Premier league predications thread 2024-25

[theforceuk]

I'm kind of hoping they do get done and have a massive points deduction, but fear the worst. So boring if they win everything again.

 

[lejackal]

Fantasy football - https://fantasy.premierleague.com/leagues/auto-join/ezigs5
Click, join, watch me come last

 

[weasel]

1) Which Man City will win the league? Man City. Best team, best squad, best manager. Just a class apart.
2) Team who finishes second behind Man City? Probably Arsenal.
3) The other two CL qualifiers, in order. Pool (though they are a complete unknown and could be brilliant, or pish) and ehh one from Utd, Spuds, Chelsea and Newcastle. I'll go for Utd as Spurs are Spurs. Chelsea are a complete mess, Newcastle don't look quite good enough and Villa have CL to distract them (hence I didn't mention them initially).
4) The three sides relegated from the PL. The three that came up I suspect. But there is a lot of dross at the bottom of the PL. I'd have no objections to Forest going down, or Everton cos their owners. And obviously Utd, Chelsea and City. But the three that came up will most likely go down.
5) Team that massively exceeds expectations. WH or Palace.
6) The team that manages to be worse than *****, despite having a solid squad. Chelsea. Too many players and a manager who strikes me as a "yes" man. Could anyone trun a 50 player squad into a team?
7) Top scorer in PL. Boring, Haaland
8) Top assister in PL. No idea, KDB, Salah, Palmer or Fernandes
9) First manager sacked. The latest Chelsea victim. Not sure about Cooper at Leicester, or the kid at Brighton (the manager is 31, I have clothes older than him. His style of footy will either take the PL by storm, or get him sacked by xmas). Nuno or whoever is in charge at Saints, Russel Martin? ******* anyone basically.
10) FAC winner. Arsenal
11) Worthless Cup winner. City
12) CL winner. City
13) CL runner up, Real (the two best sides in it, but they'll probably draw each other and some one like Juve will make the final to be cannon fodder)
14) EL winner, Spurs or Utd have a great shot at it.
15) UEFA Conference winner, Chelsea
16) The signing of the summer. That new guy at Pool, he looks pure class…..ohhh, wait. Useless *****. I lot of **** or bust signings this summer, Solanke, Yoro, DeLigt, Carvalho. All will either be great value or *****.
17) The biggest waste of money of the summer. See above. It won't be a Liverpool player anyway.
18) Random predictions. Lee Carsley to be the new Engerlund manager, cos no one else is dumb enough. VAR to continue to drop some absolute horror show clangers. The new handball interpretation to be bollcoks and changed half way through the season. Man City to get soft as **** penalties when they need them and get away with murder in their own box. Again. The new Champions League format to be as exciting as a slide show on telegraph poles, and UEFA to declare it a massive success and claim more ppl than ever have watched it. Ignoring the fact there are more games played and the fans are unanimous in their hatred of it. The City charges thing to not be resolved by the end of the season.

 

[weasel]

I'm kind of hoping they do get done and have a massive points deduction, but fear the worst. So boring if they win everything again.

I'm with you on that.
If they do get done it has to be relegation. I don't care about being stripped of titles etc. but there's no way they can get away with anything like a fine or a small ish (10-15) points deduction.
If they get away with it, it's basically open season for Newcastle and Chelsea owners to do what they like cos the PL will have as good as admitted they and FFP are powerless to stop it. And who wants to watch a league where clubs spend like Chelsea, every window? Even if it was my club I would get bored bloody quickly. It's not "winning" the league. It's buying it. There's no satisfaction in that for me.

 

[weasel]

Is that ETH winning the "First manager sacked" award?

 

[lejackal]

Mid season review:

1) Which Man City will win the league? The mighty Arse could still happen (mathematically)
2) Team who finishes second behind Man City? Liverpool could still happen (mathematically)
3) The other two CL qualifiers, in order. City, Man U mmmmm, errrrrrr
4) The three sides relegated from the PL. Everton, Forrest, Leicester two out of three maybe?
5) Team that massively exceeds expectations. The mighty Arse errrrrrr
6) The team that manages to be worse than *****, despite having a solid squad Chelsea (50 players must count as solid?) errrrrrr
7) Top scorer in PL Haaland errrrrrr
8) Top assister in PL Odegaard errrrrrr
9) First manager sacked. Enzo Maresca yeah, err, whoops
10) FAC winner The mighty Arse still in it (until the weekend)
11) Worthless Cup winner Spurs surely not
12) CL winner The mighty Arse errrrrrr
13) CL runner up Real Madrid not sure they'll even qualify
14) EL winner Sociedad haven't even looked
15) UEFA Conference winner Chelsea (still PL level ***** but should beat anyone at that level in Europe) still in it
16) The signing of the summer Smith-Row - probably not
17) The biggest waste of money of the summer Felix (assuming they re sign him) definitely maybe
18) Random predictions. City Are found guilty of all charges, docked five points and fined a cup of tea and a Kit Kat 60 plus points deduction incoming

