Pre-season 23/24

Best / most notable pre-season friendlies / tours... (Since I started going)

• 1984 – mini tour of Scotland. Played Dumbarton and Morton. Followed by trip to Majorca – lost 2-1 to both Barcelona and Real Mallorca

• 1985 – won 3-0 at Aldershot (Blissett hat-trick, I think). The first pre-season game I went to.

• 1994 – the Klinsmann match v Spurs

• 1996 – Playing Oxford and Cambridge at home in the space of a few days and billing it 'The University Challenge'

• 1999 – the disastrous Isle of Man trip followed by a match against St Patrick's Athletic in Dublin

• 2001 – Vialli and Wilkins' first game at Aylesbury, followed by Inter and Sampdoria in Italy

• 2006 – Inter and Chievo at home before the Premier League season

• 2014 – Udinese – back when we were all still friends

I also remember a match at Craven Cottage when we played very poorly. The managers had to walk across the pitch from the dugout to the changing rooms and all of the four times Glenn Roeder had to walk across the pitch a fan ran down to the front of the terrace and yelled: "Get yer chequebook out Roeder. Where's our striker, Roeder? What's happened to the Furlong money, Roeder? What's happened to the Dyer money, Roeder?" etc etc. I guess it was the real-world equivalent of Uncle Ron. Perhaps it actually was Uncle Ron?

 

I’m not sure if it was pre-season but I remember Watford playing a match (and losing it) in Malta. To Hamrun Spartans if I recall. I’m fairly sure GT was our manager but can’t remenber which of his two spells. Anybody?

I’m from Somerset and watched us play once at Taunton Town under Glenn Roeder. West Country tours used to be quite popular for us. As I mentioned earlier, we played at Dawlish (I think 0-0?), Torpoint (under GT second time round) and ditto at Newquay on a beautifully sunny July evening.

 

The pre season tour of Germany was memorable in 2015. Great laugh.

 

Imagine the bed-wetting if a similar result happened these days!

 

Yes! Hamrun Spartans won the Maltese league last season and entered the Champions League qualifying this month but were thrashed by an Israeli team. So I’d fancy we’d beat them in any friendly re-match unless the heat got to our lot.

 

Peterborough Reserves were delighted to get a call on Friday afternoon inviting them for a kickabout the next day.

 

The Opta Super Computer has us down in 15th place. Ironically our first two opponents are placed as the bottom two. Watford are in the scope of the relegation odds but are nowhere to be seen in the promotion odds, as far as Opta are concerned. I think this is a fair reflection as to where we are as a club now.

Championship 2023-24 Season Predictions | The Analyst

 

I think the relegation slots are very difficult to predict. Plymouth are there as "the smallest promoted club" but I don't think they will go down. Cardiff have signed Ramsey with Moore being linked, Hull picked up towards the end of last season, as did Huddersfield did under Warnock who is staying. QPR, Rotherham, B'ham? but we could get ourselves heavily involved if we don't get ourselves sorted out and all pulling in the same direction very quickly. I think Ipswich will make the playoffs and I think the 3 relegated clubs will finish top 3.

 

Yes, I admit I was surprised to see Birmingham in the bottom three.....and Boro Champions? I think Leicester will walk it personally. But overall, I think it's pretty fair and another indicator as to how we're viewed from the outside. More likely to go down than go up.

 

Yes I'd updated my post to say the 3 coming down will finish top 3.Leeds and Soton 6th and 7th looks wrong but 15th for us looks about right.
I'd actually picked QPR, Rotherham, B'ham before I looked at his table and he has those as the bottom 4 along with Plymouth. B'ham did fall very poorly after a decent start.

 

Interestingly Not The Top 20 also have us 15th. Benjamin Bloom put us 6th, but admitted that it was more of a hopeful punt rather than actually believing we would finish there.

 

It's no surprise. Unless we sign ourselves a potent forward line, no one is ever going to rate us. You're only as good as your strikers. If you can score goals, you're always in with a chance, but if not, you're always going to be facing an uphill battle.

 

Went up in 1999 with our top scorer only getting 10 goals.

Went up under Xisco with a top scorer of 13.

It’s often a case of when you score them rather than how many you score.

 

Or rather, a shared number of goals between your forward line.

