The Premier League - 2021-2022

Go back to the cricket at Lords', Mick.

 

If his behaviour was anything like the Rochdale gangs he deserves significant jail time. At the moment its looking like he sent a few texts. There's a big difference between sending a few texts and coercing a minor into having sex. In my view it's a sliding scale. Sending a text is clearly much less serious than raping a child.

Most paedophiles in the UK are free to continue their abuse unchecked as the police and society in general massively fail to protect children from paedophiles, just like good old little old Watford FC.

If anything a story about a premier league footballer sending texts distracts people from the real issue which is that in the UK the vast majority of paedophiles operate with impunity at every level of our society.

 

Not quite PL news but Steve Cooper is stepping down as Swansea manager

 

Presumably so he can pursue a full-time modelling career.


Give a big warm welcome to the new face of men's fashion at Primark!

 

I'd like to see him model balaclavas.

 

Interesting that oddschecker have us as 2nd favourites for the drop behind Norwich. 18th Brentford are seen to have a better survival chance followed by 17th CP, 16th Burnley, 15th NUFC, 14th Soton, 13th Wolves, 12th Brighton. Surprised Brighton are so highly regarded.

 

Can see Brighton having a really good season at some point. If they manage to get themselves a goalscorer and keep Bissouma then it won't be long until it all clicks for them.

 

Christmas Tree formation? Are you Mike Bassett?

 

Chris Wood, Richarlison, Douglas Luiz and Alexis MacAllister are off to the Olympics. Wouldn't expect the latter two to play against us early doors.

Big blow for Burnley and Everton though.

 

He looks like the offspring of zippy from rainbow and a hideous pink fish

 

Tbf I can understand that, Brentford certainly seem to be the most ambitious in the window out of the three of us, but all three promoted teams will find it hard. Think if there are any other teams who could struggle, Southampton are my main candidates, looked woeful from November onwards last season. Burnley could be 'dark horses' for relegation, but we say that every season lol. Think Palace and Newcastle should have enough, everyone else should be well clear, Brighton in particular should be looking at top half

 

What exactly are the rules for the Olympics? I know Liverpool pulled Salah out of the Egypt team, I think because the Olympics are not part of the official international window, and because it's a youth tournament, could those clubs have pulled out those players, or would they not be able to pull out those who are 24 and younger?

 

Not sure really, though I'd imagine anyone who was under 23 last year would count due to the postponement. 3 over 23s as usual.

Everton weren't happy about Richarlison going but he must have had his classic strop. Son was allowed to go but didn't as he didn't want to mess up his fitness. A lot of players were "forbidden" though.

 

Son's case is different, he played in the Olympic qualifiers as a means to avoid 2 years of military service, I assumed that he would also have had to have played in the Olympics too.

 

Was it the Olympic qualifiers he had to play in to avoid military service? I thought it was the Asian Games a couple of years ago?

 

Maybe you're right, I knew it was something he had to do or he would have had to serve two years.

 

The season we got relegated was the only season when we were not favourites to be in a relegation battle so things don't bode well for Brighton.

 

Seems perfectly reasonable. Norwich have sold their best player, seem to be selling one of their other top players and their third quality player has already failed once in the Premier League. We got promoted without a proper striker and tactics that for a large part of the season consisted of "keep it tight and give it to Sarr".

Bearing in mind it's obvious that we've got absolutely no money to spend, I think the club have done well to get us to a point where if a couple of punts come off we might stay up. Imagine that Brighton are so well thought of because they created loads of chances last year but their forwards misfired throughout the season and it's seen unlikely they'll underperform this much again.

 

it's the 'xmas tree laid down in front of a mirror' formation:
1-2-4-2-1
Standard xmas tree is 4-3-2-1

 

Burnley is definitely one to watch. The US owners could be starting to take their toll but if anyone can keep them up its Dyche. Really we just need to focus on ourselves and our own performances. It doesn't matter which 3 teams are the worst of the other 19, we just have to finish above them. I was sure we had enough for a decent season in 18/19, thought we were in danger of relegation after the cup final in 19/20 and knew we could only get promoted in 20/21 with Deeney out of the squad. But for 21/22 my crystal ball is very murky. It's impossible to call this season cos everything could go either way.

