Finally

It's no lie to say I've been waiting for this result since the first time I ever said West Ham were my team at 4 years old, I'm an old git now and was wondering if it would happen in my lifetime?
Today is the day, fucking awesome :)

Premier Predictions (Week 04)

Last games before the first International break of the season, and with the transfer window shutting next week might be the last chance to see a few of your players?
This weeks games all on Saturday and Sunday for a change.

Newcastle v Arsenal
Aston Villa v Sunderland
Bournemouth v Leicester
Chelsea v C Palace
Liverpool v West Ham
Man City v Watford
Stoke v West Brom
Tottenham v Everton
Southampton v Norwich
Swansea v Man Utd

No real stand out games this week except maybe Man U going to Swansea who beat them both times last year?
I've been 100% wrong on my West Ham predictions so far, so I'll break the habit of a lifetime and go for a Liverpool win this week hoping my run continues :)

Fantasy Football

Here are the positions in the Fantasy Football

Early days for both leagues and I'm sure we will all improve.
FPL - just 4 signed up, so could really do with a few more.
TFF - 32 teams in, John has made a great start and I seemed to have picked my worst performing teams for this one (so far).

Still time to join in, leagues are still open if anyone else fancies a bit of competition.

Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb.html
League name: Nothing Better Than Football
Code to join this league: 182536-48838
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Telegraph Fantasy Football 2015/16
http://fantasyfootball.telegraph.co.uk/
League name: NBTF
Pin: 8072532
Medal for the winner (if you decide to join, I'll limit it to 5 teams per person max)

The Premier league game is free and open to everyone worldwide (as there are no cash prizes),
sadly the Telegraph game is UK residents only, 1st team is free only have to pay if you want more.

Pedro

Could not resist this, sorry Chelsea fans  :)
Everytime I've heard the name Pedro I've always thought Donkey after the famous kids character.
So the news that Chelsea have signed him means I get to upload this classic song.

Thanks Messi

Proud Dad moment :)
My son does the voice over on this new Adidas advert :)

Premier Predictions (Week 03)

Week 3 already, some good games this week.
Games spread over 3 days Saturday to Monday.

Man Utd v Newcastle
C Palace v Aston Villa
Leicester v Tottenham
Norwich v Stoke
Sunderland v Swansea
West Ham v Bournemouth
West Brom v Chelsea
Everton v Man City
Watford v Southampton
Arsenal v Liverpool

Hopefully Virgin will fix the e-mail before the weekend so I don't miss anything :)

Traffic News

There was a nasty bus crash in Manchester today :)

Premier Predictions (Week 02)

A few surprises in week 1 with some teams still on their summer holidays.
Week 2 starts on Friday night for some reason, so get your predictions in early.
Long drawn out weekend with 1 - Friday, 6 - Saturday, 2 - Sunday, 1 - Monday
Big game is Sunday's meeting of the top 2 from last season, although 2nd meets 4th at Upton Park :)

Aston Villa v Man Utd
Southampton v Everton
Sunderland v Norwich
Swansea v Newcastle
Tottenham v Stoke
Watford v West Brom
West Ham v Leicester
C Palace v Arsenal
Man City v Chelsea
Liverpool v Bournemouth

Gooners 0 Hammers 2

What can I say? outstanding performance :)

One game doesn't make a season and it's still way too early to get carried away, but if that is a taste of things to come just maybe I've been wrong about Bilic?
On the evidence of the Europa league games the players didn't seem to be buying in to his style of play and actually looked worse than some of the bad games last season.
But this was a supreme performance with everyone playing well even players like Zarate and subs Jarvis and Maiga who I thought should have been offloaded in the summer.

Reece Oxford has grabbed the headlines, but Noble, Kouyate, Sakho and Payet were brilliant and the defence was solid as a rock.
Arsenal were poor, but we made them look that way and it did help having agent Cech in goal (Mourinho must have been pleased).
I liked the comment in the commentary that Bilic was a master of the "dark arts", and the possible arrival of Joey Barton makes me wonder if there is a plan to make us compete with the diving, cheating players that most of the top teams have?

So a big smile for the rest of the week and who knows?

Premier Predictions (Week 01)

Here we go again :)
The all new prediction competition for the 2015-2016 season.
Usual rules apply - 3 Points for a correct score, 1 Point for a correct result.
Predictions League will be decided on weekly wins first, if 2 or more people share a weekly win that will be classed as a draw, if at the end things are still level the toal points for the season come into play.

Anyway enough of that :) hopefully the regular players will be back and anyone reading this blog is welcome to join in at any point, just let me know a name and club supported. Obviously predictions will only count if they are made before the kick offs.
Predictions in the comments please :) as always the comments are moderated to weed out spam and abuse so won't appear instantly, but I will get them done before kick offs.

