The Premier League Thread - 2024/25

[Kenilworthy]

3 hours ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Those hoping that Man City will be deducted points - hilarious.

Everton will probably get a marginal one again.

Leicester will get maybe ten points (if we’re lucky).

I don’t think Forest will.

I see our rivals this season being Forest, Brentford, Ipswich, Fulham with Leicester and Everton only being rivals due to the points deductions. This is a big season to be promoted because immediately we are on a positive footing compared to others.

I would also factor in Brighton, Bournemouth and Wolves as teams that could struggle. Even though they were untroubled last season it doesn't take much more than a poor choice of managers or bad transfers to drag you down, as we saw in the decline from a very comfortable finish in 2016/17 to a lucky escape in 2017/18. And who knows what West Ham will be like?

[Midfield_General]

27 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Absolutely no idea how Everton got Ancelotti as a manger. 

I know. It’s like Pep deciding to have a crack at the Brentford job.

But it was the money of course - it was the height of the Moshiri/ Usmanov spunkathon, when they pissed hundreds of unsustainable millions up the wall, kick-starting the series of events which sees them now so utterly in the shit. 

Edited June 2 by Midfield_General

[Saint Gifford]

According to Phil Thomas from that unbelievably reliable thrilling read in the Sun on Sunday. 
 

Like last season he is revelling in the fact he got right the 3 going up coming straight back down.

He written off Saints Leicester and Ipswich off like we have all come up from the conference. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

What a plank……….

 

 

 

[S-Clarke]

21 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

I know. It’s like Pep deciding to have a crack at the Brentford job.

But it was the money of course - it was the height of the Moshiri/ Usmanov spunkathon, when they pissed hundreds of unsustainable millions up the wall, kick-starting the series of events which sees them now so utterly in the shit. 

And amazingly the Everton fans were happy to see him go, as he hadn't quite 'done it for them' in his second season. Banter club.

[FarehamSaintJames]

6 hours ago, Kenilworthy said:

I would also factor in Brighton, Bournemouth and Wolves as teams that could struggle. Even though they were untroubled last season it doesn't take much more than a poor choice of managers or bad transfers to drag you down, as we saw in the decline from a very comfortable finish in 2016/17 to a lucky escape in 2017/18. And who knows what West Ham will be like?

Probably a fair point with Brighton. I think Wolves and Bournemouth and Palace have kicked on enough to not be a part of the dog fight. 

[Dman]

23 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I think our loan signings were the success stories this season, and by all accounts they weren't 'club scouted' options - they were managers picks and/or DoF (Wilcox) setups.

Fraser - Martin knew him well, manager pick. THB - Wilcox setup. Downes - Martin knew him well, as well as his coaching staff. Manager pick. Brooks - Wilcox setup.

Of the signings that were more 'club wide' based on scouting etc and not based on any specific manager relationships, it's a very poor show. Charles, Stewart, Holgate, Rothwell.

The jury is still totally out on our recruitment under SR imo. Like you say, it'll be interesting to see what we do this summer and who we actually lean on for the recommendations.

I actually think Stewart was a good signing, in terms of ability - espeically at that level. Had he been fit, I think we'd have had a good crack at winning the leauge.

I guess you can't odds him getting a second long term injury in the same season.  

[S-Clarke]

40 minutes ago, Dman said:

I actually think Stewart was a good signing, in terms of ability - espeically at that level. Had he been fit, I think we'd have had a good crack at winning the leauge.

I guess you can't odds him getting a second long term injury in the same season.  

He'd only done 6 months at Championship level pre-injury though, we signed him based on that and with a pre-existing injury. It was a daft move that backfired exactly how everyone knew it would.

[notnowcato]

34 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

He'd only done 6 months at Championship level pre-injury though, we signed him based on that and with a pre-existing injury. It was a daft move that backfired exactly how everyone knew it would.

Are you sure about that?

[Dusic]

Would imagine that, at best, one of the promoted clubs will stay up.

We probably picked one of the worst years to be relegated and then promoted as the PL looks verybstrong next season and a couple of the teams you would normally look at to struggle like Palace and Bournemouth appear fairly well set.

Hard to really see us being superior to any of last season's PL sides that stayed up without some really effective recruitment and even then it will be very tough because of the vast sums spent throughout the division and amount of good managers these days.

