It has been reported that there is more to Keith Gillespie’s departure than him simply not getting in the squad though. Keith Gillespie’s agent Phil Munnelly has recently spoke of a ‘difference of opinion’ between the player and Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell. Keith Gillespie is often an outspoken character and perhaps he went one step to far with Kevin Blackwell. He is now paying for it with his Sheffield United career.

It does seem strange that it was Sam Ellis that made the announcement and not Kevin Blackwell himself. Perhaps that highlights the fall-out between the two. The Sheffield United boss may have had to bite his tongue on too many occasions to speak publicly about the situation.

This twist for Keith Gillespie is the latest in what has been a rather stuttering career. The Northern Ireland international began his career at Manchester United, before moving to Newcastle United. It was at St James’ Park that he had his best time as a player. He was part of a very attacking Kevin Keegan team and he played over 100 games for the Magpies.

However, after a half decent spell at Blackburn, he had a loan spell Wigan, followed by a brief time at Leicester before moving to Sheffield United in August 2005. Keith Gillespie has never fully cemented his place in the team during the three years he has been there, with injury often getting in the way.

As for Sheffield United, they sit in 10th position in the Championship with the football odds backing them to make a push for the play-offs this season. Now though, they will have to begin this push without Keith Gillespie who will be seeking a loan move to another club.

Derby earned their first league victory in 10 months by beating Sheffield United 2-1 on Saturday. This meant they avoided the unwanted record of going a whole year without a victory. They will now be hoping it will kick start their season and they can start winning games on a more regular basis. The fans will certainly not want to wait another 10 months for the next victory.

It now seems that Paul Jewell is the man that will continue to lead Derby into the future, despite the horrific run of games without a win before Saturday’s success. Tom Glick says that the Rams boss is ‘the man for the job’ and is excited about the team he has put together.

The Coca-Cola Championship Football League odds at the beginning of the season were backing Derby for promotion and although this has changed somewhat after their poor start to the season, they will still want to be towards the top of the Championship by May next year.

Paul Jewell will know that one win doesn’t change everything though – they need to continue to win games in the coming weeks to restore belief amongst the players and fans. The next test for Derby comes tonight against Swansea City at The Liberty Stadium.

The Canaries have been in desperate need for a striker with a physical presence. Darrel Russell – who normally operates in midfield – has been forced to move up front in recent weeks to partner either Jamie Cureton or Arturo Lupoli. Now that Antoine Sibierski has arrived, the Norwich fans will be hoping they can pick up their first win of the season against Plymouth Argyle in their next game.

So what type of player are Norwich getting? Well, as with any 34-year-old moving down a division, he will bring experience to what is a relatively young Norwich squad. He will also provide Glenn Roeder with the ‘target man’ he has been craving since the departure of Dion Dublin at the end of last season. It is the second time Glenn Roeder has signed the Frenchman, he brought him to Newcastle United on transfer deadline day in August 2006.

In terms of some other moves involving Championship clubs yesterday, there were two others that stood out to me. Blackpool have made a good loan signing by securing Rangers midfielder Alan Gow until January. The 25-year-old – who could sign permanently in January – is an attacking midfielder and should excel in the Championship.

Then there is departure of Coventry midfielder Julian Gray to Premier League side Fulham. This is a strange transfer really and I’m not sure why a loan deal was agreed as opposed to a permanent transfer. Regardless though, it will be a huge loss for Chris Coleman at Coventry. He is one of their better players and considering they have lost their last two games, it isn’t ideal that he is leaving. They will be searching for a replacement in the loan market I’m sure.

One of the most significant factors of the whole transfer window though, in my view, is that fact that Reading have managed to hold onto prize assets Kevin Doyle and Stephen Hunt. With reference to Championship football odds, they remain one of the promotion favourites having kept these two players.

As ever, it will be interesting to see how the players that have moved to the Championship – such as Antoine Sibierski – will adapt to playing in what is a very physical and competitive league.

John Madejski complains of ridiculous footballers wages

Self-made millionaire and Reading chairman John Madejski has once again stated his disproval of players wages. He told BBC Radio Berkshire they were “obscene in the extreme”.

He is adamant not to pay over-inflated wages to attract new signings to the club, in the quest to seek automatic promotion back to the Premier League.

Adding a certain balance to his bold statement, he went on to say:

“I’m pleased they get good salaries - that’s only right - but it’s gone off the Richter scale.”

I visited the Madejski Stadium before Reading were promoted to the Premier League and was impressed with the staduim. Alot of work and money has been pumped into the club and much of their financial stabilty has been put in place by John Madejski’s calm and resonable financial judgement.

