Major Changes

- DiMatteo confirmed as Chelsea boss
- BR now chief Liverpuddlian
- 'Arry out at Tottenham
- Woy out at WBA and in for England
- Hazard to Chelsea
- Drogba to the Far East
- Modric looks like he has sealed a transfer to Real Madrid
- Kagawa from Borussia Dortmund to United

Notes

- City doesn't play United until December 8th at Old Trafford.

- Liverpool plays Arsenal in a key matchup on September 1, will be a key test for the Rodgers administration.

- Not many major transfers this offseason, City has been handcuffed by the inability to offload the likes of Adebayor, Santa Cruz, et. al. United has been unable to make a big splash as of yet. Other teams don't appear to have made up any ground on the Manchester squads.

- Still lots to be sorted out in the transfer window, but as of now it appears Chelsea is the winner of the offseason by keeping DiMatteo and landing Hazard.


Just like last year get your team affiliations and predictions in.

Walt Sobchak: Man City - 1st

6/22/2012 5:21:28 PM

Also, Hulk to Chelsea is a big deal. I'm gonna hold off on my prediction until early August probably.

6/22/2012 6:30:59 PM

Also, this guy just got his new Warrior/Liverpool jersey. I much prefer this cut of a jersey to the old adidas one. My only peeve is that the sleeves feel a bit more nylon-y than chest/back material.

6/22/2012 7:09:12 PM

Only a City fan could create such a thread title.

6/22/2012 10:39:15 PM

Props for making this thread, Walt. I'll wait to see how stingy Wenger is this summer and whether RVP follows the money to the Etihad before making a prediction. Speaking of kits, I desperately hope the previews of Arsenal's away jerseys are fake. The home jersey is almost as hideous as United's gingham train wreck.

6/22/2012 10:50:39 PM

can we get a do-over on the thread title?

My (most likely incorrect) predictions for the year:

Kagawa will dominate for United and win Club PoY, Fan's PoY, Player's PoY. Rooney wins the golden boot due mainly to Kagawa's contributions. United hold off City and Arsenal in a tight 3 way race (until Arsenal collapse late in the season) to win title #20.


Hazard will get injured early and sit the whole season. Lukoku is no Drogba. Torres finds himself the only option, and Chelsea struggle to stay above 7th.


Joe Cole pulls liverpool up by their bootstraps and puts them back in the champions league, no thanks to the new coach, who will be sacked early after a 5-6 game losing streak and be replaced by 'Arry Redknapp.


Spurs hire AVB - get relegated. Modric to Real Madrid, Bale to Barca (where he rides the pine)


QPR buy all the players City wants to dump off, still unable to manage better than a 15th place finish.


West Ham finishes in the top 10, thus re-beginning their never ending cycle of achieve -> mediocrity -> relegation -> promotion


Arsenal sign Giroud and Hatem Ben Arfa, but RVP goes to City (where he rides the pine). Wilshere comes back and Arsenal look dangerous for most of the season, but go through a typical collapse late on.


Balotelli becomes 1st choice at City. Tevez goes AWOL again, finally getting sold to AC Milan in January.


Newcastle sign Clint Dempsey with their ben Arfa money, make a push for top 5.

6/23/2012 11:16:12 AM

hulk to chelsea surprisingly hasn't happened yet

6/23/2012 2:25:31 PM

lol at all those predictions

[Edited on June 23, 2012 at 2:54 PM. Reason : trolling mixed with serious, nice work to intermingle]

6/23/2012 2:52:54 PM

or better yet

Laurent Blanc to Spurs, still relegated

'Arry to France

Rodgers gets sacked after 5 game losing streak and Gerrard appointed Player/manager

[Edited on June 24, 2012 at 11:46 AM. Reason : basically adamant that Rodgers will fail but i think 'pool come back on the bounce]

6/24/2012 11:45:51 AM

ManU - 1st

[Edited on June 24, 2012 at 12:16 PM. Reason : also RVP leaves Arsenal ]

6/24/2012 12:14:29 PM

Vertonghen to Spurs, done deal. £10m. Not too bad.

6/24/2012 8:16:56 PM

Confirmed via Twitter.

6/24/2012 11:30:47 PM

Giroud official to Gunners. Now keep RVP and sign M'Vila and this squad can compete with Manchester's.

Top 4 are miles ahead of competition going into this year when Modric does the expected and leaves.

