15 Jul 2025 14:50:19
Last year the premier league was the most competitive it's ever been, question though, do you see that continuing or was it a one off? Teams like forest, villa, Brighton, Bournemouth etc can they keep pushing on or will the status quo return. I have to say looking at the transfer business of the UCL clubs, it's going to be hard for anyone to break into that group. Thoughts?
{Ed025's Note - some will say it was a poor league last season Tim, besides Liverpool the rest were much of a muchness mate and nobody came close to giving them a run for their money, Arsenal needed a striker and never bought one, City fell off a cliff, Chelsea bought loads but were never a team...and United were a disgrace, easiest win in history..
15 Jul 2025 15:27:24
Most competitive it's ever been? Really? I'm with Ed025. I thought the league was generally poor.
{Ed025's Note - it was a 1 horse race for me Fizz, Liverpool walked it and i know i may be a bit biased but i dont think they were great at times, lets be honest if that Forest side were vying for top 4 then that says everything for me mate..
15 Jul 2025 16:09:17
I thought it was very poor and I’m in the camp the league is getting worse for seeing a good game, very rarely can you watch a game no matter who is playing and say the quality was great the game was great and feel throughly entertained.
Of course you will get the biased ones who think there team was brilliant but out of watching 3-4 games most weekends are to find 6-10 memorable games for the right reasons>.
15 Jul 2025 16:20:14
World football is actually very poor. How many truly world class players are there around in the elk of a Maradona Pele Best Cruyff Zidane Iniesta Maldini not many, I'd go as far as to say not one.
15 Jul 2025 16:21:14
I didn’t think Liverpool were as good last year as they had been under Klopp if I’m honest but certainly most consistent. I think this year will be more competitive. United need to start beating the “lesser” teams with all respect that you’d expect them to. That has to be the first challenge. Take 6 points from Leeds, Sunderland, Burnley, Wolves. Brentford I think will struggle so another 6 points we should target. 30 points right there to build on. It’s a sad situation that we are talking like that but that’s the reality. You then look at winning home games v Everton, West Ham, Bournemouth, Forest, Palace. That takes you to 45 points, 3 more than last season. Gives you something to build on for the season. I said a couple weeks ago that if we get to the final of the FA Cup and League Cup that’s a total of 50 games we’ll play this season, we played 58 in total last season. We need a consistent, settled team and need to take advantage of the lack of games we’ll have.
15 Jul 2025 17:51:36
Fair enough I thought bar Liverpool there was little between the rest and anybody could beat anyone on their day. I thought that made the league intriguing and every fixture competitive but I might be wrong on that.
15 Jul 2025 17:52:53
Blackpool, I have this conversation quite often with the younger lads at work. Maybe I’m just getting old and miserable but I don’t think there is the individual flare now. Teams are certainly fitter and well drilled but I preferred football when I was growing up in the 90’s and early 00’s.
15 Jul 2025 19:30:10
Liverpool fan here. While I agree that the top teams (arsenal, city) were not playing at a high level last season i still think the levels of the mid table teams have improved. Likes of Bournemouth, Fulham and Brighton deserve massive credit for being so competitive.
15 Jul 2025 20:24:00
The danger for the over performing teams from last season like Forest and palace is what happens when their best players get poached.
Hard to keep selling your best player and replacing them with just as good. You can get away with it for a while but eventually the luck runs out.
Good chance those teams might fall off the pace a little. Add in some European competition and they might find it tough.
15 Jul 2025 22:34:16
If you isolated the top spot from the equation, then yes it was quite competitive. But agree it was a one horse race outside of that.
Forest have done well financially out of that team vying for top 4 until they capitulated, shame they didn't get top 4, but they will perhaps rebuild again.
16 Jul 2025 07:30:43
Is the league getting better or worse? It depends on who you support I'd imagine.
Personally I think the league is changing in that the middle pack are becoming much closer due to those bottom half to mid-table teams improving due to them being able to buy much better players due to the financial power of the EPL.
The difference in quality between the teams between 15th to 4th place has reduced dramatically. With the lower placed sides catching up with the higher placed teams.
This can be seen with the gap between the established EPL teams and the promoted teams getting wider and wider each year.
You then have City, Liverpool and Arsenal who are ahead of the rest and the only ones who can seriously mount a title challenge. Last season was a down season for both City and Arsenal which offered the title up to Liverpool on a silver platter (that's not to say they didn't play well or deserve it, just that they didn't have anyone to really challenge them or push them) .
With the right recruitment and some luck with injuries it's entirely possible for a side to jump up the table 7 or 8 places between seasons for those clubs that finish between 13th and 15th.
Looking at the quality of the squads, managers and the football they are able to produce there really isn't much between any of Chelsea, Spurs, Brighton, Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, Newcastle, Forest, Palace, and ourselves.
While the likes of Fulham, Everton and West Ham are all capable sides that are on the up.
The only established EPL side that I think will definitely struggle next season and could possibly give some hope to the promoted sides is Wolves. They struggled last season and were the worst of the established EPL sides, and they've lost their best player in Cunha to us, and their second best player (Aït-Nouri) to Man City, while the only significant signing they've made was to sign Strand Larsen on a permanent deal which doesn't improve them from last season as he was there on loan last year.
I fully expect the league this season to be three separate competitions, Wolves and the promoted sides fighting it out to avoid relegation, with a gap to the rest. Liverpool, City and Arsenal fighting for the title. Then the other 13 sides too good for relegation, but not good enough for a title challenging fighting it out for the remaining European places.
We will spend the next couple of season's at least fighting it out in that middle pack. If we are lucky and get the recruitment right and develop our players well then maybe we might be able to jump up to that group fighting for the title in a few years time.
16 Jul 2025 11:04:48
We are supposed to win the title in two years!