[football]premiership2006/07
 

personally i think next season will be liverpools season where the title goes back to anfield where it belongs
my prediction for the end of the season is
1, liverpool
2, chelsea
3, spurs
4, arsenal
5, man utd
6, newcastle

any opinons floating out there

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

I need to see who buys who over the summer first. If Chelsea sign Ballack and Shevshenko they will be 'hard' to beat..

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Ballack is signing, probably tomorrow. Liverpool need to get some strikers who can stick the ball in the back of the net if they want to challenge for the top two spots. Relying on Gerrard is all very well, but he isn't captain superman all the time.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Deffeh please

anyway.

Chelsea
Scum North
Scum South
Liverpool
Spurs
Newcastle
Blackburn
Boro
Bolton
Man City
Reading
Wigan
Villa
West Ham
{Leeds}
Pompey
Charlton
Fulham
Everton
Blades
{Watford}

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Yes. I'm hoping Rafa considers trying for Van Nistelrooy. He's the sort of poacher we need although I suppose Fergie wouldn't be too eager to sell him to us. I'm not sure how much difference Ballack is going to make. Isn't Lampard pretty much a Ballack clone? However, I will be worried if they get Shev as looks increasingly likely.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

[quote=BoogsterIsn't Lampard pretty much a Ballack clone?[/QUOTE]

Not really, they're both attacking (and occasionally box-to-box) midfielders, but they're not identical.

If we see him get a striker like Sheva, we may well see chelsea revert to a 4-4-2 variant.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

too early, not your domain, boyo.

Cant decide before all the signings are in, especially liverpool + man utds signings, and whether Henry stays or goes.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

yeh wait til August for this thread.

We have no idea who'll still be at whatever club and who the new signings are yet.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

We'd need Berbatov and Torres to pull off 3rd...

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Why Manu so low? Dont see them dropping out of the top4 tbh.

Ballack and Lampard are even in some ways(great passers and great shoters) but Ballack is also an exceptional header so hes a big danger at corners and freekicks.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

i'm just waiting for it all to fall apart for chelsea, to be honest. If lampard plays as ineffectually as he did from january onwards chelski wont have it all their own way.

liverpool need a goalscorer, a right mid, and competition for kewell to keep him playing well to stand a chance.

man utd wont win the title playing saha, and need a world class striker to replace ruud if he goes. they also need at least 2 new midfielders - if giggs is a CM now, they need a left mid. ronaldo is amazing but needs to be kept on his toes.

if arsenal lose henry, they will be nothing better than a good team. but nothing worse, either.

spurs main task should be to keep hold of davids, carrick, keane, defoe, dawson, lennon, king, and robinson, because thats the spine of an awesome team. any additions on top of that will be great, and just a bonus really. but i cant see it happening.

no idea about the middle order teams, again, most depends on who they manage to keep and who goes, key players like bellamy, malbranque, mcfadden etc.

In terms of relegation though, there could be an almighty scrap. Regardless how well they did, you have to suspect that all three promoted teams will struggle (the premiership is a tough league, regardless how you did in the championship reading - see sunderland). If aston villa remain that gash, and get no investment, they are outside contenders. Portsmouth may have money to spend, but lets see how its spent before we rubber stamp the survival of the 17th club. Charlton minus curbs, maybe minus bent, might have come to the end of their time. Fulham minus steed and boa morte could REALLY struggle. Man city need to break their slump or they could be sucked in too.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

1, chelsea
2, liverpool
3, man utd
4, arsenal
5, spurs

and chelsea to play liverpool in at least one cup match.

liverpool aren't consistent enough yet to beat chelsea, and without gerrard won't do so well, and Arsenal and Man Utd are good but suffer from periods the same as liverpool of slip ups. Spurs probably won't break the top 4.
whoever's below that is anyone's guess tbh. I wouldn't be surprised to see west ham in the top 10

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

It's far too early to make any kind of solid prediction yet, I'd leave it til late July when all the business is done.

If we sign D'Alessandro, I think we might stay out of trouble.

As for relegation, you will expect Wigan to be in there, their squad appears to be crumbling apart and their record in the new year has been woeful. Charlton will find it difficult without curbs and the last time WBA and Birmingham got relegated, Villa got relegated the season after. We may well be in there, but if we keep that midfield we have and get a couple of improvements it will be quite hard for us to get relegated..

