Dave

"I want my toy NOW!!"

That and Kiernan Dew-Bruyne on Sunday made for a great weekend.

The guy is Cody. It has been ever since his tore his pec. There's literally no point caring about any of it until WrestleMania 40 unless you're invested in Seth Rollins 'best loser' title.

I haven't seen it but I'm guessing Roman won. Again.

I havent missed this game.

He got his positional mistake out the way before the season started.

Yeah there's definitely a template forming this season. Dieng at 4.5m is fair value at QPR but at Boro he's underpriced. Joe Rankin-Costello seems to be listed as a right back because everywhere isn't a position. Ryan Manning was good for Russell Martin last year and with Bree/Livramento/KWP remains the solid Southampton pick. Leif Davis stats at League One transition perfectly for this game. James Ward-Prowse is far too good for this level and on set pieces. I think the others are open for debate. Sinisterra and Ayling only came in for me because of injuries up top and Drameh not featuring pre season. KDH is purely a play on pre season form and I could see myself switching to whoever Leicester's main man up top is in September.

1. Manchester City What is the point of even caring anymore. They've made the league boring. 2. Arsenal 3. Manchester United I'd be surprised if either of these teams miss out on CL spots. The managers seem to have full backing of the board who have invested heavily to strengthen both teams. Reasons to be optimistic for both sides. 4. Liverpool 5. Newcastle United 6. Chelsea 7. Tottenham Hotspur I wouldn't be surprised if any of these teams qualify for the Champions League spots based purely off the ability of there managers but each one has a big enough question mark that makes me think they could also easily finish below Villa and Brighton. How will Liverpool's new midfield transition at a time when they're inbedding a newish front three and the center backs are questionable? How will Newcastle cope with the distraction of Europe? How will a new look Chelsea team gel with each other? What state will the Tottenham team be in by September 1st? I think all these fan bases have a right to be optimistic, but also accept that this could be a difficult season. 8. Brighton & Hove Albion 9. Aston Villa Both these teams seem to be an upward trajectory with good systems in place. I wouldn't be surprised if they're able to take advantage of some underperforming bigger clubs and breach the top six. Exciting times to support either of these clubs. 10. Brentford 11. West Ham United 12. Crystal Palace I think the following three will be in a battle for the final top half spot. I have Brentford the highest of the three as they're the one that doesn't seem to have issues off the field at boardroom level which appears to be impacting any chance of a coherent recruiting system. The big thing for Brentford will be how they fill the void of Toney. 13. Bournemouth 14. Burnley I think both these teams have shown enough at the end of last season and with their recruitment that they are a step ahead of other teams perceived to be there level. I think there's worse teams than them now and they should be safe. 15. Fulham 16. Everton 17. Nottingham Forest 18. Wolves 19. Luton Town 20. Sheffield United I think the bottom three will be made out of three of these teams. If Moshiri interferes with Dyche then Everton could be in trouble, Maranakis seems to have diverted his lunacy to Olympiakos but if he interferes with Forest there could be trouble, Tony Khan appears to have poaked the Saudi bear who seem content on dismantling Fulham, Luton Town have a massive task ahead of them whilst the Wolves and Sheffield United owners don't seem to care. The bottom pack does feel significantly weaker than usual.

Imagine the outrage if you replace the words 'Chelsea' and 'Strasbourg' with 'PIF' and 'Newcastle'.

Yeah its just us and maybe Dan.

'I can't believe I went with one forward when it was obvious that the best four forwards in this league were going to smash well over 20 goals' (Me in June 2024).

In my defence, I have pulled up people on 'why don't we care about Villa' before on this forum (ive been doing the same about Watford/Udinese with Newcastle/Chelsea/PIF elsewhere) but you probably recognise I'm a vastly intelligent human playing 3D chess whilst the average fan plays checkers.

Its a double edge sword though, if you open the gates completely we will have a league where the clubs with most money just dwarf everybody. Which would be great for you, but not fair on clubs like Brighton and Brentford who are genuinely run well. A 'state club vs state club vs state club' title race will just be as boring as the greedy six being up there every season. There has to be a fairer way to implement FFP. The amount of money that Premier League clubs are borrowing to ensure a smooth cash flow whilst transfer fees are paid in installments (in Wolves case they've recently borrowed money from the government) suggests to me the whole system isn't as healthy as we perceive it to be.

There have been some real, real fantasists since Covid that have been blocked from purchasing EFL clubs. So whilst it may be frustrating at the top of the pyramid, it's an absolute necessity further down that's doing its job to prevent another Bury. The reality is under the new test, Marankis wouldn't have been able to purchase Forest due to his criminal history.

And to be fair, he's right.