 

[S-Clarke]

38 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Would imagine that, at best, one of the promoted clubs will stay up.

We probably picked one of the worst years to be relegated and then promoted as the PL looks verybstrong next season and a couple of the teams you would normally look at to struggle like Palace and Bournemouth appear fairly well set.

Hard to really see us being superior to any of last season's PL sides that stayed up without some really effective recruitment and even then it will be very tough because of the vast sums spent throughout the division and amount of good managers these days.

 

I'd say getting relegated was bad timing, given the quality of those coming up....but I think this is actually a decent season to be promoted back.

Everton have to sell anyone who moves before they can even look at free transfers, Leicester ditto and will be hit by up to a 15 point deduction. Ipswich are an unknown quantity and do need a lot more work than us, IMO, in terms of bringing their squad up to the level.

Brentford are drifting and will lose Tony and Mbueno this summer, could be a difficult one for them. 

I'm not saying we don't need to strengthen, we really do and we will, but it's not as daunting as some are fearing in my opinion. The standard of the PL last season was horrific.

[CSA96]

 

[Midfield_General]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

I'd say getting relegated was bad timing, given the quality of those coming up....but I think this is actually a decent season to be promoted back.

Everton have to sell anyone who moves before they can even look at free transfers, Leicester ditto and will be hit by up to a 15 point deduction. Ipswich are an unknown quantity and do need a lot more work than us, IMO, in terms of bringing their squad up to the level.

Brentford are drifting and will lose Tony and Mbueno this summer, could be a difficult one for them. 

I'm not saying we don't need to strengthen, we really do and we will, but it's not as daunting as some are fearing in my opinion. The standard of the PL last season was horrific.

Yep. Our recruitment is going to be absolutely massive. 

Of course it will be a step up, but IF (and that's a massive, bright red, flashing IF) we recruit reasonably well and are well-set-up and well-managed to wring the best out of what we have, there's at least half the league there (the likes of Bournemouth, Brentford, Everton, Fulham, Ipswich, Leicester, Forest, Wolves) where I don't see why we wouldn't look at those games thinking we could get something. They're obviously not all going to struggle, but they should all be teams considered beatable on their day. In a league where 36-37 points is probably enough to keep you up, home and away there's 48 points to play for there, just for starters, before you get to any of the big boys or even the mid-table likes of West Ham, Palace, Brighton. 

It's also worth bearing in mind that even in our relegation season, with a poor side by PL standards who were otherwise stinking the place out, we still beat Chelsea home and away, drew with Arsenal home and away, drew with Man Utd away, drew with Spurs, drew with Liverpool and beat a perfectly respectable Man City side in the league cup. That was also with a revolving door of managers, two of whom are now managing at a much lower level. Overall we were crap, and we lost way too many of the games that should have been considered 'winnable', but we also found a way to grind out results against the big boys surprisingly often. So it's not impossible. We'll need to find that again. 

Big summer of recruitment ahead, that's for sure, but I'm feeling weirdly upbeat about it at the moment. Must be the residual high of the play-off final not worn off yet. It will probably instantly evaporate the moment the fixtures come out and shit gets real. 

Edited June 3 by Midfield_General

[Holmes_and_Watson]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

I'd say getting relegated was bad timing, given the quality of those coming up....but I think this is actually a decent season to be promoted back.

Everton have to sell anyone who moves before they can even look at free transfers, Leicester ditto and will be hit by up to a 15 point deduction. Ipswich are an unknown quantity and do need a lot more work than us, IMO, in terms of bringing their squad up to the level.

Brentford are drifting and will lose Tony and Mbueno this summer, could be a difficult one for them. 

I'm not saying we don't need to strengthen, we really do and we will, but it's not as daunting as some are fearing in my opinion. The standard of the PL last season was horrific.

I take Dusic's point, as we're not looking at Luton, Sheff It's or Burnley. Although I didn't know that Burnley would struggle quite as much.

We're looking for strong recruitment in half a dozen first team areas. So, it hinges on that. Having been down just a year, we've still got some decent players in the squad. The mentality is much better, and Martin and the team will know exactly the type of player needed to improve the philosophy he sticks to.

So, it could be a lot worse.

