Major changes are afoot at Liverpool, Stoke City and Manchester United. Wigan, Burnley and Bolton have already gone. Sunderland and Newcastle struggled last season. Only 8 PL teams this season are north of Birmingham. If Stoke, Newcastle and Sunderland are relegated this season there will only be 5 clubs left north of Birmingham.
And if my granny had wheels she'd be a trolley. I bet at least 2 of Stoke, Newcastle and Sunderland will have good seasons this time. 2012/13 was a rather strange season with so many teams threatened with relegation...won't happen again.
It won't happen in my view.....sure enough the three teams mentioned struggled a bit last year and I except at least one of the three will struggle this year but not all of them. I am expecting Liverpool to do well this season I expect Arsenal to struggle unless they really start buying and without Bale spurs will struggle too. The championship in my view will be decided between the Manchester clubs and Chelski............ Us.....I predict we will finish 8/9th. Another long old season approaches.....roll on.........
Go back a couple of seasons and tell me how many Lancashire clubs there were in the PL and how does that compare to now?
Decline perhaps, but demise? No. You could equally say that the large number of Lancashire clubs for example was an anomaly and what we're seeing now is simply regression to the mean.
I think only Stoke of those three will be genuinely threatened by relegation, and that's because they have the utterly bog-awful Mark Hughes in charge, rather than any creeping cancer emerging in Northern football.
I definitely think all three might struggle again this season again. Stoke have a new manager and will be trying to play it on the grass instead of through the air. Sunderland also have a newish manager and could fall foul of what QPR did and bought in to many players to quickly. Newcastle is becoming a bit of joke with there new director of football and they bought quite a few average players last season.
In my life Manchester United have usually won everything, so I'll be more than happy if this were to change. I don't see any pattern or north/ south divide though; just the league usually being won by clubs either from London or Manchester.
I don't understand this thread, Northern clubs have dominated football for years. Take a look at the top of the table: Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spuds ... all Northern teams aren't they? Maybe you could say Spuds, being the third Welsh team in the Prem aren't Northern.
You ignorant Southern prat, Godders. Stoke ain't bleedin' North (unless you use your bizarre definition of north of Birmingham)! Anyway, your prejudices aside, Liverpool will be OK, except when visiting SMS; United will be the team to beat and if you get them City will be the top team. Sure Chelsea will be challenging. Of the new teams coming up expect Hull to be all right (are they even on your map, Godders).
Stoke is only 25 miles south of Sheffield so I think most would consider it "North" if given a choice between North or South.
With nothing much to do one evening, I had a trawl around the bookies to see where those in the know thought Saints would finish this year. What surprised me most was where they thought Newcastle would finish up, all our turf accountant friends had them above us, all felt they were up for a good season? Struggle to see them pulling together and having a top 8 -10 finish myself but who knows? Unsurprisingly they all had the 3 promoted teams in or around the bottom 4.
What are the odds on us winning the league? On William Hill we are 1500 to 1 for the title I think.... Top 6 14/1 Top half finish 13/8 Top 4 50/1
