Premier League 2017-2018

jacobhockey13

used to watch hockey, then joined HF Boards
Apr 17, 2014
3,108
98
on the bench
Newcastle will be safe unless Rafa leaves. Swansea, Bournemouth, Burnley as well as the three that came up are likely in more trouble than they are.

Rafa isn't perfect. I say that even though I have a huge amount of respect and gratitude to him. He can't work miracles and I honestly think as a Newcastle fan that the squad is weaker than most think it is.

Lascelles is massively overrated. Dummet sucks (ball retention) and will be exposed defensively in the Premiership against better attackers as he was two years ago. That's two of our four starting defenders who I don't rate. I like Mbemba but God knows Benitez won't play him.

If Shelvey or Ritchie get injured then we will struggle to create anything. I don't think De Jong will be able to pick up the slack.

Whether or not Gayle succeeds will be interesting.

The squad's incredibly fragile at this point. It's going to be rough going; some buys could change that but if we're done for the summer then everybody should expect Newcastle to be in a relegation battle.
 
Mar 1, 2002
66,103
12,072
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...o-tottenham-major-premier-league-title-rivals

José Mourinho has identified Tottenham as strong rivals to win the Premier League title next season and compared his challenge at Manchester United to the one he faced previously at Real Madrid, insisting the club had been left behind in “the evolution of football†when he succeeded Louis van Gaal last summer.

Asked how he assessed his chances of making United champions again, Mourinho said: “I don’t think we are big candidates for the title but we are [candidates]. Everybody speaks about the dimension of the investment at Man City [so far just below £220m] but there is another team that I feel the dimension of their investment is also phenomenal – Tottenham. Until now they spent zero pounds, right? They keep everybody they want to keep. They keep Dele Alli, [Harry] Kane and [Toby] Alderweireld, they keep Eric Dier, they keep everyone they want to keep.

“They sold Kyle Walker I think because they wanted to sell. And probably because they think Trippier is as good as Walker. And he’s younger than Walker. Chelsea are champions and they buy now. We are halfway through the market and they buy [Antonio] Rüdiger, [Tiemoué] Bakayoko and [Ãlvaro] Morata. So every club makes different kinds of investments but all of them are investing a lot to win the titl.â€
 

Havre

Registered User
Jul 24, 2011
8,459
1,733
Yes. Trippier is several months younger than Walker. Haha.

Mourinho has often said fairly nice things about Spurs for some reason.

Personally I would be quite surprised if Spurs end up in the top four. Could see it being a fight for 5th with Arsenal. But anyone in the top 6 could win it with some luck.
 

Evilo

Registered User
Mar 17, 2002
61,956
8,524
France
Read somewhere Guardiola has spent more than 1 billion on players between Barca, Bayern and City.
Meanwhile Mourinho cirticized the transfer fees of other teams. :facepalm:
He, who signed Ronaldo and Kaka (back then 2 of the top 3 most expensive transfers of alltime) in the same summer and failed to win the league.
He, who signed Pogba for the current most expensive fee in history and didn't end up top 4.
 

phisherman

Registered User
Apr 17, 2015
3,322
1,039
Read somewhere Guardiola has spent more than 1 billion on players between Barca, Bayern and City.
Meanwhile Mourinho cirticized the transfer fees of other teams. :facepalm:
He, who signed Ronaldo and Kaka (back then 2 of the top 3 most expensive transfers of alltime) in the same summer and failed to win the league.
He, who signed Pogba for the current most expensive fee in history and didn't end up top 4.

A synonym for hypocrite is Mourinho.
 

East Coast Bias

Registered User
Feb 28, 2014
8,362
6,422
NYC
I don't get why people don't just tune him out. All he does is play mind games.

It's hilarious when he's over your club. Its quite obvious he's trolling.

He made Klopp lose his mind the other day and start whining about how Sevilla was so much better than Ajax in comparing their Europa finals and blah blah blah.
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
34,543
2,560
Yes. Trippier is several months younger than Walker. Haha.

Mourinho has often said fairly nice things about Spurs for some reason.

Personally I would be quite surprised if Spurs end up in the top four. Could see it being a fight for 5th with Arsenal. But anyone in the top 6 could win it with some luck.

This is how I feel also. United, Chelsea, Liverpool and City for the top 4 in basically any order with Spurs, Arsenal and maybe Everton fighting for 5/6/7.
 

Adonis Creed

King of the East
Apr 13, 2015
2,682
226
My predictions for the next season.

20. Huddersfield
19. Stoke
18. Swansea
17. Crystal Palace
16. Burnley
15. Brighton
14. Bournemouth
13. Newcastle
12. West Ham
11. Watford
10. WBA
9. Southampton
8. Leicester
7. Spurs
6. Everton
5. Liverpool
4. Arsenal
3. Chelsea
2. United
1. Man City
 

Paulie Gualtieri

R.I.P. Tony Sirico
May 18, 2016
12,312
3,052
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...o-tottenham-major-premier-league-title-rivals

José Mourinho has identified Tottenham as strong rivals to win the Premier League title next season and compared his challenge at Manchester United to the one he faced previously at Real Madrid, insisting the club had been left behind in “the evolution of football†when he succeeded Louis van Gaal last summer.

