Arsenal to win the Premier League? The first of the pre-season predictions are in

Here we go. Feel free to send your own pre-season predictions. Also in the Mailbox: Credit to Ralf Rangnick, celebrations, Harry Kane and more…

Send your views and predictions to theeditor@football365.com

 

Kicking off the pre-season predictions
As is traditional, tell me who will win the league.
Arsenal. Three reasons: 1) It was close last season. 2) Arsenal have had a better window than Man City (so far at least). 3) I’m emotionally biased.

And the rest of the top four, in order. Which nobody ever gets right.
Man City. Then Man Utd. And Liverpool to sneak past Newcastle in to fourth.

Three picks for relegation please.
Luton Town. Sheffield Utd. Bournemouth.

Which club will be a pleasant surprise?
Does Aston Villa count? Europa Conference League winners and another solid top 8 Premier League finish. If I can’t have them, then I’ll go with Burnley to have a relatively tranquil season without getting sucked in too close to the bottom three. They may get a few battering from the top teams but will be very efficient collecting points against teams in the bottom half.

Who will win the Golden Boot?
Erling Haaland.

Which new signing will have the greatest positive impact?
Let’s say Pau Torres will make a huge impact for Aston Villa.

And which one will turn out to be a massive flop?
The obvious option is on someone from Chelsea, with Nicholas Jackson potentially being unable to have any immediate noteworthy impact. However, I’ll go with Sandro Tonali. Did he really want to make that move?

Who will be the biggest bloody bargain?
Mahmoud Dahoud and James Milner on a free to Brighton looks like excellent business. Jordan Beyer to Burnley for £13m looks like it could be a very shrewd acquisition and so does Nottingham Forest bringing in Anthony Elanga for £15m. Still, I’ll go with Milner.

Who will be named the PFA Player of the Year?
Bukayo Saka.

First manager to leave their Premier League job?
Julian Lopetegui is another one who really looks like he doesn’t want to be where he is. Will he even make it to the weekend?

(He didn’t – Ed)

Pick the Champions League winner.
Man City. I didn’t pick them for the Premier League, so I can’t dismiss them twice, can I? How stupid (or jealous/bitter?) would that make me look?

In five words, tell us what you are most excited about this season.
Champions League. And our squad.
Naz, Gooner

(Come back on Thursday for the official F365 pre-season predictions – Ed)

 

Credit to Rangnick over Man Utd ego purge
Our new transfer overlord Mr. Romano announced that United & West Ham will go back to the table today to discuss deals for Maguire and McTominay, with Donny and Fred also set for the exit door. Deals for Amrabat and Jean-Clair Todibo are in the pipeline to replace them.

I’ve been vocal and consistent in my praise for Erik ten Hag since he walked in the door, and John Murtough and crew deserve credit for turning a laughing stock of a recruitment department into a pretty competent one in 18 months.

But I want to take a chance to remember a hugely important, but most likely ultimately forgotten, player in this turnaround – Ralf Rangnick.

A figure of fun for every non-United fan (and quite a few United ones too). He was clearly not a top-class football manager, but to be fair, he had a huge amount of egos in that dressing room, who all operated safe in the knowledge that Ralf would not be manager in six months no matter what happened, and his true expertise has always lied in club-building anyway.

I was one of the fans willing to take short-term pain for long-term gain. After all, it had been pretty much all pain since Fergie left, so what’s another half-season?

In my opinion, Ralf achieved his actual No.1 objective when he came in – assess the dressing room and assess the club operations and point out a way forward.

He publicly called out how badly things were being run, he publicly called out the lack of quality in the squad. Granted, all of this only began once it became obvious that the players were on the beach and Top 4 was gone, but it was still refreshing to see. Also, EtH told him to sling his hook before he was even in the door, so the club once again had egg on its face with the whole two-year advisory deal.

Recommendations to recruit the likes of Julian Alvarez, Enzo Fernandes and Josko Gvardiol that fell on deaf ears show Rangnick’s ability for team & club building.

If nothing else, we must all remember the declaration that the United squad of 2021/22 needed open heart surgery. Not one or two, but more like eight to ten additions before they can even think of competing.

What have we seen since then?

Cristiano Ronaldo, David De Gea, Edinson Cavani, Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Andreas Pereira, Alex Telles and Phil Jones have all moved on. Eric Bailly, Harry Maguire, Scott McTominay, Fred and more look to be on the chopping block.

Overpaid, over-indulged players, players who lack the quality to get United back to the top have gone.

In a little over 12 months, United have signed Malacia, Martinez, Casemiro, Antony, Eriksen, Mount, Onana and Hojlund – assembling a brand new spine of the team in the process. Ten Hag has made his eight major signings, with possibly one or two more to come before the end of the window.

Obviously, United have overpaid for some and under-sold others, but can’t expect perfection overnight…

Now, of course, it didn’t take a genius to see that United were more than a bit sh*t at the time in 2021, but Ralf Rangnick really deserves credit for his place in starting United’s journey back towards where they belong.

His tenure could be looked back on as a line in the sand that United were done with the failed galactico, shirt-selling, ego-indulging, players-running-the-dressing-room era, and set the scene for Erik ten Hag to do what needs to be done.
James, MUFC

 

Defending Man Utd over Dublin
Uproar amongst the Irish fans at the weekend when United brought the B team (yes Jadon, that’s where you sit now) to play against Bilbao in Dublin on Sunday.

The main gripe being that the Dublin game was marketed with all the lovely big guns on display, and then after the game sold out the club announced a friendly against Lens for the day before. Bit of a d*ck move? Yes.

But the more I think about it the less blame I put on 10H.
He’d have heard “it’s been pissing rain in Ireland for 2 months straight and Ireland are playing Italy in the rugby the day before”. I can only assume his thought process then was that the pitch would be chewed up to f*ck, so no way was he going to risk bringing the stars a week before the league starts. The pitch turned out to be grand but I can understand his choice, without that rugby match he may very well have split the stars over both matches, or maybe not.

Overall poor organisation by both United and whoever booked the rugby and football in the Aviva Stadium on consecutive days.

My little lad loved it regardless.
Kev (give Pellistri a shot, Erik), Dublin

 

That kit though…
Planet Football were having a pop at United’s third kit and to be totally honest it still looks a damn sight better than the turd that is United’s green away Kit which is still IMHO the biggest eyesore that any team has worn in the history of football

Would I buy either, or even the new home kit? …… not on your life!!!!!!. Definitely not while the Glazer morons are the ones who will pocket any of the royalties from Adidas ….. though if the Glazers do one and sell up, i might consider buying that white jersey – it still looks okay despite the Liverpool looks that Planet Football are complaining about – but i would rather pour tabasco sauce in my eyes than to have to keep looking at United’s Green away shirt so i’m still placing a total ban on that one being anywhere near me.
Nitin

 

Your cut-out-and-keep football calendar
August: Community/Charity shield and overblown reactions to seeing your new signings who are instantly labelled the missing piece or massive flops.

September: first international break just as your team was managing a good run / first win.

October: another pesky international break, England ladder. Why hasn’t Southgate picked my favourite player? Pause to appreciate a team who has No Right to be Up There among the big 6.

November: European distraction/ relief for fans. They’ve got through that tricky group phase.

December: Fixture list congestion. All eyes on Boxing Day except you have to wait for your team to play the day after.

January: new signings, FA Cup congratulations to the minnows who’ve been thrashed at home by Man City’s second XI, they’ll never forget this for the rest of their lives.

February: the League Cup final already. Winners have a trophy, so who’s having the better season, eh?

March: time for your Brightons, Aston Villas and Fulhams to drop down the table. They’ve done so well. St Totteringham banter.

April: the real fun in the Champs league and relegation battles.

