avoid play-out.
10.ABE(14):Heck, Robin was correct. They will not relegate, at least not automatically. But they will need to be more careful with injuries.
11.STJ(15):Yoav is Yoav. Very tricky manager! ALthough mid season will hit him hard, he will probably avoid automatic relegation.
12.HEA(13):Bruce has an excellent start of the season, but now he is at 7 games not winning streak.
13.FAL(12): we have seen some brilliant matches from Falkirk this season, but there wese even more bad results. They will battle with STJ and HEA for at least play-out place.
14.MOT(8):together with Dundee FC and Kilmarnock, they are the biggest disappointment for me so far.
15.KIL(9):same as MOT
16.SM(16): Majority of us predicted last place for this team and exactly that will happen.

We are at the mid-season ageing so this is the final Season 15 "preview" before the live auction.

This was the order I first predicted, not counting Inverness and Peterhead. Predictions were fairly pointless anyway with auctions and trades which change rosters radically.

Dunfermline were my pre-season favourites but as with last season they have slipped up with a bad run of three draws and a loss. They will have the best GK pair for the rest of the season, have five SL 26+ defenders and four SL 24+ attackers with plenty of CP to boost most of these to 29. Still my favourites as long as they don't try too hard in the SESL Cup.

Inverness have the second best GK combination, six SL 23+ defenders and five SL 25+ attackers but less CP. In a 4-2-4 longball there is nothing to chose between Inverness and Dunfermline at the moment. 2nd at best.

Peterhead still have plenty of CP but currently they aren't as strong. They should slip down the table to 4th or 5th.

Dundee FC have underperformed for me this season. A decent attack and quite strong in midfield but no real stars at the back and a weak second keeper. If they aren't careful they could get dragged into a relegation battle.

Hibernian are one of the stronger teams and shouldn't be in 8th place but their manager is inexperienced and has taken time to find his feet. Might get up to 6th but no higher.

Rangers are in a rebuilding season but have still managed to stay in touch with the leaders. Five SL 26+ defenders and four SL 25+ attackers but not much CP or money left. Never a team you should write off, these could easily win it if they use their reserve keeper in the SESL Cup. 3rd (I hope).

Queen of the South. I ws one of the few who predicted these would have a good season. They leak a lot of goals but score more. I don't think they'll break into the top 5.

Dundee Utd are the only team with more wins than losses but have a negative goal difference. They have some decent players but can never put out an outstanding team and have two SL 16 keepers. Should avoid relegation but it's going to be hairy.

Celtic are doing much better than I thought thanks to some good trades. They have four good attackers, four good defenders and a UT. Not a shabby pair of keepers neither. I think they'll end up 4th or 5th with Peterhead.

Motherwell are probably the strongest of the teams fighting relegation but are having a terrible run with only one win all season.

Not many picked Hearts to be in the bottom half and that looked unlikely after five wins in the first seven games but four points from the last 11 games sees them sliding into a playoff spot at best but I now predict automatic relegation

Falkirk have a powerful attack but only one player over SL 20 in defence. Certain to go down.

Kilmarnock picked up an MVP with wins over Hibernian and Inverness so anything is possible here. With a good T11 I think they can pull themselves out of danger and even avoid the play-offs. Thankfully we don't have to play them again.

St Johnstone have no CP to speak of because it's all been used. Keeprs are weak and defence is ordinary but they'll keep scoring goals with those three forwards. Probably good enough to avoid automatic relegation.

St Mirren are doomed. Only one decent attacker who has a decent chance to score goals but already 14 points away from a play-off spot and 19 from avoiding that.

How do Aberdeen do it? The fewest total SL in the division, only St Mirren have a worse T17 and their T11 is only 11th. I predicted them to come bottom but judiscious roster management has seen them pick up good points against top opposition while risking injuries. In their last match every player finished with negative EL. I think they will end up in the playoffs.

Recap.

DFA, INV, RAN, PET/CEL for the top 5

HIB, QOS, DUU to be safe (no particular order)

DEE, KIL, STJ, ABE, MOT to struggle (in that order)

HEA, FAL, SM relegated

What could change things is who gets Paul Gascoigne in the auction. There's some great players in the auction if you have CP or TP spare but for those that need an SL fix now then Gascoigne is going to be the one to get - even if it means stopping someone else in your division getting him.