You would have thought that the ideal pre-season programme would be to go off to somewhere in Europe (i.e. a short-haul flight) to do highly intensive cryo and altitude training, like the Welsh Rugby team do, and obviously mix skills stuff in there too. Have a week or two smashing that and then return back to the UK for the friendlies. Basically, under no circumstances leave Western/Central Europe. I guess the problem with that is that it'll probably be hard to find teams to play us at a reasonably competitive level for the first couple of weeks of training when we're out of the UK, and also the players don't all return at once so a fair few would miss out on the serious intensive fitness stuff. Plus you lose many of the commercial benefits of a preseason like the one we're currently enjoying. Its a real shame that we're missing out on a WHL friendly to make us look forward to the season to come. I like the idea of doing all the commercially-focussed tours in the immediate post-season as it probably is a more relaxed playing atmosphere on those trips and once you're done you can let all the players have proper time off and have a fully football-focussed preseason. What is annoying is when we're sold the Asia/Australia trip as the only serious foreign travel this Summer and then the club buggers off to the USA and schedules games against serious opposition away from the UK mere days before the first PL game. I hope Poch really isn't happy with it and gets more control the next time.
Coffee spat all over the floor and had to explain what I was laughing at to my daughters...thanks SD...that's a conversation a dad never wants to have with his kids
Nobody predicted a single team outside of last season's top four, other than Dion Dublin picking Liverpool? Can't say that I disagree with them, but I'm surprised at the utter lack of dissent. Boring.
If you predict last year’s one two will be the same, your pundit’s paycheck should be withheld. They may be, but it’s your job to provide a little interest. I can’t believe only one of that crew predicted City. I think they’ll edge Arsenal. Chelsea look old, said my wife, who is almost as wise as she is beautiful. Fabregas destroyed the league for half a year and has looked past it since. Even Satan can only give John Terry so many years at the top. And missing the start of the season with the same hamstring problem that kept him out of the end of last season is a bad sign for Costa. I’ve always tended to believe hamstring problems more often than not signal the end of a player’s best years.
Another article (or show in TalkShite's case) where the "top four" are discussed as well as Liverpool, the fifth placed team. Oh hang on a minute... Liverpool didn't finish fifth did they? In fact they've only been in the top four once in recent seasons I believe. Still, it's obviously more important to talk up Liverpool (as usual) than spend any time on teams that might regularly have finished above them many times recently.
It doesn't take much insight to make this prediction. Not sure anyone here suggests they have the wrong 4 clubs, but until the squads are done, no one can really give an order. If the window shut now, I think you will squeeze past Chelsea, but if Utd buy 3 defenders and another striker, I might go with them. City will do well if Toure and Kompany show the form they did 2 years ago, but if they play like last season and sign no one else, then they are the team the rest of us will shoot for. Still too many unknowns.
Even then, it's still educated guessing at best. Maybe Cech gets injured and leaves Arsenal short of a world class 'keeper again, maybe some unfancied player has a blinder for one of the clubs, like Kane and Ramsey have in recent seasons, or maybe one of these big new signings turns out to be a flop like so many have in the past.
I found myself immersed in a couple of fantasies yesterday: Republicans who all seem to believe that Obama is the worst president ever, while W. wasn't bad (switch the two and you aren't too far off the truth), and PL pundits who absolutely insist that Liverpool finished fifth last year. The theme of the ESPN broadcast of Spurs-Real was poor Spurs are a selling club. The truth is everyone's a selling club. Spurs are distinguishable from the rest for not selling players they want to PL rivals for seven years. It's hard to say where media propaganda ends and simple ignorance begins. Ignorance is my best guess, though. These people whose job it is to comment on PL football haven't spent ten minutes catching up on recent PL history, and rely on their beer-soaked memories of the old days.
Just like many fans I guess, which is the important bit. People don't like reading comment in the news when it disagrees with them.