[SNSUN]

Whatever happens next season, we somehow got out of one of the toughest Championship leagues of all time, meaning we (most likely) keep our best players in KWP and now THB. The Prem may be tough next season but the other alternative was losing the play off final, losing any chance we had of keeping our best players and rebuilding. We should attract players this summer that we wouldn't have dreamed of had we still been in the Championship. Points deductions of other teams will help us but I reckon we're in a better place next season than we were in our last Prem season. It's exciting times.

[Saint Gifford]

To everyone’s point, I don’t think we will be a “fish out of water” next season.  
 

Some clever investment in the squad, the obvious commitment of funds and loyalty to the club by Dragon, should be ok.

Never gonna win the league, decent run in one of the cups stay up and that  would be a great season.

My biggest concern next season is we start buggering about with managers and the slightest hint of issues like last time we were in the Prem.

I have never been an admirer of RM, and thought we could do better. But stand corrected and hope we give the bloke a well deserved go. 

Hope we don’t do an Adkins at the first opportunity. 
 

 

 

 

[sandwichsaint]

Going to be massively hard to stay up, so much depending on the recruitment.

Leic likely to go down if they get a decent number of points docked(10?). Ipswich a bit unknown, manager has stayed for big money, they have that crazy-gang/momentum thing, they will be able to comfortably afford to spend up to their limits. 

Little old us, has the leopard RM really changed his spots since Baz's injury? Or will we revert to walking football, possession for possession's sake, with the added bonus of the new recruits needing lots of games to learn the playbook.

Given that we could get above Leic and Ipswich (we didn't last year) we would have to then over haul one of the established sides; presumably Forest or Everton would be likeliest, beyond that I would look at Brighton, Wolves, maybe Fulham. 

Massive task, if you consider that getting promoted was a par score for RM, I would say that keeping us up next year is a much bigger ask. Interesting times, let's see what the recruitment brings.

[S-Clarke]

Man City hitting the ball back and now launching legal proceedings against the PL for some financial stuff, not that I truly understand what they're going on about.

I'm just waiting for the announcement when it's confirmed that Man City's 120 charges are finally brushed under the big carpet at FA HQ.

[Toussaint]

Man City are cunts (copyright C word courtesy of Wade Garrett)

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

Man City hitting the ball back and now launching legal proceedings against the PL for some financial stuff, not that I truly understand what they're going on about.

I'm just waiting for the announcement when it's confirmed that Man City's 120 charges are finally brushed under the big carpet at FA HQ.

Unlimited spending power an unequal voting rights, ie lesser clubs have a lesser vote based on wealth as I understand it. Hope they get kicked out the league 

[Saint_Ash]

They're not going to get much sympathy "we want to spend more money than we're allowed, even though we spend more than everyone anyway". This smacks of attacking first before all the charges come out, if they win their charges will be thrown out. Looks like an admission of guilt to me.

[S-Clarke]

13 hours ago, Toussaint said:

Unlimited spending power an unequal voting rights, ie lesser clubs have a lesser vote based on wealth as I understand it. Hope they get kicked out the league 

Yep, just read a bit more on it this morning. Basically they are trying to complain about some of the rules that they say they didn't break, but they want them changed so they can operate within them. Hmm. I smell something.

As much as most neutrals want to see them punished, the leagues/FA do not have the guts to do anything meaningful to clubs like City. They bring the PL/FA a lot of money in their European exploits and player recruitment, raises the profile of the league etc - the PL will want to protect that at all costs.

Doesn't matter if little old Forest or Leicester overspend, dock them points until the cows come home as it won't harm the leagues pull - but god forbid they stopped Man City being able to bring in the next Hallanad - that's why nothing will happen with City.

[revolution saint]

45 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Yep, just read a bit more on it this morning. Basically they are trying to complain about some of the rules that they say they didn't break, but they want them changed so they can operate within them. Hmm. I smell something.

As much as most neutrals want to see them punished, the leagues/FA do not have the guts to do anything meaningful to clubs like City. They bring the PL/FA a lot of money in their European exploits and player recruitment, raises the profile of the league etc - the PL will want to protect that at all costs.

Doesn't matter if little old Forest or Leicester overspend, dock them points until the cows come home as it won't harm the leagues pull - but god forbid they stopped Man City being able to bring in the next Hallanad - that's why nothing will happen with City.

