EPL 2022 / 2023

Leicester were 5th, 5th and 8th in the past 3 seasons and started the season with no new signings and some players who expected not to be there. Tielemans was one of those and he hasn't been on it all season - a lot of their success was based on he and Ndidi shielding the defence. Expect to see both of those plus Madison and Barnes leave plus possibly a couple more if Leicester need to shake off some high earners.

Leeds were just shambolic and I'm pleased the Big Sam gamble failed. If they can keep most of that squad together they will surely be promotion candidates next season - if they can find a manager to wrangle them into a formation.

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

I'm pleased the Big Sam gamble failed

oh shit me too

His opening press conference was total cringe. The shit he spouts about how good he is, and the only reason he's not managing real madrid is he's English is fucking awful.

Bye Sam

So Leicester joins Blackburn Rovers in the exclusive club of 'EPL champions to have been relegated'.

I wonder how many times two former champions have been relegated is the same season.

@Cyclops Not about to do the research on that one sorry - must have happened before though with so many regularly relegated teams like Sunderland, Newcastle, Sheffield Wednesday, Burnley, Wolves, Huddersfield etc.

Hard to beat Man City though - champions in 36/37, relegated in 37/38.

Top effort by Sean Dyche to save Everton.

Everton vs Burnley next season could be spicy if Dyche remains in charge.

Great day. Villa back playing European football. Didn't think I'd see the day after we've had some awful seasons over the last 13 years and even the start of this season. Really exciting to be there.

@Cyclops said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

So Leicester joins Blackburn Rovers in the exclusive club of 'EPL champions to have been relegated'.

I wonder how many times two former champions have been relegated is the same season.

Since KP is too lazy here's a couple of Wiki sites that show it's happened quite frequently even since the EPL existed.

At a glance, I think 96-97, 98-99, 01-02, 02-03, 03-04......

It is indeed very frequent. Special mention to 01/02 and 03/04 where all three relegated teams were champions (although both years one of the relegated teams were Leicester who hadn't won one yet).

I only looked back to the start of the EPL, but it's actually more common to have former champions relegated than not! In 31 seasons only 6 years have no champions relegated. 13 seasons have one relegated 10 have 2 and as mentioned above in two years all three were champions.

Leicester have been a pretty good club to support this century
Won EPL title.
Won FA Cup
Won League Cup
Won Community Shield
Quarter finals of Champions League
Semi finals of Conference League
Twice promoted to the EPL
Once promoted from League 1
Relegated 3 times from the EPL
Relegated once from the championship.

Perfect. Have to have the bad times to appreciate the good times.

I see Sevilla bet AS Roma in the Europa League final. Remarkable record they have there - they've made the final 7 times since 2006 and won all of them. Are they the best not-quite-good club in Europe?

Remarkable record for Sevilla - 5 of the last 10 Europa Leagues won by them in a competition you have to qualify for by being good but not too good. In 3 of those 10 seasons they were in the last 16 of the UCL instead.

Before this season, Sevilla have finished between 4th and 7th in La Liga for 9 consecutive seasons.

Counting next season 46 teams have appeared in the EPL. That's pretty good going as it's almost half the top 4 Divisions. Only 4 teams will have spent a single season in the PL and two of them will be Luton and Coventry.

For all their successes and failures (noted by @Kiwipie above) Leicester have only spent 14 seasons at the top level which places them 14th equal on the appearances table.

Bordeaux-Rodez play-off in France called off after fan attacks player.

Two down, one to go for Man City. And that's the big prize!

@dogmeat said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

Counting next season 46 teams have appeared in the EPL. That's pretty good going as it's almost half the top 4 Divisions. Only 4 teams will have spent a single season in the PL and two of them will be Luton and Coventry.

For all their successes and failures (noted by @Kiwipie above) Leicester have only spent 14 seasons at the top level which places them 14th equal on the appearances table.

Coventry were in the EPL for the first few years.

@sparky said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

Bordeaux-Rodez play-off in France called off after fan attacks player.

View embedded content

They abandoned the match because a player got concussed?

@KiwiPie sorry i meant to say this century.

I don't count LBF (League Before Fulham)

@dogmeat said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

@KiwiPie sorry i meant to say this century.

I don't count LBF (League Before Fulham)

Is that 46 this century? How many in total?

@KiwiPie OK I have updated my spreadsheet to include the seasons prior to 2000

There are now 51 teams that have featured in the EPL since its inception in 1992.

The five additions are
Barnsley (1 season)
Blackpool (1)
Bradford (2)
Sheffield Wednesday (8)
Swindon (1)

Here they all are with my arbitrary classification into bands

Ange Postecoglou seems to be firming as the new Spurs manager. It's quite the journey from the A-League.

He has a pretty impressive record, will be interesting to see how he does. Wonder if he can do anything to keep Kane on board.

@Cyclops Are Spurs better off cashing in Kane for the rebuild project? FWIW that's Micah Richards opinion. I can see the logic.

