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

MOT

Motherwell is expecting to do much better than last season where MOT just managed to stay in D-1 by the skin of their teeth.
MOT Manager Len Lear has worked hard at strengthening the lineup in the offseason.
MOT's motto is: "We won't make a deal for the sake of making a deal". MOT's defensive corp was strengthened significantly by the acquisition of Olivier Bernard a 2/18 DF in the live auction. Lear stated,"MOT got the player we were after. Bernard has many proven qualities and being teamed with Forrest, Partridge, & Evans in the backfield, MOT has a back four that will rival just about any team in the SESL."
MOT's goal for the season is to finish in top 6 in D-1 this season. It is felt amongst MOT supporters that this goal can be accomplished. Here's why:
Barry John Corr - one of the top GK's in the league is returning once again as MOT"s #1 GK.
Whitehead - fast rising star GK will serve as Corr's backup. developed rapidly last season and played well
Backfield of SW Forrest, DF's Partridge, Evans, Bernard backed by veterans Hammell, Craigan and Paterson with Duncan and Ferguson from the MOT Academy of Football Excellence give MOT a solid defensive group.
MOT's MF group is perhaps aging a bit, but led by the cagy vet duo of Cown and Fagan and the all-star MA McTank will be solid as usual. Look for some great things from McTank this season and rising youth star MF O'Regan, again from the MOT Academy of Football Excellence.
MOT's attackers were probably the weak link in the chain last season. Sonck and Ashton were definitely off form last season and this cost MOT several victories. With Clarkson's career in a steep decline, Sonck and Ashton are going to have to come through this season with cracking performances if MOT wants to improve upon their finish from last season.
Overall, MOT has a strong starting 11 with strengths in the net, DF, and midfield. The worry is that MOT is going yto have score more goals this season to improve. As I said, MOT hopes to finish in the top 6 this season.
At MOT, we won't make predictions as to how the other teams will finish in the division because it can come back to haunt us. Have a good season everyone (except when you are playing MOT).

Len L. - MOT

Hibernian is about to start off the season with a really untried and un-*test*-('")ed Manager, which must be a bit of a concern for the Hibernian faithful, but they are use to it, the last 9 seasons have really been tough on Hibernian as a club, Hibernian started off in this league with a really great record winning the league title in seasons 1 , 2 and 4. Since then its been all down hill for Hibernian, Season 10 almost destroyed this club with the worst season ever which caused them to be relegated to division 2 (although under the history its under the "Honours" section, they were only able to return to the top flight in season 13. In season 14 we saw Hibernian lying in mid table until a new manager took over, with like 3/4 session to play, The New manager Peter Babcock lead Hibernian to 5 wins on the trot and 1 loss and 1 draw and 6 wins in his 8 league matches in charge. It almost lead Hibernian to there first league title in 9 seasons but Hibernian fell short on Goal Difference - Was this just a fluke or is the new HIB Manager able to lead this club back to its glory days ?

Some of the Hibernian faithful are very excited at the prospects of season 15 with the new manager leading the troops, but then we have some of the fans who are not happy at all, for this club with its history to be lead by a total unknown who has no track record in this type of league.

The new Hibernian Manager Peter gave us an over of the team and his goals for the next few seasons. Quote

Well look at the team i have we have a great chance to repeat the success we had last season, to be honest we should have won the league but i took my focus off the league with 2 games left to play as i never thought we would have a real shot, and with an important cup coming up i decided to rest the team. This season will be different. a top 2 finish is our goal, the biggest problem we have at the moment is in attack with the aging of Scott Brown, So we are looking to complete 1 many 2 trades before the season starts. We have a great Midfield (for an attacking team) 2 really talented youngsters, we have a solid defence, the problem is most are almost over the hill and midseason will hit us hard in defence.

This season we have promoted youth GK Gary Bailey who looks like he could solve our backup GK problems and maybe take over the #1 spot next season but we will have to see.