When we went up with Xisco our forwards scored a combined 40 goals.

Sarr had 13, Deeney 7, Pedro 9, Sema 6, Gray 5.

Now is it better to have those 40 goals shared between 5 players, or 2?

Everyone wants a striker (or 2) that can score 20 goals each, but that normally means less goals being scored by other areas on the pitch. In the marathon that is the Championship, and with plenty of injury/fatigue risk, I think squad depth certainly outweighs having a star man carrying the team week in, week out (I.e Gyokeres at Coventry).

 

Sad though to see how we’ve declined in our attack, when you look back at the days when we had Deeney, Vydra and Ighalo scoring a combined total of 57 league goals between the three of them (2014-15 season).

 

We were definitely spoiled in our first Pozzo promotion season with Deeney 21, Ighalo 20, Vydra 16, Abdi 9, Forestieri 5, Tozser 5 (all direct free kicks I believe!).

Think it's warped people's expectations a bit. There's always chat of needing a 20 goal striker but most seasons only 3-5 players in the whole league achieve that. Neither Burnley nor Sheffield United had a 20 goal striker last season and both walked to automatic promotion.

 

The American educational psychologist?

 

I can't quite understand why people are upset that friendlies are behind closed doors. What's the issue with that. Maybe VI asked for that. These games happen a lot throughout the season I don't see people complaining then. I suspect most of those complaining wouldn't have gone to the game anyway

 

So we start the season with two 6 pointers?
If things go well we will be miles clear at the top of the table

 

I know, imagine wanting to go and watch your team play. It's crazy talk.

 

Definitely agree with this. We scored 250 league goals in the three seasons culminating in 14/15. Absolutely crazy numbers.

 

Yes we were really spoilt by that team as an attacking force. Fantastic to watch. We completely demolished sides.

 

It's a friendly, they are generally dull, boring affairs. Surely you've got something better to do

 

Christ, that was so much fun.

When Zola’s team clicked, it was an absolute joy to watch. So far removed from anything I’d ever seen us play before.

 

People enjoy going to football, I don't like going to Watford at anytime but I've been to a few non-league friendlies this summer. I don't know why people are suddenly looking down their noses at fans who want to go and watch a Watford friendly.

 

I don't understand this - they have us down as finishing 15th...but they rank the chances of us finishing 13th as higher than the chance of us finishing 15th? So surely they think we'll finish 13th?!

 

13th, 15th.....either way it's still a load of crap.

 

The methodology for their predictions is not good. They use betting market odds for each game and 'Opta power ratings' which are based of historic data. What they haven't done, or at least don't appear to have done, is factor in the changes that have happened in each club since the end of last season. To be fair, I'm not sure how they would do that given their aim at some form of objectivity.
Personally, I don't see Coventry or Middlesbrough doing as well this season as they did last. I think one of Leeds or Southampton will finish mid table. Most of the usual strugglers will struggle with one exception, as usually happens. I also wouldn't be surprised if a side has a points deduction which will relegate them.
As for us, I have no idea. If we play as a team we will do better than last season. If we don't, we will do worse. If we are anywhere near the play-off in January I wouldn't be surprised at the arrival of reinforcements from Udinese.

 

I mean, Burnley's topscorer was Tella with 19 league goals, so I'm not sure there's really much daylight between that perception and reality there, in truth.

They also had a brilliant coach and overall tactical setup/style of play, of course, supplemented by four players making it into double figures overall and rather importantly being able to boast the best defence in the league, conceding the fewest goals over the course of the season.

The second best defence, that conceded the second fewest amount of goals? Sheffield United (handily tied with the Scum; the third team to be promoted).

Of course it's theoretically possible to gain promotion/be successful whilst scoring relatively few goals, as we did under Xisco, but it relies in turn on excellence in defence instead. Can we honestly say we have any expectation of that being the case for us this season? Not to mention the previously mentioned depth requirement. We appear as shallow as a shower in that regard, as it stands, which means we're looking 0 for 2 where it counts - that's the concern.

 

Just seen a video of Ince being interviewed in Leyton Orient’s stadium

Either we’re loaning him out to further shrink our bloated squad or we’ve had another secret pre season game

 

Ince is going to Orient and not Baah.

 

Another player we thought we'd signed being announced by another club ?

 

Found his level