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Now we the ups/downs are sorted, you predictions for next season


Deano6

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We now know it'll bet Reading and West Ham going up with us, with Wolves, Bolton and Blackburn coming down, what are your predictions for our new league next season?

 

 

I've actually been watching this division for a few years now, not just this season, so know a bit about it already. For my money the teams we need to be watching out for are the two from Manchester: United and City. Chelsea are pretty good and could be a force next season plus Arsenal always perform strongly.

 

To be honest I think these teams are the best ones and I personally don't think we'll be able to retain our coveted 2nd spot once more, but then I said something similar a year ago so who knows. My view is that we've now pretty much found our level and it won't be so easy from here on in. Even some of the teams I haven't mentioned are pretty good and may finish above us, those are Tottenham, Newcastle and maybe even Liverpool if they get themselves a good new manager.

 

 

So my prediction unfortunately is a little on the pessimistic side and say I think we'll finish 17th. I would be happy with that, I think, though wouldn't want us to finish any lower.

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With respect, the opening post was rather a statement of known facts plus the bleeding obvious. We all know who the 3 up and 3 down are. We know that the teams that finished in the top 8 of the Premier League this year are likely favourites to do similar next season. All are mentioned in the OP except poor old Everton.

 

Probably the most depressing thing this season has been that the Premier title and the Champions' League title have been taken by the two clubs that have had obscene amounts of money pumped into them and are therefore massively in debt to their owners. The third most depressing thing is that Dalgliesh, whose public personality I don't find particulary attractive but who has taken his club to the FA cup final and won the trophy, has been sacked! So winning the FA cup is no longer good enough for these wealthy foreign owners of what used to be English football clubs. As it is we are fortunate in our foreign ownership but if the Leibherr's were required to put in tens of millions to compete with the Manchesters, Liverpools and Chelseas, would they remain as benign? Who knows, because money has an insidious impact and we can see it is the main factor in which teams head the Premier League.

If we play fair, evolving the squad with 2 or 3 signings and bringing on our best young talent, we may well have team we can be proud of, but realistically it will be lucky to get as high as 10th place. Personally, I'd be happy to see us achieve that, rather than have the Leibherr's looking for a big name foreign manager to sign a team full of players who have no idea where Southampton is. One or two, fine, because you must try to compete, but not the wholesale foreign imports and their Italian manager that were parading the Premier League trophy.

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With respect, the opening post was rather a statement of known facts plus the bleeding obvious. We all know who the 3 up and 3 down are. We know that the teams that finished in the top 8 of the Premier League this year are likely favourites to do similar next season. All are mentioned in the OP except poor old Everton.

 

Probably the most depressing thing this season has been that the Premier title and the Champions' League title have been taken by the two clubs that have had obscene amounts of money pumped into them and are therefore massively in debt to their owners. The third most depressing thing is that Dalgliesh, whose public personality I don't find particulary attractive but who has taken his club to the FA cup final and won the trophy, has been sacked! So winning the FA cup is no longer good enough for these wealthy foreign owners of what used to be English football clubs. As it is we are fortunate in our foreign ownership but if the Leibherr's were required to put in tens of millions to compete with the Manchesters, Liverpools and Chelseas, would they remain as benign? Who knows, because money has an insidious impact and we can see it is the main factor in which teams head the Premier League.

If we play fair, evolving the squad with 2 or 3 signings and bringing on our best young talent, we may well have team we can be proud of, but realistically it will be lucky to get as high as 10th place. Personally, I'd be happy to see us achieve that, rather than have the Leibherr's looking for a big name foreign manager to sign a team full of players who have no idea where Southampton is. One or two, fine, because you must try to compete, but not the wholesale foreign imports and their Italian manager that were parading the Premier League trophy.

What are you going on about? Moaning about teams having money pumped into them? Are you being ironic? And Liverpool winning the FA Cup?
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What are you going on about? Moaning about teams having money pumped into them? Are you being ironic? And Liverpool winning the FA Cup?

Sorry if I wasn't clear - what I'm saying is exactly what Michel Platini is saying - that for football competitions to be meaningful, clubs should compete on a level playing field (no pun intended). The EUFA Fair Play rules might do something about it but it will be a hard fight against the vested interests. In the meantime, if Saints can make 10th in the Premier League given the imbalance of financial resources they will do very well, but many fans will simply see avoiding relegation as success.

