Football 2022/23

[thetime]

Bye bye Leeds 😁

[lost]

Just stop oil support Everton???

 

 

[Neil]

On 5/24/2023 at 3:50 PM, thetime said:

Spurs and Chelsea have been dire, that will improve.

spurds are a joke, lampard is chelsea manager. they won't improve.

[The Nal]

15 hours ago, thetime said:

Bye bye Leeds 😁

They lost 21 games. Leicester lost 22. Everton were so so lucky the other 3 teams were absolutely shite.

Huge result for Utd getting top 4 with a few players to sign. And really bad news for Liverpool considering the rebuild they need.

[charlierc]

15 hours ago, thetime said:

Bye bye Leeds 😁

Their demotion isn't that big a surprise. Just a whole ton of muddled thought at boardroom level all season long and some peculiar recruitment choices.

What's more a surprise is Leicester. Some excellent attacking talent in a team that had finished in the top 10 in the last 5 seasons before this one, many of whom were in the team that got 5th in 2020 and 2021. Their goalkeeper and defence has a lot of questions to answer as to how they were just so poor for so long.

[charlierc]

14 hours ago, lost said:

Just stop oil support Everton???

 

 

That protestor cable-tied himself to a goalpost during an Everton v Newcastle game in March of last year. So I guess there must be some kind of association.

[lost]

48 minutes ago, The Nal said:

 Everton were so so lucky

I'm amazed as they did absolutely everything wrong.. Spent half as much as the promoted teams pre-season, Calvert Lewin got immediately injured. Sat on their hands when teams like Villa were sacking Gerrard allowing Lampard to lose homes games against Leicester, Southampton and Wolves after Bournemouth put 7 past them in two games. Cocked up the Danjuma signing at the last minute and ended up getting nobody during the transfer window and then ended the season with two midfielders at fullback and a winger up front.

That Brighton result just came out of nowhere. Thing is I cant see past more of the same next season. It wouldn't surprise me if they are stupid enough to sack Sean Dyche.

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Their demotion isn't that big a surprise. Just a whole ton of muddled thought at boardroom level all season long and some peculiar recruitment choices.

What's more a surprise is Leicester. Some excellent attacking talent in a team that had finished in the top 10 in the last 5 seasons before this one, many of whom were in the team that got 5th in 2020 and 2021. Their goalkeeper and defence has a lot of questions to answer as to how they were just so poor for so long.

I think with Leicester it’s small margins. I have seen many games where they could have gone the other way and losses could have been draws and draws wins, but that’s football. Over the season I don’t think they have been worse than Everton or Forest, but sometimes it’s just about getting the goals at the right time.

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, The Nal said:

They lost 21 games. Leicester lost 22. Everton were so so lucky the other 3 teams were absolutely shite.

Not sure which of the 3 in the best position to go up. Part of me feels Leeds are more championship ready, but they seem to be a mess at the top.

Southampton are taking a big risk on the new man who seems a bit of a hipster choice.

Leicester should be in the best position, but seem likely for a squad overhaul.

 

[The Nal]

25 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Leicester should be in the best position, but seem likely for a squad overhaul.

I didnt know they had so many players out of contract. And their wage bill is insane. Huge pre season for them.

[squirrelarmy]

3 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

Leeds are more championship ready, but they seem to be a mess at the top.

We’re barely championship ready. Not wrong about being doomed at the top. Our majority owner was poised to sell us if we stayed up. He was about to make a new deal to buy an Italian club which has just been rejected today. 
 

This means we’re left with two owners who don’t really want us. The 49ers thought they were investing in a premier league team. Radrizzani made the gamble to take a mid table championship side to the prem but ultimately failed when between the two shared owners sacked the person who got us to the prem and sold off our best players in order to turn us into Team America. 
 

We are weaker now than where we were before Bielsa took over. The owners completely ruined the work he did. If I’m really honest I think we’ll be in a relegation battle next season. 

[charlierc]

On 5/29/2023 at 11:32 AM, pink_triangle said:

Not sure which of the 3 in the best position to go up. Part of me feels Leeds are more championship ready, but they seem to be a mess at the top.

Southampton are taking a big risk on the new man who seems a bit of a hipster choice.

Leicester should be in the best position, but seem likely for a squad overhaul.

 

All 3 are interesting teams to follow in the Championship next season tbf. All 3 will be doing squad overhauls with new managers, which worked for Burnley but didn't for Watford last summer.

Certainly I'd say all of them should have the clout and budget to be challengers on paper but all have things to figure out first. Leeds look like a dumpster fire with so many different problems, Leicester are going to be essentially gutted with so many out of contract and blue chip stars like Maddison, Barnes, etc going, plus talk of their parachute cash going straight to a bank they borrowed heavily from, and Southampton might well be unable to sell a lot of the players that were letdowns while working with a manager who's going to want to play possession-heavy and has fallen out with Swansea over transfer policy.

