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Annus Horribilis 2011/2012 .............................

For what it is worth, here is what the footie writers of The Grauniad were predicting in terms of league positions ahead of the season (and ahead of the Scott Parker signing).

Back in August, when we asked our writers to predict what the final table would look like, then added everything up and divided by whatever in a process that seemed fairly mathematical at the time, this is what we came up with (actual positions in brackets):

1 Manchester Utd (2)

2 Emirates Marketing Project (1)

3 Chelsea (6)

4 Liverpool ( 8 )

5 Arsenal (3)

6 Tottenham (4)

7 Everton (7)

8 Sunderland (13)

9 Fulham (9)

10 Stoke (14)

11 Bolton ( 18 )

12 Aston Villa (16)

13 West Bromwich (10)

14 Saudi Sportswashing Machine (5)

15 Wolves (20)

16 Norwich (12)

17 QPR (17)

18 Wigan (15)

19 Blackburn (19)

20 Swansea (11)

- - -

I am not saying the Grauniad writers are faultless in their ability to prognosticate; I just thought it would be interesting to reflect on pre-season expectations from neutrals.
 
FWIW, here is the Premiership First XI as voted by for Grauniad readers in their post-match ratings section.

All season you have been awarding players marks out of 10 for their performances, and now the action has finished we have dusted off the calculator we normally only use for keeping tabs on Lionel Messi's latest goal tallies, done some sums and worked out a team of the season. And it looks like this:

GK: Michel Vorm, Swansea ÔÇô 7.02

RB: Kyle Walker, Tottenham ÔÇô 6.63

CD: Fabricio Coloccini, Saudi Sportswashing Machine ÔÇô 6.83

CD: Vincent Kompany, Emirates Marketing Project ÔÇô 6.78

LB: Jos?® Enrique, Liverpool ÔÇô 6.47

RM: Moussa Demb?®l?®, Fulham ÔÇô 6.72

CM: Luka Modric, Tottenham ÔÇô 6.85

CM: Mikel Arteta, Arsenal ÔÇô 6.80

LM: David Silva, Emirates Marketing Project ÔÇô 6.88

FC: Robin van Persie, Arsenal ÔÇô 6.92

FC: Wayne Rooney, Man Utd ÔÇô 6.87
 
africanspurs said:
@glorygloryeze



No i quite understand the idea of compensation, which isnt what you are talking about. proven by the comment you yourself made that technically there is no compensation for not winning the league just as well as there is no compensation for not making CL (because you cant get there any other way. but then the 'compensation' is down to the observer. even though once you miss out , you miss out...to me and not to you...i see Europa league as the eventual outcome of not making CL which was never guaranteed in the first place at the start of the season PLUS with the amount of teams fighting for europe and the competitiveness of this league i personaly (re-iterate..its me) feel that Europa league IS our compensation or it is our shelter or whatever, for me there is no compensation for not making europe. Man united though is a team that will ALWAYS be in the top 4 as things stands. europe is not only expected it simply just IS for them.....




agree withi this but i feel that technically the latter part of the statemtnt is more based on the fan individually so i can accept that for you you seem death and despair if we dont make CL. which i have to be honest i see as very silly personally seeing as we've only ever made it into the contest once in our history. to expect it? ridiculous



i'm very pleased you said 'some' of the reasons would be ttactics and player recruitments. Have you ever worked in football in an official or semi-official capacity. If you have then i'd be preaching to the choir here but if you havent its worth speaking to someone that has, and asking them what can be the main hinderance to achieving success or reaching targets. they'll metion all the stuff that most of the fan based population will mention...manager and players and money etc (they wouldnt be wrong either) but then to reach your goals (assuming they have not been set TOO LOW) you need a lot of LUCK and BELIEF. Belief makes up for alot , epsecially in footballers (form , confidence, aggression, winning attitude, character, resolve in adversity, and their ability which gets amplified by all these things) sometimes its nothing to do with how good your players are or your results...sometimes you just need to hit form and run with it.
Not to mention that the margins are sooooooooooooooooo fine that luck really does play a humongous part in things.
Another thing is the club culture, there is something about playing for the right club , at the right time, with the right manager and the right players that also helps enhance your abilities too.
For all intents and purposes City had to get off to one BEAST of a start this season just to hold off united and it took an out of form AND an unlucky united in the last few games to colapse in oredr for city to win the league and even then they did it with just a few seconds to spare on goal difference. Thats nothing that 'needs addressing' other than 'dont lose your man smalling. that lapse in concentration really put us on the back foot'




