IT'S BACK AND IT'S BETTER THAN EVER! THE BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD, LIVE AND NOT SO EXCLUSIVE ON SKY, BT SPORT AND AMAZON (although obviously not any Watford games, no-one wants to watch those). After last season's joint triumphs of finishing top of the bottom half and winning the 85-90 minute flag waving trophy at Wembley, spirits in South West Herts are high. The recruitment team wasted no time in getting to work, bringing in solid Championship defender Craig Dawson... and that's it, job done for the best scouting network in world football. Having said that, Chalobah, Cleverley, Okakaka, and Peñaranda will all be like new signings. Unfit and/or rubbish new signings, but like new nonetheless. Starting the season at home to Brighton means an early chance for our season ticket holders not to turn up to a game or release their seat, thus getting their first strike towards having their season ticket removed next year, and then moaning about how unreasonable it was to be asked to email the ticket office. Happy days! On to our opponents, the Seasiders of Brighton. Would've been confident of victory had they stuck with the anti-football Chris Hughton, a man whose reputation with the pundit class far exceeds his achievements. Instead they've brought in Graham Potter, an eccentric character who looks like he could've been the drummer in a one hit wonder Britpop band. He began his managerial career in Sweden where he coached Ken Sema at Ostersunds. This confers a serious advantage on Brighton as he will know all one of Sema's tricks so might be able to negate him and turn him into an ineffective, slow, one-footed winger. Potter is a bit of an unknown quantity, he did very well at the aforementioned Ostersunds and ok at Swansea on a shoestring budget last season. The Premier League riches have obviously gone to his head as he's just splashed out £22 million on a centre back, putting into context our record fee for a defender of £7.5 million for Daryl Janmaat. No idea how they're likely to line up either in formation or personnel, but at least they will make an attempt to do something other than park the bus like Hughton. Diving little weasel Anthony Knockhaert has gone back to his rightful level in the Championship, removing one of the more interesting sub plots. Watford look nailed on to continue with the 4-2-2-2 (copyright J. Gracia), albeit Deulofeu and Pereyra haven't played any of the recent pre-season games so it remains to be seen if they are fit enough to start. Anyway, off we go for another season of taking each game as it comes, hoping to bloody the nose of the odd top 6 team (any kind of improvement on our 11 defeats out of 12 last season would be welcome) and aiming for a cup run so we can all have another nice couple of days out waving our plastic flags. Unless of course, we end the summer long Sarrga and break our transfer record, in which case we're nailed on to get into Europe and win our first ever proper trophy! COYH!
Good write up Steve, at the very least it summed up this forum for the last 7/8 weeks! Your write up did miss out the fact I’m bringing my daughter to the game, she has watched us 5 times, all victories without conceding a goal. Get the Cubans out for this one.
No, we don't want the Kremlins sullying our nice middle-class ground with their revolutionary fervour
Here’s hoping we get knocked out in the 3rd round of the FA cup, saving ourselves the embarrassment and concentrate on trying to stay in this league one more season
Would be a huge boost to win this one and get some points on the board. As others have mentioned then next 5/6 fixtures all look tricky. Great write up by SLB.
SLB love the sarcasim and humor. Fantastic. Not an easy game but is a winnable one. Cut out the mistakes of pre season and hope Gray can continue his form its a home banker. Brighton were awful for most of last season and just about survived. That might be a red flag for us too, as are timid recruitment has shown. Hopefully the players are hyped to get going and a decent crowd behind them whistling the tune of Z Cars as they leave the tunnel. I hope Delafoo and Bobby make an appearance at some point. Its not going to be the stroll it was last season but its winnable. I expect that too. 2-1
Certainly has earned the right, but for him to play generally means no Deulofeu. Can’t see them both starting.
No we shouldn't always win. But it should always be winnable before we play. The day we believe we have no chance of beating BHA at home will be a sad day.
Excellent work SLB. I look forward to 48 year old Glen Murray chugging around causing us problems like a modern day Steve Claridge. Assuming they keep them BHA have a decent defence so we need something more than a battering ram. That said who knows, they signed some fancy sounding players last year and barely played them under Hughton, could be a totally different animal this season under Potter. 2-1 us more comfortable than the result suggests, Dawson 26, Dawson 44, Dawson OG 65. Proper home debut.
We'll have lots of possession early on then concede to their first real attack on the break at around 25 mins. They'll score another from a corner just before half time. We'll huff and puff for the first five mins of the second half but they'll effortlessly score a third on 50 mins. Game over. In a nod to the cup final, the drooling home hordes clap the team right up until Brighton hammer home the final nail in the coffin on 85 mins. 4-0 and relegation is confirmed on the first day. Doucoure scores a last minute winner for Everton.
So your taxi is booked for about 53 mins ? Seriously I think this will be a 1-2 win for BHA with Potter's new look team covering twice the ground of our old cloggers, with no GD or RP in the starting 11.
Hopefully Dunk will leave as a result of the Maguire move and it's a shambles at the back... but looking at our fixtures a defeat could spell the beginning of a tough season. We didn't win any of the next 5 equivalent fixtures last season and then Wolves away after that! Very important to get the points.
Home games vs Brighton West Ham and arsenal plus away to Everton and Newcastle. Doesn’t look that bad to me
I am concerned Del and Pereyra haven't had the best of pre seasons, which may limit our attacking creativity. I wouldn't be shocked to see Brighton win.
Can’t see Deulofeu or Pereyra starting, they’ve not played enough. Deulofeu has an outside chance but I suspect Gray’s form gets him a game. Also think Brighton won’t be the walkover they were in the 1st game last season. New manager, few new players and older players desperate to prove themselves worthy of not being replaced by the new signings. They were awful last season on the opening day but it was obvious to me that Hughton had them desperately undercooked. I’m thinking 1-1.
Imagine the scenes on this forum if we lose. I reckon we scrape a 2-2 but either Dawson or Cathcart get injured, bringing Mapps back into the fold for the rest of the season. Sema scores and cups his ears to the celebrating hornet fans, before tripping over a pitchside microphone. Holebas gets into a fight with Harry the Hornet and picks up a yellow for his troubles (Harry red). And so kicks off the 19/20 season.
With the introduction of VAR, the thought of the players mincing out to 'I'm still standing', the Cup Final f*** up still fresh in the memory and the lack of notable transfer activity over the summer, I can't remember ever looking forward to a new season less. Home win