So, it's going to be interesting. There's plausible scenarios for all 3 to get back, and plausible scenarios for none of them too. Plus it's a stupid competitive division. At least 3 of Norwich, Watford, West Brom and Middlesbrough will be fighting again, plus the chance of a Luton or Coventry style wildcard can never be discounted.

[efcfanwirral]

On 5/28/2023 at 7:33 PM, lost said:

Just stop oil support Everton???

 

 

 

On 5/29/2023 at 10:13 AM, charlierc said:

That protestor cable-tied himself to a goalpost during an Everton v Newcastle game in March of last year. So I guess there must be some kind of association.

There were a lot of posts and jokes that he essentially saved us last year, as we scored in the 20 odd minutes of injury time we got due to his antics and that kick started a good run of form. Probably responding to that!

[charlierc]

6 hours ago, efcfanwirral said:

 

There were a lot of posts and jokes that he essentially saved us last year, as we scored in the 20 odd minutes of injury time we got due to his antics and that kick started a good run of form. Probably responding to that!

Clearly Just Stop Oil decided to join in the meme judging by that first point.

The Everton winner came in the 9th minute of stoppage time despite Everton having had a player sent off 15 minutes before that, so not far off tbf. Until that point, the oil protestor was perhaps the most exciting part of that match.

[The Nal]

Mount to Utd then. Hmmm.

Also, really hope Messi doesnt go to Saudi. 

[Neil]

21 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Mount to Utd then. Hmmm.

Could be worse you might get arry lame.

[pink_triangle]

Spanish teams haven’t lost a European final against a non European team for 22 years. Sevilla have won 7 Europa league finals in a row. They are 2 amazing stats.

[The Nal]

29 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Spanish teams haven’t lost a European final against a non European team for 22 years. Sevilla have won 7 Europa league finals in a row. They are 2 amazing stats.

Surely a Spanish team have never lost a European final against a non European team?

[Neil]

Just now, The Nal said:

Surely a Spanish team have never lost a European final against a non European team?

Surely no team have ever lost a European final against a non European team?

[The Nal]

1 minute ago, Neil said:

Surely no team have ever lost a European final against a non European team?

Thats my thinking.

See Benzema is off to Saudi. 200m a year

[Neil]

30 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Thats my thinking.

See Benzema is off to Saudi. 200m a year

He'll probably end up on loan at Newcastle 

[pink_triangle]

58 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Surely a Spanish team have never lost a European final against a non European team?

That was meant to be non Spanish!

[kaosmark2]

On 5/29/2023 at 10:12 AM, charlierc said:

Their demotion isn't that big a surprise. Just a whole ton of muddled thought at boardroom level all season long and some peculiar recruitment choices.

What's more a surprise is Leicester. Some excellent attacking talent in a team that had finished in the top 10 in the last 5 seasons before this one, many of whom were in the team that got 5th in 2020 and 2021. Their goalkeeper and defence has a lot of questions to answer as to how they were just so poor for so long.

Leicester's finances are trash. Vardy's still on a CL wage as are a bunch of others. They let Schmeichel go because they couldn't afford to commit to more than a 1 year contract. They made major f**kups trying to stay at the elite level and attract big names with big wages - while upping the wages of the contracts on all their existing players in line. Not getting a 2nd season in the CL or sustained runs in the Europa hurt them hard.

It's hard to feel too much sympathy though, Leicester are the club that took the piss so much with the administration rules that English football started docking points to other clubs after their shenanigans to stop them following suit - while Leicester got away completely free.

[lost]

Also I believe king power are a chain of duty free stores. Their business would of been decimated with the lockdowns/travel bans during covid.

[charlierc]

On 6/2/2023 at 12:07 AM, kaosmark2 said:

Leicester's finances are trash. Vardy's still on a CL wage as are a bunch of others. They let Schmeichel go because they couldn't afford to commit to more than a 1 year contract. They made major f**kups trying to stay at the elite level and attract big names with big wages - while upping the wages of the contracts on all their existing players in line. Not getting a 2nd season in the CL or sustained runs in the Europa hurt them hard.

It's hard to feel too much sympathy though, Leicester are the club that took the piss so much with the administration rules that English football started docking points to other clubs after their shenanigans to stop them following suit - while Leicester got away completely free.

 

On 6/2/2023 at 8:15 AM, lost said:

Also I believe king power are a chain of duty free stores. Their business would of been decimated with the lockdowns/travel bans during covid.

Yeah you're right about King Power being prominent in a trade that was vulnerable to a whopping revenue shortfall when covid destroyed the international travel market in 2020/21.

I think that's part of the nature where trying to mount a sustained challenge to the big six requires deep pockets, and when Leicester's coin ran out, they were in trouble. I don't see why they kept Tielemans when they needed the money and he wanted out, and will now lose him on a free, while they held on to Wesley Fofana for too long and didn't have time to re-invest the large fee Chelsea were convinced to pay for him. Plus Ward and Iversen were both major downgrades in goal and Vardy's wage is a large chunk for a play who seems now to have reached the end of the road.