Premier League 2019/20

Glad I implemented the similar threads feature. Was just about to put one of these up. Man City enter the coming season as back to back title holders. Has a triple ever been achieved before?
 
ManU 98/99, 99/00, 00/01
ManU 06/07, 07/08, 08/09
Man U will be lucky to make top 6 next season. My hot take is that, despite the fresh contract, Solskjaer is out the door by Christmas, sacrificed on the altar of Woodward and the Glazers. Unless a miracle occurs and the organization suddenly decides to make smart footballing signings rather than sponsor-pleasing signings.
 
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Man U will be lucky to make top 6 next season. My hot take is that, despite the fresh contract, Solskjaer is out the door by Christmas, sacrificed on the altar of Woodward and the Glazers. Unless a miracle occurs and the organization suddenly decides to make smart footballing signings rather than sponsor-pleasing signings.
There’s a big divide between 6 | 7 in the EPL, so I don’t see them dropping below that top echelon of Euro-bound teams.

Granted, ManU has a massive overhaul to do, but part of their collapse this year was tied to fitness. It’s been reported that the squad was not very well trained for the long grueling season, and those last dozen-plus games were full of injuries and lack of energy/fight. Plus, there were players that knew they were gone no matter what they did, by their own decision or club’s. A perfect storm for the end of the season debacle. Bring in a new fitness program, replace sour personalities in the locker room - the guys that don’t buy in to the club-mantra of everything for the team (Pogba?), and don’t skimp on negotiations to get the right players, and the club’s prospects should be looking up (not too high though).

All reports indicate that OGS will get his player request filled, and I’ve read rumors of Dybala, Dembele (Lyon) as two targets, both would help the offense. If they land Ronaldo-lite and Sancho, that’d be a coup. I don’t know what to make of all the other rumors and will wait to see the dominos fall, but I think things are gonna start happening fast with the possibility of Europa play kicking off early on the qualifiers.
 
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Looking around the web, there are reports out of the Manchester Evening News (back in March) that Bale has already bought a house in Manchester and agreed to terms - trying to force Real to accept £80m.... wonder if that has anything to do with Zidane not giving him a runout yesterday in what’s being billed as his likely last possible match for Madrid????

Would not be surprised if Pogba becomes connected to this as part of a trade, and if so, I think ManU benefits more with Bale (than Pogba) as a throwback to the lightning wingplay and offensive juggernaut of the Ferguson era.
 
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Real Estate news this morning. But confused me before my coffee.

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I'm strongly considering canceling my NBC Sports Gold Premier League pass. I know it'll mean missing the occasional match I'd otherwise watch, but I guess I haven't really used it anywhere near as much as I initially thought I would when I signed up ahead of the 2017/18 season. $60 is feeling excessive.

Anyone else thinking on similar lines?

They are trying to add value, however, with this: "New this year - get even MORE Premier League with all 380 matches on-demand, plus, exclusive programming from Sky Sports."
 
I'm strongly considering canceling my NBC Sports Gold Premier League pass. I know it'll mean missing the occasional match I'd otherwise watch, but I guess I haven't really used it anywhere near as much as I initially thought I would when I signed up ahead of the 2017/18 season. $60 is feeling excessive.

Anyone else thinking on similar lines?

They are trying to add value, however, with this: "New this year - get even MORE Premier League with all 380 matches on-demand, plus, exclusive programming from Sky Sports."
It has always been an oddly structured product, in which NBC charged a premium for mostly the less popular content. If you're a fan of the top 6 teams, and have some cable/satellite package, you already get ~80% of your team's games, and many felt it was too much to pay for a handful of games. Casual PL fans would similarly be satisfied with the broadcast/cable offerings. The Gold pass was mostly filled with games between the remaining 14 teams, and not many want to pay for those. Those teams have fans, but the numbers a tiny compared to the big 6, plus there's so much churn with the pro/rel. So it's main audience are Big 6 fans who cannot bear ever to miss a game.

The switch is smart, because it allows cord cutters with no cable sub to buy this and get everything. But I'm still baffled by the decision to put most of the most popular matchups on outside the subscription.
 
It has always been an oddly structured product, in which NBC charged a premium for mostly the less popular content. If you're a fan of the top 6 teams, and have some cable/satellite package, you already get ~80% of your team's games, and many felt it was too much to pay for a handful of games. Casual PL fans would similarly be satisfied with the broadcast/cable offerings. The Gold pass was mostly filled with games between the remaining 14 teams, and not many want to pay for those. Those teams have fans, but the numbers a tiny compared to the big 6, plus there's so much churn with the pro/rel. So it's main audience are Big 6 fans who cannot bear ever to miss a game.

The switch is smart, because it allows cord cutters with no cable sub to buy this and get everything. But I'm still baffled by the decision to put most of the most popular matchups on outside the subscription.
May be an investment in the future. Get everyone hooked, jack up the price.
 
For all of the chirping from MCFC fans yesterday wanting to one-up LFC for scoring 5 versus a suspect WestHam, ManU looked vicious today tagging a legit Chelsea for 4. Team now has real grit in the defense that was previously lacking and insane attacking speed.

Separately, Lampard will have to realize very quickly that Kante, Giroud, and Pulisic are better than the guys that started, but looked like he wanted to give his home-grown a chance.
 
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For all of the chirping from MCFC fans yesterday wanting to one-up LFC for scoring 5 versus a suspect WestHam, ManU looked vicious today tagging a legit Chelsea for 4. Team now has real grit in the defense that was previously lacking and insane attacking speed.

Separately, Lampard will have to realize very quickly that Kante, Giroud, and Pulisic are better than the guys that started, but looked like he wanted to give his home-grown a chance.

Did Lampard learn from Vieira to not give chances to young guys? Sands and Lewis. But, Lampard is giving young guys chances.
 
Did Lampard learn from Vieira to not give chances to young guys? Sands and Lewis. But, Lampard is giving young guys chances.
The goal of a 1st year coach is to not get fired. Lampard can play youngsters later, but he should always have his highest priced player in the lineup and his other veterans that lockdown their positions.
 
It's already looking like a two horse race and despite Liverpool's early lead I still think Citeh are the team to beat. Arsenal, Chelsea, Manu , Spurs none of them have impressed so far. Only undefeated outside of the top 2 is Leicester which is two ties and win so good for them but not anything that will threaten at the top.