May: Man City win again, so everyone else is a bunch of bottle jobs.
Paul in Brussels (so predictable, but I love it really)

 

Why don’t Spurs just sell?
A genuine question – as a non-Spurs, or indeed London team fan – why are Spurs not taking the Bayern $£ (cant find the euro symbol)

Harry can just run down his contract and Spurs get nothing in 12 months time, apart from an incessant media speculating about his future. I get that Harry probably wants to stay at Spurs for another year, score a shedload more goals then pocket a fat signing on fee, but I don’t see why Levy and Spurs are even considering not getting a fee for their prime asset, which they could then give to Ange and re-invest in the team.. PSG are refusing to countenance Mbappé leaving on a free, why are spurs?
Dan, London

 

Good teams waste time too, Kevin
I have long had a sneaking suspicion that Kevin De Bruyne might be a bit of an eejit. I have seen him interviewed a few times and I think that he comes across as someone who is a little up himself. Writing off Belgium’s chances before the last World Cup being an example where he speaks out of turn and doesn’t consider the impact of what he is saying.

The latest comment about adding on wasted time at the end of a game is a doozy:

“A game like today, even the first half with three minutes extra, you can only guess what’s going to happen if you play a lower team who keep time-wasting all the time.”

…in my experience, the dominant team are just as likely – if not more likely – to waste time. City are grand masters at it. The idea that only “lower” teams will do this belies his arrogance on more than one level.

And this rallying against adding time that has been wasted – presumably because players will have to work longer for their money – it shows no respect for the fans who pay a fortune to watch their multi-millionaires. They pay this money to be entertained. De Bruyne doesn’t seem to understand that the actual problem here is cynical, time wasting “gamesmanship” that often ruins the sport as a spectacle and short changes those who give up their hard earned money to prop up the ridiculous salaries of elite players.

He’s not the only player completely out of touch, so calm down City fans, I’m not picking on your golden boy, just using something he has just said to make a point.

If the sport doesn’t want games going on for another 20+ minutes, then the game needs to stamp out time wasting, and clubs like City need to stop breaking up games because it suits them to do so. And again, it’s not just City. Arsenal were masters of the dark arts last season, and there are plenty of other examples. I blame Mourinho – he was the architect of all this.
Matthew (Liverpool haven’t strengthened their defence yet and if they don’t then they can kiss their chances goodbye this season)

 

A Toon time-wasting myth put to bed
I’ve got to take a bit of issue with what Andy (MUFC) said regarding Newcastle being the biggest culprits in time wasting in the league last season based on the ball being in play least during their games. There are two teams in each of those games, so to assume Newcastle are solely responsible is a bit silly. We scored 68 goals (10 more than MU), including dishing out quite a few high score hidings, so forgive me if I’m doubtful that we were rolling on the ground or kicking the ball away while 3-0 up.

I think this myth has come from a very small sample size of when we played a team who were significantly better than us, particularly away to Arsenal. I hold my hand up and say, yes, we played every card we could to get something out of that match. The first Liverpool game was another, and despite having issue with a lot of ref decisions in that game, I can’t really complain about us conceding deep into injury time.

Personally I am ok with a bit of shenanigans, and didn’t complain when the same was done to us (ahem the return match vs Arsenal). If it gets out of hand a yellow should be dished out and we move on. Ideally I would go toe-to-toe with all teams, but a 38 game season demands pragmatism, and my only real issue is when a team doesn’t even bother to try and score, that is indefensible.

But I would say the majority of the season we played a very intense game and pressured teams to within an inch of their lives, we scored 16-6 goals in the last 15 minutes of games, which demonstrates the energy levels we maintained (MU had 14-11 for context). So if anyone was likely to go down and try to delay, it would have been the teams we were up against.

Why don’t City have the highest stat then? Well you need to get the ball to be able to kick it away or be fouled and have a lie down.

Granted Newcastle take longest to take a goal kick, but it’s about a second longer than average of 28ish seconds, so not likely to influence the game much. We are conversely 6th fastest to take a throw. We’re also slowest to take a free kick and about average to take a corner. The opposition can slow you down when trying to take a free kick, there are arguments about cards etc, so that’s a hard one to analyze looking at numbers alone, and again its about 5 seconds longer than an average of about 35 seconds, not enough time to go and buy another beer.