Bachmann has played for 3 sh1te teams whose fortunes have been transformed with him between the sticks (kilmarnock had their highest ever league finish of the modern era, watford were going nowhere playing Deeneyball with a toxic dressing room and then we got promoted, Austria were sh1te then had a great euros with him in goal) but we have to wait and see if he's ready for the prem. If Foster comes back into the team his lacksidaisical end of career apathy and preference for YouTube and cycling could see him get us relegated for the 3rd time in his career.

Sierralta is the same as Bachmann, untried and untested in the prem. Impossible to predict how good he'll be at the higher level. Kiko was great last season but the jury was always out on him in the PL.

Danny Rose is back at the bottom of the mountain at 31. It's hard to see him getting back to the player he was but even two thirds of the way should be enough. A highly functioning Bachmann, Sierralta and Rose would mean we have every chance of doing well at the back. But what are the odds?

In midfield you'd expect both Hughes and Chalobah to have their career best seasons if they stay at watford alternatively theyll be on the bench at clubs which dont put relegation clauses in their contracts. Gosling and Clevs are both competent experienced PL midfielders who leave it all out on the pitch but wouldnt get into many other PL sides. High hopes for Louza but hope is all it is right now. Can Quina get back to his pre injury trajectory? he's definitely got the skills to pay the bills but does he still have the mentality?With Etebo like Rose its impossible to predict his impact. The midfield is where we need to find the right chemistry like with Clevs Nate and Hughes last season and Capoue and Doucs before it went off the boil.

Up front it's really looking like throwing a load of mud and hoping some of it will stick. I'm expecting Sarr to play like the £60 million player he is next season if we play 433 and he has the right players around him. Expecting JP to have an instant impact in the prem is a big ask but his trajectory since the Tranmere game suggests it could happen. I'm sure it will happen next season if he doesnt quite click this season. I'd expect King Ken to have a solid season as long as Xisco remembers he's only the king of the left flank. Playing him on the right is kryptonite to him. Apart from the fantastic 3 from last season it's all hit and hope isnt it? I'm not sure Josh King has scored a league goal since his injury at Muff, Dennis is already at the make or break stage of his career at just 23, Feltch is probably not good enough and Cucho while highly talented is injury prone and rarely scores. On top of that we have the significantly slimmer 33 year old elephant in the room that is Deeney who will no doubt be demanding he's selected ahead of better players. If Troy's 'personality' turns the dressing room toxic again we need to act decisively and pay him off at the 1st sign of it happening. In binary terms the more minutes Troy plays the more likely we are to get relegated. Having signed 3 centre forwards and bringing back Cucho to have Deeney on the pitch at all would mean our transfer window has been a disaster in terms of striker recruitment.

I'd say to stay up we need 2 out of JP Sierralta and Bachmann to make the step up and 2 out of Rose Louza, King and Dennis to come good as well as for Sarr to be Sarr.

Put in those terms it looks doable. I'm feeling chilled about this season cos I thought if we didnt get promoted we'd have struggled to stay in the champo this season with Deeney leading the line. This season the worst case scenario is back in the champo with Deeney gone. It's all good as far as I'm concerned.

 

I had a dream last night of us losing the first match of the season 8-1.

 

That's a nightmare.

 

As inspiration goes Otter, I have to be honest and say that isn't exactly up there with MLK in front of the Lincolm Memorial.

 

We took the lead through a Deeney penalty, he then goaded the villa players and fans to such an extent that they hammered us 8-1..........

 

Well they put 7 past Liverpool….

 

Excellent news. Their predictions are usually trash.

 

442 magazine are renowned for having the laziest predictions in the whole of football media. They usually just rank the division by last year's attendance figures.

 

I have never seen Four Four Two give Watford a positive prediction, ever.

 

Definitely hoping Feltch doesn't suck too much.

 

Don't worry, Fletch will prove the doubters wrong.

 

Just wish Southgate had got Deeney in as Penalty coach for England. No one in World football I would rather see on the end of a spot kick.

 

What Deeney in goal ?

 

Old big nose just got a hatrick at the Olympics