Premiership 2012/13

[NR_Royal]

Just worked out that there are precisely NO games apart from the Manchester ones that are fewer than 100 miles from me.

[Negative_Jeff]

Some people on here won`t be happy till we park the bus and fluke the Champions League with Russian funny money. A season of drudgery awaits with lots of defeats, useless kick off times and high prices. I will not rest until we are back in our rightful place in League One.

[Royal With Cheese]

Some people on here won`t be happy till we park the bus and fluke the Champions League with Russian funny money. A season of drudgery awaits with lots of defeats, useless kick off times and high prices. I will not rest until we are back in our rightful place in League One.

+1.

I'm all for getting a consortium together to flatten all the houses at Elm Park and rebuilding the old ground.

[SydenhamRoyal]

Some people on here won`t be happy till we park the bus and fluke the Champions League with Russian funny money. A season of drudgery awaits with lots of defeats, useless kick off times and high prices. I will not rest until we are back in our rightful place in League One.

After last season I am positively hoping for mid table obscurity. No excitement. Cant take it.

[Libertine]

Don't mind me, I am just enjoying a maximum at this thread.

Going into this season past almost all the "experts" in the media, and the bookmakers, told us that Norwich and Swansea were ironclad guarantees to go right back down. Not big enough, not enough money to compete in the PL etc. Many of them, as I alluded to on page one of this thread, even thought Newcastle would be in the mix for relegation. So right now us amateur experts are trying to make predictions before we know what the teams will have for personnel and in some cases management for next season. All I have to say is even if we bring in no one I can see us beating any of the bottom 14 or so teams in the PL with our current squad...home or away, not to say I think we'll win all of those games. That being said I expect the squad to be improved over the summer. We will have to suffer through a lot more losses than this past season? Only a fool would say no. But I remain stubbornly, and defiantly, optimistic that a mid table finish is more likely than us getting relegated after only one season back up, or more likely that the TSI deal going belly up, or that we will financially implode and end up in administration, etc, etc, etc. I know, I know, it is an English/Reading FC fan thingy to be ultra cynical and always seeing just dark clouds, and truth be told nothing is out of the realm of possibilities, so I am not going to try to change the laws of nature in that regard, but right now I am enjoying the nice warm sunshine. Carry on...

[Ian Herring]

Some people on here won`t be happy till we park the bus and fluke the Champions League with Russian funny money. A season of drudgery awaits with lots of defeats, useless kick off times and high prices. I will not rest until we are back in our rightful place in League One.

+1.

I'm all for getting a consortium together to flatten all the houses at Elm Park and rebuilding the old ground.

I'm in for this pal.

[Snowball]

Going into this season past almost all the "experts" in the media, and the bookmakers, told us that Norwich and Swansea were ironclad guarantees to go right back down. Not big enough, not enough money to compete in the PL etc.

My problem is I genuinely think we were the 3rd/4th best set of players
in this season's Championship. I love the team to bits and am thrilled we
got automatic, but disbelieving that we actually WON the thing.

But I can't help it if I feel that if they announced we had to re-run this
season immediately we'd be battling Birmingham for 3rd/4th at best.

I said many times during the season that "we were due" a tanking 3-0/4-0
and we then were taken apart by Cardiff. Hard to believe now that the team
who came in 6th beat us very comfortably over two legs and then capitulated
versus west Ham.

I know what the table says but I sincerely believe we "ought to" lose 2-0 at home
and 3-0 away to WHU (this season's teams)... and we won both. Amazing!

But it still all feels FALSE, somehow. When we went behind at West Ham i really
believed we were going to lose 4-0. I thought (for that 30 minutes) that we
were totally outclassed. There have been a few games where we were let off the hook
like WHU let us off, like Brighton did.

Presuming, for a second, no significant improvements to the squad, if we started badly
in the Prem I could see us finishing with the second-lowest-ever total, but if we started
with WWDDDD and confidence was up, we might get 2/3 of our needed-40 in the first half
of the season and drift slowly down to 4th from bottom.

I think the side is a big "confidence" team. It would have taken very little difference negatively
for us to have finished 5th-10th this season, but McD got it right, Elwood and Gorkss came good
and overall we did fantastically BUT IMO PUNCHING ABOVE OUR WEIGHT.

We are not going to get away with giving away so many chances next year, and we are going
to have to find a way to get goals against defences that are a lot better backed by relatively
better keepers.

So right now us amateur experts are trying to make predictions before we know what the teams will have for personnel and in some cases management for next season.

Right now we are just voicing "feelings" out loud, and obviously many of us would change our minds at the end of the transfer window.

Managers will change, squads will change, but on average, they are all trying to improve.

But statistics tell us that virtually always one promoted side goes straight back down, often two do, sometimes three do.
And I think West Ham WON'T as things stand, and I think Southampton have momentum and belief in a way (seriously) we don't.

IOW I think Saints and WHU genuinely believe they were and are the best two teams (well clear of the rest)
and are thinking "WTF" when they see Reading FC in top spot.

No player would ever say it, and McD would never say it, but deep in my heart I think some of OUR players
might think this, too.

I think, for example, that Vaz Te may end up with a top six club and I remember how few goals our strikers scored.

All I have to say is even if we bring in no one I can see us beating any of the bottom 14 or so teams in the PL with our current squad...home or away, not to say I think we'll win all of those games. That being said I expect the squad to be improved over the summer. We will have to suffer through a lot more losses than this past season? Only a fool would say no. But I remain stubbornly, and defiantly, optimistic that a mid table finish is more likely than us getting relegated after only one season back up, or more likely that the TSI deal going belly up, or that we will financially implode and end up in administration, etc, etc, etc. I know, I know, it is an English/Reading FC fan thingy to be ultra cynical and always seeing just dark clouds, and truth be told nothing is out of the realm of possibilities, so I am not going to try to change the laws of nature in that regard, but right now I am enjoying the nice warm sunshine. Carry on...

