European Soccer 2009-10

[heernumurr]

Since the EPL and Champions League threads never get a lot of activity, though I'd start this for all your European club based football fun.

Seems like transfers would be the place to start, so what do you think? Real gonna walk it this year? Man City the new Real? And anyone else got a chance?

[BrySmalls]

Altidore on loan to Hull City

[TFoA]

Good move for Jozy. He'd definitely get more PT with Hull than with Fulham or Everton, the other teams that he was rumored to be headed to. At least here he'll get some solid playing time, and get the Michael Bradley Player Improvement Tour (For those who haven't heard, Michael Bradley said that playing with Borussia Mochengladbach during their struggle to stay up made him a much better player.). Hopefully he does well during his loan at Hull, because he definitely wasn't given a chance to do much since his arrival at Villareal.

That said, Man City definitely spent a lot of money this year...but that's about the size of it. They have the same problem that may befall Real Madrid: They both have very suspect defenses. City's back line is porous, as shown in the game against Rangers earlier today when they gave up the game winner in stoppage time. I'm guessing that City & Madrid are gonna fix that over the next transfer period because if they don't, Madrid's gonna be watching Barca be crowned champions of La Liga again and Man City won't crack the Top 4. Just my 2 cents.

[NEW.ERA]

First year I'll be following the championship, hopefully Newcastle has a short stay and can be back within 2 seasons.

And with a squad that Real Madrid has hopefully they can distribute playing time evenly

[WJMorris3]

The Bundesliga starts up in just under 36 hours. Will Wolfsburg be able to defend, or will Bayern or Stuttgart or Hamburg be there to take the trophy? Will we see a repeat of last year, where all three newly-promoted sides stayed up? We've already seen one of them sack their coach, as Mainz's Jørn Andersen was shown the door after their loss at Lübeck on Saturday.

[BJ Sands]

First year I'll be following the championship, hopefully Newcastle has a short stay and can be back within 2 seasons.

It's 50-50 whether Newcastle makes it back up before going down to League 1. Ashley should be imprisoned.

On that note, here's the predicted order of finish in the EPL:

1. Liverpool

2. Manchester United

3. Chelsea

4. Manchester City

5. Arsenal

6. Tottenham

7. Aston Villa

8. Everton

9. Fulham

10. Wigan

11. West Ham

12. Bolton Wanderers

13. Blackburn

14. Sunderland

15. Stoke City

16. Wolverhampton

17. Birmingham

18. Hull

19. Burnley

20. Portsmouth

Other random predictions:

- Arsenal have a season of turmoil, ending in the transfer of Cesc Fabregas to a Spanish club and the departure of Arsene Wenger.

- Portsmouth have one of the worst seasons ever for a team not just up from the Championship. Things get very ugly, including Paul Hart being the first manager sacked.

- Despite leading City to the Champions League, Mark Hughes will be replaced by Jose Mourinho.

- Other sackings will include Phil Brown at Hull and Gary Megson at Bolton.

- Ben Foster will take advantage of Edwin Van der Sar's injury and make the goalkeeper job his own. He'll play well enough to unseat David James as the England No. 1.

- This season will be the end of the EPL's dominance of the Champions League. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and only Chelsea from England will be in the semi-finals. Man U and Liverpool will prioritize the league title instead, with the Merseysiders winning it for the first time since 1990.

---- Extra Spanish prediction ----

- Madrid struggles at the start of the season and gets too far behind Barca to win the league. Los Galacticos will gel in Europe but lose in the final to the Catalans. Heads will roll, the first being Pellegrini's.

[heernumurr]

Ok, I'll have a go...

1. Liverpool

2. Chelsea

3. Manchester United

4. Tottenham

5. Arsenal

6. Manchester City

7. Everton

8. Aston Villa

9. Sunderland

10. Fulham

11. West Ham

12. Blackburn

13. Bolton

14. Birmingham

15. Wigan

16. Hull

17. Portsmouth

18. Stoke

19. Wolves

20. Burnley

FA Cup: Arsenal

Carling Cup: Man United

Champions League: Chelsea vs Barcelona in the final, with Chelsea finally getting their hands on the trophy.

Title race will be decided relatively early, 4 games to go I reckon. Relegation will be a last day of the season job, with Pompey just making it out of the drop zone.

Alex Ferguson will announce a definite retirement date this year, mark my words.

[NEW.ERA]

I'll take a shot at the EPL

1. Chelsea

2. Liverpool

3. Manchester United

4. Manchester City

5. Arsenal

6. Tottenham

7. Everton

8. Aston Villa

9. Fulham

10. West Ham

11. Sunderland

12. Blackburn

13. Hull

14. Wigan

15. Wolverhampton

16. Portsmouth

17. Bolton

Relegated

18. Stoke City

19. Birmingham City

20. Burnley

Top Goalscorer

Fernando Torres 22 Goals

FA Cup: Chelsea

Carling Cup: Liverpool

Champions League: Barcelona over Liverpool

Promoted

Middlesbrough

Ipswich Town

Newcastle United

Managers Sacked

Arsène Wenger, Arsenal

Paul Hart, Portsmouth

Gary Megson, Bolton

- Chelsea takes the EPL by a fairly wide margin and gets a big name on January 1st 2010 through the transfer window

- Manchester City finally unseeds one of the big four and breaks into the Champions League for 10/11

- Everton will become the first team out of the EPL to win the Europa League/UEFA Cup since 2001

- Bolton again does just enough to stave off relegation for another year

- Barca does what Manchester United couldn't do and win back to back European Titles

[TFoA]

Uh, N.E.P., you say that Chelsea's going to win the EPL in your standings prediction, then you say "Liverpool takes the EPL by a fairly wide margin..." Something ain't right here.

