I've also LOVED international football. Discard all previous comments. Got some time now to get out the pre-season predos blog so Hannah stops texting me every single day. At 5am. I hope....
Let's get started:
Firstly, thanks to the 20 people who submitted predos. I'll use your initials as per the results graphs/leaderboard to make my life easier.
Champions
Unsurprisingly, most people went for Man City to win the league. 13 for City (DH, ND, DSIL, RD, SD, DG, DWIG, JMAC, JG, AK, NK, Rk, MH), 6 for Arsenal. One weirdo, NJSPTC went for Chelsea. That went well.
Runners Up
7 votes for City, 6 for Arsenal (ND, DSIL, RD, DWIG, AK, NK), 4 for Man Utd. 2 for Chelsea (JMAC ofc, delusional leek-botherer and MH) and 1 for Newcastle (DG)
CL Places
Third: Arsenal 7, Liverpool 5 (ND, ZD, JD, DSIL, RD), Man Utd 4 Chelsea 3 & Newcastle 1
Fourth: Man Utd 6, Liverpool 5, Chelsea 4, Newcastle 3, Spurs 1 (RK) & Luton 1 (NJSPTC) - not sure which was more delusional....
Nobody saw Villa sliding into 4th. Not even Unai Emery the giant fraud.
EL Places
Fifth: Chelsea 4, Liverpool 4, Newcastle 4, Spurs 4 (ZD, DSIL, NK, MH), Villa 2, West Ham 1, (HS....hmmmm) Man Utd 1
Sixth: Newcastle 5, Brighton 3, Chelsea 3 (RD, DG, NK), Liverpool 3, Villa 2, Spurs 2, Arsenal 1, Man Utd 1
DSIL & I were the best at working out who'd be good.....
Relegation
Luton - 18. Only NJSPTC (more on him) and RK felt they'd stay up
Burnley - 2. AK & RK. That family HATE Turf Moor.
Sheff Utd - 8 (DH, ND, HS, RD, SD, DWIG, JG, NK)
Who else did we go for?
Let's get the comedian out the way first. NJSPTC said Spurs, 3 times. Like a chef presenting a single ingredient plate. Now I'm all for Spurs getting relegated. That would be funny, but you still need 2 other clubs 'cos rules. So, please...Spurs, Chelsea, Man Utd in future.
Notts Forest - 9
Wolves - 7
Everton - 5
Bournemouth - 5
Fulham - 2
West Ham - 1
League Cup Winner
Man City - 7
Man Utd - 5
Arsenal - 4
Chelsea - 1
Spurs - 1
Newcastle -1
Aston Villa -1
Awkward - nobody saw Jurgen signing off with silverware
FA Cup Winner
Man Utd - 3 (DH, NJSPTC, DG)
Arsenal - 8
Man City - 4
Liverpool - 3
Spurs - 1
Chelsea - 1
Champions League Winner
Real Madrid - 9 (DH, DB, ND, ZD, JA, DG, DWIG, NK, ED)
Bayern - 5
Man City - 4
Arsenal - 1 (optimistic JD)
Barca - 1 (NJSPTC)
Europa League Winner
Liverpool - 11
Roma - 2
Arsenal - 1
Man Utd - 1
Aston Villa - 1 - especially impressive from JG as they weren't in the competition
West Ham - 1
Ajax - 1
Sevilla - 1
Villareal - 1
Nobody went for Atalanta
Europa Conference League Winner
Aston Villa - 9
Fiorentina - 5
Liverpool - 1
Maccabi Tel Aviv - 2
Fenerbahce - 1
Hapoel Beer Sheva - 1
Eintracht Frankfurt - 1
Close but not cigar for the Viola fans - Olympiakos won in ET
First PL Manager to be sacked
There was very little love for Lopetegui lasting the season - and he left a week before.
This screwed the 4 people who went for him, who can have a moral victory point.
JD foresaw this and stated Silva would be his pick in that scenario along with JMac. Wrong, but nice try.
The only person to correctly predict Paul Heckingbottom to be the first to go was ND. Well done.
Others were:
Big Ange - 2
Kompany - 2
Hodgson - 1
Emery - 1
Frank - 1
O Neil - 1
Dyche - 1
Pocchetino - 1
Cooper - 3
Moyes - 1
Top Scorer
Nice and quick this one
1 vote for Bukayo Saka (HS), 1 for Harry Kane (not quite sure DG gets the credit for his shiny new cannon trophy) and 18 for the RoboViking
Golden Gloves
Another field made a mockery of by the folks at Transfer Window Inc. 6 people went for Ramsdale, recognising the Arsenal defensive strength. This was before Raya signed on loan, who went on to win the award. So moral victories again to DB, ZD, HS, DG, AK & ED.
5 votes for Ederson and Pope each, 1 for Alisson and a super-optimistic 3 for Onana, who I believe ended the season with something like a 2 goals conceded/game stat. Maybe in all comps, but still.
Best New Signing
As per usual, WhoScored.com ratings used
Let's start with the bad.
Mason Mount (6.32 - HS) managed to have a worse season than Jurrien Timber who blew out his ACL within 45 minutes (6.43 - DB, ND, ZD, SD), Matt Turner who lost his job shortly after (6.47 - RD) or Sandro Tonali (6.53, MH) who was a naughty boy and got banned.
Mid-level seasons for Szoboszlai (6.81, JD ), Onana (6.84, DH) Caicedo (6.85, ED), Gvardiol (7.03, NJSPTC - strong finish), Jackson (7.07, JMAC, JG ) and Mac Allister (7.09 - DWIG, sort of).
Strong seasons from James Maddison (7.17 - JA, DG, AK, NK, RK & DWIG - sort of) - Spurs fans really liked that signing - who in fairnes looked good until injury hit and the winner, Declan Rice (7.38 - DSIL).
Worst New Signing
Bizarrely, many of the same names. Maddison the best of these (DSIL, JG and DG hedging his bets. ED also thought he'd just get injured. Which was right, but only after playing well). MH thought it'd be £60m down the drain, but Kai Havertz (7.16) proved him wrong. NK hated Mac Allister, Harry Maguire came from DWIG who - well....he's a united fan who presumably knows he isn't a new signing....
JD & DH (hedging bets) went for Onana, HS for Szoboszlai and JA for Højlund (6.7). SD went for Axel Disasi (6.58), RK & NK went for Nkunku (6.49 -to wind up their family?) whilst I went for Ashley Young who had a good season in some ways in that he didn't have a bird poo in his mouth again. Unfortunately for him, he was rubbish on the pitch, scoring 6.4, which was still better than poor Mason Mount (DB, ND and a very, very angry JMAC - probably better to aim your anger California way there fella....)
And that, folks, is the very belated pre-season predos from last year.
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