Odds for next season

Oh yeah, we'll soon be back to that part of the footballing cycle where all the newspaper pundits unanimously tip us to go down and write variations on "they've got away with changing their manager every five minutes so far, but it has to catch up with them some time and this could be the year that drone drone drone...."

Actual three to go down:-

Cardiff
West Ham
Fulham

 

Wolves should be longer odds in my opinion. They have a good manager already, not sacking fodder like Warnock or Steve Bruce. Plus if they had the ability to entice the likes of Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota to go and play Championship football for a year, there’s no limit to the talent they could get with PL football as a lure, especially with Jorge Mendes pulling the strings for them.

They will be in and around the top half I expect.

 

We know very little yet, transfer window hasn't even started! I'll make my predictions on August 31st. All I can guess at this stage is that Wolves will be fine, Cardiff and Fulham/Villa will be competitive...and we're still not safe

 

Is this a different Jota to the one who was at Brentford?

 

Yes. A much better one from Atletico Madrid.

 

Agree entirely, which is why the comment a few days ago (not by you) that there are "two dead teams" coming up and so we only need to be better than one other to stay up, was astonishingly complacent.

 

We will of course be one of the favourites to go down based on our form of the last 6m and small budget. Huddersfield and Cardiff will be tipped too.

 

We will of course be one of the favourites to go down based on our form of the last 6m and small budget. Huddersfield and Cardiff will be tipped too.

 

The 'we are still not safe' is a joke about the doommongers in the relegation thread!
I'm not particularly concerned by anyone coming up (apart from maybe Wolves), it is more an indictment on the league that none of them will be cut adrift. I'm fairly confident about the coming season, surely we can't have all that drama again. That said, yes, if we have the same injury crisis, and our transfer deals are poor, yes, we are going to be in for a season of struggle

 

Right, but if none of them are cut adrift we can't guarantee that two of the relegation spots are already taken, can we? Which was what the post I reacted to on Sunday suggested.

 

We will of course be one of the favourites to go down based on our form of the last 6m and relatively small budget. Huddersfield and Cardiff will be tipped too.

 

Whilst I’m not overly worried about the two teams in the playoff final, if the splashed a bit of cash about (especially Fulham) they wouldn’t take much to be on a par with us. Fulham play some great football.

I wouldn’t mind jumping the queue for Mitrovic now either.

 

Becomes harder and harder to pick sides that will go down.

I'd say the weakest on paper is Cardiff. However everyone is given a ridiculous sum of money for being in the league, so one decent bit of scouting and you've got a player that can carry a crap side.

 

Who's ours going to be?

 

To be fair, quite a few in the media did predict we'd be one to watch for this season

 

The transfer window closes on 9th August this upcoming season I believe. It also opens earlier, any day now I think if not already.

 

Due to the money injected following promotion, I’m not sure that promotion position matters all too much, unless a side already has a player of sufficient quality. However, Wolves have the Mendes connection and will be able to bring in players of a much higher quality than the other teams. I expect they will be completely fine.


Cardiff would be my prime candidates thus far, as they don’t have the same lure and have a manager who has been found out at EPL level a number of times.


West Ham are in trouble, as are Huddersfield. I expect Burnley to be around the relegation places too, with raised expectations and more games.

 

I am not sure why people think west ham are in trouble unless I've missed something. Their squad is half decent (better than ours) and they'll be able to attract good players. Moyes leaving is a godsend for them (assuming he's replaced by someone who's not a complete ******).

 

...because their owners get it wrong time and time again and are universally hated by the fan base. Whilst the owners refuse to sell up, I’d say there’s only one way that club are headed (whilst spunking millions on their way).

 

We will of course be one of the favourites to go down based on our form of the last 6m and relatively small budget. Huddersfield and Cardiff will be tipped too.

 

True, but their owners are now one of the richest in football, and it looks like they're willing to spend it. Their recruitment for the championship has been spot on, and I'd wager on them doing the same in the PL. For me Cardiff are a dead cert to go down. Their squad is nowhere near PL ability, Warnock is not a PL manager and I doubt Warnock can build a decent enough footballing side to stay up. Will go down quite convincingly.

I think Huddersfield will also go down, but completely unsure of the 3rd. Will see what happens in the transfer window before I commit to that.

 

I always put a fiver on us in the handicap so will ne interesting to see what ours is. Man city should be -20 this year!!!

No idea about relegation. Hudds probably. Brighton maybe. Cardiff perhaps.

 

It’s a much leveller playing field now with the promoted teams. Brighton and Huddersfield spent a lot last season and will surely do the same again and probably for bigger names, now they’ve shown they can stay up. Cardiff will be the ones I think will struggle as I think they will have too much to do.

The rest is anyone’s guess as this season showed.

 

That’s the undeniable truth.

 

The biggest leveller these days is the incompetence of some of the owners in the Premier League who sanction some awful recruitment and either take punts on coaches wholly unsuited to the Premier League, or choose the same old stale British managers who have been playing the same way for years. Promoted teams might lack quality but at least they all (well, nearly all!) keep the managers who got them promoted who understand that the best way to stay up with a crap squad is to keep games tight and grind your way to safety with unambitious football.

Our owners aren't infallible but football is their only business and they've been doing it a long time, giving them an advantage over some of the billionaire foreign owners who are wholly reliant on the people advising them. Despite some pretty obvious limitations with all of our four head coaches in the Premier League, we've stayed up comfortably each year because amongst the churn of players each summer, there has been enough quality being brought in to improve the overall level of our squad. When we get the summer recruitment wrong, that's when we'll go down.

 

Glad that Fulham will beat Villa at least.

 

You’ve beaten me into submission.

I believe you.

Except last time our budget was one of the biggest, I recall.

 

A part of me wishes it was.

Mid week games, unusual architecture & Vydra back.

 

Hopefully that’s in the job spec.

 

Where you hear that?

 

The intrigue is it’s all so unpredictable.

Even after 7 games last season:
Watford 5th
WBA 10th with w2 D3 L2
Palarse last with 0 goals 0 pts and being written off.

Recruitment, manager merry go round, injuries all play their part.

A summer of endless speculation.... and the only guarantee is Watford will be one of the favourites for the drop by the ignorant, usual suspects of pea brained pundits who still haven’t a clue how WFC is run.

 

Most pundits had Burnley favourites to go down so can't go on what they think

That said if we don't have a good start to the season and don't clear out the deadwood in defence and upfront then I think we will justafiably be amongst the favourites to go down. Southampton can't be as bad next season, Brighton will strengthen a little with a year in the premier league under their belt and Wolves with the links with one of the super agents should be ok.

 

The last 2 seasons given the gap between 8th and 17th has been quite small, most teams are much of a muchness and I expect a team not expected to struggle will struggle next year rather like Southampton did this year. We will of course be in the mix of those clubs and it's a fine line between success and failure. In the last few years we've seen teams have horrendous seasons, WBA, Sunderland and Villa; someone will be that team next season, probably Cardiff. Predicting the other two relegation teams could be Huddersfield and Palace or it could be Leicester and Southampton.