So here is the first week of the new season, games spread over 3 days with 6 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday and a Monday night game. Might get confusing this season as there are going to be Friday night games as well :(
First game up looks a good one with Tottenham going to Old Trafford, will Van Gaal actually know his best team at last? and will Harry Kane show he wasn't a one season wonder?
Bournemouth have a fair chance of getting their top flight history of to a good start.
Hopefully West Ham will be back in time from their latest European trip with at least 11 fit players? but the excuse is already written if Arsenal roll us over :(

Man Utd v Tottenham
Everton v Watford
Leicester v Sunderland
Norwich v C Palace
Bournemouth v Aston Villa
Chelsea v Swansea
Arsenal v West Ham
Newcastle v Southampton
Stoke v Liverpool
West Brom v Man City

Good Luck All :)

Fantasy Football New Season

I've set up Leagues for Nothing Better Than Football "NBTF"
in the Premier league game and the Telegraph game.
If you would like to join either, here are the details -

Fantasy Premier League 2015/16
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb.html
League name: Nothing Better Than Football
Code to join this league: 182536-48838

The Premier league runs it's own game "Fantasy Premier League" and it is free to play.
You choose a squad of 15 players in your budget, then pick a starting XI for each game, transfers are available during the season - 1 is free, anymore cost you points, wildcards are available twice a season to let you ship out several players at once if half your squad get sold to Real Madrid in January.
You can only have one team each, but you can put it in multiple leagues.
(Hopefully get more than the 5 who joined last season)
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Telegraph Fantasy Football 2015/16
http://fantasyfootball.telegraph.co.uk/
League name: NBTF
Pin: 8072532

The Telegraph game tends to be the most popular amongst Fantasy football managers as you can tinker away all season with 36 transfers allowed and make changes to your team right up till the first kick-off of the day. You can have as many teams as you like, the first team is free but if you want more you can upgrade by paying a fee, the more teams you have the cheaper it is.
Many different cash prizes if your good enough.
(if you decide to join, I'll limit it to 5 teams per person max)
Had 41 Teams in it last season, and we finished 39th overall :)

The Premier league game is open to everyone worldwide (as there are no cash prizes),
sadly the Telegraph game is UK residents only :(

Season 2015-16

Season 2015-16 Premier League.
My thoughts on the upcoming season.

Chelsea should start as favourites as they were the only consistent team last season, although the defence is another year older they still look solid. If Costa's dodgy hamstring holds up and Falcao shows some of his old form the rest will be chasing again.

Man City look like they will be relying on Aguerro again and might have to trust Bony now it looks like Dzeko and Jovetic are going. The defence looked suspect last season and the midfield were lightweight, they will be hoping Stirling can produce some of the form they have paid a lot of money for.

Arsenal look the best of the rest just because they now have a decent keeper, Arsenal's main problem over the last few years has been that they rarely have a full squad to choose from with a host of very fragile players like Wilshere, Walcott, Oxlade Chamberlain and now Wellbeck. If Sanchez can reproduce last seasons form and the others can stay fit, they might be in with a chance.

Man Utd finished 4th last season without ever appearing to know what their best team was and rarely turning it on. Not sure if the big signings will add much when they really needed some good quality defenders and are short up front.

Tottenham will be hoping Harry Kane isn't a one season wonder as his goals were the main reason they finished 5th, Lloris's injury must be a big concern for them although with Kaboul gone the defence should be better.

Liverpool once again spending big to try and buy success, Benteke is a good player but considering Rodgers has said he doesn't like playing with a target man seemed a strange buy? if Sturridge can get and stay fit they might do something but replacing Gerrard and Stirling could be a big problem.
I'll make a prediction - Rodgers will be gone before the season is out.

Southampton shocked everyone last year after losing most of their players but buying well and bringing in a good manager, once again 2 top players have gone but I think they will be alright although the Europa league might get in the way?

Swansea over achieved last season but will probably have enough to see them safe this season, if Monk can keep the same team spirit and maybe find another bargain striker.

Stoke are another team who surprised me last season, Mark Hughes got them playing some nice football and although the team contains a lot of players deemed not good enough by bigger teams, they fitted together well.

Crystal Palace were rejuvinated by Pardew and if he can keep the squad together they should do alright. Seems to be a state of mind with Palace as they looked really good under Pulis but were awful under Warnock.

Everton really need to improve on last season, they have good players who really didn't click last season. Lukaku is hit and miss and the midfield didn't really perform last season.

West Ham have added a few quality players but I still don't think Bilic is a patch on Allardyce, and the early season Europa league games have shown virtually no improvement. Might be a good thing if we are knocked out of Europe early.