pretty sure money and history and culture and the manager would circumvent that problem for someone like united. w wont know though but i am positive that if they didnt make te CL it woulndt make a blind bit of difference....bayern munich one year recently didnt make the CL or i think they came 4th...take a look at what they did.
Look at city the year they missed out on 4th. brought in CL calibre players.
You are right for us its magnified cause we dont have WAGES to offer, which means that CL is that much important for us if we are to STAY in the CL spots (which we did this season as it happens....just the russians could fudge us). fact of the matter is that CL spots are not ours lose traditionally and its not ours by right..we have to earn the right to play in that..and this year we didnt ear automatic qualification. but it doesnt have to be down to manager, recuitment or tactics..it could have been a bad confidence filling the lane coupled with bad form.

however i will say this, the MANAGERS and COACHES (especially at the top level) need to be prepared for things like this and need to be able to bring our players out of that problem and do it quickly. thats what makes a good manager..or the best ones



just to re-affirm what i was saying. their compensation as you see it is something that they already have every year, infact missing out on CL would make them spend EVEN HARDER..and you know what, players will go here regardless cause they know that united will be back in the competition before you can blink. and in the mean time they would be favourites for europa. another trophy. the worst thing that could happen would probably be that united ended 5th. cause they would buy the world and its solar system.

I think what you're talking about is risk v loss and gain. not compensation. and if it is gain v loss in respects to position attained in the league , then you yourself canniot possibly comprehend what it must be like to be a united fan. (actually with the way you're acting i think you might. like i said..ssome are calling for fergusons head cause he didnt win the league. so you and those kind might have something similar in traits. relatively speaking of course...theirs is title lost equal fergie's head, yours is CL lost equal Harry's head? or harry's fault? is it?


agreed, i probably should have read this bit befoe i started writing

U

actually i think i agree with al of this as it happens.

i think you're talking about gain v risk.....not compensation. you're talking about damage and damage control..being able to go after the target year after vyear and not lose momentum. correct?
Click to expand...

Yes AS, we are in agreement\o/

We perhaps reached very high this year to find ourselves in Third, where we were even talked about as Title challengers. Though this fell away at the very least we seemed to get ourselves in a position of being to cement ourselves in third so as to increase our gain (being able to be VERY attractive to the likes of Hazard, Vertonghen etc) and not risk people like Modric and Bale not having their heads turned by us not being sure of CL. If you like (and I hope I'm not muddying things after now we are clear on what we both mean) that would have been our compensation for being able to reach the upper heights failing to come 1st but then falling back to a position where we don't lose momentum and can build on top of what we have to try again the next year.
 
Roland Beurre said:
I am not saying the Grauniad writers are faultless in their ability to prognosticate; I just thought it would be interesting to reflect on pre-season expectations from neutrals.
Click to expand...

Interesting that they put Swansea rock bottom and Liverpool in fourth. Love the Guardian and its football section, but their writers aren't exactly Nostradamuses reborn.;)
 
look at the things that went the gooners way during that run of 8 wins out of 9. at least 4 winners in the last 5 minutes or later and they won at everton with blatantly onside everton goal ruled out and that's before you even mention martin fudgeup. their pointas total could have been a hell of a lot lower with just the odd break of the ball here and there.
 
noddy1991 said:
look at the things that went the gooners way during that run of 8 wins out of 9. at least 4 winners in the last 5 minutes or later and they won at everton with blatantly onside everton goal ruled out and that's before you even mention martin fudgeup. their pointas total could have been a hell of a lot lower with just the odd break of the ball here and there.
Click to expand...

Not even to mention the three onside goals we had wrongfully declared offside
 
Luck certainly played a part, we didn't get much and they had plenty. However, we do really only have ourselves to blame for not beating the likes of Villa and Stoke, despite utterly dominating the games. We need to be more clinical, and in my view to do that means to bring in some world class strikers to finish off the numerous chances our midfield creates.
 
it also shows what difference a world class striker makes. if RVP had swapped sides we'd probably have finished 20 to 30 points in front them.
 
southstand1882 said:
6th

On paper, that is where we should finish

You may not like it, but that is a FACT

If we finish 4th than we have massively overachieved

Teams that should finished above us:

CITY - Sugar
UNITED - Biggest club in the world
CHELSEA - Sugar
ARSENAL - Wages and Revenue
LIVERPOOL - Wages and Revenue
Click to expand...

