What are the pundits saying about your team...

No1newts

No1newts

No1newts

Soldato
Joined
24 May 2009
Posts
20,154
Location
North East
Thought it would be interesting to see what people have been hearing the pundits saying about their own team.

As last season everyone is ignoring/writing off Newcastle which is good (if a little irritating) as we are better as "underdogs." No one even mentions Newcastle and it has become the "top six" again. One thing that surprised me though was the bookies tipping Liverpool at 2/1 for top 4, Newcastle.... 12/1 :confused: Really? At best it's close between the teams and Liverpool certainly aren't that much better!

Best one was I think it was Ray Houghton saying something along the lines of "Newcastle were lucky last year and everyone knows how they play, they will be lucky to stay top 8." oh rly!?!?! :p

Although an even bigger shock came from Mark "I hate Newcastle becasue they sacked me back in the day" Lawerenson.

Newcastle have made one or two interesting acquisitions like Vurnon Anita from Ajax, and I see this game as a battle between teams who will probably finish fifth and sixth.
Click to expand...

:eek::eek:

As I say I'm quite happy being written off as it makes it easier again :) So what have the pundits been saying about your club?
 
Last edited:
Checked out the odds and you can get 5/2 on Liverpool and 18/1 on Newcastle for top 4. I'd suggest putting your money where your mouth is if you are that confident :)

In terms of the "top six" if you look at the Premiership over the past 4 seasons or so I'd say it is pretty clear who the best six teams have been, yes Newcastle were there last season but people tend to judge the stature of clubs over a longer period. If they can have another decent season and nobody else fades it could expand to the magnificent seven but until then big six is enough for me.

I think it will be interesting to see what Spurs do this season as an injury to Defoe could hit them hard I feel.

As for my club I think the pundits are being surprisingly positive as I expected the departure of Van Persie and persistent injury problems to lead to a lot of concerns about them slipping out of the top 4.
 
HangTime said:
As for my club I think the pundits are being surprisingly positive as I expected the departure of Van Persie and persistent injury problems to lead to a lot of concerns about them slipping out of the top 4.
Click to expand...
I'd be concerned given the pundits' generally rubbish predictions about Arsenal (tough time getting top 4 this season yadda ya for the last decade) that with the generally positive predictions that this year will be the toughest yet lol
 
I believe that the pundits have the easiest job in the world in that they don't actually follow what's really going on in football or need to think about it as they just recycle what's published in the media, which is usually BS.
Chelsea, although being seriously weakened by the loss of Drogba (peace be upon him) are going to finish at least 2 places higher than last season according to those in the know as we've 'bought well'. Those purchases are a few young lads who've never played in the EPL before + we have a manager with doubtful league credentials.
We only have 2 strikers at the moment too so unless we sign Messi & someone else who always scores then you simply can't predict where Chelsea will be.
 
HangTime said:
Checked out the odds and you can get 5/2 on Liverpool and 18/1 on Newcastle for top 4. I'd suggest putting your money where your mouth is if you are that confident :)

In terms of the "top six" if you look at the Premiership over the past 4 seasons or so I'd say it is pretty clear who the best six teams have been, yes Newcastle were there last season but people tend to judge the stature of clubs over a longer period. If they can have another decent season and nobody else fades it could expand to the magnificent seven but until then big six is enough for me.

I think it will be interesting to see what Spurs do this season as an injury to Defoe could hit them hard I feel.

As for my club I think the pundits are being surprisingly positive as I expected the departure of Van Persie and persistent injury problems to lead to a lot of concerns about them slipping out of the top 4.
Click to expand...

I don't expect top 4, I jut don't think we are anywhere approaching that far behind arsenal, indeed you could put a fair argument forward for us being ahead.

I must admit in surprised arsenal are still fourth faves, though I think that's because those behind you are too far behind.
 
Apparently shoe-ins for playoffs but no real title ambition.

I'd settle for that right now.
 
No1newts said:
I must admit in surprised arsenal are still fourth faves
Click to expand...

I think the reaons are:

-Spurs look very light up front, could potentially lose Modric and AVB has yet to prove himself in this league
-Liverpool again have a new manager and stuggled to stay with the pace last season, personally I would view them as the biggest threat though. They have a good nucleus of players and if Rodgers can get the best out of them they could surprise a few people.
-Rightly or wrongly people have doubts about Newcastle's strength in depth, they could be a good cup team but with the ACoN set to hid them hard in January plus the drain of the Europa league, I can't help but question their league credentials
-Everton have lost Cahill and Rodwell, like Newcastle there are lingering questions about the squad depth

Possibly the most interesting team this season is Fulham, I rate Jol as a manager and they had a good surge last year. They also have quite a 'weird' squad if you know what I mean, a mix of relative unknowns and journeymen. Dempsey issue could prove a distraction at the start though.
 
