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Premier League 2012/2013 Discussion


extacy of farts

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Well seeing as the fixture lists are released tomorrow, i thought i'd get a thread started for all next seasons discussions etc. We obviously welcome back West Ham, Reading and Southampton and say goodbye to Bolton, Blackburn and Wolves so predictions as to who will stay up and who'll be going down! Who do you want your team to have on the opening day of the season? Who'll impress this season? Will this season be the best ever...and the big news obviously being, what will Balotelli do to entertain us this season!

 

Anyway, over to you guys....

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Reading, West Brom and I see Norwich going down hill without Lambert and Holt leaving.

 

Southampton I hope do well. Jack Cork has been a phenomenal player for them and I hope he can have a stellar season, especially with 2014 qualification and hopefully Hodgson looking to bring some new blood into the side. I'm hoping Scott Sinclair can do the same, he had a quiet season last year at times and I really hope he shows his full potential.

 

Stephen Caulker could have a big season if he gets first team football, either with Liverpool or Tottenham. Still incredibly young but so much potential. Much the same for Ryan Bertrand who I hope Chelsea put on loan to one of the new boys to get more first team experience.

 

I'm feeling a surprise for top goalscorer, none of your Rooeny's or Aguero's or anyone who has to share the limelight, if Ba does leave Newcastle then Cisse may have the season where he nearly scores everything for them.

 

Balotelli, christ I have visions of him signing a deal about a movie of his life, or launching his own fashion brand which the City players wear as suits to the FA Cup Final. Either that or a full scale punch up with Joey Barton on the pitch (if he even remains in the league)

 

Managerial changes wise, Wenger could finally be on the way out half way through the season, even with the class players they're bringing in I can see them struggling again but this time not being able to do enough.

 

I'm thinking Liverpool may shock everyone and finally become a top 4 club again.

 

Champions: Chelsea

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Champions: Man City

 

 

Top 6 (in order): Man Utd

Arsenal

Liverpool

Newcastle

Spurs

 

 

Surprise package: Southampton

 

 

Relegation: Norwich

West Ham

Reading

 

Personally I think we (Sunderland) will once again be destined for mid-table mediocrity, that's providing we find a striker and manage to keep hold of Sessegnon. Not got high hopes for this year at all, compounded even further by the fact that our neighbors up the road have managed to build a decent competitive squad without spending too much and making it all look terribly easy.

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Bold Spurs related prediction : Van der Vaart to go to Schalke pre-season to join up with Huntelaar, Modric to go to United, Bale to go somewhere abroad, Pienaar becomes a first choice regular, Spurs finish 8th.

 

Oh, and Man United win the title but to piss them off CITEH win the Champions League.

 

Everyone susses out Swansea and they go down suffering second season syndrome, and I reckon this might be the year time runs out on Wigan.

 

Liverpool improve but miss out on top 4 again, Arsenal slightly improve but still dont really mount a sustained challenge for the title (although Podolski is a hit in the Prem), Chelsea improve considerably and run United/CITEH close.

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Champions: Man City

 

 

Top 6 (in order): Man Utd

Arsenal

Liverpool

Newcastle

Spurs

Where do you think Chelsea are finishing?

 

I don't fancy Chelsea at all this year. I think that Hazard will be an excellent addition but won't hide the big problems that are festering within that squad. Unless they make wholesale changes I think they'll be battling it out with Newcastle and Spurs for that Europa League spot. Winning the Champions league isn't just going to fix everything, they were woeful in the league under Di Matteo and I don't have faith in his ability to lead them through a successful league campaign.

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Reading, Norwich and an outside bet of West Brom to go down. I do think they've got a good squad but there's always one semi decent side who just never really get out of the blocks. Newcastle, Bolton etc etc.

 

Like a lot of people, I always choose a promoted team to root for. Blackpool and Swansea have gotten my support in the past and Southampton have got it this year. As long as they keep hold of Lamber, Llalana, Cork and the back four, they'll do well.

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Well what a welcome we have received, Man City away to start us off. This could be a long season.

That's how Swansea started last year and it worked out well in the end.

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Well what a welcome we have received, Man City away to start us off. This could be a long season.

That's how Swansea started last year and it worked out well in the end.

 

How about adding Man Utd and Aresnal within the first month as well?

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I think Man City will win the league again, but apart from that I can't begin to call the rest the rest of the top 6 as there are far too many unanswered questions at this stage - who will Man Utd bring in, who will Spurs appoint, will Di Matteo and Rogers be able to compete at that level over a full season, how will Newcastle's squad cope with the added demands of Europe? There are too many variables at the minute, and the only one I'd risk sticking my neck out for at the minute is that Di Matteo won't last long past Christmas.

 

I think West Ham will spend enough money to keep them up, but I'm not sure Southampton or Reading will. My surprise pick for relegation is Stoke - I saw signs last season that more teams were starting to suss Tony Pulis's style, and more importantly they didn't look the ultra-competitive outfit they once were, failing to put up too much of a fight at all in the two games against us. If the decline continues, I think they'll have problems this year, though it is worth mentioning that not having the distraction of Europe to deal with may see an improvement.

 

Like Lefty, I can't see us doing much in the league this year, but again it seems ridiculous to predict anything too bold at this stage as we've done no transfer business so far, and I expect Mr O'Neill will want to see a lot of traffic in that respect over the next few months. I'm almost certain we'll sign Stephen Fletcher, which will sort out the spine of the team (providing O'Shea goes back to CB, where he's been a rock, as opposed to full-back, where he's a turkey). Other than that, though, it's a lottery - I hear O'Neill wants to play something resembling 4-2-3-1 next year, and as such we've been linked with a lot of nippy outside forwards like Johnson, Moses, McGeady, Agbonlahor and Zaha. The thought of any of those linking up with McClean, Sessegnon and Fletcher is an exciting prospect for me, but if we end up shoehorning Campbell (who's not good enough, IMO) or Larsson (who I like, but perhaps needs to be rotated a bit more) in there, we might struggle to finish much higher than 10-12th.

 

I really hope we show some ambition though, as Newcastle have shown this myth that there's a chasm between the top 6 and the rest of the league and that you need to spend years scrapping around in midtable before you're able to think about challenging it is bollocks, really - all it takes is a few astute signings (including, most importantly, a goalscorer or two) and a sensible manager to transform a fairly mediocre squad into something that can challenge the big boys.

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