This season is going to be hard going with 2 teams having a better ave SL than we do, at the top is Inverness who have a really solid all round squad so it will be down to how there manager is able to rotate his players and get them going in the big games ! Then we have Dunfermline Athletic who also have a solid squad but who also have so top players in the right position and then they have Michael Suwandi who seems to be a top manager in this league so my guess is people are tipping Dunfermline Athletic to take the title , and if i was a betting man i guess thats where my money would be.

WHat worries me more than these 2 teams, is Rangers and Celtic last season they both had average sides yet Rangers took the league and Celtic beat Rangers in the cup final !!! now these 2 teams are sitting in the same sort of position this season, so these 2 manager deserve alot of respect and not to take anything for granted when facing them, In alot of leagues when picking teams managers never take into account the skills of the manager they are facing they just look at the other players team and pick a side, My guess is Rangers would have rapped up the league title before the last session if 2 new managers had not of joined Division 1 when they did, he would have not idea how to play his side or who these 2 guys would play.

Any way i'm sure this will be an eventfull seasons best of luck to all here are my top 5 teams for the season
1) Dunfermline Athletic
2) Dundee FC
3) Hibernian
4) Rangers
5) Celtic

Let the games begin

Great write-up by Hibs.

But Celtic abd Rangers are a spent force in SESL just now. The new kids on the block are DUU, DFA, DEE, INV & HIB

Being a new Manager i would have agreed with you until
i read last years write ups where other managers spoke about
Rangers and Celtic falling away from the top i think Rangers best
outlook was 4th Celtic was looking at a battle against religation
yet he won the Cup ???

I was just finishing writing Division 2 Teams preview when I suddenly realised that my club is in 1st Division this Season. Oh, dear …

It is practically impossible that competition in Division 1 will be even more tight as it was in Season 14, but a close look at roster tell us that a battle for 1st place and avoiding relegation will be very tough. So, here are my predictions:

Division 1 winners candidate's: anyone from those 6 clubs can lift a title at the end of Season 15.
1.DFA: I tipped them as winners for Season 14 already but a bad run in the middle of the Season (9 matches without win) surely costs them title. Their only weakness is mediocre 2nd GK but strong defense should compensate that.
2.HIB: similar as DFA. Backup GK could costs them some points, but again strong defense will not allow many shots against him.
3.INV: they will probably not score many but will they ever concede any goal? Best defense in the whole SESL combined with two excellent GK. I expect typical Italian Calcio with many 1-0 wins from them.
4.RAN: I must be very brave to place them so low. Did James ever finish lower than 4th? However, they will train apprentice GK this year and this will surely costs them some points. But, heck, they have very poor 2nd GK even last year, but they still lift the trophy. I don't know …
5.CEL: Another strong all around squad. Can't really see any weaknesses and could easily break Top 3
6.DEE: Another super squad, but training apprentice GK is the only reason why I put them so ‘low’ in my prediction table.

Mid-table candidates – safe from relegation of play-off:
7.QQS: very good squad but they just don’t have enough power to break Top 6 in this Season.
8.MOT: they will easily avoid play-out matches this year
9.KIL: very similar club as MOT, same prediction

Battle for avoiding relegation or play-out:
10.DUU: their main weakness are GK’s but with 2/25 UT from Auction they shouldn’t have too many problem to stay in Division 1.
11.PET: so low? At the end of the last Season and after signing 2/22 FW from Auction I thought I will easy break Top 10, but when I take a close look at the other lineups, I see it will be very hard. My theory was that it is easier to stay in Division 1 as promote from Division 2 but with an introduction of play-outs this theory slightly change.
12.FAL: we fight with them hard in Season 4 for promotion and with a similar quality squad I expect that we will finish close each other.
13.HEA: traditionally I predict low places for this team but Bruce usually surprise us all. Will Hearts surprise us this Season also? Training apprentice GK will surely not help in achieving that.
14.ABE: who am I to put a team who was battling for a SESL title in the majority of Season 14 so lowly in my predictions? But on the other hand, which clubs can I put on relegations spots? You probably don’t think that I will predict relegation spots for myself? However, an average squad and training apprentice GK will be a hard -*test*-('") even for such experience manager as Ross is.
15.STJ: Chris, where did Yoav put all those TP resources? OK, those resources probably helped STJ to stay in Division 1 with ease last Season, but this Season could be even harder, because mid-season aging will hit them hard and there are a lot of apprentices to train.
16.SM: they had some talents in their squad but despite of that this Season will be very hard for them