I can see Reading being good enough to stay out of it, Sheffield United look in trouble considering they are after the likes of Li Tie and Watford look certain to get relegated if they go up, while it would all depend on what Leeds spend/can get in. Fulham as has been said could struggle if they lose their best players and don't replace them. Needless to say, there's enough there to give any Portsmouth fan hope that there are plenty we can outfight.

As for the title, just please someone make a fight of it.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Will be interesting to see who signs the likes of Nistelrooy, Malbranque etc.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

We have one of the largest squads :confused:

Our weak areas at are full back but that should be sorted this summer.

Defoe is likely to be jogged on but I can't say I mind that much considering who we have coming in.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

maybe with spurs this is the case, but im not sure how you differentiate liverpool from arsenal and man utd in this case. Lets just look at the provisional squads PRE any signings this summer, and the backups

Keepers

A: Lehmann (Poom)
L: Reina (Dudek)
M: Van Der Sar (Howard)* off to everton

No problems there to be honest (though poom isnt a top 4 premiership keeper by any stretch of the imagination)

Center Halfs

A: Campbell, Toure (Senderos, Cygan)
L: Carragher, Hyypia (Agger, Traore)
M: Ferdinand, Vidic (Brown, Silvestre)

Very similar quality here too, traore, cygan and silvestre are all weak - brown is improving as a player, senderos is no longer a bomb scare, and agger is a serious prospect.

Full Backs

A : Cole, Lauren (Eboue, Clichy)
L : Riise, Finnan (Kromkamp, Warnock)
M: Neville, Heinze (Evra, Bardsley)

No problems here either - arsenal may have a slight attacking edge but eboue's defensive attributes are debateable. Bardsley is a thug, but kromkamp and warnock might not be world beaters either.

Center Mids

A : Fabregas, Gilberto (Song, Diaby)
L : Gerrard, Alonso (Sissoko, Hamann)
M : O'Shea, Scholes (Fletcher, Smith)

Liverpool have by far the best center midfield depth here, man utd second (though the first choice pairing is very debateable, maybe giggs etc).

Wingers

A : Hleb, Ljungberg (Pires, Flamini)
L : Kewell, Garcia (Zenden,
M : Ronaldo, Giggs (Park, Richardson)

Liverpools biggest weakness. Man Utd suffer consistency issues plus giggs playing inside sometimes. Arsenal might edge this, but ljunberg has lost a bit of spark, hleb works hard but can looks clueless.


Forwards

A : Henry, Van Persie (Reyes, Adebayor, Walcott)
L: Crouch, Fowler (Cisse, Morientes, Mellor)
M: Van Nistelrooy, Rooney (Saha, Solskjaer, Rossi)

Arsenal have the edge here, but outside Henry none of these players has proved they can score 20 goals a season. And minus henry, they will have an unbelievable amount of pressure put on them. If Van goes, Man utd are in serious need of a striker. Liverpools weakness is evident, but it would all look very different if you had a world class striker in there.

In conclusion theres a lot of strength in depth in all three teams, and i find it ridiculous you can pinpoint liverpool as lacking depth, when they are no more lacking depth than man utd or arsenal

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

If you think Campbell is a shoe-in for first choice at Ashburton Grove, you're very much mistaken, and clearly haven't been following his performances this year. There are similar problems in the rest of your "analysis", and you also assume that all the teams play in the same formation and in the same way.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

i said based on this season. Jakiri, i didnt write this for you, because you're a ****ing pedant, and impossible to please. If i'd put Giggs in Center Mid you would have said

I find this highly illogical considering he's been famed as a left winger for the majority of his career.

Im surprised you didnt pull me up for putting him on the wing. Or should i have listed Gerrard as a winger because he's played a lot on the right this season?

The entire basis of my post was about gauging vague depth of squad. While not fantastically scientifically accurate in every way, it was certainly more of a study than T&F saying "liverpool dont have squad depth".

Take the ****ing stick out your ****ing ass sometime.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

As an Arsenal fan, this summer's transfer market is going to be huge.

Henry to Barca, and for how much? Who to replace him - Torres?

Replacement for Campbell? Jakiri is correct, he's nowhere near the level of competence to be starting games. On current form Pascal gets in the team before him.

Replacement for Pires, assuming he leaves?


There's a lot of questions that will be answered by August, but not before then.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

etc

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Martin O'Neill to take Derby to the Premiership in 2006/07.

That's my prediction.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

He's coming to sunderland on a part-time basis...

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

He's apparently had an interview at Forest as well...