Surely Kane has to go. What's in it for him staying at Spurs? Surely the best he could hope for is a Cup run? Kane should go somewhere he can win trophies.

@dogmeat said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

@Cyclops Are Spurs better off cashing in Kane for the rebuild project? FWIW that's Micah Richards opinion. I can see the logic.

Surely Kane has to go. What's in it for him staying at Spurs? Surely the best he could hope for is a Cup run? Kane should go somewhere he can win trophies.

As a supporter I couldn't begrudge him wanting to leave to chase pots. But I'd prefer to send him to Real Madrid than for him to stay in the UK

@Cyclops said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

He has a pretty impressive record, will be interesting to see how he does. Wonder if he can do anything to keep Kane on board.

He has a job to repair the morale and culture after the end of the Conte era. We have some good players who underachieved this year, so he needs to get them playing better. But Levy will need to give him some pieces, we need at least one CB and some FBs because last year we couldn't stop anyone

@canefan The only place he could go for trophies in England is Citeh and they already have their unstoppable goal-scoring cyborg. He goes to Man U and he gets a League or FA Cup each season - hardly a guarantee of "trophies". He couldn't possibly go to Arsenal and 'Pool don't play with a striker.

His only option has to be overseas - BM or RM surely?

@junior said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

@canefan The only place he could go for trophies in England is Citeh and they already have their unstoppable goal-scoring cyborg. He goes to Man U and he gets a League or FA Cup each season - hardly a guarantee of "trophies". He couldn't possibly go to Arsenal and 'Pool don't play with a striker.

His only option has to be overseas - BM or RM surely?

That's my feeling. RM love buying our best players

RM and Ancelotti want Kane so that's where he'll end up if Levy has his way.

Kane wants Man U so he can break the EPL goal-scoring record.

I think "Big Ange" will want to play a high-paced pressing game with Spurs as opposed to their largely counter-attacking style of recent years. Not really sure Kane fits in with that system - he always seems to have had the freedom to do what he wants at Spurs rather than fitting into the system. Ange may see it as good business to take the money now rather than have the problem of losing him next summer.

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

I think "Big Ange" will want to play a high-paced pressing game with Spurs as opposed to their largely counter-attacking style of recent years. Not really sure Kane fits in with that system - he always seems to have had the freedom to do what he wants at Spurs rather than fitting into the system. Ange may see it as good business to take the money now rather than have the problem of losing him next summer.

Pochettino played that sort of system and Kane thrived. Much will hinge on whether Harry wants to go and if Ange sees him as someone to build around.

Well done West Ham for winning the Europa Conference League (2-1 over Fiorentina). The Hammers' first taste of European silverware in 58 years. Steve Harris will be very happy.

Blighted a bit by being a very negative game with violence (against West Ham supporters) before the game and appalling behaviour from some West Ham fans inside the ground. The later will almost certainly have repercussions from UEFA against the club.

A minority of 'fans' ruin way too many football occasions.

Well done to the players and coaching staff. Didn't think they would do it TBH and at half time it looked nailed on that they would lose.

I'm loving some Spurs fans online unhappy about Ange getting the job, as he's not a big enough manager to get Spurs to win things

As if winning things is a Spurs characteristic they need to get back to.

@mariner4life I remember there being similar criticisms when Ange got hired at Celtic.

@mariner4life said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

I'm loving some Spurs fans online unhappy about Ange getting the job, as he's not a big enough manager to get Spurs to win things

As if winning things is a Spurs characteristic they need to get back to.

It's crazy. Like Jose and Antonio won anything for us. Ange sounds like he shares some similar philosophies to Pochettino. And I expect him to be a straight up hard working antipodean who can hopefully bring the squad together. I'm keen to see him do well

I will make my annual football post to lament the relegation of Hartlepool United from League Two to the National League.

@Donsteppa said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

I will make my annual football post to lament the relegation of Hartlepool United from League Two to the National League.

boo.. doesnt seem right to upvote that! ,Have nothing against Hartlepool, sometimes I would like a downvote button lol

In Bournemouth news, Palace about to announce Lerma signing.. leaves a big gap in the middle for us, so sure to be shopping over summer. Only real surprise for me was no extension on Vina who has gone back to Roma, who showed some attacking skill from the back

@Donsteppa said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

I will make my annual football post to lament the relegation of Hartlepool United from League Two to the National League.

Fitting to tie in with the retirement of Jeff Stelling.

@Donsteppa said in EPL 2022 / 2023:

I will make my annual football post to lament the relegation of Hartlepool United from League Two to the National League.

So no big Hartlepool v Notts County game next season as we pass in opposite directions. We just passed the 10th anniversary of this legendary game when Hartley and Poole scored.

The issue for Ange will be the level of opposition in the EPL compared to the SPL - up there, Celtic could have mediocre days and still win. If Spurs start badly next season, the pressure on him to get results will be massive. I hope he does well but will be get the patience and the backing?