West Brom should be solid under Pulis and Lambert is a good signing after wasting his time at Liverpool last season, if they can hang on to Berahino it looks like a good strike force with some solid midfielders behind them.

Leicester have made a huge blunder getting rid of Nigel Pearson, the teams success at the end of last season was built on a settled line up and the siege mentality generated by Pearson. So they replace him with the Tinkerman Ranieri?

Newcastle have actually spent some money and appear to have bought well so far, although you never know how foreign players will react to the English game, Mitrovic could be the striking option Newcastle were lacking last season. Still don't rate McLaren though and he will need early good results to take the pressure off.

Sunderland must be one of the favourites for relegation and will be praying there are 3 worse teams? some of their performances last season were abysmal and I was surprised they stayed up.

Aston Villa fans must have been feeling good at the end of last season with the team turning in some really good performances and reaching the Cup final. But losing Benteke, Delph, Cleverley, Vlaar and Given is a big blow. Sherwood will be hoping the replacements he has bought in can adapt quickly.

Bournemouth will probably accept that it's going to be a long season, although Eddie Howe has spent some money this week the rest of the squad probably over achieved massively last season. Would love to see them do well but I fear it could be a one season trip to the top flight.

Watford seem to be pinning their hopes and a bundle of untried foreign players and Troy Deeney, might surprise a few teams but feel they will spend most of the season near the bottom.

Norwich have most of the players who were unlucky to get relegated 2 seasons ago, and probably look the most likely of the promoted teams to stay up and maybe do well. Might need to add a couple of players including a good striker.

Predictions :)
Top - 1-Arsenal, 2-Chelsea, 3-Man Utd, 4-Man City
Bottom - 17- Leicester, 18-Bournemouth, 19-Watford, 20-Sunderland

Summer Transfers

More detailed info ... coming soon, but here's an update

Premier League Transfer News up to 21/08/15

Money spent - £659m
Money received - £362m
Biggest spenders - Man City £87.8m, Liverpool £83.5m, Man Utd £66.9m
Biggest Sellers - Man Utd £55.8m, Liverpool £52.7m, Tottenham £45.9m
Biggest Profit - Tottenham £16.4m, Southampton £12.8m
Biggest defecit - Man City £47.4m, Newcastle £46.2m, Liverpool £30.8m
Most players in - Watford 11, Aston Villa10, Stoke 10
Most players out - Chelsea 30, Man City 24, Tottenham 21

The Money Go Round

Premier teams are starting to splash their TV cash, some more than others.
Arsene Wenger is still struggling to open his wallet, while Brendan Rodgers is well on the way to blowing another £100m to try and get 4th place.
Chelsea are currently looking like a selling club, although with their overblown squad they need to offload a few bodies before they can find room for anyone new in the dressing room :)
The 3 promoted teams seem to be having different thoughts about how to compete, Bournemouth and Norwich are being careful while Watford are splashing the cash.

Here's the current state of play in the money-go-round

Summer Movers

I've just been trawling through all the footie websites and putting together my summer transfers list, still a long way to go but some big spending already.
All the Premier league teams have spent some money, but so far only a few World stars have arrived here.
Biggest single transfer - Raheem Sterling from Liverpool to Man City for £43.7m although that could rise to £49m with the add ons.
Biggest spenders so far - Man Utd £68.9m. Man City £58.4m, Liverpool £51m, West Ham?? £23.3m, Sunderland £22.2m.
Holding out for a bargain? - West Brom £1.5m, Norwich £3m, Everton £4.3m

Shocked that West Ham are splashing the cash, but the stakes are big this year.
Payet, Ogbonna and Obiang have good reputations but are hardly household names, if they all adapt quickly to the English game they could be inspired moves but only time will tell? shocked that Downing left to drop a division after his best season in years? maybe things aren't as rosy as they seem?

I suppose one of the better looking deals was James Milner's free to Liverpool, I'm not sure I rate him as an England player but did a very good job for City and could be a great signing for Liverpool where I'm sure he will be a regular. The thing that annoyed me over this was that it appears Milner was already on a £100k contract and turned down a considerable rise from City to go to Liverpool whereas Sterling was on about £30k and turned down a £100k offer, but only one of them was branded a money grabbing Judas?

The Closed Season

Summer, hot days, a few months break from Football ... Well not anymore :)

1st July and the Champions league and Europa cup have already kicked off for the season.
Congrats to Sweden for winning the European Under 21's (we won't mention England)

Even I have been watching the womens World cup and at least for one more day I can cheer England on :)
Obviously hoping for a win in tonight's semi final but I think we will struggle,England have a couple of really good players but the rest are average at best, and the defence need to realise they don't have time to take 3 touches to get the ball under control before playing it ... but fingers crossed.

