Football 2025-26

[charlierc]

5 hours ago, thetime said:

 

I don't think Chelsea have much to worry about, if they won yesterday they would be sitting in 2nd place now. Likewise if Utd lost yesterday, they would of been sitting in 10th place. 

 

There's only 6 points between 2nd and 15th, for me the league hasn't settled down yet. More to do with internationals, or perhaps the amount of teams in European competition. Maybe telling 3 of the top 5 are not playing in Europe. 

 

There was a degree of that last season - we were in the bottom half in early December then went on a winning run and shot up the table. It'll be a couple of weeks until it all starts to filter out into the blocks that will compete for title, Europe, etc. 

 

I do think there are things for Chelsea to be concerned about, however. Their manager said they needed extra defenders after injuries in preseason but they signed Garnacho instead and they are picking up reds. But yeah. They'll probably be in a good place when push comes to shove. 

 

Certainly, Man Utd, Bournemouth and Brighton not having Europe could be at an advantage. 

 

Hearts being 8 clear in Scotland is quite a story too. 

[charlierc]

4 hours ago, andyrhodes24 said:

I’d still expect us (Leeds) to go down, we haven’t looked great really. We’ll run out of steam in the upcoming run of Brighton, Forest, Villa, City, Chelsea, Liverpool. We’ve struggled for game management and nearly threw it away on Friday by letting West Ham have the ball the entire second half.

 

Sunderland will stay up, and think some of the sides down there at the moment will get themselves together. Strange old vision this season.

 

DOWN: Leeds, Burnley, Wolves.

Certainly I've just seen Wolves concede a goal in the last minute to lose at home to Burnley soundtracked by significant disdain. But they've come across as a team who have been downsizing their ambition for years, are reportedly quite low wage payers and seem to be in a position where the owners don't care anymore. So as much as there is a lot of football still to be played, I think they're screwed. 

 

Forest should improve with Dyche but nothing is a given. West Ham look unfit and unable to defend set pieces so Nuno is going to need patience to correct two pretty large deficiencies. Leeds don't look too bad imo, and tbf Brighton and Forest are both capable of capitulating to promoted clubs. It'll be an interesting progression. 

 

Indeed I'm pretty sure it'll be a close fight. I think that much is certain. Could also be a case of different teams being a player at different moments. I think Fulham will be good enough to stay up but 4 defeats in a row and an injury crisis haven't got the season off to a smooth start. 

[andyrhodes24]

44 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Certainly I've just seen Wolves concede a goal in the last minute to lose at home to Burnley soundtracked by significant disdain. But they've come across as a team who have been downsizing their ambition for years, are reportedly quite low wage payers and seem to be in a position where the owners don't care anymore. So as much as there is a lot of football still to be played, I think they're screwed. 

 

Forest should improve with Dyche but nothing is a given. West Ham look unfit and unable to defend set pieces so Nuno is going to need patience to correct two pretty large deficiencies. Leeds don't look too bad imo, and tbf Brighton and Forest are both capable of capitulating to promoted clubs. It'll be an interesting progression. 

 

Indeed I'm pretty sure it'll be a close fight. I think that much is certain. Could also be a case of different teams being a player at different moments. I think Fulham will be good enough to stay up but 4 defeats in a row and an injury crisis haven't got the season off to a smooth start. 

It’ll be a long season for a lot of teams. Any of one us could stay up by virtue of the others being dreadful.

 

I’ve been impressed with DCL for us, and Okafor. Wolves and WHU don’t look to have any sort of spark so it’ll be tough for them to find one.

 

Whichever way it goes it’s refreshing to see all three promoted teams actually be competent.

[thetime]

58 minutes ago, charlierc said:

 

Hearts being 8 clear in Scotland is quite a story too. 

 

I was listening to a podcast the other day about Hearts.

 

Tony Bloom is heavily involved at the club, major shareholder at Brighton amongst other clubs. 

 

Tony Bloom seems to have the midas touch. 

Edited October 26, 2025 by thetime

[thetime]

4 minutes ago, andyrhodes24 said:

It’ll be a long season for a lot of teams. Any of one us could stay up by virtue of the others being dreadful.

 

I’ve been impressed with DCL for us, and Okafor. Wolves and WHU don’t look to have any sort of spark so it’ll be tough for them to find one.

 

Whichever way it goes it’s refreshing to see all three promoted teams actually be competent.

 

Hopefully Leeds go down. 😃

[Skip997]

1 hour ago, andyrhodes24 said:

ery alarming if Man United can get a result against them never mind at Anfield.

What’s even more alarming is coinciding at least two goals in nearly every game this season. No one does that 

[kaosmark2]

3 hours ago, andyrhodes24 said:

Down the bottom the worrying thing for me is that we’ve still got Fulham, Forest and West Ham below us, and I think they’ll all improve.

 

Don't think West Ham are as doomed as their fans think, these clubs have a habit of scraping by.

I think West Ham have looked awful, and I don't really see how their midfield will really compete with almost anyone in the league. They've got a handful of tidy players who work nicely as an option, but no hard-tackling DM that's going to take control of the midfield battle, and noone with a truly incisive pass to break open defenses. