Transfer window open soon. As a Liverpool fan urgent work to be done in the engine room.
I never thought I would say it, however Luton away has a romantic charm to it.
Transfer window open soon. As a Liverpool fan urgent work to be done in the engine room.
I never thought I would say it, however Luton away has a romantic charm to it.
I'd like to see Villa finish in the top six this season. Just as long as we don't do a West Ham and do well in the Europa Conference League at the expense of league position. The club's owners started investing heavily in the academy (Jacob Ramsey won the 2023 Premier League academy graduate award) and that is going to start paying off, along with what looks like being a very decent war chest for new signings. Unai Emery certainly means business.
"A man of little significance"
Unai is a decent manager, his turnaround of Villa has been quite remarkable
My predictions are....
Winners: City
Top 4: City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool
Relegated: Luton, Sheffield United and Everton
Sticking your neck out? :-)Originally Posted by TaketheCannoli
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Haha, just how I see it. I take Burnley to stay up and Spurs under Steve Bruce in just avoid the drop.
Roma take the lead, always liked Jose.
Problem is managers at lower level clubs appear to be doing well with lower level budgets and to some degree punching above their weight and everyone thinks great, how marvellous would they be at a top team with quality players and more resources. Moyes Everton to Man Utd, Potter Brighton to Chelsea, Gerrard Rangers to Villa, Lampard Derby to Chelsea.
Get my point, it rarely works.
More importantly where do you see yourselves?
I think next year will be City winning (and for the next 5+ years), Chelsea pushing them the most but still ending up way behind in 2nd.
Top eight. I think being in the Champions League will stretch our squad and we'll struggle to maintain such a lofty league finish. We desperately need to add quality and quantity due to being ahead of schedule. Outside of our first 13 or 14 we're really, really poor. I also think we've been pretty lucky with injuries this season and you rarely get two seasons in a row like that.
I fancy Dyche to haul Everton clear of trouble this year.
Europa final turned into a farce. I’d love to put some of these wimps up against the All Blacks.
Aside from 19-year-old Jhon Durán, who only made a handful of appearances from the bench (and remarkably was our reserve striker after Ings left in January), Emery only brought in one regular starter in January - Álex Moreno, who's been excellent at left back. The rest of the squad was already there, albeit without much support from a depleted bench. Had Watkins, Martinez or Mings picked up unjuries we wouldn't have finished where we did.
"A man of little significance"
Premier league thread I know but amazed nobody has mentioned the Europa league final on tonight, hope Roma absolutely destroy them.
We had them last season in the Cup. Believe me, there's nothing romantic about Luton.
1 City
2 United / Arsenal
3 United / Arsenal
4 Chelsea / Newcastle
5 Chelsea / Newcastle
6 Liverpool / Spurs
7 Liverpool / Spurs
Only because I'm a supporter...
1 City / United
2 United / Arsenal/City
3 United / Arsenal
4 Chelsea / Newcastle
5 Chelsea / Newcastle
6 Liverpool / Spurs
7 Liverpool / Spurs
More realistically, I'd take the above for 24/25.
"United" ? You've four to choose from in the Premier League next season.......still boils my piss that one!
It's boiled mine for years. Shows the pretentiousness of the club and the bias of the media.
I struggle to see why, other than blind faith, anyone would put Chelsea in the top 6 -let alone top 4- based on this year showing.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
Big final, let’s play 90 mins, followed by another 30 mins and then some penalties for the spectacle.
Let’s hope City put 6 past both United and Inter and we don’t have to give up a full night to each final.
I think City will make light work of both of those. I say both will be over in 90 mins.
The gap between City and the others is just too big, so I tip them to win the PL again. Other teams like Arsenal and Man Utd are improving but I don’t see them closing the gap next season, it may take 2 to 3 seasons if they can continue to build.
Liverpool and Chelsea are a bit of an unknown, both have decent squads but are both teams in transition so it depends on who they buy and sell in the summer. Both of these could either be top 4 or equally finish 7th and 8th.
Spurs and Newcastle will be the best of the rest at the top with Villa and Brighton fighting them for the final euro places.
Neck out time, I think Everton will avoid a relegation scrap next season and we will finish 10th to 14th, but safe with games to spare.
Burnley and Sheffield Utd will have decent first seasons back and should be safe.
Forest will face the second season struggle and I think Bournemouth will too, so Forest, Bournemouth and Luton to go down.
Much talk of City winning it again & other teams rebuilding…
City May have to recruit too if Bernardo Silva & İlkay Gündoğan leave.
z
City will walk it easily, their second team would come in the top 6 each year. They can rebuild easily enough with unlimited funds!
https://www.football365.com/news/tra...n-utd-man-city
This shows the power of the media and how it influences thinking. We play what we call City bingo when discussing media articles about us. Ticking them off as the article unfolds. The 2nd team would be in the top 4 or 6 is usually somewhere. Unlimited funds being spent is never far away, despite the facts telling a different story. You won’t go far to read about our huge squad. The reality is we have one of the smallest, but it has quality team players. By the way, you will struggle to find many match going blues that think we will walk any competition. For much of this current season many thought we were a declining team and could not have envisaged where we stand currently. We weren’t playing particularly well.
I am used to reading all the nonsense and most goes over my head, but what frustrates me is when our manager / coach doesn’t get the credit for his work. He finds a way and has changed my way of seeing the game. We buy well and have a lot of young academy players coming through. When we do buy it usually takes a season for the new player to understand the system and look like they can play at this level. Look at Jack, Nathan, Rodri, John Stones, Cancello, who were all being touted as a waste of money by other clubs supporters. What they all have in common is they eventually understand the system and are then fantastic. It.becomes engrained in them. It’s Pep’s system and many won’t appreciate his work until he is gone.