United
City
Chelsea/Arsenal

as of right now. Really like Kagawa.

6/25/2012 10:05:20 AM

I think Kagawa is legit but I'd still have City on top for now.

6/25/2012 10:14:16 AM

Does NyM410 ever make a post without mentioning Spurs? The real Arsenal fans on this board don't even push the envelope like you do. It's damn near laughable how much artificial hate you have for my club.

Remember when you were a West Ham supporter? Then you pulled heelfan and said you had "two clubs" at the first sign of adversity when the Hammers were relegated. Now, your club is promoted back and you act like that never happened. Way to be a true fan and stick with your club, buddy. Who you gonna move on to next?

I'd say I should just start pulling for City so I could thumb my nose at you all the time but I'd never stoop to your level.

COYS

Ribs Spurs - 4th

[Edited on June 25, 2012 at 11:53 AM. Reason : HAMMERS]

6/25/2012 11:52:07 AM

6/25/2012 11:58:38 AM

damn, called the fuck out

6/25/2012 12:00:14 PM

Not really. I freely admitted on here I'm a piece of shit fan who basically changed allegiances. I didn't grow up with a team but I love the sport/league. It's not like I moved from West Ham to a team dominating domestically and abroad.

And yeah I hate Spurs. But my comments on them would be identical if I did so as an Arsenal or a West Ham supporter. Sorry but bashing Millwall doesn't get my dick hard.

In any case I wasn't even bashing Spurs in that post. Multiple articles have said as much on Modric.

6/25/2012 3:20:20 PM

DAAAAAAAAAAAYUUUUUUUUUUUUUM

6/25/2012 3:30:25 PM

It's cool. Spurs fans just really hate Arsenal.

6/25/2012 5:56:13 PM

Futbol. Really?

6/25/2012 7:26:49 PM

goddamn Ribs is mad as fuck and the season ain't even started yet

6/25/2012 7:30:10 PM

lol. Gonna be a good year.

6/25/2012 7:35:56 PM

agreed

6/25/2012 7:41:28 PM

yeah thread title sucks. appropriate for a City fan I guess

6/25/2012 8:50:41 PM

I would have accepted Fußball, but not Futbol

6/25/2012 9:52:25 PM

Hell, even football would have been acceptable.

6/25/2012 10:24:33 PM

So what does Arsenal's line-up look like next year with Giroud now officially signed for £12,000,000?

RvP staying?
Wilshire/Sagna healthy?
Somehow capturing M'vila?


---------------RvP-----------------
Podolski--------------------Walcott
---------Rosický/AOC/Ramsey-------
-----------Song---Arteta-----------
Santos--Vermaelen--Koscielny--Sagna
--------------Szczesny-------------

Subs: Fabianski, AOC, Ramsey, Giroud, Gibbs, Per, Gervinho

That's not a bad looking squad. Of course, it is Arsenal, so something bad is bound to happen along the way.

6/26/2012 6:17:54 AM

Futbol

6/26/2012 7:49:17 AM

---------------RvP-----------------
Podolski--------------------Walcott
---------Rosický/AOC/Ramsey-------
-----------Song---Arteta-----------
Santos--Vermaelen--Koscielny--Sagna
--------------Szczesny-------------

6/26/2012 8:26:00 AM

If fit, I like Gibbs over Santos as first choice LB.

6/26/2012 9:23:54 AM

---------------RvP-----------------
Podolski--------------------Walcott
-------------Wilshere--------------
-----------Song---Arteta-----------
Santos--Vermaelen--Koscielny--Sagna
--------------Szczesny-------------

Or, switching up the formation a bit...

--------------Giroux--------------
---------------RvP---------------
Podolski--Wilshere--Song--Walcott
Gibbs--Vermaelen--Koscielny--Sagna
-------------Szczesny------------

[Edited on June 26, 2012 at 9:51 AM. Reason : .]

6/26/2012 9:51:06 AM

i shall lol when lol shall happen untill then i shall lol

6/26/2012 2:26:42 PM

Michael Owen to Al-Shabib in the UAE Pro-League? Must be huge money available to all the clubs down there.

Apparently Gyan made 4x his Sunderland salary while on loan to Al-Ain last season.

6/26/2012 5:36:38 PM

Edit: Sorry not official yet. Just terms between teams agreed upon. Still would be huge if Spurs pull it off.

