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Who Are Southampton's Biggest Threat Next Season?


Deano6

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Whilst the maths don't add up, when you look at the list it does show how much stronger this league is than the one we've just left. There are arguably a dozen teams that will fancy their chances of a playoff place. Makes it all the more mystifying why some seem to think we are a shoe-in for top 6. I guess you get used to winning more often than not very quickly...

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Middlesborough, Leicester, Leeds and Forest.

 

Leeds will only get stronger, Boro had a good finish to the season and should have done so much better with the players they have, Leicester are strong and can attract big names, and Forest will always be there or there abouts.

 

The others? Not so much.

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Middlesborough, Leicester, Leeds and Forest.

 

Leeds will only get stronger, Boro had a good finish to the season and should have done so much better with the players they have, Leicester are strong and can attract big names, and Forest will always be there or there abouts.

 

The others? Not so much.

 

Reading? Brum? Cardiff? West Ham? Blackpool? The team that comfortably finished above us last season - Brighton?

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Thats the great thing about the championship, much more of an even playing field and not a lot of difference between most of the teams. It's going to be a good season with some great, proper football clubs in this division.

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Reading? Brum? Cardiff? West Ham? Blackpool? The team that comfortably finished above us last season - Brighton?

 

Comfortably? You can argue that maybe they took their foot off the gas at the end of the season, but the record shows that if we'd beaten them at SMS we would have been Champions. I would hardly call that comfortable.

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I'm not all that worried about Pompey in and of themselves. However, I think it will be more difficult gaining promotion when we are in the same league. Remember when they played West Brom on 2005, I have no doubt they'd try the same stunt again (i.e. throw a match to a similarly-placed side) if it meant that we might lose a playoff spot.

 

Of course they didn't cause our relegation in 2005, but it has been proven that their hatred of Saints is more important than results on the pitch to them. I doubt much will have changed.

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Comfortably? You can argue that maybe they took their foot off the gas at the end of the season, but the record shows that if we'd beaten them at SMS we would have been Champions. I would hardly call that comfortable.

 

Ha ha, it was ridiculously comfortable. Tell me - at what point in the season were they promoted? And at what point were they declared Champions? Taking their foot off the gas is an understatement, they walked the league.

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Personally I think our biggest threat is ourselves. If we get down and do what needs to be done I don't see any reason why with the team we have and a couple more we cannot get a top 6. However if we loose focus (and we have seen this happen a few times this season and last) then that's when we will have problems.

 

Basically I don't see the point in worrying about others but just get our mind set 100% each game and ensure a professional job is done by all the team. Get that right and I think we will have a good season.

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Ha ha, it was ridiculously comfortable. Tell me - at what point in the season were they promoted? And at what point were they declared Champions? Taking their foot off the gas is an understatement, they walked the league.

 

Weren't they in Magaluf or somewhere the week before their final game "training"? It doesn't get more comfortable than that.

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Ha ha, it was ridiculously comfortable. Tell me - at what point in the season were they promoted? And at what point were they declared Champions? Taking their foot off the gas is an understatement, they walked the league.

 

We had masses of games left to play and so psychologically they had an advantage. We also had our owner die, a cr*ppy pre season and a managerial upheavel which cost us. Regardless, we finished by far the strongest team in the league and are rightly being predicted to be stronger than Brighton next season. We will finish above Brighton next season, no question.

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The biggest threat will be injuries and a lack of quality in depth in midfield. Lose Lallana or Schneiderlin through injury for any length of time and we could struggle. Keeping them 100% fueled up for 46 games will be a very big 'Ask' and of course we can't by the law of sod.

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West Ham , if Allardyce gets into them, Pompey now they are going to get some players in, Brum perhaps

 

We will still take 6 points off those dirty skate b@stard this season no matter who they bring in, its time for some pay back...Well I hope ;)

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Ha ha, it was ridiculously comfortable. Tell me - at what point in the season were they promoted? And at what point were they declared Champions? Taking their foot off the gas is an understatement, they walked the league.

 

Well done for woefully missing the point :)

Yes we know at the moment that they walked the league and it only appears close because they gave up last 4 games (although to be honest both Saints and Huddersfield would probably still have beaten them). But 10, 20, 50 years from now that memory is gone and all that remains is the simple facts of the table. And that simple fact is they finished ahead of Southampton by the result of a single game. No one without specific knowledge is going to look at that table and think that Brighton 'walked the league'.

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Well done for woefully missing the point :)

Yes we know at the moment that they walked the league and it only appears close because they gave up last 4 games (although to be honest both Saints and Huddersfield would probably still have beaten them). But 10, 20, 50 years from now that memory is gone and all that remains is the simple facts of the table. And that simple fact is they finished ahead of Southampton by the result of a single game. No one without specific knowledge is going to look at that table and think that Brighton 'walked the league'.

 

Well yes, I seem to have clearly missed your point. You said that they didn't comfortably win the league and get promoted, I said they did do it comfortably. We both have specific knowledge of the season. We are not speaking in the context of 50 years in the future. I don't like Brighton and I don't particularly like Poyet, but to say they didn't win the league relatively easily and early is just simply false.

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We had masses of games left to play and so psychologically they had an advantage. We also had our owner die, a cr*ppy pre season and a managerial upheavel which cost us. Regardless, we finished by far the strongest team in the league and are rightly being predicted to be stronger than Brighton next season. We will finish above Brighton next season, no question.

 

Yes, Brighton certainly had a much smoother season than us, they had a bit of luck on their side in that regard. We could be here all day debating the effects of various things that may or may not have had an effect on our season, but the fact remains that Brighton did win the league comfortably last season, there are no two ways about it. Not many teams clinch promotion that early and they got a massive amount of points. They'll be in a new ground next season playing in front of decent full houses, they've got a good if somewhat annoying manager and whichever way we spin it they were above us for the WHOLE of last season. I actually agree, I expect to finish above them next year, but to write them off as a team that will not be challenging us is naive at best.

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brighton 95

southampton 92

 

3 points in it at the end of the day..

 

I think we will struggle against teams like burnley away, i can see west ham lingering in the chumpionship for more than one season and have a hunch we will beat them as they are on the kind of spiral we were in terms of LUCK

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The higher the league, the more it is all about the money. To me that means that the financially strong teams, and those enjoying the benefits of a nice big parachute payment coming down from the Prem, have the best chances. If we can spend enough to expand the team with some quality players, and manage to finish in the top ten or so while spending carefully, than I would consider it a successful season. The following season we can than build on what we have and go for promotion.

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The higher the league, the more it is all about the money. To me that means that the financially strong teams, and those enjoying the benefits of a nice big parachute payment coming down from the Prem, have the best chances. If we can spend enough to expand the team with some quality players, and manage to finish in the top ten or so while spending carefully, than I would consider it a successful season. The following season we can than build on what we have and go for promotion.

 

West Ham's parachute payment is about £100m short of the debt they need to clear.

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Its no surprise that there are some good sides in the NpC, and if/when we get to The Prem there will be even stronger sides. Adkins and Cortese will be aware that there is only one way to get promoted from the NpC which is to be better than the best of the rest and that there is an obvious solution. If Adkins thinks he already has a squad that is close to the best, which just needs some modest strengthening, we have to respect his judgement as he's got more information than any of we fans. Whether the strengthened squad is good enough should be apparent by the end of August.

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biggest threat...we have just been promoted..so in seriousness..

 

reading

boro

leicester

west ham

brum

forest

burnley

hull

leeds

 

Not sure about West Ham or Burnley. Think Blackpool and Middlesboro will be strong. Otherwise, pretty well agree with this.

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What people writing West Ham don't realise is that you might think they can't afford to keep a strong squad together, but what is even more pressing for them is they cannot afford to be out of the Prem for more than a year and for that reason I'd expect them to keep together a strong, fairly expensive side together and be a real threat next season.

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Not sure about West Ham or Burnley. Think Blackpool and Middlesboro will be strong. Otherwise, pretty well agree with this.

 

west ham will be up there..they have a very good manager and he would not have gone there without assurances etc...at least for this season

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you make out that west ham are going to be screwed next year...despite in real life hiring a prem manager...

 

not sure how well WHU will do until see how squad shapes up, guess at mo would be mid table as they are in such a mess from boardroom down. Decent manager appointed though so who knows.

 

Think its silly to assume they are wealthy due to the parachute payment without considering the comments made by their owner basically saying they are scint

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not sure how well WHU will do until see how squad shapes up, guess at mo would be mid table as they are in such a mess from boardroom down. Decent manager appointed though so who knows.

 

Think its silly to assume they are wealthy due to the parachute payment without considering the comments made by their owner basically saying they are scint

they have a big debt...as does a lot of clubs...you seem to forget this is football and it does not follow normal rules....if we finish above west ham, I bet that means playoffs at least

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Sullivan in guardian couple of weeks ago:

 

Sullivan saying last week that "this club is in a worse financial position than any other in the country". In his assertion, he might have factored in that West Ham have the eighth-highest wage bill in the Premier League.

 

"All the debts are football or bank debts secured on the stadium and training ground so there is no route via administration," Sullivan said. "West Ham really is a football club where the football and bank debts exceed the value of the club."

 

He and Gold have also underwritten the £40m loan from Newham council for the £95m move to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford which, legal challenges from Tottenham Hotspur and Leyton Orient permitting, they hope to complete in time for the 2014-15 season.

 

Relegation will blow a further hole in West Ham's finances, with Sullivan saying that he and Gold would have to find £20m-£40m simply to keep the club afloat, despite them being prepared to cash in on marquee players such as Scott Parker. Most commentators have put the figure closer to the £40m mark.

 

West Ham are in line to receive parachute payments, under the terms of the Premier League's collective TV rights deal, while they are in the Championship; the figure is £48m over the next four seasons, with the first two payments being £16m; the final two £8m. Yet Premier League clubs receive a sum of somewhere between £40m-£45m a season, at least, so the mathematics here are depressing. Revenue streams that relate to ticket sales and merchandising will also be hit hard.

 

One of the many worries at West Ham concerns how they might fill the 60,000-capacity Olympic stadium, particularly if they remain outside the Premier League, and another relates to the viability of the business plan once they make the big move as balancing the books would become more difficult.

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