Well that's now 5 seasons I've been in charge of Saints with limited success. In that time we've had 2 promotions and been to 2 SESL cup semi-finals but always fallen short of the big prize. Hopefully all that’s going to change as suddenly the penny has dropped. Our main problem is that there’s been no masterplan, no structure and no consistency. Living from season to season, 1 year a decent side, the next a pretty poor one, treading water to be precise. I want to be a Rangers, a Celtic, an Aberdeen (do I sound like a real life Hearts?).

The only way I can see Saints achieving this is by getting matters off the park sorted 1st. Last pre-season an oversight almost cost me my team and my input during the season was for want of a better word, dire! Hopefully all that's about to change after a visit to the Jim McLean school of economics. The upshot of this should be that whilst on the park it may not be pretty for the next season or 2 a complete overhaul of our youth and finance policies will hopefully evolve into a well oiled background machine. This should hopefully then allow the playng side of things to eventually pretty much take care of itself. With any luck this in turn should allow us to one mount a sustained challenge for honours over a number of seasons instead of just the odd isolated occasion. To achieve this we need to start looking after the pennies. Too much has been wasted over the last couple of seasons on training more than 2 players a session and home bonuses. Coupled with a distinct lack of press reports and previews etc this has caused a major drain on our finances and resources such as TP & CP to the extent that our squad now looks over the hill with little scope for improvement. This means we need to try and establish a system for bringing enough players through regularly but also an amount which is manageable with the resources at our disposal.

So with all of that going on it's with a bit of trepidation that we approach the playing side of things this season. Our Goalkeeping situation is a worry with Craig Hinchcliffe beginning to show his age and Alan Rough possibly not yet ready to take over. Again our defence is also showing it's age and whilst this has been bolstered with a couple of youngsters they will take time to have an impact. Our strongest area is probably upfront but even this department is showing signs of wear and tear. The fact that we have a fair bit of flexibility will possibly help but to be quite honest a long hard season looms. With almost the lowest average in the league it will take a minor miracle for Saints to avoid 1 of the bottom six spots.

Looking at rest of the league I would expect a very similar table to last year. The top four for me again will be Rangers, Dundee, Hibs and Dunfermline although not neccessarily in that order. Each of these sides is strong in almost every area but my money this year is on Dunfermline. With another years experience under their belt I can see the pars holding off a strong challenge from Rangers who get the nod for 2nd mainly due to managerial experience. I also expect to see Inverness and Celtic provide a strong challenge also. At the bottom i'm going to plump for ourselves, Aberdeen, Hearts and QoS with St Johnstone and Falkirk in the play-off spots.

Good luck to all in the season to come.

Last season my 2nd place before the mid-season proved to be too much of a temptation and plenty of TPs were used to bring DFs for the championship race. (which totaly back fired)

But at least I am predicted to finish 15th place instead of rock bottom like last season, so there is hope yet.

My intention is to stay up for one more season, after that the roster is going to get into shape.

Plenty of TPs (60 of those) for getting my GK (Ron Galbraith 1\17), MA (Joe Jordan 1\19) and entire defense (0'3, 0\5 and 0\8) into shape, there are just enough CPs to carry my aging star players through yet another season (cosmatic surgery can do wonders you know ), let's not forget the supporting players even in their crumbling state. My side is very peculiar, wins when it should lose, loses when it should win. For some reason the bottom line is with opposite proportions to my own expectations. Luck is the strategy of choice, that is "I never had any so far, so I am due to get some" (famous last words by many a gambling men )

Rangers are my favorites for the title, James knows his buisness which is why he won last season... So why not a 2nd time in a row?

