Boots to fill
Spanish side Levante are due to come to the Reebok tomorrow for our final match of preseason. Levante compete in La Liga, and finished 14th last year, to mirror Bolton. Owen Coyle will focus on making this a good run out, both to jusitfy his busy preseason (after that injury), and as it's his last chance before QPR. It is his last chance to really experiment with his new players, and to see if any of the squad (other than Chris Eagles) can fill the hole left by Chungy. The right side was further weakened yesterday by the news that Mears had broken his leg in training.
While Coyle has been playing a lot with bringing up reserve players this preseason, as he should, expect to see what should roughly be a real starting line up, especially as Levante will be the toughest competition we've faced since Houston. Goalkeeper will certainly be a position to watch, as it may hint as to who he thinks his #1 is for the next season. It will also be interesting to see the central midfield, Coyle has a plethora of options and not much to distinguish them at this point. Two broken legs in a week just before the start of the season is quite bad luck, but as Phil Gartside said: "We have a fantastic team spirit throughout the club management, staff and most of all players. We're determined to move forward together" and so we shall.