Achieving back-to-back promotions has finally put an end to the long 22-year absence from the Premier League. Back in 2002, the original Spiderman film topped the box office and Holly Valance was a UK chart topper – but it’d be some feat to see Ipswich anywhere near the top of the table for a third consecutive year! Summer transfer business has been positive, so far, with further additions hopefully to follow. The biggest deal by far was awarding McKenna a new contract, to ward off significant interest. But more will be required to bridge the gap in quality to Premier League and to address potential shortcomings in central midfield and attack. Nobody should underestimate the difficulty of the Premier League – a much scarier and ruthless beast than the one we last encountered. Survival would represent a successful season. McKenna and the lads will give everything to avoid the drop, but will it be enough? As per the recent tradition, make your predictions below: 1. Where will we finish in the table? 18th 2. Who will be our top goalscorer and how many goals will he score? Liam Delap (7 goals) 3. Who will be our player of the season? Omari Hutchinson. 4. What player will underperform/flop this season? Massimo Luongo 5. Will McKenna still be our manager at the end of the season? …. Yes. 6. Which three teams are getting relegated from the Premier League this season? Southampton, Nottingham Forest, and Ipswich. 7. Who will win the Premier League? Arsenal.
Also: As per last season, I'll be running the Predictions League again - no buy-in required, just personal pride on the line. This will run for all 38 Premier League games. To enter, just post a score prediction on the matchday thread before kick off. There is a slight change in scoring - to go in line with the likes of Super Six etc., now we're Premier League - you will get two points for a correct result and five points (up from four) for a perfect scoreline. Big Al is the guy to beat this year!
1. Where will we finish in the table? 7th 2. Who will be our top goalscorer and how many goals will he score? Chappers, 9. 3. Who will be our player of the season? Leif 4. What player will underperform/flop this season? Delap 5. Will McKenna still be our manager at the end of the season? …. Yes. 6. Which three teams are getting relegated from the Premier League this season? Leicester, Brighton, and Crystal Palace. 7. Who will win the Premier League? Man City
1. Where will we finish in the table? 15th 2. Who will be our top goalscorer and how many goals will he score? Hutchinson 11 3. Who will be our player of the season? Morsy 4. What player will underperform/flop this season? Taylor (again) 5. Will McKenna still be our manager at the end of the season? Yes. 6. Which three teams are getting relegated from the Premier League this season? Leicester, Forest and Everton 7. Who will win the Premier League? Man City (yawn)
Finish - 15th Top scorer - hirst 10 Player of the season - omari Underperform - wolfenden McKenna - yes Relegated - Leicester, Southampton & Brentford Champions - Arsenal
1. Where will we finish in the table? 13th 2. Who will be our top goalscorer and how many goals will he score? Omari 12 3. Who will be our player of the season? Jacob Greaves 4. What player will underperform/flop this season? Alan Judge, Marcus Harness 5. Will McKenna still be our manager at the end of the season? Yes. 6. Which three teams are getting relegated from the Premier League this season? Man City, Bournemouth, Leicester 7. Who will win the Premier League? Arsenal
There is method in my relegation madness, the Prem league may find some balls and screw Man City! I was gonna put 20 quid on them getting relegated, thinking I was being clever and thinking odds would be about 1000/1 but sadly the bookies are being very cautious and City are only about 15/1 to get relegated
I'd love it if you were right Spanish,but Citeh would just throw a fortune in legal fees to fight it and end up bankrupting the PL!!
Well done & thanks Nuggets! And assuming we get SS over the line and up to scratch within a month, here we go. 1. Where will we finish in the table? 14th 2. Who will be our top goalscorer and how many goals will he score? Omari 12 3. Who will be our player of the season? Morsy 4. What player will underperform/flop this season? Broadie... Too many niggles 5. Will McKenna still be our manager at the end of the season? Yes. 6. Which three teams are getting relegated from the Premier League this season? Leicester, Brentford and Everton 7. Who will win the Premier League? Man City And final Q to throw in. 8. Who are the biggest Club pre-season tossers? Blackburn!