Why not a Rangers title 2nd time in a row?

Simple answer - there are at least 5 roster squads in Div 1 better than RAN now.

I think someone has stumbled into the wrong thread

away back to your own division

Thanks to most people for their kind words above , however i don't see myself as a title challenger this year but then i didn't last year either

cards close to the chest

There is only one Rangers in SESL these days - BERWICK RANGERS!

no wonder! RAN have no midfield,
and your forward line is as old as Laurel and Hardy!
(not sure if your FW's are as comical as Laurel and Hardy mind you!)

Nacho Novo,3,25,FW
Dado Prso,4,25,FW
Steven Thompson,5,20,FW
Shota Arveladze,6,8,FW

If you wanna have a go no bother but please start a new thread and don't hijack the DIV 1 thread

This will be my second full season in charge of Inverness and hopefully I've learned something after the terrible season we've just had. I concentrated too much on the Cecil Cup, though it did earn me in excess of 1000k in gate receipts and extra coaching and training oppurtunities, and got off to a poor start in the league. I also made some poor transfer decisions.

I will still be trying for the Cecil Cup, but don't expect to see T11.

I've worked my way through the division and come up with the following order for 14 of the teams

Dunfermline
Dundee FC
Hibernian
Rangers
Queen of the South
Dundee Utd
Celtic
Motherwell
Hearts
Falkirk
Kilmarnock
St Johnstone
St Mirren
Aberdeen

This is based on T11 (but only the best GK), T17 and adding all a team's current CP and 10 TP to the T17 totals.

What about Peterhead and Inverness?

Well Ciril is a brilliant manager but his current T11 and T17 would pit him just below halfway. However he has 84 CP to use and there's no way I can predict what he's going to do with it, blow it all this season, trade it or save some to give 2 or 3 good coaching years. If he was to use all his CP this season then his T17 would be just behind DFA and HIB and I'd predict a top 4 place but it would take time for it to take effect.

As for Inverness, well I can tell you that my T11 is the 4th highest, my T17 is equal 2nd, and after a recent trade my T17 with CP and TP added is equal to Dunfermline's. So normally I'd predict good things for Inverness this season.

But we do have one big weakness: Last season Inverness just couldn't score enough goals, and I'd say that this season there are 13 or 14 teams with better offences than us. And our midfeild is very weak. We do have an excellent defence though (last season 2/3 of my CP/TP went on keepers and defenders) so expect some monster GP and DEF values.

Where do I think we'll come? Well that depends on me getting the tactics right and how the first couple of auctions go. I'm not going to predict as I thought we'd come about 5th or 6th when we made mid-season reports last season and I nearly got us relegated.

After perusing the comments above, one might get the impression that Hearts have better than a snowball's chance in hell to stay in Div 1. Don't kid yourself. Hearts will be back down in Division 2 faster than you can say "weak defense." Our ability to score a lot of goals last season, to compensate for that weakness, will not materialize in this division, where everyone is so much stronger. That, plus the fact that we need to train up a new keeper with no pre-season games to do so -- looks bleak indeed.

However, we will not go without a fight, and so, instead of picking the top finishers in the division, we will select those with whom we expect to be duking it out in the nether regions of perdition. In no particular order, we prsent "the teams we must beat this season in order to survive the inferno":

Kilmarnock -- wish we had their defenders
Peterhead -- couldn't do it last season, so why would we expect to do so now?
Falkirk -- their front line will demolish us
St Johnstone -- it is always appropriate to put Yoav's team on the must-beat list
St Mirren -- see Peterhead above
Aberdeen -- maybe a team demonstrably worse than HEA? Only on paper.

Beating each of those teams twice in the season would give us 36 points. Even with no other points, that should lead to a level just above the seven circles of hell. But that surely is not our fate. No, look for Hearts to be denizens of Division 2 next season.