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Sorry if I wasn't clear - what I'm saying is exactly what Michel Platini is saying - that for football competitions to be meaningful, clubs should compete on a level playing field (no pun intended). The EUFA Fair Play rules might do something about it but it will be a hard fight against the vested interests. In the meantime, if Saints can make 10th in the Premier League given the imbalance of financial resources they will do very well, but many fans will simply see avoiding relegation as success.
Like we did in League One and the Championship? Bit hypocritical I might suggest. Since when is there a definition for football competitions to be "meaningful"?
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It's a tough one... and certainly in the first season, there is a certain tradition of promoted clubs doing well. It's the so called 'second season syndrome' we need to worry about. As such, I don't think we'll get relegated. I think with the right incoming players, while keeping the decent backbone of our championship squad in action we could end up doing quite well.

 

I think 12th or 13th.

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It's a tough one... and certainly in the first season, there is a certain tradition of promoted clubs doing well. It's the so called 'second season syndrome' we need to worry about. As such, I don't think we'll get relegated. I think with the right incoming players, while keeping the decent backbone of our championship squad in action we could end up doing quite well.

 

I think 12th or 13th.

 

I'm not a big believer in second season syndrome - how many times has it actually happened? Only Hull, Reading, Ipswich and Bradford spring to mind in the last 15ish seasons (45 promoted clubs) - surely first season syndrome is more common!

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With respect, the opening post was rather a statement of known facts plus the bleeding obvious. We all know who the 3 up and 3 down are. We know that the teams that finished in the top 8 of the Premier League this year are likely favourites to do similar next season. All are mentioned in the OP except poor old Everton.

 

All teams are currently level on zero points. Nobody has any advantage over any other at this stage. Any predictions are purely guesswork of what might happen - nobody has any divine right to points. There's nothing to say I won't be completely wrong about how it will play out - indeed I was convinced Leicester would be automatically promoted in my guesses last year. Maybe one of the Manchester teams may get relegated next year, who knows?

 

So I've made my predictions, why don't you make some of your own and we can compare who was closest at the end of the season?

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All teams are currently level on zero points. Nobody has any advantage over any other at this stage. Any predictions are purely guesswork of what might happen - nobody has any divine right to points. There's nothing to say I won't be completely wrong about how it will play out - indeed I was convinced Leicester would be automatically promoted in my guesses last year. Maybe one of the Manchester teams may get relegated next year, who knows?

 

So I've made my predictions, why don't you make some of your own and we can compare who was closest at the end of the season?

 

Have you been drinking already this morning ?? :)

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I think West Ham going up just made it a whole lot harder to stay up.

 

It's only guesswork as it's so early but you have to expect relegation to be between Us, Reading, West Ham, Wigan, QPR, Norwich, Swansea and West Brom. I can't see Villa having another season that bad, Fulham, Stoke and Sunderland all have too much about them to be down there.

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got to get a good start - last season was a prime example of what getting on top early can do for confidence in a new league - that said, if we win more than 3 of our opening 10 games I would be happy! Think most of the league below 10th got somwhere between 1 and 1.5 points a game so 1 win in three it is......

 

Going to stick my neck out and say 12th - safe by Easter....

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1. Manchester City

2. Manchester United

3. Chelsea

4. Arsenal

5. Liverpool

6. Tottenham

7. Newcastle

8. Everton

9. Fulham

10. Sunderland

11. Stoke

12. Southampton

13. Swansea

14. West Ham

15. Aston Villa

16. Wigan

17. West Brom

18. Reading

19. Norwich

20. QPR

 

Be lucky to get 4 out of 20 right, but that's roughly what I think will happen.

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1. Man City

2. U Man U

3. Arsenal

4. Chelsea

5. Tottenham

6. Liverpool

7. Everton

8. Newcastle

9. Sunderland

10. SFC

11. Villa

12. Fulham

13. Wham

14. Swansea

15. Reading

16. West Brum

17. Stoke

18. Narch

19. QPR

20. Wigan

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Its 16th for me, finishing above West Brom or Wigan (disasterous manager choice likely/Martinez to go), Reading (found out), Narch or Swansea (one will implode - not sure which) and 'a big name' (maybe Fulham, maybe Wham - I'd like Stoke to finally fu.ck off cause hate the way they play, but can't see it unfortunately).