The Copa America final is on Saturday Chile v Argentina, Chile are the home nation and the refs have been a bit too leniant with them so they have a chance, Argentina have a dream team so should take the title?

Those teams that bought players from Central America are going to get some knackered players back as the CONCACAF Gold cup kicks off in about a week.

West Ham kick off in the Europa league tomorrow against Lusitanos of Andorra the game has been switched due to the 2 biggest teams in Andorra being drawn at home, so I assume they only have room for one stadium? West Ham only returned for pre-season training on Monday so this might be harder than it should be?

The Transfer market is hotting up, Man United are being linked with every player you've ever heard of, Liverpool are being linked with every player you've never heard of :)

Arsenal have bought a new keeper despite Ospina being the star keeper in the Copa America, Chelsea fans have been wishing Cech well in his new venture with death threats?
A few big transfers done already with Depay to Man Utd, Firmino? to Liverpool, West Ham picking up a couple of foreigners I've never heard of, and Bournemouth have been shopping in Poundland for extra staff :)

The Premier league kicks off in 39 days so not longto wait :)

Summer Break

Roll on the new season, I could say I'm missing football but there are still games on every night with the Women's world cup, Copa America and the under 21's.
Not forgetting West Ham's European tour kicks off in just over a week with a trip to Andorra :)

Sorry spammers I've just been deleting all those messages you're sending me, so probably not worth keeping it up :)

Bilic

So we've ended up with Slaven Bilic as the new manager trying to keep us up for at least another year.
I really hope I am wrong about him and he turns out to be a great manager.
It seems we have given him a 3 year contract which I doubt he will fulfill, if he's a success he will probably bugger off somewhere "where he will win things", if he's a failure he has to go before we get relegated.

He has just 3 weeks to get the team sorted before our first Europa league match, and we will be a few players short after the loan deals for Jenkinson and Song have ended, Valencia is still playing for Ecuador in the Copa America, and Carlton Cole, Jaaskelainen, Demel, Nene, Maguire, McCallum and Dan Potts have been let go.
Also Carroll, Sakho, Noble and Collins are all still injured.

Fingers tightly crossed for next season :)

Champions League

Congratulations to Barcelona for their latest Trophy win.
Must admit I was cheering for Juventus and did get hopeful in the second half, but overall Barca deserved it.
Thought the ref was being biased towards Barcelona for most of the game, but was shocked when he disallowed Neymar's handball goal. Yes it was technically handball but wasn't intentional, and after he'd fell for every dive by Suarez and Neymar I expected it to be given.
Messi was a class above everyone else, Ronaldo is good but Messi controls everything for Barcelona.

Sad for a Hammers fan to see Tevez and Mascherano playing in a Champions league final after the way we treated those two, yes Tevez became a hero but even he was left out when Curbishley first took over and Mascherano was never really given a chance :(

One final thing to tie up, here's the NBTF Champions league Fantasy Table.

Congratulations to Richard :) the rest of us need to try harder next year :)

Fantasy Football TFF

Exciting end to the TFF blog league with only one point in it the end :)

The medal arrived this morning and luckily I get to keep it :)
Thanks to all those that played this season, a record 41 teams.
We finished 39th overall which is pretty good going, we briefly got into the top 30 in February, but managed to hang in the top 100 for the whole second half of the season.

Golden Boot - Andrew (Tiki Taka Tree) 111
Starting XI - Shane (Lewies Lions) 1300
MOTW - Lee 12, Andrew 8, Ryan 7
MOTM - Ryan 3, Lee 2

Hopefully we can do this again next season, although I might lose some of the ex work colleagues as we've all gone our separate ways :(

Other league of interest (to me mainly) yeah I know :)

I guess it was the last year of the "Smoke Generators" works league, unless any of them contact me? which is a shame as works league always have the best banter and motivation to do well.
I suppose the others will be glad to see the back of me as I think I've won 11 of the 13 years I've entered, and only missed a clean sweep of the top 5 by 2 points this season. But it's been fun.
Rick's Challenge - Obviously more serious players in this one and I managed to pick 5 of my worst performing teams to enter this one, so Ryan gets his medal here :)
Lee League - Just me so every chance of winning this :)
TDAOCS - Me, family and a few friends with freebie teams.

Overall - my best team ended up 277th which is one of my better final positions, did feature in the top 100 for a few weeks but dropped away.
Main claim to fame this season was finishing 7th in the golden boot competition, and the same team coming 24th in the Twitter league which included the overall 35k winner (beat him in the golden boot) :)
Hoping to have learnt a bit more this season but still think it's a lottery at the start.

One table still not decided is the NBTF Champions league, which will be finalised after Saturday's final.
Richard will win barring a miracle :)