I don't really know much about the Man City case but did watch a video where the impression I got was that Everton, Forest and the others were easy to spot (it's in their accounts) whereas the accusations against City and Chelsea are that they've cooked their books which is obviously more serious and potentially criminal.  It's also why the investigations are taking so long - they're cases that hold a lot of jeopardy.

Could be wrong on that, seems quite complicated.

[AlexLaw76]

57 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

I don't really know much about the Man City case but did watch a video where the impression I got was that Everton, Forest and the others were easy to spot (it's in their accounts) whereas the accusations against City and Chelsea are that they've cooked their books which is obviously more serious and potentially criminal.  It's also why the investigations are taking so long - they're cases that hold a lot of jeopardy.

Could be wrong on that, seems quite complicated.

Also, Everton and forest admitted their breaches, city have not

or something like that.

[S-Clarke]

There was chatter about VAR maybe being binned next season, but it's here to stay.

The big boys have spoken and they don't want it scrapped, so little old clubs will have to suck it up.

There is talk of them 'tweaking it' some more though, so I guess we have that to look forward to again next year! This year has been so much more authentic without VAR.

[CSA96]

23 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

There was chatter about VAR maybe being binned next season, but it's here to stay.

The big boys have spoken and they don't want it scrapped, so little old clubs will have to suck it up.

There is talk of them 'tweaking it' some more though, so I guess we have that to look forward to again next year! This year has been so much more authentic without VAR.

Believe they are planning to open up ref comms when it comes to explaining decisions, a bit like in some of the US sports where you can voice a decision to the fans/broadcast from a live mic on the sideline monitor.

Edited June 5 by CSA96

[CSA96]

 

[badgerx16]

On 31/05/2024 at 10:41, Dman said:

They could get deduced 50 - 60 points and would still stay up. 

I suspect that's what'll happen - the PL will deduct them a stupid amount of points, but enough to give them a chance of staying up. 

Ultimatley, its not in the best interests of the PL to relegat one of its biggest sides. 

Scottish PL relegated Rangers.

[Whitey Grandad]

15 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

Believe they are planning to open up ref comms when it comes to explaining decisions, a bit like in some of the US sports where you can voice a decision to the fans/broadcast from a live mic on the sideline monitor.

That will just lead to more arguments.

[Doctoroncall]

With Man City’s legal action against Premier League over sponsorship rules and there by how much states/owners can pump in cash, how much longer does anyone think the PL will last?

[Micky]

One things for sure, it'll be a lot harder to stay in the Premiere League this season than it was last season.  So bad were the bottom 3 that 27 points saw you safe.  Everton, with an 8 point deduction,  survived comfortably on 40 points.  I doubt that points deductions this season to Everton, City or Leicester will make very much difference to where we finish at the end of the season.  This year's premiere league is much stronger than last, if we want to stay in it, we've got to do the business and not rely on others to mess up. 

[Midfield_General]

12 hours ago, CSA96 said:

 

Would be a good appointment for them on the face of it, though he’s not really a possession-based manager, so if he comes in then either he or the current team might need to adapt their approach. He’s not a like-for-like swap for Maresca in terms of style of play. 

[CSA96]

 

[saintant]

1 hour ago, Doctoroncall said:

With Man City’s legal action against Premier League over sponsorship rules and there by how much states/owners can pump in cash, how much longer does anyone think the PL will last?

Time to expel Man City from the league and any other team that is funded by a foreign nation. Let them play in their own super league - they won't be missed and most fans are sick to death of this buying of success. The playing field needs to be levelled to make it more interesting and enjoyable. Chuck them out.

[Hayling Saint]

1 minute ago, saintant said:

Time to expel Man City from the league and any other team that is funded by a foreign nation. Let them play in their own super league - they won't be missed and most fans are sick to death of this buying of success. The playing field needs to be levelled to make it more interesting and enjoyable. Chuck them out.

Totally agree with this.

[CSA96]

 

[SNSUN]

44 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

 

Does this mean we can officially say "this season"? As in "I enjoyed our play-off win last season and I hope we can finish mid-table this season"?

Also, we're 17th. Russell has done an excellent job so far in his debut Prem season.