Madejski explained the difference between the Premiership and being a Championship team is a £22m deficit and Reafding now face the problem of retaining a large squad of players.

He said Reading have tried to do what they can with a solid business model, but even selling a whopping 14,000 season tickets is not as fantastic as it seems, compared to last season.

In these times of outrageous footballer wages, television money and foreign billionaires using English football as a play thing, I like John Madejski’s honest and sensible approach to running a football team with a good manager that plays exciting football.

John Madejski has commercial interests in property, media, hotels, restaurants, publishing and football. According to The Sunday Times Rich List 2007 he is in the top 200 wealthiest people in the UK with a net worth in the region of £400 million.

Championship club Ipswich Town have completed the signing of former Spanish International Ivan Campo. The 34-year-old – who hasn’t played a competitive game since playing for Bolton in April – has signed a two year deal with the East Anglia club.

Ivan Campo certainly brings a wealth of experience to a very young Ipswich squad. Town boss Jim Magilton has admitted that part of the reason he brought him to Portman Road was because ‘the young players will really benefit from having him around’.

It will be the first time that Ivan Campo has played at Championship level after making 172 appearances for Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League. It will be interesting to see how he does in what is a very tough and physical league. Considering the fact that he might not have as much time to compose himself in the middle of midfield as he is used to, I wouldn’t be surprised if he operated for his new club as a centre back.

From this position he could guide the rest of the defence and use his experience to communicate with the midfielders in front of him. Jim Magilton recognises the presence Ivan Campo has and admits that his type of character has been missed since the departure of veteran defender Fabian Wilnus this summer.

As for the team as a whole, Ipswich made a losing start to their Championship campaign. They suffered a 2-1 home defeat to Preston North End, equalling the amount of times they lost at Portman Road last season. After just missing out on the play-offs last time out, they are still one of the promotion favourites, but will be looking to bounce back with a win against Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday.

As for Ivan Campo, he isn’t likely to make his debut too soon. He hasn’t played in a competitive game for around four months and will want to improve his match fitness before playing in the Championship. When he does make his debut though, I expect him to be an important player for Ipswich this season.

Overall, Sheffield United will feel hard done by. They deserved at least a point from this game. In fact, they almost got it after Kevin Phillips had struck. Jon Stead hit the post immediately after, but the ball fell to safety and it wasn’t to be for the Blades.

To face Birmingham at St Andrews first game of the season was certainly a difficult task for Kevin Blackwell’s men, but they can take a lot of heart from their performance. In terms of football betting, they are still one of the promotion favourites in my view.

As for Birmingham, it will just be a relief to get the first win under their belts following relegation from the Premier League. They now have something to build on. Perhaps early season nerves can now be put to bed. They travel to administration threatened Southampton next and will fancy their chances of making it two wins out of two.

One thing for sure is that they have an excellent Championship striker in Kevin Phillips. He has a couple of seasons left in him yet at this level and there are not many Championship clubs that would turn down his services. He helped West Brom to promotion last season with 24 goals and I wouldn’t put it past him doing the same with Birmingham this season.

Alex McLeish has a lot of strikers at his disposal this season. James McFadden, Marcus Bent, Gary McSheffrey, Gary O’Connor and Kevin Phillips were all involved against Sheffield United. However, it is the latter - who was the match winner today - that I expect to be their main man as they look to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

Like I said, it has been far more effort than it should have been for Cardiff boss Dave Jones to find a striker that is willing to come to the club. First of all, Cardiff lost

Robbie Fowler to Premier League side Blackburn, meaning the search for a replacement was on. Then they thought they had secured Marcus Bent’s signature, but the player decided to join Championship rivals Birmingham at the last minute.

The next twist was that Kenny Cooper – who plays up front for FC Dallas – took too long to complete his move to Ninian Park, so Dave Jones pulled the plug on the move. All this meaning, that the season was getting dangerously close and Cardiff were still short of strikers.

So, step up Jay Bothroyd. He is the man the Bluebirds have turned to. Chairman Peter Ridsdale has said that he is a ‘great acquisition’ for the club. He also hopes that Jay Bothroyd can for fill the potential he showed in the early stages of his career. This comes after a couple of seasons where the player has underachieved in terms of his performances. For example, last season he only hit the back of the net on four occasions for Wolves.

As for this season, in terms of Championship football betting, I don’t think Jay Bothroyd will be one of the favourites to lead the goal scoring charts. He has a lot to prove and should he go a few games without scoring at the beginning of his Cardiff career, the critics will start jumping on his back.  However, the fresh start allows him to regain his confidence and bag himself some goals as Cardiff push for promotion to the Premier League.

