Well the season is underway. My side Spurs spent 300m this summer to lose 3-0 today. Man Utd lost to newly promoted Hull and Arsenal look in good shape to go back to back.
In general this could be the most open season in years as Pep is no longer around and aside from Arsenal there are more questions than answers about all the bigger sides.
Ipswich also got a win on opening weekend to join Hull as getting three points as a newly promoted team. Both of them are tipped to go down as 19th and 20th so good start.
With the addition of Tzolis, Arsenal look as dangerous on the left as they have for the last few years on the right. It’s looking pretty good for the defending champs. It’s tough to repeat, but I hope they do!
Been a terrible start to the season in the league. The news today of a deal with Everton for Ndiaye with Richarlison going back the other way cheers me up as I think this is one deal where we are getting the upper hand in the negotiations if the fees are to be correct. Richarlison has been a good player but injury prone and older whereas Ndiaye is in his prime.
This is the first time Spurs have spent premium fees for players in their prime and so it’s not good that the attacking selections De Zerbi has been making looks so poor. Chelsea are in the same boat with no European football this season and look like they can blast their way into a title challenge with their attackers.
Tottenham’s defence does not look any better than last season. And they still look toothless up front. They should do better this season with all those signings but it doesn’t bode well that they finished 17th twice having actually started those seasons quite well before falling apart.
Hull look well equipped to battle for points. They secured promotion by sitting back, letting the opposition have the ball, and scoring on the counter attack. This is the perfect tactic to survive in the PL. It won’t be easy but at least they have banked 6 points into their survival fund.
They just look terrible. Might be a long vigil for me again this year. Hopefully Arsenal battling for the title. But hopefully the North London Derby will not be in the ICU in April again.
Even long before Harry Kane Spurs had a very good stretch of strikers : Jurgen Klinsmann, Teddy Sheringham, Robbie Keane, Dimitar Berbatov, Jermaine Defoe.
Solanke is just not the guy to be the CF and he is also injury prone. If he played in the Harry Redknapp era around 2009-11 he would have behind Peter Crouch.
First international break of the season is here. Man City go into it top 5/5.
Brighton bullied Arsenal yesterday. First time it has happened to Arsenal where physically they got ran off the pitch in a long time. Chelsea changed keepers but that backline is still dodgy.
Manchester City guilty of 114 of the 115 charges of breaches of financial rules
Sanctions to be determined…
Stripped of titles, massive points deduction, automatic relegation down the leagues or perhaps a a simple fine big enough to look like a historic cost but actually pocket money to the owners of the club
What seems fair to me is to retroactively deduct points from each season in question - and the resulting forfeiture of place/titles and accompanying bonuses, if the deductions indicate so - plus a massive fine. What seems likely, though IMO, is that City will appeal and appeal and appeal until the punishment is just a large but still token fine with little to no real effect or deterrent.
Guilt still to be determined.
City are still claiming innocence and are likely to appeal that before appealing any sanctions so I agree with Boycott a final resolution is still years away.
If you compare it to the Everton and Notts Forest cases a fine is off the table. Everton had 2 breaches and Forest one. They were honest with the regulators explaining how they thought their accounting was correct (so loses were not in breach of regulations) but were found to have not accounted for things correctly. They were both given points deductions.
Manchester City have been found guilty of 115 violations and have tried to block the process at every stage (for example by claiming the evidence was inadmissible because it was obtained illegally). There is no way this can result in just a fine if the appeals fail.
What might happen is they give each offence a point deduction, say of 8-10 points of average. This sounds strict but a 1000 point deduction is really the same as one of 80 points, and will result in City having (almost certainly) a single season in the Championship as their penalty.