I hope you're UNDER-estimating our finish position and in a year's time we are planning our Europa League Campaign

But how can you think THIS squad will be capable of beating all bar the top six?
Surely, if we improve then we should be beating MOST of them and having a shout against the top six too?

For me there are three leagues.

5 + 3 (at least 50-1 against for relegation)

Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs
Newcastle and Everton trying to crash the party,
and Liverpool that ugly old bird who used to go out
with a pop star but frankly, who would now?

=========================================

4 + (1-2) Maybe 8-1 to 12-1 against relegation?

Fulham

WBA, Stoke and, now, I think, West Ham safe-ish clubs hoping to get to Wembley,
but always in danger of a bad run sucking them into Prem 3.

For me there are a few floaters who could go either way.

Sunderland could collapse or end up 8th if O'Neill works his magic
but it looked like even his magic wasn't enough after a bright start

I keep waiting for Stoke's bubble to burst, and they drifted downwards this season
but then are they better than the "obvious" bottom 6? "Probably"

For me there are a few floaters who could go either way.

Villa I could see doing really well (top eight) or being a disaster, and of course,
it's hard to decide until we know if Solksjaer is going there, and who he brings in

===========================================

6

Any of these are going to be between evens and 3-1 to go down

Reading, Saints, Swansea, Norwich, Wigan, QPR,


Wigan could kick on from their brilliant finish, or they could finally succumb to the inevitable.

[Mr Angry]

The reality is that pretty well anyone outside the top 6 finishers in the Premier League this season COULD go down (and yes, I do include both Everton & Liverpool in that equation); a few injuries, suspensions, dodgy reffing decisions, cast iron relegation candidates winning games they shouldn't etc etc, and before you know it, you end up like Bolton this season, or indeed us in 2007/08.

Speculating as to who will get relegated in 12 months time is pure and utter conjecture; there is no mathematical formulae to pore over, no statistical evidence to consider, nothing that can let anyone know with certainty who will drop.

As Libertine said, just enjoy the ride and see what happens.

[Ian Royal]

The reality is that pretty well anyone outside the top 6 finishers in the Premier League this season COULD go down (and yes, I do include both Everton & Liverpool in that equation); a few injuries, suspensions, dodgy reffing decisions, cast iron relegation candidates winning games they shouldn't etc etc, and before you know it, you end up like Bolton this season, or indeed us in 2007/08.

Speculating as to who will get relegated in 12 months time is pure and utter conjecture; there is no mathematical formulae to pore over, no statistical evidence to consider, nothing that can let anyone know with certainty who will drop.

As Libertine said, just enjoy the ride and see what happens.

Nothing can ever give you a certainty... but there's certainly plenty of evidence, statistical or otherwise, that would allow you to make an increasingly accurate prediction as we get closer to the season starting.

And this is part of enjoying the ride, surely?

[Barry the bird boggler]

Won't go down

ManU
ManC
Chelsea
Arsenal
Spurs
Liverpool
Newcastle

That leaves a battle between 13 teams to avoid the drop, 12 teams if QPR spend intelligently and seriously....

We have to make sure we win our league of 12/13 teams.

[Stuka]

Won't go down

ManU
ManC
Chelsea
Arsenal
Spurs
Liverpool
Newcastle

That leaves a battle between 13 teams to avoid the drop, 12 teams if QPR spend intelligently and seriously....

We have to make sure we win our league of 12/13 teams.

Good summary. And hopefully those teams will be easier to get tickets for!

[SouthDownsRoyal]

whats the point? the teams that are tipped to go down are the ones who have recently been in the championships or have been poor in last season in prem?

WOW mindblowing

[bassavage]

Far too early to predict. Four teams in the league are yet to have a manager and another three (Norwich, Swansea, Wigan) are having their managers linked to positions at some of them clubs.

I'll be back on August 1st to give my predictions.

[Libertine]

Far too early to predict. Four teams in the league are yet to have a manager and another three (Norwich, Swansea, Wigan) are having their managers linked to positions at some of them clubs.

I'll be back on August 1st to give my predictions.

^^^this

[superreadingfan]

we gonna go back down but since we all enjoy other premier league clubs we should enjoy seeing them play at the mad stad, heck if arsenal score 3 goals in 10 minutes i hope everyone around the stadium stands up and applauds what an amazing team we are so lucky to have playing against us. i shed a tear when henry scored against us. what a legend

[wolsey]

we gonna go back down but since we all enjoy other premier league clubs we should enjoy seeing them play at the mad stad, heck if arsenal score 3 goals in 10 minutes i hope everyone around the stadium stands up and applauds what an amazing team we are so lucky to have playing against us. i shed a tear when henry scored against us. what a legend

Bless

[Cape Town Royal]

we gonna go back down but since we all enjoy other premier league clubs we should enjoy seeing them play at the mad stad, heck if arsenal score 3 goals in 10 minutes i hope everyone around the stadium stands up and applauds what an amazing team we are so lucky to have playing against us. i shed a tear when henry scored against us. what a legend

Bless

Please tell me SRF was being sarcastic......

[CJC]

It is far too early to predict who will go down but i would say the that both Norwich & Swansea will be more likely to be in a relegation fight with new managers in charge, Norwich in particular could easily lose their momentum from last season. This can only be good for us, the more teams involved the better!

[M Brook]

At last our little badge is back in there with the best (...and WHU!)

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb.html

[mr_number]

Nice to see we're the oldest club in the Premier League.
Sometimes all these modern clubs with no history like Man Utd or Liverpool really get my goat.