Fixtures out next Wednesday (18th)

[the coming of gary]

... Hooray !

opening day guess - CHERRIES away in the sunshine
.

[stubbo-admin]

According to Opta Analyst we have the 3rd easiest start....

[XKhammer]

Is this an assisted dying thread????

[Sir Alf]

If the transfer window does not see young central midfield energy / athleticism brought in we are going to struggle again at the bottom. As things stand, we have to be a bottom 6 contender and failure in the transfer market will make us relegation fodder imo

[Fauxstralian]

Bournemouth sold the young centre half to Real for £50m & Kerkez will go to Liverpool for around £45m
Theyve replaced Kerkez for £12m-ish & am sure they will find another centre half for a similar amount and bank the difference

[Fauxstralian]

I see Brighton have bought a striker & an u21 Italian centre half
Understand people are looking at Joao Pedro & maybe Mitoma but I’d back them to find replacements & make a profit on the deals
They lost Caicedo & McAllister for £140m & not sure what they paid for that Baleba but it would have been relative peanuts & he looks like the next massive sale eventually

[Rossal]

looking on twitter yesterday and a West Ham account probably run by a 16 year old bin lid said  'looking at the fixtures we're likely to go down next season, I can't see where back to back wins is coming from' 

Thought it must just be usual knicker wetting nonsense till you peak the fixtures and he might have a point. There isn't really a run of games where you can see us getting momentum.  

Maybe Leeds away followed by Brentford at home or 
Burnley away followed by Man Utd at home 
Palace away Everton at home? 

Going to be a painful season I suspect,  last year near enough everyone beat the bottom 3 so they were adrift. But if the newly promoted sides can pick up more points against bottom half teams (us) then it will all bunch up much close in the bottom half. 

[Lee Trundle]

I need to club to make a signing to give me any kind of hope for next season.

I'm not saying we'll likely to be relegated, but I think we'll be down there similar to we've just gone through.

It's a bit depressing seeing how shit the bookies think the season will be for us, and then you have people on TalkSport talking about us as one of the "lesser" teams in the divison when they were talking about the fixtures list.

[twoleftfeet]

Wovles,Brentford,Fulham,Brighton and Bournemouth are selling their best players and l think 2 of them will come unstuck this season 
Spurs,Palace and Forest will struggle because of Europe 
Man utd will benefit and be back in top 6/8 

Tony Bloom was saying the other day that Brighton have all of their targets lined up and will be settled sooner rather than later. That’s the kind of owner we need so you can rule Brighton out of the relegation list.

[Monsieur merde de cheval]

Lively set of opening fixtures.
Mackems away first up ...that's why I wanted them promoted..proper fans .what it's all about .
Will be a cracking atmosphere and looking forward to that one for sure.
Let's hope the manager and his squad are of the same mindset 

 

[only1billybonds]

Stubbo.

Genuinely hope I'm wrong mate, I'd love nothing more than to see us on an unbeaten run that extends way beyond bonfire night but i just don't see the massive change in so many areas that's needed for anything like that being possible.
Still, I've been doing this for over 50 years now so the feeling of doom has almost become second nature. 

[XKhammer]

Wovles,Brentford,Fulham,Brighton and Bournemouth are selling their best players and l think 2 of them will come unstuck this season 
Spurs,Palace and Forest will struggle because of Europe 
Man utd will benefit and be back in top 6/8 

[RBshorty]

Think we are one of a few clubs who will go in to next season feeling a little vulnerable. Everyone knows that we are still a premier league club by virtue of having three teams worse than us filling the relegation positions. In this regard, I really don't think it matters who we play early on, if you go into games a bit nervy, you'll get walloped by most teams. Hope I'm wrong but I don't see much changing between last seasons end and the start of the new one.

Whilst I don't disagree, there were actually 6 teams worse than us.

As things stand the odds for these teams to get relegated are all shorter than West Ham:

• Fulham
• Brentford
• Wolves
• Leeds
• Burnley
• Sunderland

We'll, in fairness, have to go some to be worse than 4 of those, plus Everton.

Fulham and Brentford are just better run than us. (Who isn't.?) Wolves will have a very impressive War Chest to spunk up the wall. And Everton will have the new Stadium bounce. And. (Don's a very tough Steel Hat.) Moyes. 

It's us. And the 3 promoted teams. And if one of those get their act together...

[stubbo]

Think we are one of a few clubs who will go in to next season feeling a little vulnerable. Everyone knows that we are still a premier league club by virtue of having three teams worse than us filling the relegation positions. In this regard, I really don't think it matters who we play early on, if you go into games a bit nervy, you'll get walloped by most teams. Hope I'm wrong but I don't see much changing between last seasons end and the start of the new one.

Whilst I don't disagree, there were actually 6 teams worse than us.

