(UEFA) Football Thread - Football not Soccer
- Thread starter Jax
- Start date
Regards the Championship, Middlesborough to win it, Derby to finish somewhere between 12th and 6th, Forest to finish one place under Derby, Leicester to finish one place under Forest, Newcastle to finish in the bottom 3 (please!!!)
Seriously though I'm with HappyDayRiot, it'll be a very open league and I reckon somebody completely unexpected will get promoted.
Seriously though I'm with HappyDayRiot, it'll be a very open league and I reckon somebody completely unexpected will get promoted.
^ Cardiff will do. I'm seeing some people tipping Forest, Leicester and Doncaster for the play-offs mind you and even I think that's crazy. Yet, this year, it could happen. In fact, the only teams I've not seen tipped for the top 10 are Palace, Plymouth, Barnsley and Scunthorpe.
Wait... Everton above Arsenal? Brave. I like it. But what's putting Blackburn so high?
Wait... Everton above Arsenal? Brave. I like it. But what's putting Blackburn so high?
Paul Fletcher on the BBC said Palace had a chance! Nobody seems to think Derby have much of a chance but I'm quite glad about that. A nice safe sedate season with maybe a tilt at the playoffs would be nice, it'd just be great to be in the top half all season really.
I've heard some Cardiff fanns being quite pessamistic about this coming season, glad to see you're not one of them.
It pains me to say it, but I won't be surprised if Forest finish above Derby this year, and it wouldn't surprise me if they hit the playoffs. I detest the man but Billy knows what it takes to do well in this league...of course he hasn't a clue what it takes to do well in the Prem, and has a habit of blaming anyone but himself when things turn pearshaped, his teams don't play pretty football and his transfer policy involves 87.3% of his signings being either players he's managed before, Scottish, or Scottish players he's managed before
so the flipside to promotion would be him throwing his toys out of the pram, leaving Forest in the shit and moaning that "The board didn't back him."
My view hasn't changed from when Nigel Clough took over, Billy will have the greater short term impact at Forest, but if he's given time Nigel will have a much better long term positive impact on Derby, IMO.
Yes Everton above Arsenal. I like Arsenal better than the rest of the top 4, but if one of them is going to slip up, chances are it will be them. I'd have backed Villa for 4th but I wasn't impressed with how O'Neill screwed up the tail end of a great season, and his signings this summer haven't been inspired. (although who knows maybe a fit again downing coming into the team for the second have of the season will prove an inspired decision...but I doubt it!)
Blackburn...well Big Sam is a good manager (let's face it Newcastle should have stuck with him) and I think they'll do ok.
I've heard some Cardiff fanns being quite pessamistic about this coming season, glad to see you're not one of them.
It pains me to say it, but I won't be surprised if Forest finish above Derby this year, and it wouldn't surprise me if they hit the playoffs. I detest the man but Billy knows what it takes to do well in this league...of course he hasn't a clue what it takes to do well in the Prem, and has a habit of blaming anyone but himself when things turn pearshaped, his teams don't play pretty football and his transfer policy involves 87.3% of his signings being either players he's managed before, Scottish, or Scottish players he's managed before
so the flipside to promotion would be him throwing his toys out of the pram, leaving Forest in the shit and moaning that "The board didn't back him." My view hasn't changed from when Nigel Clough took over, Billy will have the greater short term impact at Forest, but if he's given time Nigel will have a much better long term positive impact on Derby, IMO.
Yes Everton above Arsenal. I like Arsenal better than the rest of the top 4, but if one of them is going to slip up, chances are it will be them. I'd have backed Villa for 4th but I wasn't impressed with how O'Neill screwed up the tail end of a great season, and his signings this summer haven't been inspired. (although who knows maybe a fit again downing coming into the team for the second have of the season will prove an inspired decision...but I doubt it!)
Blackburn...well Big Sam is a good manager (let's face it Newcastle should have stuck with him) and I think they'll do ok.
That'll be two hard games. I don't care much for Mowbray and frankly I don't think Celtic fans are that enthused either, but they'll put up a fight and any bad performance from Arsenal will be exploited.
I think the reasons behind the pessimism are mainly to do with losing Johnson, as he really was our best defender, and the question marks over Ledley and McCormack' futures. Hopefully Ledley will stay, but McCormack has gone way downhill in lot of people's estimations. His utter disrespect for the club is very apparent from his complete lack of effort at the most crucial point of last season and his jonesing for a move to ^&%ing Hull. Add in that his goals have dried up and he can't even score from the spot anymore, and that's a lot of goals to lose from last year's side. Bothroyd is hardly prolific and Chopra may not click back into the division. He barely seems to know where he is sometimes. But then, we never knew what our best strikeforce was anyway, so that hardly bothers me.
