Howdy hey, footy fans!
The English Premier League is due to kickoff the first weekend of August, earlier than usual; the Qatar World Cup November 21st through December 18th is fuzzing up the entire world football schedule. There will be an extended winter break and a frenzy of tight scheduling weeks, much like the 21-22 season when games were rescheduled regularly and packed in tighter because of COVID outbreaks.
So, that being said, how are your teams looking? Manchester City’s doing the usual “buy everything in sight” (), Newcastle the same, Manchester United with a major shakup, and the usual plundering of good midtable teams by the richer teams.
My Leicester City is doing okay; Vardy and Maddison look to be fit and so far there hasn’t been a wholesale turnover. Brentford is going to be wounded by the poaching of Christian Eriksen by Manchester United, and Brighton has seen several of their top players bought away by others, particularly by Man City.
Liverpool and Tottenham look to be staying strong. Manchester United has a new manager, a new system, a ton of new players, but the same old expectations (and apparently an unhappy Ronaldo). Chelsea is…hanging in there I guess? Everton is a huge wildcard. Fulham, Nottingham Forest, and AFC Bournemouth return to the top flight.
Who ya got? Anyone but Man City. I’d love to see Liverpool get one. And if Tottenham gets their act together, they have the manager and personnel to be a dark horse.
I dunno how I’m going to be able to keep up with EPL, my home league USL, and the bike race Vuelta a Espana at the same time, but I’m gonna try!