As things stand the odds for these teams to get relegated are all shorter than West Ham:

• Fulham
• Brentford
• Wolves
• Leeds
• Burnley
• Sunderland

We'll, in fairness, have to go some to be worse than 4 of those, plus Everton.

[only1billybonds]

Think we are one of a few clubs who will go in to next season feeling a little vulnerable. Everyone knows that we are still a premier league club by virtue of having three teams worse than us filling the relegation positions. In this regard, I really don't think it matters who we play early on, if you go into games a bit nervy, you'll get walloped by most teams. Hope I'm wrong but I don't see much changing between last seasons end and the start of the new one.

[XKhammer]

All the usual doom and gloom
Think it's a reasonable start and we'll finish top half of table and be first team to win at Everton new stadium 

[violator]

I was in Ibiza with a Y mate when they won the cup, it was very unpleasant.. They've now put our game on against them when I'm away with him again.. Fuck knows why anyone would want that when on holiday.

It's the last thing I want to be doing when away is West Ham.

I should have learned from last season, I was in Palmanova for the cup game against Liverpool, and Corralejo for the home game against the same mob...I think the aggregate score was 1 - 10

[fraser]

I was in Ibiza with a Y mate when they won the cup, it was very unpleasant.. They've now put our game on against them when I'm away with him again.. Fuck knows why anyone would want that when on holiday.

It's the last thing I want to be doing when away is West Ham.

[billywhitehorse]

Disappointed with the late December games, we'll be in Fuerteventura with a barcode and a yid among the group, was hoping we'd get one of them.

Do you like people gloating at you then?

You really are pathetic.

[Mike Oxsaw]

Yeah, but 17th in the PL is still realistically achievable.


17th.


Seventeenth.



Seven...



....teenth.

Sullivan has probably already signed off on next season's requirements and business plan and busily thumbing through the latest Bling-U-Like catalogue at this very moment..

[Rossal]

I always think December is the most crucial month of the season. 6 games, lots of momentum can be gained or lost and our december is dog! 

tough start also but after the Mackems the next 4 are all in europe so hopefully some sunday hangovers 

Apart from Burnley and maybe Sunderland for the return leg every game looks fucking hard. That's how shit we are, every single game is looking tough at the moment 

[boleyn8420]

Well, thats Sunderland off to a winning start and probably the only 3 points they pick up for the next 10 games. Looking at those 6 games I can see 1 or nil points on the board with the current state of the team and with the clueless manager that we have. 4 subs just after half time when 2-0 down in the first game anyone. Cannot remember a season that I am less looking forward to at present.

[Hammer I am]

I've certainly seen us have worse starts to the season. 

- Promoted team away
- Chelsea post Club World Cup with no doubt some of their players still tired or rested
- Forest away...hopefully after they've had a few players swiped by bigger clubs
- Spurs at home...always a big game, and them still in transition from Ange-ball

On that basis, we'd be expecting to:

1. Beat Sunderland
2. Get a point from Chelsea
3. Get a point from Forest
4. Beat Spurs.
5. Draw with Palace (they're in our 'mini league' afterall, and we're at home)
6. No doubt lose to Moyes

9 points from opening 6 games...could be a lot worse.

(obviously we'll lose to the Sunderland return fanfare, get rolled by Chelsea, and be bottom 3 after 6, wth Potter under huge pressure/scapegoating, with the usual '6 defeats in a row, we stand by our managers' horse shit from the board).

Promoted team away is literal the worst opening fixture you can have, they're usually never better than they are in their opening fixture at home. So we'll be lucky with a win while everyone else gets to thrash them 

[stubbo]

I've certainly seen us have worse starts to the season. 

- Promoted team away
- Chelsea post Club World Cup with no doubt some of their players still tired or rested
- Forest away...hopefully after they've had a few players swiped by bigger clubs
- Spurs at home...always a big game, and them still in transition from Ange-ball

On that basis, we'd be expecting to:

1. Beat Sunderland
2. Get a point from Chelsea
3. Get a point from Forest
4. Beat Spurs.
5. Draw with Palace (they're in our 'mini league' afterall, and we're at home)
6. No doubt lose to Moyes

9 points from opening 6 games...could be a lot worse.

(obviously we'll lose to the Sunderland return fanfare, get rolled by Chelsea, and be bottom 3 after 6, wth Potter under huge pressure/scapegoating, with the usual '6 defeats in a row, we stand by our managers' horse shit from the board).

[Swiss.]

Looking forward to next season like I would be for root canal treatment. 

[Sir Alf]

We will be starting the season with the same fieat 11 that ended the last I would suggest. Central midfield and attack aint getting any stronger before late Aug / Sept when we will do any business via Sullivan. Its being engineered that way imo to allliw sullivan to be “forced” to go to his agent contacts as the window closes.