[Saint Scott]

 

Edited June 6 by Saint Scott
Wrong Link

[Doctoroncall]

24 minutes ago, saintant said:

Time to expel Man City from the league and any other team that is funded by a foreign nation. Let them play in their own super league - they won't be missed and most fans are sick to death of this buying of success. The playing field needs to be levelled to make it more interesting and enjoyable. Chuck them out.

I agree that it would be great to have more of a level playing field where talent has a bigger say in success.  however, I think it would be hard to kick any team out as they would have the financial muscle to tie up any expulsion for years. Even a set up of a new league would be problematic. 
 

It would seem to the situation is only going to get worse before it gets better. 

[aintforever]

58 minutes ago, saintant said:

most fans are sick to death of this buying of success.

What Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal did before?

[skintsaint]

VAR voted to stay..19 to 1.

[Midfield_General]

Wolves the only club to vote to scrap it 

[CSA96]

[AlexLaw76]

1 hour ago, saintant said:

Time to expel Man City from the league and any other team that is funded by a foreign nation. Let them play in their own super league - they won't be missed and most fans are sick to death of this buying of success. The playing field needs to be levelled to make it more interesting and enjoyable. Chuck them out.

ah right, football is not fair when we not one of the big dogs of the league....got it

[saintant]

20 minutes ago, aintforever said:

What Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal did before?

It has become far worse now. Back then Saints would often give those teams a bloody nose but the squads of the elites these days make it almost impossible to do that.

[Midfield_General]

3 minutes ago, saintant said:

It has become far worse now. Back then Saints would often give those teams a bloody nose but the squads of the elites these days make it almost impossible to do that.

Just to be contrary, in our relegation season we beat Chelsea home and away, drew with Arsenal home and away, drew with Man Utd away, drew with Spurs, drew with Liverpool and knocked a very decent Man City side out of the league cup. Our problem was that we were absolutely shite against everyone else. 

[saintant]

10 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

ah right, football is not fair when we not one of the big dogs of the league....got it

What a simplistic view. None of us realistically expect to be one of the big dogs but it's clear that the Premier League would be more interesting, exciting and fair if something was done about the ridiculous spending power of the clubs owned by consortiums or countries that spend absurd amounts and thereby inflate the price of even the most ordinary players.

[AlexLaw76]

Just now, saintant said:

What a simplistic view. None of us realistically expect to be one of the big dogs but it's clear that the Premier League would be more interesting, exciting and fair if something was done about the ridiculous spending power of the clubs owned by consortiums or countries that spend absurd amounts and thereby inflate the price of even the most ordinary players.

you could argue that last season...or even when we were in League 1 - which was totally mental with the financial disparity 

[SNSUN]

17 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

VAR voted to stay..19 to 1.

Last time I saw a blow for Wolves like that I was watching Liam Neeson in The Grey.

For what it's worth I think technology does have it's place and it isn't going away - it just needs to be done right. None of this bullshit wonky lines stuff or pubic hair over the line stuff - just important stuff. Decisions need to be quicker or not at all and everything needs to be clearer and more transparent. 

[Dragon_man]

1 hour ago, Hayling Saint said:

Totally agree with this.

Felt like I was a lone voice supporting that European super league when it came about a few years ago. I couldn't understand the outrage. Let those mega teams with infitinte budgets and dodgy lawyers go and play with themselves. Adios! It'll all go WWF in the end anyway, while a reconstituted top flight English league without the top 6 would be a proper football league, real competition with a true fanbase.

Of course the teams left behind would lose some revenue because the top 6 don't come to town, so they'd adjust player salaries downwards to compensate which wouldn't be bad thing. Che Adams would have to live on 25k a week instead of 50k a week, poor thing.

       

[Gingeletiss]

6 minutes ago, Dragon_man said:

Felt like I was a lone voice supporting that European super league when it came about a few years ago. I couldn't understand the outrage. Let those mega teams with infitinte budgets and dodgy lawyers go and play with themselves. Adios! It'll all go WWF in the end anyway, while a reconstituted top flight English league without the top 6 would be a proper football league, real competition with a true fanbase.

Of course the teams left behind would lose some revenue because the top 6 don't come to town, so they'd adjust player salaries downwards to compensate which wouldn't be bad thing. Che Adams would have to live on 25k a week instead of 50k a week, poor thing.

       

Trouble is, they wanted the super league, and a reduced team premiership, so they could have the best of both worlds. I agree, get rid, but they have to go completely.