Wow, Tottenham snag Sigurdsson away from Liverpool and Swansea. That's quite a coup and for only £8,000,000. He'd become a great replacement for Modric.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jun/26/tottenham-gylfi-sigurdsson-swansea

6/26/2012 10:13:28 PM

I don't know if he would be a like-for-like replacement. Seems like the majority of Spurs fans think he will be added for depth.

I saw an article that said Madrid might offer £25m + Nuri Sahin for Modric. I would take that.

[Edited on June 26, 2012 at 11:14 PM. Reason : Actually, I think that was what Levy was trying to negotiate.]

6/26/2012 11:14:00 PM

This statement on Arsenal's Facebook page made my day: "Olivier Giroud says Arsenal's potential to win silverware was a major factor in his decision to join the Club."

6/26/2012 11:36:18 PM

So he's interested in winning the League Cup once every 5 years?

6/26/2012 11:39:36 PM

Good signing for Spurs. Two good value signings so far but if Modric goes as expected, that is as big as Cesc leaving last year..

[Edited on June 27, 2012 at 8:50 AM. Reason : Modric is a vastly different type of AM, no?]

6/27/2012 8:48:49 AM

Modric has actually been playing the deep-lying playmaker role for Spurs. He likes to sit in the space between the attacking players and the holding midfielder and spray passes all over the field while still helping out on defense Think xabi Alonso, Paul scholes, or a better version of mikel arteta. He's mostly been playing there because van der vaart plays the same position ideally (AMC) and spurs want their best 11 on the field. Modric us also a very capable defender though and makes lots of good tackles consistently. At Madrid he would probably be a backup for ozil and alonso. Madrid would be able to put out an extremely attacking lineup with Modric in the side and doominate possession much like Barcelona do.

6/27/2012 9:08:38 AM

Wait, wasn't Vertonghen announced? Just scanned a story that said deals off. Wtf?

6/27/2012 9:11:17 AM

It wasn't ever announced. It just seemed like a done deal for the longest time. Apparently, Ajax doesn't want to give him 15% of the transfer fee as outlined in his contract. This won't be the last we hear of it. I'd still bank on Vertonghen being at WHL in the next few weeks. If Ajax don't make a deal, they'll lose getting any money for him and he'll leave on a free in a year.

6/27/2012 9:47:39 AM

Saw some Liverpool interest in Sturridge rumors today... OH I LIKE THAT


I could be wrong but I still think LFC sign Sigurdsson. No substance to any of those Spurs rumors at this point.

[Edited on June 27, 2012 at 10:08 AM. Reason : .]

6/27/2012 9:52:34 AM

Bale signs a 4 year deal. That's just Spurs making sure they get a big transfer fee for him.

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/spurs/News/new-contract-for-gareth-27062012.page

6/27/2012 10:27:28 AM

Paying him the money he deserves.

6/27/2012 10:31:53 AM

Bale not playing in the olympics due to injury.

Yakubu and Seydou Keita are joining Chinese squads this summer.

6/30/2012 7:02:19 AM

If RvP leaves, Arsenal will go 4-4-2 with Podolski and Giroud up front. Rumors are that Song may want to leave, which means 4-4-2 works as well since he tends to drop back to a fake DMF role in the 4-3-3 they usually play. I think there is going to be a ton of transfer activity by Wenger once the English window opens, there has been talk of clearing out the deadwood since the end of last year, so expect to see a lot of selling going on. Probably another signing or two as well, more than likely squad players but we can always hope for another big signing.

I predict a big year for Gervinho, double digit goals and assists. Walcott will start off on fire but get injured (again).

--------Podoloski--------Giroud------------
AOC/Gervinho---Wilshere---Arteta---Walcott
Santos/Gibbs--Vermaelen--Koscielny--Sagna
-----------------Szczesny-----------------

Prediction: Arsenal = strong 3rd

6/30/2012 8:54:25 AM

They really just need to lower their total player wages.

Andrey Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner, Marouane Chamakh, Park Chu-young, Johan Djourou, Denilson, Carlos Vela, and Sebastien Squillaci are all likely to be dealt.

6/30/2012 10:03:46 AM

M'Vila will get done and one other depth signing, maybe at RB (though they are really high on Carl Jenkinson for some reason). I still would bet RVP stays. Just my opinion. I still think he's different than Cesc/Nasri.

6/30/2012 11:40:33 AM

Laurent Blanc no longer coaching France. I'd much rather see him with Tottenham than AVB.

6/30/2012 1:13:18 PM