A 'what if?' starting XI

Imagine if the purchases of Hilal Soudani and the Portuguese trio Joao Carvalho, Diogo Goncalves and Gil Dias didn't come off. Yes, I know that's pretty pessimistic - I can't help it after years of bitter experience - but bear with me on this.

If that worst case scenario were to play out, we could now line up with a starting XI which looked something like this:



Now, I don't know about you but even this pessimistic old sod is fairly pleased with that 'what if?' team.

Importantly, it marks a step up from last season in several key areas. There's a more solid defence - on paper at least - with the likes of Michael Mancienne and Matt Mills cast aside and the unpredictable Armand Traore removed. There's also real leadership with the returning Michael Dawson and Ben Watson and, in Lewis Grabban, someone with a good goalscoring record at this level. Jack Colback and Costel Pantilimon bring experience and a winning mentality that was also missing this time last year.

I'd back that team to do better than the one that took to the field in 2017/18, especially if the centre halves gel and we can cut out the daft defensive errors that have plagued us for far too long now. With Fox, Worrall, Bridcutt, Brereton, Murphy, Clough and Guedioura on the bench there'd be a bit of back up and competition too.

Would it challenge promotion? Maybe not. That'd depend on whether or not Cash could continue his excellent progress, whether Watson has the legs to manage a full season and whether Grabban could bear the vast bulk of the goalscoring burden.

That, however, is where the imports come in. I'm not going to profess to having become an expert in the new recruits, but their pedigree suggests that they all have the talent to shine at this level.

Soudani looks the sort of character who could become a cult hero, with the sort of cheeky confidence and style that fans love. He could compete for any of the three forward positions and offer something a little bit different to the attack.

Joao Carvalho has a 'record signing' tag to live up to but he Gil Dias and Diogo Goncalves need to bring the sort of pace, vision and all-round quality to help us to dominate teams - or find a way to win the sort of tight encounter that is common in this league.

The Championship is far too unpredictable to be certain of anything at this stage. Who, for example, knows what to expect from Aston Villa after a tumultuous summer? It seems, however, that our overseas attacking imports would need to shine if we were to be among the contenders at the top. The good news is that our recruitment drive this summer has now set in place the solid foundations for a more stable Championship side regardless. That should help to take the pressure off the new boys as they look to settle in to a new club, league and country and give them a platform from which to shine.

My pessimism is still keeping me in check, but I am looking forward to seeing this side come together. Aitor Karanka has been backed. He'll know that he now needs to translate his squad's promise into points.