Whether seen as a very tight exciting league or a scrappy league without any real outstanding talent, the addition of the three relegated Premiership teams - Reading, Derby & Birmingham, along with the three teams promoted from League One - Swansea, Nottm Forest & Doncaster, it looks likely to be another close call between many teams pushing for Premiership promotion who, with a few bad results, turning their sights to a relegation battle.

So who are my favourites for Premier League promotion?

I expected QPR to have made a few top signings by now, thinking their owners are gagging for promotion; and the appointment of Ian Dowie as manager may turn out to be a level headed choice, but it certainly isn’t going to attract any big name stars.

I’m not sure what is happening at Reading, though it looks like they are going to lose Nicky Shorey to the Premiership, along with striker Dave Kitson, who will be a big loss.

Both Derby & Birmingham are my favourites for promotion.  Not only have they added to their squads but both have relatively new managers that appear to have written off last season before it had finished, so as to concentrate on gaining promotion this season and starting afresh.

Both teams are going to be lead by strong attacking options.  Derby have splashed out on the striking partnership of Rob Hulse (from Sheffield United) and Nathan Ellington (loan from Watford), while Birmingham will have quality striking options as they have brought in Marcus Bent (Charlton) and Kevin Phillips (WBA) to fight for places with James McFadden, Cameron Jerome and Garry O’Connor.

Birmingham look like they have the strongest squad in the league, especially with the additions of Lee Carsley (from Everton) and the Dutch under-21midfielder Kemy Agustien on a season-long loan from AZ Alkmaar.

The Coca-Cola League season 2008/09 begins this Saturday at 12.45 when Birmingham take on Sheffield United and have the chance to go top from the very start.

Steve Lansdown believes that he could be the ‘missing link’ between Bristol City and the automatic promotion places. He also believes that the amount of money they spent on Nicky Maynard shows how far they have come as a club.

He’s not wrong. This time last year after winning promotion to the Championship, a look at the football odds would have told you they were expected to be relegated. Instead they only just missed out on promotion, losing in the play-off final to Hull.

The key to them going one better this season is quite simply – scoring more goals. Remarkably, they scored 34 fewer goals than West Brom last season and even Colchester United – who finished bottom – scored eight more goals than them. That maybe highlights the competitiveness of the Championship more than anything else, but Bristol City could certainly do with upping their goal tally. They can’t always rely on 1-0 victories.

It seems that Nicky Maynard is the man they believe will solve this problem. The 21-year-old striker – who attracted interest from Ipswich Town – scored 15 goals in League One last year and certainly arrives with a positive reputation. Whether he can score goals at Championship level remains to be seen, but I think it is clear he has the ability. He would have been brought up well at Crewe and will be relishing his new challenge. I presume he has an ambition to play in the Premier League one day, so this is the start of his journey to doing just that.

The big question is though – will he make it with Bristol City this season? Well, as much as I am unsure about their automatic promotion credentials, they certainly have a chance of securing a play-off spot. Should they do that, they will have as good a chance as anyone – it is a lottery at that stage after all!

One thing for sure is that it is not going to be easy. The Championship is stronger than ever and if Bristol City are to recapture the form that saw them finish fourth last season, they are going to have to up their game even further. Nicky Maynard will be hoping to help them do just that.

Suggesting that the move is near completion, Stephen Wright is set to make an appearance for the Sky Blues when they take on Livingston tomorrow night. Should he impress in this game and the one against Kilmarnock on Saturday, he should complete his move to the Ricoh arena before the opening game of the season against Norwich City.

If Stephen Wright does sign on the dotted line, he will join Freddy Eastwood as a new arrival at the club. Speaking of the former Southend striker, I hope he does well this year. I don’t think he was given enough chances at Wolves to impress and at Coventry if he is given enough games – he will deliver. I am confident about that.

So what about Coventry’s hopes for the season? Well, according to the Championship football odds, they are more likely to get relegated than promoted. Considering they only avoided dropping to League One on the final day of last season – this is hardly surprising.

However, Chris Coleman is a good manager and he will be expecting a lot more from his team during his first full season in charge. The former Fulham boss will be expecting lots from the likes of Leon Best, Julian Gray, Elliot Ward and of course Freddy Eastwood. If these players perform to their maximum and a good team spirit is developed, then relegation shouldn’t be an issue.

Promotion talk is premature though and if I was to consider the outcome of Coventry’s season right now I would predict a mid-table finish. It will be an improvement on last year and considering how competitive the Championship is, that would be a good achievement for Chris Coleman’s men. In my opinion anyway. Whether Stephen Wright is part of this should become clear in the next few days.