So let’s put this myth to bed shall we?
Derek from Dundalk

 

Celebrate good times…come on
Interesting mails and takes on the celebration police in the mailbox, personally I find you have to question any team that celebrate any victory, the Community Shield? Possibly a glorified friendly, winning the Premier League? no thank you, you should be focused on winning it again the following season, but then what about winning the Champions League? no time for anyone to celebrate that, just smile, lift the trophy and get off the pitch quickly because a real team is already focused on the pre-season to put themselves in the best shape to win everything available in the next season, but do not celebrate if and when you do, as it is all about the next season and the one after that.

Genuinely, all sarcasm aside, celebrate what you want, if it makes you happy, so in this instance the team in question, that is awesome, not for us to tell them what they should celebrate or be happy about.
The Admin @ At The Bridge Pod

 

Fried Rice
Roy Keane says Declan Rice has to score 9-10 goals a season for Arsenal – Roy Keane only once reached these numbers for United. (12 in 99/00, in case you’re wondering.)
Robert, Birmingham

 

Where would we be without Romano?
Watching way too much SSN when I should be working made me think, I wish I had as much confidence as the ‘broadcasters’ on the transfer window shows.

These bozos show up multiple times a day, recycling things they’ve read on Twitter as if it’s their own work. None of them have an ounce of charisma or bring any original thought to proceedings.

Actual journalists employed by Sky must be furious whilst they’re marginalised by the ‘…Years of age’/’…football club’ merchants. Cheap labour I guess.

If Fabrizio Romano didn’t tweet for a couple of days these guys would be f*****.

Mind you, I’m the fool for tuning in!
Andy, Newcastle

 

Myths put to rest by England’s Lionesses
So I watched England ladies (who we are contractually obliged to call the Lionesses..) and had some myths fairly quickly debunked.

(You’re not contractually obliged to call them the Lionesses…but they prefer ‘women’ to ‘ladies’; it’s not 1971 – Ed)

The ladies game is fairer, less diving, less play acting and less time wasting (no one, I believe, has yet claimed that its actually better because of any of this?)

120mins (of the dullest fare I have seen since being a primary school sports teacher) later..

Time wasting – Check (because we were down to 10 players, so its acceptable?)

Red card for stamping / violent behaviour – Check – Beckham was fully castigated for this, effigies were burned an hung….(luckily the ladies won so no such backlash as they managed to win, so no one cared)

Pen awarded – Overturned for what I can only assume was classed as diving.. otherwise its a pen..?

All by the Lionesses ..!!

As soon as money and fame and reward arrived.. turns out the ladies are just as guilty as the men at the ‘dark arts’.

Alex Greenwoods and Chloe (the hero) Kelly’s were spectacularly good though to be fair. Don’t think 6ft 7 Nick Pope doesn’t saves them

So put the high horses away.. and lets all agree that football is just football, and some is better than others.

That was one of the least entertaining games I have ever watched.

I don’t watch Champo football or league 1 football, I haven’t watched Wrexham’s documentary, I don’t watch my own teams under 18s.. its not very good, its certainly not as entertaining as Prem football. Shit football is shit football.. Poor quality is poor quality.

Entertainment is what I pay Sky and BT / TNT and Amazon and whoever the hell else charges me to watch Premier League football.

I wont be rushing to buy Dazn (dazone?) to watch football in Saudi either that I have no interested or investment in – does that make me a bad fan or person? Or a good one??

Spose it depends on which drum you are banging this week..

Roll on Friday and football that I am invested in and give a toss about – It really cannot come soon enough.

Waiting for Sunday to watch what is surely the most boring fixture in recent history Chelsea v Liverpool.. and prove all my arguments about entertainment wrong.

If you don.t want illegal streaming – Televise the 3pm kickoffs !
Al – LFC – Dinosaur / Hypocrite / Misogynist / LGBT+ advocate / who can be sure..

MEDIAWATCH: ‘Overhyped’ England slammed, James should face Beckham abuse as World Cup quarter-final ignored