12/21/24
August 09, 2007
Premier League team previews.: The BBC (ok, ok, it's just Mark Lawrenson's poorly-written short thoughts) forecasts team prospects ahead of the 2007-08 kickoff this Saturday. Also see previews from Soccernet and the Guardian (poorly-organized but worth a read).
posted by worldcup2002 to soccer at 07:06 PM - 13 comments
Pronounced just how you think. Like a Spanish villa. Yes, like "hello". I'm going to attempt to keep up with the Prem this year. Though my plan to dump my cable TV would cause that to be rather difficult. Sadly, my favourite team, Southampton, is in The Championship. Still, if nothing else I can cheer ANY team that's playing Portsmouth.
posted by Drood at 03:45 AM on August 10, 2007
As a follower of a non-Prem team, some of the things that'll have me interested in the coming season: Allardyce at Newcastle - there's been more false Geordie messiahs than at a Life of Brian loop reel showing; wouldn't mind seeing the Toon Army rewarded with signs of finally heading towards becoming the big team on the field that the fan base "deserves." Sort of similar with Sven and the dodgy Thai money guy at City. Mostly hoping one of our finest old boys Dean Ashton will get a full fit season to show his class and cement his role in the England team. Not just because he's such a fine player and great lad, also cos you get precious few things to bore people with down the pub as a Crewe fan but he might be one. As for us (Crewe Alex) down in the lower depths, we've had a pretty decent summer of signings and youth players stepping up. We've not replaced Luke Varney, but Shaun Miller among the kids looks handy and there's still the chance of a long loan with one of the most interesting prospects being Linfield (? iirc) from Liverpool on a long loan, who's apparently v handy. We strengthened our ridiculous defence, which held us back far more than any lack of goals, and got a couple of useful lads in in midfield. I'm feeling optimistic and saying top six and playoffs (aided by the Leeds points penalty of course). Forest or Doncaster for the title. It's also our transition season with former youth coach Steve Holland being eased into a greater first team role as (should be Sir) Dario begins the slow trudge upstairs. I think that will help with our training in so far as we won't be quite so lightweight. More Crewe Alex that any of you cared about!
posted by Abiezer at 04:48 AM on August 10, 2007
Villa rhymes with 'gorilla'. And Lawro rhymes with 'sorrow', as in 'he feels sorrow at ever predicting a Boro victory'. The Graun has the best previews, I think, but they're atrociously indexed. I'll post this here rather than separately: Steve Nash runs into jobsworth parkies while having a kickabout with Claudio Reyna in Central Park. My only surprise this close-season is that a Premier League team didn't try to sign him as well.
posted by etagloh at 05:55 AM on August 10, 2007
Like a Spanish villa. Yes, like "hello". Spanish "ll" = "y", so this is misleading. Go with "gorilla". Go with God.
posted by yerfatma at 06:34 AM on August 10, 2007
All of the Guardian's previews are currently indexed on their football page. Here's a cut and paste: Premiership preview No20: Wigan Premiership preview No19: West Ham Premiership preview No18: Tottenham Hotspur Premiership preview No17: Sunderland Premiership preview No16: Reading Premiership preview No 15: Portsmouth Premiership preview No14: Newcastle Premiership preview No13: Middlesbrough Premiership preview No12: Manchester Utd Premiership preview No11: Manchester City Premiership preview No10: Liverpool Premiership preview No9: Fulham Premiership preview No8: Everton Premiership preview No7: Derby County Premiership preview No6: Chelsea Premiership preview No5: Bolton Wanderers Premiership preview No4: Blackburn Rovers Premiership preview No3: Birmingham City Premiership preview No2: Aston Villa Premiership preview No1: Arsenal
posted by blarp at 09:24 AM on August 10, 2007
Finally. Took all of fooking three weeks for them to realize they needed an index page for the damn things.
posted by worldcup2002 at 12:10 PM on August 10, 2007
yerfatma: Everyone I've ever known has said the Spanish "villa" the way you say "gorilla". Admittedly I've not known many Spaniards...
posted by Drood at 03:42 PM on August 10, 2007
Fair enough. blarp, for a sec I thought those were the Guardian's rankings, instead of the order of publication. I would have given them credit for contrarianess, but not much else.
posted by yerfatma at 04:13 PM on August 10, 2007
Ah, if only the final table ended up in alphabetical order...
posted by owlhouse at 06:41 PM on August 10, 2007
Fine, point out the Yank stupidity around here. Stinks of it.
posted by yerfatma at 09:50 PM on August 10, 2007
Huh? My comment was actually about the possibility of Derby finishing 7th, yerfatma.
posted by owlhouse at 03:28 AM on August 11, 2007
Oh, I know. I just felt dopey for not noticing what I thought were their predictions were suspiciously alphabetical.
posted by yerfatma at 08:25 AM on August 11, 2007
I learned more about the Premiereship than I've ever known after reading the little capsules on all the teams. One question: How do you pronounce the "Villa" in Aston Villa? Are the double LL's hard, like "hello" or more like Seve Ballesteros' last name?