 

[edd_jedi]

1) Which Man City will win the league? Man City
2) Team who finishes second behind Man City? Arsenal
3) The other two CL qualifiers, in order. Chelsea, Liverpool
4) The three sides relegated from the PL. Southampton, Ipswich, Forest
5) Team that massively exceeds expectations. Leicester
6) The team that manages to be worse than *****, despite having a solid squad Spurs
7) Top scorer in PL Haaland
8) Top assister in PL Palmer
9) First manager sacked. Enzo Maresca
10) FAC winner City
11) Worthless Cup winner Arsenal
12) CL winner Real Madrid
13) CL runner up City
14) EL winner Spurs?
15) UEFA Conference winner No idea who's in it
16) The signing of the summer Solanke (please!)
17) The biggest waste of money of the summer Probably Solanke
18) Random predictions. Mid table seasons for Spurs and Man United, Liverpool on the brink of a sharp decline but will probably still scrape top four this season

 

[lejackal]

Liverpool on the brink of a sharp decline but will probably still scrape top four this season

I'd take this, sadly Arsenal would still **** it up this season

 

[weasel]

Some absolute gems in here…..

Happy with Man Utd's transfer window, another centre back would be nice along with a full back for each side and a defensive midfielder. I'm hoping that having 3 or 4 centre backs that are comfortable playing out from the back will be transformative. As already said AWB was a good defensive right back but ETH wants full backs that overlap. Just need to get rid of the rest of the dead wood and we'll have a decent squad.

Interesting what this post will look like at the end of the season.

Superb mate, it looks superb!
I'm hoping Utd have another equally successful transfer window this summer!

 

[theforceuk]

To be fair the signings of Mazwaouri, Yoro, De Ligt and Ugarti look decent compared to the rest of the squad. It's certainly not more **** piled on top of what already is there.

 

[weasel]

Well…..yeah, BUT that's like saying you're the best looking fella in the burns unit.
Looking decent compared to that steaming pile of isn't difficult lol

In their defence, I always give a player a full season before passing judgement on him. Fabinho was so **** in his first few games Klopp had to drop him for a few weeks. Andy Robertson couldn't get games ahead of Moreno for a few months.
And coming into the cluster **** that is Utd is hard for any player. It's different if they join a settled and sensible club like ehhhh anyone else in the PL, bar possibly Chelsea.

 

[theforceuk]

Problem is we never get rid of the crap completely so eventually the new players become intrenched in the same crap. It's frightening that Amorim was bought in knowing he plays a certain system with a back 3 and already it's looking like he's going to have to make do with majority of players he inherited. Of which have failed under 3 previous managers. Makes me lough when the main stream bang on about Amorim needing to change the system to suit the players he has. I'd love these pundits to come up with a system that works for these players, perhaps a sit on your arse blaming everyone else system?

 

[weasel]

Hard to argue with any of that. He ain't helped by the Board and the daft prices they put on players.

Though, 40m for Rashford is actually a fair price.

Not sure on Cunha. He is a huffy temperamental sod. Much much much better than Hojlund, but then so is my granny and she's been dead for 20yrs.
But is another huffy **** what Utd need?


Come on Betis!!!

 

[theforceuk]

You're probably right on Cunha, let's face it though their is 6 other clubs with more money and Champions League football next season. Utd have to take what they can, he's a decent number 10 and will probably end up being the number 9.

As for Rasmus, I feel for the kid and he's a classic example of a new signing being intrenched in the ****. His first season he scores 18 goals from scraps, factually Utd create fewer chances for their striker than pretty much every PL team. But he's 22 I think? So from the age of 20 he's been thrown into a struggling team as the main striker week in week out. What the hell does anyone expect is going to happen???? Probably been about 10 players in my life time that could handle that situation at such a young age. Most strikers don't even get picked every week until they're 23/24.

Pretty much everything about Man Utd is how not to run a football club and destroying young talent has become one of our specialties. Look at Mainoo, same is happening to him.

It's got worse since Chelsea fan Jim bought into the club for his own vanity. He's trying to rebuild Man Utd on the cheap. It's not a business you bell end, it's a top flight football club with the 3rd biggest fan base in the world competing with super clubs that have billionaire owners that do anything possible to pump money in. Worryingly this seems to be an INEOS tactic, buy young and cheap and hope they cook!!! Utd's biggest problem is scoring goals, the preferred front 3 this season has been Amad, Rasmus and Garnacho. All below 22, insane. Put Rasmus in the Liverpool team and he would get 15/20 goals a season. And yes most strikers would, I'm not saying Rasmus is the next Shearer, he's just not the terrible player everyone is nailing him on as.

