Kevin's Watch

Arsenal would've got twice that if he'd been 5 years younger, methinks.

It's bloody boring with no football isn't it? There's only so much satisfaction you can get from reading about transfers.

I reckon a top 6 finish for Roy's Sunderland - comments?

Ah, but there IS football - the U20 World cup kicks off in Canada.

Scotland play Japan tonight, and for once, we're in with a chance of winning this tournament.
It's on BBC 1 (Scotland) tonight with a 10.15 BST kick off time.


Good things on the horizon for Scottish football I reckon.

Ooops,

Scotland 1 - 3 Japan.

Better luck next game guys.

Still, it's the top 2 teams from each group go through, so we can make it up in our next two games.

Come one people, new season starts soon... time to make predictions! Please, join in

English Premiership:
Winners: Chelsea
Runners up: 2nd - Man United, 3rd - Liverpool, 4th - Arsenal, 5th - Tottenham Hotspurs, 6th- Newcastle United.
Relegated: Sunderland, Bolton Wanderers, Derby County
FA Cup: Liverpool
League Cup: Newcastle United
Community Shield: Chelsea

English Championship:
Promoted: Charlton Athletic, Cardiff City, Southampton
Play-offs - Southampton, West Bromwich Albion , Sheffield United, Watford

Scottish Premier League:
Winners: Glasgow Rangers
Runners up: Celtic, Heart of Midlothian
Relegated: St Mirrin
Scottish Cup: Celtic

Europe:
Champions League: Arsenal
UEFA Cup: Bayern Munich

Other European Leagues:
Spanish La Liga: Barcelona
Italian Serie A: AC Milan
French Lique 1: Olympique Lyonnais(Lyon)
German Bundesliga: Bayern Munich
Dutch Eredivisie: AFC Ajax
Portugal BWINLIGA: Sporting Lisbon

Relegated: Sunderland

Seriously? I'm predicting a top 8 finish for them......

6th- Newcastle United.

RELEGATED!

Can't see Rangers beating Celtic yet.

Other than that, can't see much to argue with. I reckon Fulham will finish top half if Healy avoids injury - and I can see him being top scorer in Premiership.

Prem:
1. Chelsea
2. Man Ure
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool
5. Tottenham
6. Aston Villa

18. Derby
19. Fulham
20. Wigan

Championship
1. Preston
2. Leicester
-----------------------
3. Cardiff
4. Sheffield United
5. Southampton
6. West Brom

22. Barnsley
23. Hull
24. QPR

League 1
1. Forest
2. Swansea
--------------------
3. Yeovil
4. Carlisle
5. Leeds
6. Hartlepool

21. Bristol Rovers
22. Southend
23. Leyton Orient
24. Cheltenham

League Two
1. Milton Keynes
2. Bradford
3. Dagenham & Redbridge
------------------------------------
4. Lincoln
5. Stockport
6. Rochdale
7. Shrewsbury

23. Accrington Stanley
24. Mansfield

That's my gut feeling for how the football league will pan out (except for Bristol Rovers going down; I don't think they will get relegated but I really want them to). I'm expecting the Martin O'Neill factor to really take effect this year and Spurs should be very strong as long as Bent doesn't turn out to be a one season wonder.

Quick question, Nav.

Who do you think will win in the Play-offs in the Championship, League 1 and League 2?
Also, who do you think will win the FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League and UEFA Cup?

As you may have guessed from my lack of postings on the U20 world cup, Scotland were horsed out in the qualifying group - no change there then


Anyway, predictions.

Scottish premier league.
1.Celtic
2.Rangers
3.Aberdeen

Relegated - Gretna.

Scottish cup
Aberdeen

runners up - Hearts.


Scottish league cup
Rangers

runners up - Hibernian




English premier league

1. Man Utd
2. Chelsea
3.Spurs
4.Arsenal

Relegated
Derby
Wigan
Aston Villa


FA Cup
Chelsea

runners up - Newcastle

League cup
Spurs

runners up - Everton.


Champions league
Barcelona

runners up - Real Madrid


Uefa cup

Aberdeen (a bit of fantasy football thinking here )

runners up- who cares

Champions league
Barcelona

runners up - Real Madrid

All Spanish final, blah!!