I honestly believe our squad is better than Arsenal's, but they have a genuinely world class striker who single handedly won them at least 10 games. If we had a striker of that quality, we would be comfortably in the top 3, but we don't unfortunately so we finished where we deserved to. Some posters on here seriously underrate Chelsea. They are not what quite what they used to be, but they've proven they're still capable of winning big games, we don't have a Drogba who ALWAYS plays well in the big games.
 
southstand1882 said:
6th

On paper, that is where we should finish

You may not like it, but that is a FACT

If we finish 4th than we have massively overachieved

Teams that should finished above us:

CITY - Sugar
UNITED - Biggest club in the world
CHELSEA - Sugar
ARSENAL - Wages and Revenue
LIVERPOOL - Wages and Revenue
Click to expand...
If we finish 4th, we've done a hell of a job building a quality team over the last decade.
 
Liverpool?
Reina better than friedel
walker better than johnson
kaboul better than skrtyl (spelling?)
agger better than gallas
assou ekotto better than enrique (perhaps equal to)
Lennon better than bellamy
Modric better than adam
Lucas better than parker
Bale better than downing
Van der vaart better than suarez
Adebayour better than carroll

so 8/11?
I've ommitted gerrard and king due to injuries.

Chelsea
Cech better than Reina
Ivanovic better than walker
Kaboul better than luiz
gallas = terry
cole better than assou ekotto
Lennon better than sturridge/ramires/ whoever they play right wing
modric better than raul merielies (sp?)
parker better than mikel
bale better than mata
Vdv better than lampard
Drogba better than adebayor
5/11 for spurs 5/11 for chelsea

Ars*nal
Chesney better than freidel (potential- not right now though)
Sagna better than walker
Kaboul better than koscienly
Vermalen better than gallas
BAE better than gibbs
Lennon better than walcott
modric better than arteta
Parker better than song
Bale better than gervinho/chamberlain
vdv better than gerviho/ramsey/ whoever
RVP better than adebayor

7/11

Man utd

De gea better than friedal (potential and has improved quite a bit, lindengaard is better me thinks)
walker better than rafael
Vidic better than kaboul
jones/smalling better than gallas due to age tbh
Evra = BAE

Valencia better than lennon
modric better than scholes/carrick
Parker better than fletcher
Bale = nani

Rooney better than VDV
Adebayor better than danny wellbeck
us 4/11 man utd 5/11

Emirates Marketing Project
Hart better than friedel
walker better than zab/rich (potential and richards is too clumsy for me)
Kaboul better than lescott
kompany better than gallas
BAE better than clichy

Lennon better than Johnson
YAYA better than parker
Modric better than barry
Bale better than nasri
Silva better than VDV
augero better than ade
6/11

just my view
 
However, as others have said its not just about the players it about how they fit as a team and how they employ there systems. Also partnerships, the manager and attitude all have a part to play.
 
In all seriousness

We are by far the most humiliated club in all the land, i didnt think would get any worse than lasagne, throwing aaway 13 pt lead on Arse, this takes it by far. So many implications. But in all seriosuness are we cursed as a club?

So many things conspirea gainst us in teh footballing world, i really think we may be cursed. Does anyone know anything about witch doctors black magic etc? Im fudging seriously going to send a priest down to bless/exercise white hart lane and teh club. fudge me, im shaking right now. Angry at bayern, the team for blowing that lead, everything!! In a way Liverpool had a better season than us, at least they finished with silverware!!!

What do you do now?? How much more humiliating can it get. What a fudging aweful, sickening season. I really am distraught. Is our shocking luck down to the whole jew thing? I mea they are not the luckiest of folks are they. Just saying! West Ham won too of course!! Someone get a priest to WHL now!!!!!!!!
 
4 months ago this was the best season of my life as a Spurs fan. Yes I've lived through many of the brick years, of awful mediocrity and new managers.

But this season has now turned out to be the worst of my life.
 
Let's keep some perspective here, the majority of clubs in this league would kill to be in our position.

They can laugh but the simple fact is that over the course of the season we have been the 4th best team and don't ever forget that.
 
Pretty sure there is something evil going on down the road. They always come up smelling of roses. Dark forces at work with lasagne-gate and Fulop.
Chelsea also seem to have a deal with the devil judging by tonight's events.
 
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