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Chelsea to win, competitive football to lose. :(

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

MON officially turned us down today :(

Apparently.
I've heard the Forest rumours and the one about 3 days a week to Sunderland, but if Boro was too far, then I guess Sunderland is too.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Chelsea to win the league followed by Liverpool.

Then Man United then someone else.

Arsenal will probably finish 5th or 6th. New stadium looming. I don't think they'll adapt quickly. They're so used to playing on a small pitch.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

You were serious? Bless

When he eventually does take over somewhere it's going to be to replace Fergie.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

I hope you're right but surely Hughes must be high up on the possible replacements.

How we do next season depends more on who we can keep. If Bellamy (linked with everyone), Pederson (linked with Spurs, but who isnt?), Reid (linked with Man U) and Neill (linked with Spurs and Newcastle) are still with us come August we'll be challenging for top 6 again. If we can add a decent striker (Gudjohnson please), a left back, a centre back and a right winger to that we might give the top 4 a run for their money.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

The rumours been doing the Derby message boards for the last couple of weeks and by people who only usually post rumours that turn out to be true. It was posted by so many people with good contacts that it was hard not to believe. His wife's being treated not a million miles from Derby and the new Derby chairman said on Saturday that fans would be both suprised and very happy with the new manager. Looks now that we'll get Newell which will be a good appointment but is hardly living up to the promise of what the chairman said, so it does look like O'Neill was interviewed and we thought we'd get him (quite why I'm not sure) but he doesn't like out transfer budget. Oh well, at least my time doesn't get the shits easy.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

i love craig bellamy, dont get me wrong, but do not rely on him to be the worlds most consistent player, or you will be sorely dissapointed.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

32 appearences and 17 goals last season, that seems pretty consistent to me. I dont think i've seen him have a bad game for us and maybe a Celtic fan can tell us how he played up there but i think he did pretty well. He respects Mark Hughes and this seems to bring out the best in him. I expected him to have gone off the rails by now but it doesnt seem to have happened and everyone seems happy. I think Bellamy would rather be a big fish at a smaller club rather than go a big club and not be the star man, which is why i think he will stay with us and be brilliant again next year.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

I agree, he's become very consistent under a decent manager.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Jon Stead was pretty consistent in his first season, Juan Pablo Angel in his, etc. Thats the point im trying to make. One season is one season.

I hope you are right though, because i ****ing love watching bellamy in full flight playing well. I also enjoy watching him do it for you - especially after Souness pinpointed him as the cause of trouble in the dressing room at newcastle and shipped him off (only to have dyer and bowyer fight, and bleed the biggest thug in the world - peter ramage - into the team). I also enjoy it when supposedly smaller clubs have a star attraction - and you have pedersen as well.

Thats not to belittle your other players ofc, but as a football fan, when i watch the live games or MOTD, i want to see flair players in smaller teams - i wouldnt watch blackburn vs brum, if i didnt want to see bellamy vs pennant, for example.

As for how he did at celtic, he was marvellous in some games but faded out in others - particularly his first old firm game when he spurned three great chances. Some people were gutted he left, but i was always more realistic than that; i was just glad we had the pleasure of him for 4-5 months. Awesome player.

How much did he cost you lot again?

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Didnt realise you were a Celtic fan :).

He cost us £5 million. It's been reported that he has a release clause in his contract for £6 million if a Champs League team come in for him, I hope its not true.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

:bump:
This is the only thread I can find for 06/07.

No one predicted man utd would win, but I did predict Chelsea and Liverpool would meet :D

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

How I didn't mae a post deriding gzambo very existance for predicting a Liverpool Premiership title win is a true mystery.

I'd imagine there's a pretty comprehensive Deffeh thread about this floating about.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Far more terrible teams than I predicted there would be.

The premierships loss has been Portsmouth's gain :up:

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Last Deffeh thread I could find was the 05/06 one here but he did have a chelsea vs man utd one...

edit:
ahh blind :( found it here

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

Useless, the lot of you.

I found it a fortnight ago, was going to bump it at the end of the season.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

yeah, I jumped the gun a bit but most of the places are pretty close.

I don't think anyone said man utd would win, and most people thought liverpool would be pushing closer (and probably arsenal too). I don't think anyone expected Reading in the top half of the table either :p

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

deffeh was pretty cute in this thread

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

i actually think i was better as ejohn to be honest. ive been trying to get back to that style of posting.

Re: [football]premiership2006/07
 

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA