Long overdue but frankly, I needed a break. Life is intense, isn't it? I've become a strong proponent of ULI in recent months. What is ULI you ask? Well those of you who haven't googled it that is.
Nope, not the Urban Land Institute nor a (delicious looking to be fair) noodle bar in Notting Hill. It's Universal Luxuriating Income. You see, I've long found the concept of UBI alluring, but the problem is, I like MY life. UBI probably doesn't stretch to that. So I'll need a bit more. Which is where work and stuff comes in. But that's all part of the problem, you see - Catch 22 has a sequel.
Enter ULI. What I'd like is for the government(s) to pay me to essentially be live a wealthy Roman lifestyle, or some sort of landed Victorian. I think I'd be really good at all that stuff. I type this drinking a coffee looking out at the waves in the early morning sun and, really, I'm excellent at this level of living. Join the movement folks, might get some T shirts made (dropship passive income natch, #capitalism).
How's it all paid for you ask? Dunno, PIF like everything else? Not my problem, will punt onto the next generation to solve like my sociological forefathers. My biological forefathers were SAINTS. Except the arsonist. We don't talk about him though.
Right, enough of this. You wanted a 2024 predos review before we got to the new season blog (written and prepped to go out on SUNDAY - set your govt-funded smartphones). So here goes...
12 predictors in total
Champions: 7 for Arsenal, 5 for Man City. We'll just breeze past this bit
Runners Up: Liverpool made their first entry here. 2 thought the Scousers would have a good year (SD, NK). 4 went for Arsenal (DWig, RD, RK, AK). NK the only person to not put Arsenal top 2 (or 3 for that matter). 6 votes for City all in.
3rd: Another highly successful set of predictions. 6 for Liverpool. I'll give honourable mention for the single votes for Villa (AF) & Chelsea (JA). I will give nothing but crushing disdain for the vote for Man Utd (DB) and THREE votes for 17th placed Spurs (SD, RK, NK).
4th: 2 correct votes for Chelsea (RD, DB). NK went for Arsenal as mentioned above. SD & HD went Villa which was also fair. JD went Newcastle...some decent predictions here. 3 for Liverpool (wrong), 2 for Man Utd and 1 for Spurs.
5th: Reminder that Newcastle finished 5th in the end. None of us saw that coming....Man Utd continue to be overindexed (4), Spurs too (HD) and Liverpool (DB). 3 for Villa and Chelsea again seems fair.
6th: NK the only one to correctly predict Villa. 4 for Spurs, 3 for Newcastle and 2 for Man Utd & Chelsea. Nobody saw the Man Utd/Spurs seasons coming.
Relegated: 9 votes for Ipswich (SD, ND, DWig, JD, DB, AF, HD, RK, NK). 9 for Southampton ( JA, SD, ND, DWig, RD, JD, DB, HD, NK). Only 3 for Leicester (JA, RD, AF). Bizarrely, AK only went for Nott(s) Forest - 6 others joined him. JA & JD thought Bournemouth would go, and RK & NK also thought Everton would open their new stadium at home to idk, Millwall. The Moyesiah saved the day. RK got 1 team right, all others (other than AK) got 2
League Cup: 4 votes for Liverpool. 3 for Arsenal. 2 for Man Utd. 1 for Spurs, Man City & Leicester (RK). Nobody saw the wonderful folks at PIF Inc who, if they had any spare cash, might want to fund my ULI pilot, coming...
FA Cup: 6 votes for Arsenal (natch). 3 for City. 1 each for Chelsea, Utd & Spurs. Eberechi Eze thought differently.
CL: Aha. This'll be better. 9 for Real Madrid, 2 for City, 1 for Arsenal. Oops. I mean....Arsenal were the best team in it according to Mik so....half a point for JD? No? Ok.
EL: Incredibly, we actually had some accurate predictions. 5 people went for Spurs (JA,SD, DB, RK, NK). It's not a surprise that the strongest team in the competition won. It's more surprising that we were collectively not rubbish. United got 2 votes, Lyon 1 as did Lazio (quizzical eye). Eintracht Frankfurt got the last legit prediction as surprsingly enough, people had not read the rules and did not know that Aston Villa and (eventual winners) PSG could not drop down to the EL.
ECL: Right, this is also unsurprising. 7 people went for Chelsea (SD, JA, ND, DWig, DB, ND, HD). 1 for Betis, Fiorentina & Lens. 2 for West Ham who again, were not in the tournament...
1st Manager Sacked: 4 votes for Ten Hag (DWig, AK, RK, NK - they hate the Dutch in that house...) looks great. 4 votes for Nuno - less so. 1 for Howe also a bad look. Cooper, O'Neill & Russell Martin all received 1 vote and were all gone by Xmas...just not as early as ETH who went in October.
Golden Gloves: 9 for David Raya (JA, SD, ND, DWig, RD, JD, DB, AF, HD), 2 for Vicario & 1 for Allisson (who probably wishes he won the Golden Gloves award instead of the PL). No mention for Matz Sels, so I'll give him props here.
Golden Boot: 11 votes for Haaland. 1 for Foden. Nope all round..
Best New Signing: Right let's start with the joker. AF went for Lucas Nygaard. Who didn't play a minute in the PL shockingly. 0 points. RK & NK were very excited about (I assume) Archie Gray. 6.17 from WSC. JD & DWig liked the look for ESR at Fulham. 6.55. JA & SD just liked the look of Italian Stallion Richy Calafiori (6.65). HD preferred Pedro Neto (6.76). But the joint winners (6.84) were Minteh (ND) & Solanke (RD, DB, AK).
Worst New Signing: Let's start with the ineligibles. No PL minutes for Marc Guiu (NK), Neto (RD, RK) or "any of Chelsea's 10 GKs" (ND). Wan-Bissaka (7.07) was actually the best of any player in this category or the previous (DB). Solanke (SD) & Pedro Neto (JD) we've discussed already. Then came the bright idea of choosing Man Utd CBs - finally, some smart Man Utd thinking. 6.69 for De Ligt (JA) and 6.33 for Yoro (HD). The winners though were Lallana (AF) and Phillips (DWig) with a poor 6.22. Still better than Archie Gray. Mad game.
Right - check back on Sunday for the predos for S15 Matchday 1!
1 comment:
What about the cash prizes?
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