Nav wrote:

League 1
1. Forest
2. Swansea
--------------------
3. Yeovil
4. Carlisle
5. Leeds
6. Hartlepool

21. Bristol Rovers
22. Southend
23. Leyton Orient
24. Cheltenham

No chance! 14th/15th - they've too much spirit to finish last!

I think it will be tight at the bottom of League One this year, but I don't see Cheltenham breaking their habit of yo-yoing between the bottom two divisions. They need a bit of luck, in the form of a talented youth player or a cup run maybe, to give them the resources to get into L1 and stay there.

It's very hard to predict the playoffs, as the manner in which you get into those places is crucial. What tends to happen is that the teams that have a poor finish to the season and slide into them from an automatic spot struggle (see Nottingham Forest) and the teams that put on a late run of results and squeeze in by the skin of their teeth can carry that momentum into the playoff games (see Bristol Rovers).

I would look at Rochdale or Stockport (biased as I am) from League Two and Yeovil from League One, the Championship is harder to call as they are four quite similar teams. I'd maybe count out Bryan Robson as I don't rate him, but Jones and Burley have what it takes and Tony Mowbray's adventurous play might work in West Brom's favour.

I think the FA Cup will likely be two out of the big four, I'd bet on Man U if I had to go for someone and the League Cup I fancy either Villa or Newcastle.

For the Champions League, I fancy one of the 'smaller' Spanish teams, so I'd say Valencia or Sevilla. The UEFA cup is a bit of a lottery these days and I think Palermo, Tottenham and Villareal must fancy their chances. Galatasaray are in the mix as well, and Istanbul's always a difficult place to play.

I love football and so many others around the world but like everything else, sad things happens.
Would like to pay Tribute to two players who were not well known. First to OPR's Ray Jones who died at the weekend in a car crash. He was 18.
The second to Puerta of Sevilla, who had a heart attack on the pitch and later passed away in the Hospital. He was 22.

We have had a few qualifiers for Euro 2008.

England beat both Israel and Russia by 3-0. England go second, 2 points behind Croatia.
Scotland beat Lithuania 3-1 and amazing beat France in France by 1-0, doing a double over the French. France full third because Italy win. Wales and Rep. Ireland have no hope of going through. N Ireland has slim chance.
Germany and Czech Republic are all but through now.

How 'bout those Bears...

oh, nevermind.

The Bears have been chucked out of the league for using the wrong-shaped ball, so there!

Edit: how come AF and rugby 'balls' are even called that???????

Forest Given 'Free Goal' by Foxes

I was at this game last night and thought it was a great gesture from Leicester, after the original game was called off with Forest leading after Clive Clarke's collapse. It's even more impressive when you consider that Leicester and Forest are the fiercest of rivals, and it was new Leicester manager Gary Megson's first return to the City Ground since his unpopular spell as Forest manager a few years back.

I haven't been paying much attention to the Prem this year.

Celtic is back atop the SPL having only allowed 3 goals in 6 games.

Nav wrote:Forest Given 'Free Goal' by Foxes

I was at this game last night and thought it was a great gesture from Leicester, after the original game was called off with Forest leading after Clive Clarke's collapse. It's even more impressive when you consider that Leicester and Forest are the fiercest of rivals, and it was new Leicester manager Gary Megson's first return to the City Ground since his unpopular spell as Forest manager a few years back.

I envy you for that.

Forest till I die (albeit an antipodean), and supposedly I should hate Leicester. (I even asked on a Forest forum a few years ago what 5 teams I was supposed to despise, I was told: Derby. Derby. Derby. Derby. And Leicester.)

Class act, through and through.

They've gone up in my estimation.

OMFG, Mourinho has just quit Chelsea...

Mourinho's departure comes just days before they face Manchester United at Old Trafford

Talk about putting yourself above the club...

You could sense it was coming. Chelsea are slowly turning into Real Madrid. Not too sure where Mourinho can go. I think Real Madrid will now an excuse to sack their manager so they can hire Mourinho. £10 says Mourinho goes to Spurs
So, who will takeover now, Ramos' name is being linked.

Man U and Arsenal won also won some Champions League matches. Rangers beat the Germany Champions.