seen rather a lot of transfer activity – Johan Elmander, having finally put the effort in his transfer fee demanded, has departed for Turkey on a free; Daniel Sturridge has gone back to Chelsea (as above), and Matt Taylor has hopped down a league to join West Ham United.

Coyle has yet to bring in a replacement striker – what he has done however is bring in some serious guile and craft to his midfield, and stuck to what he knows – the Championship. Darren Pratley has come in from Swansea on a free – from what I saw of the Championship last season he looks an eminently sensible purchase. Chris Eagles was a star for Burnley under Coyle – he’ll be looking for him to step up againof him.

Fulham’s activity thus far has been reasonably limited, partly because their season started in late June with Europa League qualifiers (thanks UEFA for the Fair Play league…). The major signing has been to bring in John Arne Riise to play alongside his brother, and presumably to provide booming left-footed free kicks and the occasional badly-timed own goal. Pajan Kasami, the young Swiss midfielder, looks an interesting signing from Palermo – he was in the squad as Switzerland’s U-21 team reached in the final in the European Championships in Denmark earlier in the summer. Their other signing is Czech midfielder Marcel Gecov, who remains a bit of an unknown quantity.

The major problem I see for Fulham is tiredness. Come 16 May, they’ll have been playing competitive matches for