Totally agree with this, I think City will be hard to catch by any of the others and I do not expect Arsenal to get as close next season. United have issues and I think their 'improvement' is overstated but next season will show if I am wrong.
Liverpool and Chelsea require too much change for them to be considered a serious threat next season and a transition period seldom yields title challenges.
Hmmm...
City to win, of course. Man Utd and Arsenal will likely pick up 2nd and 3rd spots, in either order. I suspect that Newcastle will add significantly to the current squad to position themselves for CL football so I reckon they'll nab 4th. There are then some teams who will be in transition for the minor European places - namely Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs.
If Poch really hits the ground running (and they buy a quality striker in place of the knob Havertz) then I could see Chelsea surprising a few; they have fantastic squad depth already and just need a bit more focus/organisation to be a force again. Similarly, Liverpool are only three or four additions away from having a fighting chance for top four, let alone 5th/6th.
My lot will need a bit more work, I fear. We need the right style of manager, firstly, as most of our on-field problems have been manager-retaled. As well as getting rid of the deadwood we need at least four/five top signings (goalkeeper, defence, midfield and - should Harry go - up front). And where appropriate we need to integrate our former loanees (including Spence and Udogie, who might just be a big part of the answer defensively - especially the latter).
Anyway, my predicted top 7 is:
- City
- Man Utd/Arsenal
- Man Utd Arsenal
- Newcastle
- Liverpool/Chelsea
- Liverpool/Chelsea
- Spurs
It's going to be a very, very interesting season, I think.
Not sure about any kind of title challenge but what significant change is needed at Liverpool? The year after winning the league form fell off a cliff for much the same reason it has this year, injuries and players running out of steam. The season before last Liverpool were challenging in all competitions.
It was pretty obvious that Henderson (Who even said in the summer he was running on empty) and Fabinio needed to be rested and it seems there was a perception that with Keita and Ox and Millner there was enough back up to at least last the season, quite why anyone thought a reserve 3 of whom 2 were so injury prone could act as back up is beyond me. Jones was injured Diaz got injured early on there was a complete lack of depth.
Liverpool really need 3 decent signings 2 in midfield and one defender preferably who can play in more than one position along the back and for Gods sake just put TAA in midfield and stop flogging a dead horse trying to play him as a defender. A player with the energy of Henderson and the passing ability of Alonso and he is stuck playing a jack of all trades role.
Chelsea will be back up there in the mix the big question mark is with Spurs, they really need to get a new manager sorted fast and start getting the squad back together again because the signs are not looking good.
Absolutely agree regarding TAA. He is potentially a world class midfielder. Pep would have him in the Stones / Lewis role and I think he would possibly be better than both in there. With that freedom and his passing range he could be devastating. Instead we just hear constant criticism of his defensive frailties. He is the one player I would love to see at City and see what Pep would do with him.
He did come close to a bit of racism, people from certain countries.
Although he was speaking the truth, why try and win a match playing football when you can roll around like you have been shot by a sniper in the hope of taking it to penalties.
I would suggest Inter fall into that category, so let’s hope City are 5 or 6 nil up so they have no reason to cheat.
That Chelsea squad may need some time to bed together although I wouldn’t be surprised to see Pochettino get a tune out of them straight away.
Not convinced that Chelsea squad is all that unreal to be honest. Which one of that squad gets in the Man City side?
As an Arsenal fan I'd take Reece James and Enzo Fernández but that's it, the rest of them wouldn't get into our side.
Last edited by ryanb741; 30th May 2023 at 13:51.
What Arsenal players get into the City side?
Tough one, Saka I reckon would get in though and Odegaard as well would have a shot if they played a system whereby he played alongside KDB in a kind of David Silva role. Plus he and Haaland play together for Norway. Saliba also would be in with a shout as would Ben White as the way he plays with inverted wingers would be perfect for City. So Saka for sure, maybe Odegaard and Saliba and possibly White also.
Agree with most of that except for White. The point I’m trying to make though is that is that despite not having players that can make the best team, a squad can perform above and beyond its theoretical level. Mourinho done it for years in his early days.
Yep for sure and Pep makes good players better. Look at Nathan Ake as a great example.
As an aside rumours going round that Graham Potter is on his way to Crystal Palace.
TAA is the best right back in the world. FACT.
Sent from my M2101K6G using Tapatalk
Putting my predictions up a week before the season starts, club squads may change significantly between now and then. Keeping my powder dry.
Nah, Big Dan Burn, he's from Blyth.
Looks like its pretty much a done deal for the Celtic manager to Spurs
Seriously or are you just hoping for the best?
This has to be good business in anyones book if true.
https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/s...326633985?s=20
Incredible business if it is, most were saying it would be around 45m or above. Transfer done early doors too.
Bellingham going to Madrid for 100m glad he is going to Spain, need more English players to play their football in non English leagues.
I'm not sure he's even the best Right Back in Liverpool...
What he could be though, is an amazing half back / DM.
Fanciful thinking from diehard Liverpool fan?
Vinicius Jnr would roast him - for the whole 90mins.
Kyle Walker nullified VJ in CL semi.
I’m not say KW is the best - but he’s a better defender than TAA… & TAA is a better midfielder then KW.
… but that’s not where they play.
QED.
z
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