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1. Man City

2. Man Utd

3. Chelsea

4. Arsenal

------------------- (CL Qualification)

5. Liverpool

6. Spurs

7. Newcastle

------------------- (Europa Lg Qual.)

8. Sunderland

9. Everton

10. Fulham

11. Villa

12. Swansea

13. Stoke

14. SAINTS

15. West Ham

16. QPR

17. West Brom

------------------ (Relegation)

18. Norwich

19. Reading

20. Wigan

 

Man City - Will spend big in the summer, strengthening their squad while getting rid of the dead wood. Will be big pressure on them to win the title again but unless Man Utd match City in spending it's only going one way.

Man Utd - Need to strengthen their squad in a few positions, notably buying/blooding replacements for Ferdinand, Giggs and Scholes. Reckon they'll finish 2nd again.

Chelsea - Abramovich will back whoever they bring in as manager heavily with cash, and now that they've won the CL they'll be able to attract some quality players. Need to replace older players though.

Arsenal - The key thing for them is keeping hold of RVP. If they can manage to do that and bring in a few more quality players then they'll be serious contenders, esp. with young talent coming through (Oxo, Wilshere)

Liverpool - They will also spend during the summer, but the squad is there to get a Europa place imo. If they can pull off a coup and bring in a real quality player then I can see them pushing for top 4.

Spurs - 'Arry won't change too much over the summer, he might look to bring in 2 or 3 players but I think he'll be happy to keep his squad pretty much similar. Needs more strength in depth though.

Newcastle - Can't see them repeating the feats of this season, but if they can keep hold of Ba and Cisse then they'll always score goals. They need to shore up their defence though, especially at full-back.

Sunderland - I think it was a real masterstroke getting Martin O'Neill on board, he knows this league inside-out. If he can bring in a few good players they'll be a good bet for a top 8 finish.

Everton - Need to improve their squad, although getting money out of Kenwright is obviously a problem. They need another striker, as I think Jelavic will be a flash-in-the-pan player. Expect them to go for Holt.

Fulham - Solid team, if they can keep tie Pogbrenyak down to a decent contract and bring in a few players to replace their older pros and increase the size of their squad there's no reason they can't finish top half.

Villa - Had a nightmare season but they'll look to appoint a good manager with attacking prowess who can get their strikers scoring - that's the key for a decent finish for them. Keeping Bent fit as well will be vital.

Swansea - Think they might get 'found out' a bit this year and won't dominate against some teams like they did this season. Still, they quality is there to see in their squad, all they need is a striker who'll get them 15+.

Stoke - Looking to overhaul their squad which means transfers for them, but there'll be lots of competition for signatures this year and I think they'll lose out. Still, Pulis is a good manager and they ought to be safe.

SAINTS - I think our current squad might just avoid relegation, but with a few additions I think 14th is a realistic and healthy finish. This year is about establishing ourselves as a Prem team, and in NA we trust!

West Ham - Will make lots of signings but I think that could backfire on them. Allardyce will come under pressure from the fans and will probably be sacked. He was closer than you might think to going this year.

QPR - They've been a good team since January but there are lots of egos at that club which will certainly affect performances and harmony. Need some established Prem faces and cool heads, not more mercenaries.

West Brom - Decent enough squad but I don't think they'll do anything special this year. In fact unless they appoint a very good manager I can see them struggling a bit.

Norwich - I can see Lambert leaving, and I can't see them replacing him with anyone that great. They don't have a huge transfer budget and their squad is pretty average.

Reading - Possibly a controversial choice for relegation, but I don't think they'll make it. Average squad at best, although spirited. Unless they make big moves they'll be struggling.

Wigan - Can only see Martinez leaving which is a shame for them as that ultimately spells relegation for them. Not a great squad and unless somebody can work miracles on them it'll be a bad season.

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I can't see qpr going down... Mark Hughes is a good manager, I think they'll make some more sensible signings.

 

Plus were looking at sacking Barton for Gross misconduct so that frees up another £10m in wages.

 

I have:

Norwich - losing their manager

Wigan - likewise

Reading or Saints - depending on their signings.

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