EPL 2021 / 2022

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@canefan Saturday's result notwithstanding I would bet the house on Fulham and West Brom yo-yoing back up. Standrad in the Championship seems to have fallen away and in a Covid environment parachute payments are even more 'helpful' than usual.

I thought the same with Bournemouth previous year, 2 games a week and injuries over a long season makes the championship more of a marathon. Need to have players fit near the end.

Hard to make the big predictions this far out, but both teams look likely to be there abouts. Key is to finish obviously in the top 2 and avoid the playoff shootout which anything can happen. Personally I hope my cherries stay close, we have a good young squad, but I am well aware if we have a few injuries we are farked. Still good start for us at least.

@bayimports Fulham have a very strong squad but the last two weekend's results show the accuracy of your comments.

I'd still be very surprise if we didn't finish top 2. We played shite against Blackpool but 9/10 times we would have beaten Reading with 25 shots on goal.

I think you'll be there or thereabouts. It's looking like 3 from WBA, Fulham, QPR, you guys and Sheffield.

I base this on Sheffield having the squad and Manager to make up for their slow start. Coventry have done well but surely not and Stoke, Huddersfield and Blackburn all look very limited despite their lofty positions.

I hope you like 1-0 results with very little goalmouth excitement a.k.a Parkerball. Fulham are a helluva lot better now Scott's gone. Nice guy and could develop into a decent Manager but at this stage it's all about the cardigans.

@dogmeat lol, he does appear to like his cardies doesnt he! ha ha

All Im saying is that is easy to get tripped up by teams you should not lose or even draw too, if we can make fewer mistakes there, we will be thereabouts too!

well done @Hooroo

awesome crowd for a wednesday night and love what you did with the programmes, the pic with the Wimbledon FC corner post

@Kiwiwomble The game wasn't broadcast in NZ, or at least it wasn't on Sky. Instead they showed West Ham beating ManUre.

@bovidae He's missed so much football when he should have been at his peak - but he did play around 170 games in the EPL but not a single game since the 2017-18 season. But on 70K pounds per week for this the last few years, he should be set up for life.

Brentford obviously didn't see him as part of their plans after he was on loan there, suspect he would need to take a dramatic salary cut to get a gig somewhere.

@kiwipie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@bovidae He's missed so much football when he should have been at his peak - but he did play around 170 games in the EPL but not a single game since the 2017-18 season. But on 70K pounds per week for this the last few years, he should be set up for life.

Brentford obviously didn't see him as part of their plans after he was on loan there, suspect he would need to take a dramatic salary cut to get a gig somewhere.

Back to the championship for him, or maybe a gig in the US or the Middle East maybe?

@kiwipie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@bovidae He's missed so much football when he should have been at his peak - but he did play around 170 games in the EPL but not a single game since the 2017-18 season. But on 70K pounds per week for this the last few years, he should be set up for life.

Jesus - Foodbill doesn't really cut it for Winston. Brewster's Millions?

To quote Yosser Hughes, "I could have been a footballer...but, I had a paper round."

@chris-b said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@kiwipie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@bovidae He's missed so much football when he should have been at his peak - but he did play around 170 games in the EPL but not a single game since the 2017-18 season. But on 70K pounds per week for this the last few years, he should be set up for life.

Jesus - Foodbill doesn't really cut it for Winston. Brewster's Millions?

To quote Yosser Hughes, "I could have been a footballer...but, I had a paper round."

He signed a contract extension ahead of the 2017/2018 season to keep him at West Ham until 2023 and I think that was when he moved up to 70K per week. Since then he has played 19 games for West Ham. That's about 750K pounds per game not including any pay-off to terminate his contract early. Over 1 million NZD per game played. That's a decent hourly rate.

Ha! Villa beat Man Utd 1-0 at Old Trafford. Happy days

Man Utd were awarded a last minute penalty but Bruno Fernandes forgot for a second he's not Jordie Barrett.

Get in Villa! Kourtney Hause you beauty!

Jack who

Did Emi save the penalty or was it a miss?

@bovidae said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

Did Emi save the penalty or was it a miss?

It went a long way over the cross bar. Emi messed with Bruno's head before it, telling him he should give the penalty to Ronaldo. Brilliant mind games.

A reversal of last week when United got the late winner and then West Ham missed the pen.

A good day for Man City with none of their 3 main rivals winning - great game between Brentford and Liverpool. Brentford overloading Trent T-A repeatedly and he struggles to defend without being overloaded.

And if Brighton win the last game of the weekend they go top for the first time ever.

@Hooroo North London is red today.

@bovidae said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@Hooroo North London is red today.

I have a feeling we won't get much to celebrate this season, so I am clinging on to this like we have won the Prem!

Ronaldo is a Freak!

@Kiwiwomble

Has MK Dons played Wimbledon AFC this season? Is this the first season they have been in the same div??

@hooroo we havent played them this season yet, no, we've been in the same league for a few years now, was a sweet moment the first time we overtook them in the league

@hooroo said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

Ronaldo is a Freak!

The jury is still out on whether he will be the catalyst to United winning titles and cups or the weight around Ole's neck that will bring him down. He does seem to be playing him a lot in a long season and a few times Ole seems to have no idea what formation to play to get the best out of his players - almost too many attacking options now and they can't all play at the same time.

As for Spurs, they look close to falling apart and Harry is bringing down his transfer value with every game. Nuno might have been passed a very well paid hospital pass - let's see if he can get the best out of what is still a talented squad.

As for Arsenal, they look well set up to compete in the battle for 5th to 9th place - the new right back looks decent which makes the defence looks better overall and Partey needs a long run to keep the team stable.

In these trying times it's always good to find some joy in the world

Going to Old Trafford and winning 5-zip definitely sparks joy.

Add in Ronaldo losing his shit and should have been sent off, while Pogba also lost his shit, and WAS sent off, and Salah scored 3.

The top 3 all had huge wins and it looks pretty much like it's them fighting out the title

Spurs lost again, and that doesn't appear to be going well at all.
If Newcastle don't start winning games they might end up the richest Championship club in history

And still Ole keeps his job, at least until Saturday. Looks like all he needs is a win against another team (some time soon) or maybe even a draw and he can stay indefinitely. The Liverpool game had the look of a manager on his way out due to the fact that it was entirely predictable that they would be thrashed (in fact Scholes during the week had said that "if they play like they did against Atalanta, then Liverpool could be 3 or 4 nil up by half time").

Spurs are also reeling at the moment so it is entirely possible that United will beat them. Strange days. And hard to see it being anything but a 3 horse race for the title from here.

@kiwipie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

And still Ole keeps his job, at least until Saturday. Looks like all he needs is a win against another team (some time soon) or maybe even a draw and he can stay indefinitely. The Liverpool game had the look of a manager on his way out due to the fact that it was entirely predictable that they would be thrashed (in fact Scholes during the week had said that "if they play like they did against Atalanta, then Liverpool could be 3 or 4 nil up by half time").

Spurs are also reeling at the moment so it is entirely possible that United will beat them. Strange days. And hard to see it being anything but a 3 horse race for the title from here.

i think they have something like Spurs in to City in to Chelsea over the next 3 weeks. I probably wouldn't chuck a new manager in to that either. That's assuming there is one ready to go.

Not the EPL, but Barca have sacked Koeman after another defeat. That club is a dumpster fire.

@bovidae said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

Not the EPL, but Barca have sacked Koeman after another defeat. That club is a dumpster fire.

it's insane how they have fucked that place up so badly

@mariner4life said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@bovidae said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

Not the EPL, but Barca have sacked Koeman after another defeat. That club is a dumpster fire.

it's insane how they have fucked that place up so badly

I'll say, its amazing how fast they have gone from world beaters to also rans. Some of the best football I have ever watched has been at sitting in Camp Nou

@bayimports said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@mariner4life said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

@bovidae said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

Not the EPL, but Barca have sacked Koeman after another defeat. That club is a dumpster fire.

it's insane how they have fucked that place up so badly

I'll say, its amazing how fast they have gone from world beaters to also rans. Some of the best football I have ever watched has been at sitting in Camp Nou

that period where they, and Spain, won basically everything on offer was incredible.

The presidents of the two big Spanish clubs have too much control but never take responsibility for their financial mismanagement that hamstrings the club.

@bovidae said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

The presidents of the two big Spanish clubs have too much control but never take responsibility for their financial mismanagement that hamstrings the club.

yeah they were flat broke anyway and now have this on top.. lol

Bizarre ole day. City lose 0-2, Liverpool draw at home to Brighton after being 2-0 up. ManU pump Spurs away and we won away against Leicester and are now 5th I think.

EDIT:
6th after the Man U win

How long will Nuno last?

Spurs signed the wrong Portuguese Manager

@dogmeat said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

How long will Nuno last?

Spurs signed the wrong Portuguese Manager

Apparently he's gone

Conte the replacement apparently. Does this mean they'll go for lampard next?

The Spurs saga is bizarre. Replacing Poch with Mourinho was strange, firing Mourinho just before the League Cup final was strange, appointing Nuno after making it clear he was their 7th choice was strange and then firing him almost immediately when he performed as everyone expected was strange. Meanwhile Kane's value is dropping fast.

Conte will probably get a tune out of that squad though at least in the short term.

@kiwipie

Now you mention the weird decision making, signing a manager who just walked away from his last team for not being willing to spend enough on players is probably also going to end badly for Spurs.

@kiwipie said in EPL 2021 / 2022:

The Spurs saga is bizarre. Replacing Poch with Mourinho was strange, firing Mourinho just before the League Cup final was strange, appointing Nuno after making it clear he was their 7th choice was strange and then firing him almost immediately when he performed as everyone expected was strange. Meanwhile Kane's value is dropping fast.

Conte will probably get a tune out of that squad though at least in the short term.

Levy is the constant. He has built a great stadium but in terms of football decisions he is shite. He is pennywise pound foolish and has pissed away all the work Pochettino did. Failed to back Poch when he wanted to retool the squad then fired him because the team got stale and stopped playing for him. Signed Jose who got a bounce but eventually had the same players stop trying for him too. Nuno never had a shot and still there are about 6 or 7 players from the Poch era who, with the exception of Son should probably all be sold. Held onto players like Rose, Eriksen, Ali far too long and either ended up getting nothing when they left or let their value decline by keeping them. Lost revenue from UCL or EL because the team foundered and we couldn't get a high enough spot in the league to qualify. If Conte signs on he should do so on the proviso that Levy backs out from all football operations and let's Conte and the DoF build and manage the squad as they see fit. He might be able to get Kane back on board, but he needs to sell on at least 6 players and buy in some replacements. We have some promising young players who are showing up some of the tired older ones with their effort