1. Where will we finish in the table? 14th 2. Who will be our top goalscorer and how many goals will he score? Delap 11 3. Who will be our player of the season? Omari 4. What player will underperform/flop this season? Chaplin 5. Will McKenna still be our manager at the end of the season? …. Yes. 6. Which three teams are getting relegated from the Premier League this season? Leicester, Everton, Southampton 7. Who will win the Premier League? Arsenal
1. Where will we finish in the table? 15th 2. Who will be our top goalscorer and how many goals will he score? Liam Delap 8 goals 3. Who will be our player of the season? Hutchinson 4. What player will underperform/flop this season? Morsy, purely for being sent off too many times. 5. Will McKenna still be our manager at the end of the season? Yes. 6. Which three teams are getting relegated from the Premier League this season? Southampton, Nottingham Forest, and Leicester 7. Who will win the Premier League? Man City
1. Where will we finish in the table? 18th 2. Who will be our top goalscorer and how many goals will he score? An as-yet-to-be-signed player (Phillips maybe, if the loan goes through), with 11 goals 3. Who will be our player of the season? Leif Davis 4. What player will underperform/flop this season? Muric (I'm hoping I'm wrong, but got a bad feeling about him...) 5. Will McKenna still be our manager at the end of the season? Yes. 6. Which three teams are getting relegated from the Premier League this season? Everton, Leiceister, and Ipswich. 7. Who will win the Premier League? Aston Villa (just hoping for a little parity in the league, which will bode well for our future). I'm the most uniformed/unaware person here, but hey...why not try a guess how it'll turn out? I've been struggling to stay informed with what's going on (as life doesn't want me to...just like it doesn't want me to do anything fun or that I enjoy), so most of my predictions may end up wrong. I think we get relegated, with the understanding that we'll go to the Championship for a year, solidfy our team more, and then make a prolonged push/stay in the top league. If I'm remembering correctly, when the new owners came in their plan was to get out of League One in the first year, then spend a few years in the Championship before pushing on. Getting promoted last year was good for the fans and for club morale, but I do kinda wish we had a little more time to strengthen the team a bit. There were/are quite a few holes in the team that needed to be filled (first teamers and reservists), and it's been difficult to get our business done in this one transfer window. So I think we'll get relegated, lose a player or two, but use the experience to help us push forward.
Alright then, time to get my predictions in 1. Where will we finish in the table? 14th 2. Who will be our top goalscorer and how many goals will he score? Delap with 15 goals 3. Who will be our player of the season? Hutchinson 4. What player will underperform/flop this season? For flop I'm really going to just go with the player I think will see the least game time after being a regular starter - Woolfy 5. Will McKenna still be our manager at the end of the season? Yes 6. Which three teams are getting relegated from the Premier League this season? Brentford, Everton and Leicester 7. Who will win the Premier League? Man City So, having watched all of the pre-season games, I'm confident of being competitive in the Premier League. One reason being, we have McKenna. Until he dropped down to League One to take on the Ipswich project, McK had spent his whole career at top PL teams and clearly knows the workings behind them being successful. He'll know the tactics needed, none of this is new to him at all. I'd say he's been working on getting us playing like a Prem team since he's been here, whilst making the tweaks necessary to win matches at whatever level we were at. I liked the different approach we took against Nice, and it's a system I can see McK using frequently throughout the season. The back three (back five when pressed) will give some solidity at the back as well as retaining attacking outlets down the flanks. Over the matches I watched, I saw similarities to last season's style as well as new ideas being implemented. Overall, I think the players that will adapt the quickest will be those with top flight/European experience or International players, so players like Edmundson, Tuanzebe, Morsy and Luongo, and those from PL academies or who have been with PL first teams and training (Hutch, Delap, Muric, Johnson). I think it will take a while for some of the less experienced internationals (Broadhead, Burns and Burgess) to get to grips with the pace initially. Muric - looks confident, can pick a long pass out and could be a real asset as a third CB with how far forward he plays. Will have to know when to come out that far though as I can also see him getting caught out if he gets it wrong. Clarke - will be a back up to Johnson but could be handy coming off the bench if Johnson is getting leggy after bombing up and down the wing. Johnson - first choice RB, we may see Tuanzebe play here at times too. Tuanzebe - I'm predicting that Axel will be a solid player for us this season. Used as a RB, RCB in a three or right sided CB I think he will have a good season and keep Woolfy out of the team. Woolfy - don't see him playing much, I think we have players that will handle the PL better in Tuanzebe and Edmundson that will see Luke's game time be limited. Edmundson - will be another solid player this season. Used more on the right side, he will be battling with Tuanzebe for a starting spot. Greaves - first choice at LCB. Burgess - will be used against the more physical teams initially but Greaves will end up playing every week. Davis - nailed on for LB. May also be converted to a left winger with Townsend staying deeper behind. Townsend - Sub for Leif when he gets tired. As above, could be used in tandem with Davis to give a more stable defence and to allow Leif to stay high on the left without the need to track all the way back. Luongo - will be used in the first few matches but will drift out of the starting 11. Taylor - I reckon Taylor may flourish in this league. He's coming to the age where experience will help the talent be more productive. With the potential new midfield additions, he'll get used more in the attacking roles. Morsy - will keep up the consistent performances but will have to learn to keep his foot to himself in the tackle at times. He'll get carded a lot if he doesn't clean up a bit. Humphreys - will probably not be named in the 25 man squad when it's submitted. A loan to a Championship club is needed. Harness - has looked good in pre-season but he won't be a starter often. Hutch - will be player of the season, he'll get better this year and make his price look like a steal. Chaplin - will continue to be effective but maybe won't get as many minutes on the pitch this season. Broadhead - I'm not sure on Broady, he could be excellent but at the same time he could turn out to be just a bit mid and we'll look to replace. Burns - I think Wes has the attributes to do well but will take a little time to adjust. If he starts the season well he'll get confidence but if he's finding no joy down the right hand side his form will drop and we'll have to find another solution. Hirst - Will be used more as a sub than a starter. Delap will be leading the line for us. Delap - looks like a real handful. Got the stature to go up against the CBs he'll face and uses his body well and has a decent turn to find space when he gets the ball with back to goal. Definitely needs to tone his exuberance down otherwise he'll be giving needless free kicks away and gifting cheap possession back, something we'll need to avoid this season. Al-Hamadi - will be used as a sub mostly, may even get loaned out in January if we bring in somebody better. Ladapo - has surprised me in pre-season. I don't know whether Kieran has told him that the reason he was loaned out last season was because of lack of effort closing down and leading the line, or because Freddie really wants to take his chance at Premier League football, but he really put some effort into the pre-season games. I think he may be useful this year and will remain with the squad. Potential signings Szmodics - if signed, will put real pressure on Broadhead and Chaplin in the front three. Somebody will have to make way, more than likely Broady. Phillips - will partner Morsy, or dare I say it, replace him. His cross-field balls out to the wings will be a huge asset to us. He was good at it at Leeds but it's not really the way City play so that talent was kind of wasted playing in that team. This signing could be huge for us. He was great at Leeds but honestly, I just think he doesn't suit the way Pep plays and I'm not sure why they bought him. All in all, we've done some pretty good business in the transfer window, especially if the 2 mentioned above get signed. We're pretty well covered in all positions although the striker slot is up for grabs without there being a standout player there yet. Unfortunately, I can see some of the players that have gotten us this far will gradually drift out of the starting positions but that will be because we have signed upgrades. I'm looking forward to the season, we'll obviously not win as often as the past 2 campaigns but I don't think we'll do as badly as most pundits etc will predict. Just a couple of days now, bring it on!
Until Sammie and Phillips put pen to paper I was a little worried we were still a little light on quality in key areas. With those additions and with confidence of some of the results and performances in preseason I think we can just about survive. 1.17th 2. Sammie 9 3. Davis 4. Hutchinson (predict this with a heavy heart, but just have this feeling it will be a rough season for him, particularly with the transfer fee and expectation attached) 5. Yes 6. Palace, Leicester, Southampton 7. Arsenal
1. Where will we finish in the table? 18th 2. Who will be our top goalscorer and how many goals will he score? Liam Delap (12) 3. Who will be our player of the season? Burns 4. What player will underperform/flop this season? Muric 5. Will McKenna still be our manager at the end of the season? …. Yes. 6. Which three teams are getting relegated from the Premier League this season? Southampton, wolves and Ipswich. 7. Who will win the Premier League? City
I don't usually do these predictions and not going to this time other but compelled to say I pretty much agree with this
Not at all, each to their own, it just never has really interested me things like fantasy football, betting on games etc.