Asked how he assessed his chances of making United champions again, Mourinho said: “I don’t think we are big candidates for the title but we are [candidates]. Everybody speaks about the dimension of the investment at Man City [so far just below £220m] but there is another team that I feel the dimension of their investment is also phenomenal – Tottenham. Until now they spent zero pounds, right? They keep everybody they want to keep. They keep Dele Alli, [Harry] Kane and [Toby] Alderweireld, they keep Eric Dier, they keep everyone they want to keep.

“They sold Kyle Walker I think because they wanted to sell. And probably because they think Trippier is as good as Walker. And he’s younger than Walker. Chelsea are champions and they buy now. We are halfway through the market and they buy [Antonio] Rüdiger, [Tiemoué] Bakayoko and [Ãlvaro] Morata. So every club makes different kinds of investments but all of them are investing a lot to win the title.â€

What's his hidden agenda?

Judging this window so far, I'm still quite confident that Spurs can finish third, behind Man C and Chelsea. Liverpool and Man U still have shoddy defenses as of right now. Arsenal is way too hard to judge where they will end up.
 

bleedblue1223

Registered User
Jan 21, 2011
51,759
14,664
What's his hidden agenda?

Judging this window so far, I'm still quite confident that Spurs can finish third, behind Man C and Chelsea. Liverpool and Man U still have shoddy defenses as of right now. Arsenal is way too hard to judge where they will end up.

It's not hidden, it's plain to see, he's building in excuses for when he fails to win.
 

Havre

Registered User
Jul 24, 2011
8,459
1,733
Reason being that he hates Guardiola, Wenger and Conte. And he is not allowed to say good things about Liverpool.

Long long before Guardiola and Conte came to England. And long before he wasn´t allowed to speak nicely about Liverpool. This is not exactly the first time.

Of course he met with people from Spurs before taking the Chelsea job. He could very well have ended up at Spurs if Porto hadn´t gone on that run. Don´t know if that is part of the reason.
 

Peen

Rejoicing in a Benning-free world
Oct 6, 2013
29,639
24,983
I dont see how the spurs drop to 7th when they had the best defense in the league and have only lost walker.
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
34,543
2,560
I dont see how the spurs drop to 7th when they had the best defense in the league and have only lost walker.

They're a solid team but they are also the only team in the top 6 that isn't making improvements, and sold one of their better players.

I can't see them dropping to 7th but stranger things have happened.
 

YEM

Registered User
Mar 7, 2010
5,718
2,697
I can easily see spurs dropping a bit with the Wembley factor and perhaps a further focus on Europe but 7th place last year had 25 less points than they did this season, that's a hell of a drop off
 

bleedblue1223

Registered User
Jan 21, 2011
51,759
14,664
In all honesty, the top 6 is always a toss-up and it comes down to health and consistency, and then there's Everton. I don't think many people had Chelsea and Tottenham as the 1-2 finishers prior to the start of last season.
 
Mar 1, 2002
66,103
12,072
They're a solid team but they are also the only team in the top 6 that isn't making improvements, and sold one of their better players..

Who says all these purchases means improvement?

And of the 10 field players, Walker was probably 8th or 9th best, IMO.
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
34,543
2,560
Who says all these purchases means improvement?

And of the 10 field players, Walker was probably 8th or 9th best, IMO.

Well, it's all speculation. I'm a big believer in unity and teamwork over pure talent, but if you get the right pieces and have time to integrate them (and a lot of these purchases have been done early) then I think most people would see the moves that the 'big teams' are making to be improvements. On top of this most of the big teams had pretty big transitions last summer whereas this year they'll have had time with the philosophies, tactics and managers and have been able to mesh more.

City adding Mendy, Walker, Silva and Ederson can only be seen as an upgrade, no?
Same with Liverpool adding Salah and most likely at least van Dijk while also having Mane all season (in theory).
Chelsea are already very strong but have added some good players too in Morata, Bakayoko and Rudiger.
United have only really added Lukaku and Lindelof, but Lukaku should be a good boost for Mourinho's style.

All of this added to some of the premium talents that all of these teams have coming up. Tottenham have mostly just stayed the same which may or may not be the right choice as they have a strong, young core but it's not like the big teams are making wholesale changes this summer. I think it's going to be even more competitive at the top than last season.
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
34,543
2,560
Weren't City and United predicted to dominate on these boards for last season?

I had Chelsea winning the title and City coming in 2nd IIRC. I think I might have had United in the top 4? They had a pretty unlucky season though...as much as I hate to admit that.
 

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