Anticipated woe

[undyingking]

You may have been idly wondering why I haven't run my usual Premiership prediction game this season. (Or of course you may be relieved, in which case you'll probably want to skip the rest of this post too.)

I think the Premiership race is going to be even more tedious this year than it has for the last few. It looks like Chelsea will get back ahead of Man Utd, and it's seems likely Liverpool will overtake Arsenal. Spurs or maybe Pompey for 5th, with Villa, Blackburn and Everton all falling away. Maybe a surprise strong showing from Sunderland or Newcastle. That's about as exciting as it'll get.

I have to admit though that the reason I'm so unenthused is because of deep sickening trepidation about West Ham's season to come. This is the most pessimistic I've been at season kickoff since the pre-Redknapp days. I fully expect us to be struggling to avoid relegation, and can only hope that there'll be three sides sufficiently worse.

How has this happened, after finishing solidly in the top half last year? Since then we've managed to alienate our best goalkeeper and sell his only decent backup; our only purchase of the summer looked hopelessly outclassed on Sunday; we've sold one of our first-choice centre-halves, despite already being hopelessly short there -- and a whole gang of lesser squad members; we've had to pay something like £6M just to get rid of one particularly disappointing signing; and two of the most expensive players in the club's history are still injured, having played less than a dozen games between them since signing last year. I could go on.

It's clear that the owners have basically fouled up hideously financially; spending far more money than they could afford, and seeking to claw back as much of it as they can, now that the credit crunch has hit their bank. Curbishley didn't help, sloshing that money into notoriously injury-prone players like Bellamy and Dyer. After just two games he's already got that hunted expression we normally assocate with January onwards. I suspect the only thing that may keep him in post is if they can't afford to fire him.

The only bright aspect is that it looks like a West Ham fan may be the next ruler of the soi-disant free world. I son't suppose that'll really help much, but at least it's better than Arsenal's most famous supporter, whose name differs by only one letter.

Comments

[jadeent.livejournal.com]

Sad but true. My prediction is that Curbs will be the first Premiership managerial sacking of the season. Redknapp will tell West Ham to get stuffed when they try to poach him away from Pompey and we'll end up with a new manager of the likes of Dowie. Championship here we come.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Apparently Bilic has said he might still be interested. But I should think he'd want paying pretty well to take it on in the position it's likely to be.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

You're unenthused? Try being a Baggies fan. Everyone was tipping us to be the promoted team that does an Ipswich/Reading, and now three games in, we've got no points, Stoke, Hull and Fulham (the other three nailed-on relegation candidates) have all got wins on the board, and we went out of the Carling last night to Hartlepool. And just to rub it in, Phillips, who we let go to City, is banging goals in for fun.

At the start of the season, I thought we could finish in the top two-thirds - now, I'll be happy if we get more points than Derby did.

At the very worst, you'll finish eighteenth. (Above us and Spurs.)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I think this might be some sort of karmic revenge for Adrian Chiles's once-endearing, now-sickening omnipresence on our summer TV screens.

[chrisvenus]

I vaguely keep an eye on Oxford United since I live in oxford (and with local radio its hard not to). I'm not unenthused. I'm just amused.

I get to hear the great tails of matches against people such as Barrow, weymouth and wrexham whcih were all lost, and tails of glorious victory against sides such as Eastbourne Borough and our (no doubt) gripping draw that resulted in facing woking.

Its kind of sad to hear about these teams who I have never heard of but still manage to beat down oxford united. I should probably be thankful that I'm not a really big football fan and that I don't really support oxford in any more than home town loyalty. :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

When I first came to Oxford they were in the then First Division, and would have been playing in Europe but for the Heysel ban -- hard to believe now!

[chrisvenus]

I still go by divisions 1 to four in my head. I am aware that three is now one and four is now two. What was the first division back in those days? (I have just looked up a bit of history but I'm not sure when you got to oxford... research suggests 85-86 is when they would have qualified for europe though...

Looks like when I got to oxford in '96 they were just back up to the second division (I believe then the first division behind the premiereship)...

But yeah, I hadn't realised they were contenders in the premiereship/Division one for a while...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was when first really meant first. Tbh they were not a big success, just missing relegation the first two seasons and then finishing bottom the third, but even so.

[chrisvenus]

I do sometimes wonder if Oxford's Kassam Stadium is the most impressive of the venues that get played in the conference given it was planned when they were a lot bigger and better than this... :)

I don't imagine places like barrow having as big stadiums (I think I have seen barrow's from afar when up there and I'm fairly sure it wasn't as impressive as the kassam).

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

I love this Wikipedia page; apparently Wrexham's ground is bigger than Oxford's, though I couldn't settle "most impressive" either way from that.

Mo, I have been thinking about your prediction game since the start of the season! Here is my prediction, number one in a field of one:

Chelsea
Man U
Arsenal
Liverpool
Everton

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Needs at least one update: Colchester have moved to their new stadium now. Lifting them from the smallest in League 1 to the 16th, so not a huge expansion, but it's much much nicer.

Everton eh? -- without Johnson and they don't seem to have had any luck yet recruiting, I'll be surprised. But if they can keep Arteta and Cahill fit, who knows.

[ubiquitous-cat.livejournal.com]

I think you'll scrape by, and I suspect Curbishley will be sacked.

Anyway, Liverpool will take the title, our form of last night shows we are unstoppable.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, you can't win much more ugly than that.

[dr-bob.livejournal.com]

If ManU get Berbatov (and he stops sulking) then they'll give Chelsea a run for their money.

If the Hammers don't sack Curbs, they'll be just fine. If they do, then all bets are off.
Villa will pip Liverpool for 4th place this season, as Rafa screws it up once again, by conspiring to fail to gel any sort of team out of his players.

I really don't think it's that predictable.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, we seem to have become a manager-sacking club... our first five managers covered 88 years between them, but since then (1989) Redknapp is the only one to have lasted longer than three seasons.

I expect I'll get more excited about the top of the table if we can somehow put a few wins together...