 

[Michael Sith]

Agreed on Rasmus, feel for him, like you say put him a decent squad and he will score goals.

Letting Garnacho go is a mistake as well

 

[weasel]

I do feel a bit sorry for him. No arguments Utd are a shambles and he is asked to feed on scraps, and his confidence is rock bottom. But right now he literally offers nothing. Even Andy Carroll when he was at Pool woild hold the ball up and or be a threat in the air. Hojlund is just a balck hole. The ball goes ip near him and 5 minutes later you get it back from the other team.
I would assume Utd have sat him down and showed him videos of what he used to do and or what they want him to do, but it hasn't done any good. No idea how you fix it.
Loan him? Given how low his confidence is, dropping (or "resting") him will only destroy what's left of it. Playing him back into form isn't working either.
It may well be a move away is the least bad option all round.

He'll never be a world beater, or worth the 70m Utd paid, but he isn't actually as bad as he is playing ATM.

 

[theforceuk]

Agreed on Rasmus, feel for him, like you say put him a decent squad and he will score goals.

Letting Garnacho go is a mistake as well

I don't know Michael, Garnacho is a great talent, but I question his attitude. I would probably keep him. But what he did after the final is so typical of the modern footballer. He's selfish to an extent which is beyond me. Coming out and moaning that he's started all season but not in the final? Have you not taken a look at the league table or watched back through some of your clips when you shoot from stupid angles, instead of laying a simple pass for a tap in, usually for Rasmus. Again this is a problem that Man Utd have created, a decent 22 year old who thinks he should be an automatic starter in a European final. No player should have been surprised if they were dropped for that final.

 

[weasel]

Agreed. I don't see what a lot of Utd fans see in Garnacho. Solid PL player, but no more.
He is young, but also flatters to deceive massively. For every great moment or goal there are dozens of games of pure mediocrity or anonymity.

 

[Michael Sith]

That's the thing, 70 % of the team you have to question their attitude! But we have what we have and it seems no matter the manager they can't get the right mix of treatment of players as individuals ( something that Fergie was very good at in the main)
De Gea, they let go due to money, how's that turned out? McT, how's that turned out?
The lad from Wolves is he going to click in that team ( doubt it)
Rashford debacle, Sancho debacle. That's just scratching the surface

Again it goes back to the fans paying to watch their team at a club now being run in regard to simply the bottom line, sod the fans loyalty, sod the club staff loyalty, but still Utd fans love their team, and live in the hope of seeing better days.

Close the media doors, get the basics back, infuse the team spirit, I'm off to watch their treble season highlights again and dream of better days to come!

 

[theforceuk]

If you keep changing the manager and get the same results then you clearly have a recruitment problem. All the managers we've had except perhaps Ole have all gone onto do better at a lower level, like most the players. There's no point hoping things will change when you have owners with priority's off the pitch, Man Utd won't get back to challenging for the league or champions league with a toxic environment within the club. The players don't like the owners as much as the general staff.

As for Scot McT he was a good squad player but never going to spear head Man Utd back to the top. It says a lot about Italian football and how much it's fallen away when a British player that none of the top English clubs would entertain as a possible signing moves to Napoli and wins Seria A as a star player. Unless you want to settle for mid table every season playing Tony Pulis ball, Italy was best for Man Utd and McT.

Q Inter winning the CL tomorrow.

 

[Cazza]

I think McTom is a good player, just not able to reach his full potential at Man U, like so many others. Look at Wan Bissaka- been fantastic this season (one of the best full-backs in the league, won Hammer of the Year etc) but Man U and the fans couldn't wait to get rid.

 

[theforceuk]

Problem is they're in the swamp that is Man Utd and AWB couldn't handle the pressure. None of these players go onto compete for Premier Leagues or Champions Leagues. I watch Man Utd week in week out, have done for the best part of 38 years. McT and AWB weren't good enough under multiple managers. McT did a great impression of Chasper the ghost most weeks. Players have been leaving Man Utd for teams like West Ham for decades and doing well. The difference is these days they think they've proved the fans wrong when they do. Mentality isn't there. Most of them should get down to IKEA and buy a mirror while they're still at Man Utd.

 

[weasel]

AWB, is a fantastic defensive RB. But the big 6 (surely that should be 4 or 5 now, or at least have Newcastle and Villa pushing for inclusion ahead of the two EL finalists?) like to play out from the back and modern football expects the FB's to provide width in an attacking sense and to be able to whip in crosses like a winger. AWB can do none of those things.
Defend, yeap. Man mark, no bother. Push on and whip in a cross, no ******* hope.

If you're happy for defenders to defend, he's a quality RB. WH, at this stage, are happy with that, and there is more than one way to skin a cat, so that is no bad thing at all and I'm not saying it slag off WH.