Season Predictions

It's quite a funny thing that prediction, or at least the basis behind it. He's worried that other than Aribo it's all just shots in the dark, but when it comes to Brighton (who in my mind desperately need reinforcements - I really rate Potter, but they didn't score goals) - "Potter has also invested for the future with the signings of young strikers Julio Enciso from Libertad Asuncion in Paraguay and Ivorian Simon Adingra from Danish side FC Nordsjaelland."

Which apparently is okay?

 

However, I'd prefer to be underestimated and shove it in their faces

 

Yes, given our form at the end of last season any prediction for us to finish in the lower reaches of the table is fair enough. Nobody can know how well the new signings will change the fortunes of the team at this stage but it's those unknowns that are exciting (or scary) for us Saints fans.

 

Yeah I’ve seen probably a dozen or so predictions across various people (mainly YouTube) and without counting I’d say the vast majority have us going down, highest I’ve seen is 15th I think.

Not exactly a hard prediction to make at this point in time, especially if you don’t want to predict the 3 promoted teams to go straight back down

 

Athletic writers predict us at 18th and Forest 17th

The scene is set perfectly to exceed expectations as everyone expects us to be ****

We need that striker badly though!

 

Shame things have slowed down on the transfer front. Was hoping we would have another stiker or 10 sorted by the opening game. Hope we can still bring 4 in as suggested, as it does feel like we are dangerously short still (in numbers and/or quality) in a few areas. If we could get in another striker, 10, full back and CB (ship out a few 10's and a CB too) then I think we should be fine. As it stands though we are looking a little short and I imagine those predicting us to go down or just about survive are probably not far wrong unless all the players that we have brought in so far hit the ground running Tino style, which is very unlikely to happen. A 100% window hit rate is very rare for any team, and much less so in terms of immediate impact when talking about such young inexperienced players.

 

I think we were focusing on Delap as target #1. We might still be trying that route, who knows. Agreed though, I was hoping we might have at least one more in at this point (as I’m sure the club were too). The beauty of Saints though, as we know, is that these things come quickly out of the blue.

 

In an ideal world we would of course have all transfers completed early and in for a good pre-season. But over a 38 game season, it is more important to be patient and get the right player(s) rather than rush someone in who may not be the no1 target.

Id rather have the right player(s) for 35 games than a rushed transfer for 38.

 

Grauniad preview here -

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/aug/04/premier-league-2022-23-preview-no-17-southampton

 

Finishing Position: 13th
FA Cup Round: semi
Carabao Cup 3rd
Will Ralph see out the season no!!!

 

Finishing Position: 14th
FA Cup Round: 5th round
Carabao Cup Round: 3rd round
Player of the Season: Bazunu
Disappointment of the Season: Lycano and Livramento'sinjury proving to be more serious.. I am also not convinced that all of the new signings will break in to the first team,
Most improved player of the season: Djenepo
Will Ralph see out the season Y/N: N - Saints will pull the plug on him before the World Cup and start 2023 with someone new at the helm

Other predictions:-

1. Adam Armstrong likely to be moved on.

2. Romain Perraud to be properly appreciated by the fans.

3. Everton, Leeds, Leicester , Newcastle and Fulham all to finish the season with different managers.

4. Poch to be managing at Newcastle before close of season.

5. Top for to be Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Man Utd albiet the latter will be a good few points behind.

6. Portsmouth to finish mid-table and not involved in any promotion push. Cowley brothers given the push in May after fan disgruntlement.

7. Serious medical incident in World Cup in Qatar with European players struggling with the heat. (I was in Qatar last month and visited the stadium at Al Baytt which is pretty impressive considering it will be taken apart and ultimately shipped to Africa. The heat was staggering and although I am aware it will be cooler in Novemer, it will be nothing like anything many players have encountered. I think the spectators will also largely be corporate as opposed to genuine football fans. Difficult not to be impressed with what has been done in Qatar even if i appreciate the conerns.)

 

Qatar won't be that hot in November/December. No hotter than Brazil 2014 or USA 1994.

Manaus was far worse conditions than anything we'll see in Qatar.

 

Finishing Position: 12th
FA Cup Round: 3rd round
Carabao Cup Round: QF
Player of the Season: KWP
Disappointment of the Season: The goals conceded number
Most improved player of the season: Perraud - I rate him anyway but think he'll really push on given he won't be second choice to begin with
Will Ralph see out the season Y/N: Y


Think it'll be a lower points total for the winner this year with the WC messing things up for bigger clubs.

Spuds to get 3rd and a cup

Arteta won't see out season

 

Finishing Position: 15th
FA Cup Round: 5th round
Carabao Cup Round: QF
Player of the Season: KWP
Disappointment of the Season: Centre Backs
Most improved player of the season: A. Armstrong
Will Ralph see out the season Y/N: Y

Chelsea to finish third or higher.

 

I don’t entirely think the low predictions are outrageous tbh. We have done a lot of business but it’s mainly been aimed at the long term and effectively we are relying on a bunch of pretty inexperienced and raw players to instantly improve what was by far and away the worst team in the PL for the final third of last season.

I am happy with the business we did early in the window and encouraged that we seem to have some kind of vision, but I can see where the pundits are coming from. We are playing a high stakes gamble with our transfer business and it could equally go well or fail catastrophically.

I still think we are an experienced CB and striker away from being able to confidently say we will improve this season. Equally Bazunu, ABK, Lavia, Aribo and Mara could instantly drop in to the first XI and perform miracles and we don’t know what impact the new coaching set up will have, we are going to be very hard to predict.

 

Yeah, this, pretty much.

I mean absolutely nobody has a Scooby what we're going to be like. Including us, I suspect.

Agree though, we're a CB and ST away from me feeling confident. I think we'll bloody some noses though.

 

Which could work in our favour at the start of the season. If we don't know what we're going to be like, then the opposition will be even more clueless! The only thing they'll know is to not give away free kicks around the box!

 

Now the season is over we can all look at this and see who was closest.

Unsurprisingly nobody had us being as **** as we were, although there weren’t any completely mental predictions either. Seems like most of us were cautiously optimistic

Ides probably the closest in terms of his Saints predictions

 

Oh didn’t see all the people saying Aribo would be player of the season

Or Tom saying we would actually win something

 

I was the only one saying Lavia as POTS! The Aribo love is mad with hindsight.