Last edited:
No1newts said:
I don't expect top 4, I jut don't think we are anywhere approaching that far behind arsenal, indeed you could put a fair argument forward for us being ahead.

I must admit in surprised arsenal are still fourth faves, though I think that's because those behind you are too far behind.
Click to expand...

I'm starting to feel ever so pessimistic all of a sudden. I think with extra commitments in Europe we won't cope. Fitness will be a big problem for the players, and we simply don't have enough cover. Ba and Cisse are carrying knocks, but it looks like we are going to have to play at least one of then tomorrow as we just cannot rely on Shola to provide us with a result.

For me to be more confident, I want to see the Debuchy deal done, cover upfront and possibly cover at CB. Keeping players happy is going to be another problem for Pardew. With all the extra players, the likes of Gutierrez, Santon, Ba and Anita could be sulking for not starting certain games. Last season we had luck and a well balanced happy team, which led to 5th spot.
 
The qualifying for the ACN means Tiote OR Ba/Cisse will go as Ivory Coast are playing Senegal so they can't lose all three, also currently Ivory coast are by far the better team so its actually incredibly unlikely Ba/Cisse will be at the ACN this time, which is fantastic news for Newcastle, less good for Liverpool/Spurs/Arsenal.

How they do, no one knows, teams are starting to take real notice of Newcastle and see them as a real threat, more teams will play against them more defensively than they did this year, which might mean less wins, or more, really won't know for a while. The one half smart thing Redknapp did at Spurs was all but ignore the Europa league, you'll get to the group stage even with a crap team with only 2-3 senior players, change which senior players they are and no one will get tired played 2 or 3 extra games total. Group stage is basically certain income, rest, let the youngsters go mad. Almost every side that makes a long run in any cup loses league form, Spurs ignored it and moved up the league rather than down as most people do. Smart move.

Arsenal, are Arsenal, we'll throw away too many stupid points to do REALLY well, but ultimately we have a huge squad with a lot of quality players, Wenger's daft subs might cost us games it shouldn't, and Walcott/Diaby will also, Diaby will get injured and stop screwing the team, Song is hopefully leaving and a 120mil wage squad has a huge advantage over, well, sub 80mil wage squads.

Liverpool I can't see being good enough soon enough, nor do I think they have a particularly good squad, Spurs, will AVB continue his moronic management or completely turn it around? Personally I don't think he showed anything at all at Chelsea and I'd be surprised if Spurs did well this season. Spurs and Chelsea swap, everything else the same.

ANyway, pundits suck, most of them watch the highlights rather than, do their job. Its ridiculous how many pundits and fans form their opinions of players purely from highlights. Loads of Arsenal fans LOVE Walcott, highlights reel and its only the 14 seconds he ran onto something and scored, not the 10 times he miscontrolled a simple pass and it goes off the pitch. So often you see a pundit say "team X dominated that game" because they scored with 2 or 2 shots while the other side somehow managed to miss 462 clear chances.

The thing with pundits and football is, there are 38 league games per team, they make a prediction and chat some nonsense about every team and player, "player X was brilliant, look for him to do great next week", do that for 50 players, the next week half of them have a good game.... they were right. MOTD/highlights shows in general are insanely misleading.
 
Last edited:
Apparently rock bottom of the prem and have no goal scorers... Mark Lawerenson hasn't a clue sometimes

About half of all pundits tip us to go nowhere because we haven't spunked the cash on a load of prem hasbeens, the other half seem to recognise there's a bit more to staying up than that.
 
Yeah was really bizarre reading Lawro on Saints:
LAwro said:
Everyone keeps telling me Saints striker Rickie Lambert will score in the Premier League but they need him to weigh in the sort of goal tally Grant Holt managed for Norwich last season.
Saints boss Nigel Adkins is a shrewd guy and they will play some good attacking football but they need someone who can get 15 goals and, at the moment, I don't think they have one.
Click to expand...

Lambert is better than Holt and IMO as good a striker as most newly promoted clubs have, he will play every week and will notch double figures this season barring injury. Realistically I can't see them being able to attract many players who have the potential the outscore Lambert.
 
Well surprise surprise Lawro is proven wrong, come the end of the season Saints had a player who got 15 goals when he said they wouldn't, in fact no Englishman scored more Premiership goals than Lambert.

**** you Lawro, seriously stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
 
HangTime said:
Well surprise surprise Lawro is proven wrong, come the end of the season Saints had a player who got 15 goals when he said they wouldn't, in fact no Englishman scored more Premiership goals than Lambert.

**** you Lawro, seriously stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
Click to expand...

A nice feeling Lambert getting 15 goals and Lawro looking like a complete tit :cool:
 
Shamikebab said:
Don't think Newts will want to read his first post again :p
Click to expand...

To be fair I will hold my hands up and admit I got it completely wrong with Newcastle. We didn't spend the money last summer and it cost us big time. Added to the Pards limitations becoming painfully evident I was completely wrong.

Fail me :p:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom