Official Premiership 2008/09 thread

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Less SPL talk in this thread ye wee drams.

Anyway Newcastle going down could never be a "good thing" for them although the fans have to look for any positive slant on it they can.

When I started watching football Newcastle weren't in the top flight anyway so unlike some younger folk in here I've never really fully equated them with top flight football even though they probably are a top flight team really.

Conversely I find Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday not being around in the top flight a bit weird.

Even with seven points I can't see Newcastle staying up now cos I'm sure each of the teams above them then claw together 4 points from their last 5 games. This would suggest that they need something away at Villa or Liverpool. In short, bad times.

[Crybaby Bunting]

What's positive about the situation is that we may end up losing half our Europe chasing idiots, who have believed for the past five years that "this is the year to get into the Champions League".

It's almost as if they don't believe in the big four, Spurs, Villa and another ten teams

EDIT: Then again, having a Leeds supporting cousin... all it really does is make the team look stupid when you're claiming that in a few years and a promotion or two later you'll see your club captain holding the Champions Leage... and the Premiership... and.... >_<

Edited April 20, 2009 by The General

[Ben E.]

At matches, I sit a few rows in front of a man who sits and shouts all game about how we should be beating the team we're playing because we're better than them. He'll shut up when we play the big 4, but for some reason he can't seem to grasp the fact that we are utterly shite and have been for years.

I think that's the problem with the majority of Newcastle fans, and why other fans seem to have so much hate for geordies.

Oh, and to any Bolton fans that might post:

What was Nolan like for you? People seemed to rate him highly, but you can only get an idea of what players truly like when you watch them every week. I thought 4 million might have been a good deal for him and was surprised we got him. Every time I've seen him play for us I've been unimpressed. Same deal with Ryan Taylor too.

[Baddar]

I'm sure that Nolan was liked by Bolton fans for ages, but towards the end of his spell there, I know a lot of them were getting on his back about poor performances.

[Turbo Yannis]

Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan wants Scotland's top clubs to pay £100m to join the English Premier League ahead of this week's meeting to discuss the proposal for a top-flight shake-up. (Daily Record)

From the Gossip bit on the BBC Sport website.

lololololololololololol. Beause plenty of Scottish teams have £100m just sitting about.

[Thrilla]

I don't think the chairman of Crystal Palace should be worrying about Premiership affairs.

[9 to 5]

Not with Colin Wanker in charge.

And I doubt all the Scots clubs combined could afford 100m as it stands.

[-A-]

It was in the context of the meeting about making a PL1 and PL2, which Palace would probably be part of. The proposal's for 36 teams, so if the Old Firm were included it would be them, the 20 PL teams and the 14 Championship teams (though I don't know for sure they'd select the Championship teams on league position.)

EDIT: I doubt Man United have £1.1bn lying around, but they're servicing that debt reasonably enough. I doubt he's suggesting that the Old Firm have to pay £100m up front.

Edited April 20, 2009 by -A-

[9 to 5]

Shhh, we just want to abuse Jordan/Scotland.

[-A-]

Must focus the hatred on Jordan. The moaning, hypocritical, orange cunt.

Edited April 20, 2009 by -A-

[Matt]

What's positive about the situation is that we may end up losing half our Europe chasing idiots, who have believed for the past five years that "this is the year to get into the Champions League".

It's almost as if they don't believe in the big four, Spurs, Villa and another ten teams

EDIT: Then again, having a Leeds supporting cousin... all it really does is make the team look stupid when you're claiming that in a few years and a promotion or two later you'll see your club captain holding the Champions Leage... and the Premiership... and.... >_<

I'll give you we have a lot of naive fans who still think we're going to get taken over by one of those uber-rich Leeds fans that always manage to disappear right about the time they need to table a bid. Then we'll go and get back to back promotions before fighting for a UEFA cup place.

In reality, though, most Leeds fans would be happy if we got back to the PL within 5 years, got a decent investment (not mega-billions but someone like Randy Lerner) within ten and began to challenge for a top 5/6 place within the next 10 years. Even that's probably too optimistic for a club that got beat by Histon but we've hit rock bottom and now the only way is up

PL 1 and 2 will never happen, at least not any time soon, so I wish they'd stop these stupid fucking rumours and waste of time meetings to discuss it. Reducing the number of teams in PL 1 and adding Celtic/Rangers is just going to mean the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea are going to lose more and they'd never allow that. Plus PL 2 would just end up in a similar position to the Championship financially but it'd make the leagues below seem less relevant, thus they'd receive even less money and that's hardly what we need with lots of teams going bust already, is it

Edit: This also seems a good time to "lol, colin".

Edited April 20, 2009 by Footjob Fever

[CFDunk]

I think Wednesday, we get a preview of the FA Cup Final when Chelsea take on Everton. And I have a feeling Chelsea will smash them and Everton will get the win at Wembley....?

[stokeriño]

I'm not going to predict the FA Cup final result before I know whether we have to go to Rome 3 days beforehand or not.

[Adam]

This idea will never go through-I can't see the Scottish footballing bodies being too fond of losing their only two sustainable clubs in europe, and Celtic & Rangers won't wanna move as they'd have a much tougher time of it making it into Europe.

I've always wanted to see how they'd do actually but I can't see it happening, and not many clubs will want this two-tiered Prem system, what happens to the Championship? Do we turn into a 14-team league where Ipswich, Coventry and Doncaster Rovers become title-contending teams!?

[Matt]

This idea will never go through-I can't see the Scottish footballing bodies being too fond of losing their only two sustainable clubs in europe, and Celtic & Rangers won't wanna move as they'd have a much tougher time of it making it into Europe.

I've always wanted to see how they'd do actually but I can't see it happening, and not many clubs will want this two-tiered Prem system, what happens to the Championship? Do we turn into a 14-team league where Ipswich, Coventry and Doncaster Rovers become title-contending teams!?

Well there'd only be 10 teams left, so I imagine 2 conference teams promoted and then split the three leagues into 20s.

[Adam]

Yeah I just saw that it was a proposal for two 18-team leagues, not 16.

All the same, nobody in the lower half of our division will want it, because instead of big games against big teams fresh out of the Premiership like Birmingham or Reading, we'll become the big fish in the league and have a load of League One teams joining us. It would be crap, and it'd mean teams such as us would fall to two leagues behind the top division in the country. If they want the Old Firm in so badly just increase the Premier League to 22, they've done it before.

[Matt]

The Old Firm won't join anyway, they'd stop qualifying for Europe, and then gates'd drop because they're losing every week to teams like Everton and Fulham. There's no sense in them joining the Premier League, especially since the TV money would be spread out across the 36 teams and not 20.

[Ben E.]

Instead of adding Celtic and Rangers to the Premier League, I think they should add the Scottish teams to the League Cup.

[Matt]

Instead of adding Celtic and Rangers to the Premier League, I think they should add the Scottish teams to the League Cup.

And they won't do that either... because they won't win it year in year out. Seriously leave the Scots to Scottish football, if we're going to bring them in, we should bring them all in, at all levels and that won't happen because it'll eventually lead to a Great Britain national team and we know that no-one wants that.

[Crybaby Bunting]

It's like when Celtic and Rangers asked if they could become part of a super league consisting of the best Scandinavian teams, as well as the likes of Monaco and other one or two big team countries, whilst keeping their reserve teams in the Scottish league.

I think that bid was disregarded once they realised that even in a super group of 20 teams, only four would ever qualify for the Champions League... for their domestic leagues would bar them from ever qualifying.