And here are mine:

1. Liverpool

2. Chelsea

3. Manchester United

4. Arsenal

5. Man City

6. Tottenham

7. Aston Villa

8. Everton

9. Fulham

10. West Ham

11. Sunderland

12. Blackburn

13. Bolton

14. Wigan

15. Portsmouth

16. Wolves

17. Hull

Relegated

18. Stoke City

19. Birmingham City

20. Burnley

FA Cup: Man U

Carling Cup: Liverpool

Champions League: Barca

Promoted

Middlesbrough

Reading

Newcastle United

Managers Sacked

Arsène Wenger, Arsenal (That's the only one I'm picking because I'm pretty sure he's gonna be gone if Arsenal doesn't win anything this season)

[NEW.ERA]

^^^

haha edited had Liverpool on the mind

[GFB]

As an Arsenal fan, I'm very disappointed in this off-season. Not only has Wenger spent no money (if he even has money to spend), but he has also let Adebayor and Toure jump to the ManCity boat....

The only thing that can salvage this train wreck is if Wenger loosens up his tight pockets and tries to snatch David Villa away from Valencia... hopefully our friendly against them will be more than just a friendly....

[buzzcut]

EPL Standings:

1) Chelsea

2) Liverpool

3) Manchester City

4) Everton

5) Arsenal

6) Tottenham

7) Manchester United

8) Wigan

9) Aston Villa

10) Hull

11) Sunderland

12) Wolves

13) Portsmouth

14) Fulham

15) West Ham

16) Bolton

17) Stoke City

The Drops

18) Birmingham City

19) Blackburn

20) Burnley

Up from the Championship

Champion: Preston North End

Runner-Up: Middlesbrough

Promotion Playoof: Newcastle United

FA Cup: Manchester City

Carling Cup: Aston Villa

Champions League: Inter

[Camden Crazy]

I'll cut off both arms if Man. U. finishes 7th.

[BJ Sands]

I'll cut off both arms if Man. U. finishes 7th.

I'd go as far to say I'd cut off two of something else if they finish seventh...

[dfwabel]

I have only see this on one site, so I am not sure if it is true.

2009 EPL season to have games on ESPN2 in the US

ESPN has acquired the TV rights to two of the weekly Premier League slots on US television for the 2009-2010 season. Beginning on August 15, 2009, each week ESPN will feature the 7:45am ET Saturday game and the 3pm ET Monday game.

Those two weekly timeslots were previously held by Setanta Sports who in the past had sub-licensed those games from Fox Soccer Channel. Despite Setanta losing the two timeslots to ESPN, Setanta US will continue showing the two 10am ET Saturday slots (one game on Setanta US, and the other on Setanta Xtra), as well as the early Sunday morning ET kickoffs and the Tuesday and Wednesday midweek Premier League matches. By Fox Soccer acquiring back the TV rights for the two timeslots from Setanta and sub-licensing them to ESPN, this gives Setanta Sports more financial stability. Setanta US will continue to stay in business this season and, in addition to the Premier League, will be showing Champions League football (via broadband and on TV), Carling Cup, Championship games, World Cup qualifiers, FA Cup and more.

[heernumurr]

"Battle of Britain" in the last Champions League qualifying round.

Celtic vs Arsenal

This wil be a great fixture to see, but I wish it hadn't happened has I always like to see British teams make it as far as they can in Europe.

[Don]

Espanyol captain Daniel Jarque has died

Kinda sad that thats my 1,100th post.

[heernumurr]

That is tragic, and happening way too often for my liking. It's weird, as I was only the other day reading about Miklos Feher, the Benfica player who died on pitch (if you decide to search for this online, beware there is an video of it actually happening which is pretty distressing). And there was Antonio Puerta and Marc-Vivian Foe before this. All of them supposededly freak incidents, but you've got to wonder if something more can be done to prevent things like this happening.

[heernumurr]

On a lighter note though; Newcastle, West Brom and Middlesbrough made their heroic return to the Championship yesterday. All drew, in fact on three teams in the whole division won their game.

But those away kits really do pop...

[Saintsfan]

My EPL [rediction (as everyone else is doing it)

1 Liverpool

2 Manchester United

3 Chelsea

4 Arsenal

5 Tottenham Hotspur

6 Manchester City

7 Everton

8 Aston Villa

9 Blackburn Rovers

10 West Ham United

11 Birmingham City

12 Fulham

13 Sunderland

14 Stoke City

15 Bolton Wanderers

16 Wigan Athletic

17 Burnley

18 Wolverhampton Wanderers

19 Hull City

20 Portsmouth

(Maybe a bit of bias at the bottom there, but the club is in turmoil at the moment, and if they have to sell anyone else before there takeover is finished they could be in real trouble).

There is no way Arsenal sack Wenger btw. He might get pushed upstairs, or leave of his own accord, but there is no way the guy gets fired. Far too respected by the club and its fans. About as much chance as Ferguson being fired by Manchester United. Also don't think Mourinho would take the Man City job. Has a decent job at the moment, and has already said he'd be interested in being United manager after Fergie retires.

Champions League winners- Chelsea.

FA Cup winners- Tottenham Hotspur

Whatever it is they are calling the EUFA Cup nowadays- Some Eastern European team you haven't heard of yet.

Managers whose job might be under threat- Phil Brown (Hull), Gary Megson (Bolton), Mark Hughes (Manchester City), Paul Hart (Portsmouth, but more because new owners will want to appoint own man). Probably others as well depending on form of their teams.

Championship promoted teams- West Brom, Cardiff City and Middlesboro

League 1 Promotions- Colchester, Charlton Athletic and (via the playoffs, even despite a 10 point penalty) Southampton

Carling Cup Winners (if you care) Manchester City.