But why be pessimistic? We have a shiny new stadium that compared to Ninian Park is like stepping into the 33rd century (Electronic card-readers in place of tickets? Seats!?). We have a pretty solid back line even without Johnson, much better than some of the defences on show in this division. Not that we can buy a decent goalkeeper for love nor money, mind you. The signings look decent, Gerrard in particular looks very promising if he can make the step up from League One. Chris Burke is fit, as far as I know, so should get some good attacks in down the wing. And we got rid of Parry too, who was taking up precious parts of the wage bill for doing very little of late. And best of all, Swansea are massively weakened in terms of both manager and player staff, so we can get some joy out of the derby games (and hopefully overshadow the violence for once!).
So yes, I will be at the game tomorrow, we will take on Scunthorpe and start the season as we mean to go on (until the annual collapse, but hopefully we can delay that even longer this year!)
This is a team who've paid £12m for an injured winger who's not as good as the one they've already got and about £8m for an untested League One player. No player in League One can possibly be worth half that amount. Villa need more and better signings and quickly, otherwise City are taking their spot, especially once the Euro games kick in.
Rapid against Villa - oh great, I estimate our chance of advancing somewhere between 3 and 4%... 
Werder against FK Aktobe ... that's 3300 km away.
BTW, Aktobe managed the feat of playing 0:0 in the first leg of their CL Qual., leading by 3:0 in the second leg away and then losing 3:4.
I thought you'd like that.Rapid against Villa - oh great, I estimate our chance of advancing somewhere between 3 and 4%...
BTW, Aktobe managed the feat of playing 0:0 in the first leg of their CL Qual., leading by 3:0 in the second leg away and then losing 3:4.
I thought you'd like that.
Well, I sort of do, at least it's a very attractive opponent, and we can make some much needed money out of this, but I really would've liked to get into the group phase this year.
BTW, Aktobe managed the feat of playing 0:0 in the first leg of their CL Qual., leading by 3:0 in the second leg away and then losing 3:4.
That's impressive, but I'm pretty sure they are the kind of teams you have to take seriously to beat, even for a club like Werder...
Sure. One thing they have going for them for example is that they're in the middle of the season so should not have to still learn to play with new teammates.
Football season starts today, Middlesborough v Sheff Utd. It will be interesting to see how Boro do this season, perhaps Southgate will do better out of the Premiership spotlight. And my beloved Southampton face Millwall tomorrow which is on Sky Sports 
^ Boro is on Sky too. And Newcastle on BBC1 tomorrow. It's brilliant.
Why on earth is the Boro game tonight though? Strange bit of scheduling for the opening weekend.
Why on earth is the Boro game tonight though? Strange bit of scheduling for the opening weekend.
They often have lower league games on Fridays. I guess this means that they have Championship beginning today, League 1 tomorrow then the Community Sheild on Sunday so it's a whole weekend.
Friday night games are common enough yeah... but the very first game of the season? Between two teams who both wish they were in the Premiership but aren't as well - harsh!
All right...
Premier League
1. Chelsea
2. Man United
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool
5. Everton
6. Man City
7. Villa
8. Spurs
9. Wigan
10. West Ham
11. Sunderland
12. Fulham
13. Blackburn
14. Bolton
15. Wolves
16. Stoke
17. Burnley
--------
18. Portsmouth
19. Birmingham
20. Hull
Prepare for some hefty doses of second season syndrome. In Hull's case, a lethal dosage if we're lucky.
Liverpool need more players, it's as simple as that for me. Maybe Aquilani will be good for them, but he's not going to be fully ready for action until the winter at least, and they don't have enough firepower for me, especially if the miracle-men get crocked. Rafa has made a mistake not to go for more attacking players, and his back-up is inferior to Chelsea and Man United.
I have a lot of time for Martinez and if he clicks in this division Wigan are in for a good reason. Who knows, year 5 could be the year they finally beat a top 4 team.
Fulham will never come close to last season and I imagine the Europa League will hurt them more than Villa or Everton.
Wolves and Burnley have good firepower and should be all right if they keep it tight at the back and concentrate on taking points off the bottom 10. Birmingham have Cameron Jerome and Marcus Bent - enough said. They've also put a lot of money into Christian Benitez, who could be a costly flop.
Championship
1. West Brom
2. Sheff U
3. Boro
4. Cardiff
5. Ipswich
6. Reading/Preston
7. Preston/Reading
8. Bristol City
9. QPR
10. Forest
11. Swansea
12. Derby
13. Wednesday
14. Palace
15. Doncaster
16. Leicester
17. Coventry
18. Peterborough
19. Blackpool
20. Watford
21. Barnsley
---------
22. Newcastle (if they don't sort themselves out by November)
23. Scunthorpe
24. Plymouth
Relegation from this division is impossible to predict. I wouldn't be surprised to see Watford down there again, especially if they let Smith or Priskin go. Ian Holloway is at Blackpool so god only knows what will happen to them this year. And Briatore will probably fire so many managers at QPR they could struggle too, though probably not badly enough to drop. Can't imagine why Magilton went there.
Premier League
1. Chelsea
2. Man United
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool
5. Everton
6. Man City
7. Villa
8. Spurs
9. Wigan
10. West Ham
11. Sunderland
12. Fulham
13. Blackburn
14. Bolton
15. Wolves
16. Stoke
17. Burnley
--------
18. Portsmouth
19. Birmingham
20. Hull
Prepare for some hefty doses of second season syndrome. In Hull's case, a lethal dosage if we're lucky.
Liverpool need more players, it's as simple as that for me. Maybe Aquilani will be good for them, but he's not going to be fully ready for action until the winter at least, and they don't have enough firepower for me, especially if the miracle-men get crocked. Rafa has made a mistake not to go for more attacking players, and his back-up is inferior to Chelsea and Man United.
I have a lot of time for Martinez and if he clicks in this division Wigan are in for a good reason. Who knows, year 5 could be the year they finally beat a top 4 team.
Fulham will never come close to last season and I imagine the Europa League will hurt them more than Villa or Everton.
Wolves and Burnley have good firepower and should be all right if they keep it tight at the back and concentrate on taking points off the bottom 10. Birmingham have Cameron Jerome and Marcus Bent - enough said. They've also put a lot of money into Christian Benitez, who could be a costly flop.
Championship
1. West Brom
2. Sheff U
3. Boro
4. Cardiff
5. Ipswich
6. Reading/Preston
7. Preston/Reading
8. Bristol City
9. QPR
10. Forest
11. Swansea
12. Derby
13. Wednesday
14. Palace
15. Doncaster
16. Leicester
17. Coventry
18. Peterborough
19. Blackpool
20. Watford
21. Barnsley
---------
22. Newcastle (if they don't sort themselves out by November)
23. Scunthorpe
24. Plymouth
Relegation from this division is impossible to predict. I wouldn't be surprised to see Watford down there again, especially if they let Smith or Priskin go. Ian Holloway is at Blackpool so god only knows what will happen to them this year. And Briatore will probably fire so many managers at QPR they could struggle too, though probably not badly enough to drop. Can't imagine why Magilton went there.
I wish, while we have a wonderful attack and central midfield not too mention Gunter at this level will be one of the best right backs in the league...We need a classy centre back to partner Chambers (Wilson & Morgan are only good enough to be cover) and with an injury prone Bennett we are very suspectable at left back. Also we still lack a playmaker on the wing ever since Commons left.
I think top 15 is best case this season, we will score enough but concede too many to push for a top 12 spot this year. Looking good though for a 5 year plan to get out of championship with 1 already down.
To be honest 6-24 could be those teams in any order, but Forest have outspent everyone else in the division I figure that's a justification for putting them 10th. I like Gunter a lot too - regular first team action will make him better for Wales, cos god knows we need some better players.
The Newcastle game is about to start on BBC1. I like that regular football is back on TV. Also, if Newcastle do a Norwich...
Espanyol Captain Daniel Jarque, aged 26, was found dead in his hotel room at their training camp in Italy. The player was talking on the phone with his girlfriend when for unknown reasons he suffered a heart attack and stopped talking.
His fellow players became worried when he failed to turn up to a meal.
Jarque's last match as Captain was the 3-0 win over Liverpool to officially open Estadi Cornellà-El Prat
RIP. Thoughts are with his family, especially his girlfriend who "witnessed" his death
His fellow players became worried when he failed to turn up to a meal.
Jarque's last match as Captain was the 3-0 win over Liverpool to officially open Estadi Cornellà-El Prat
RIP. Thoughts are with his family, especially his girlfriend who "witnessed" his death
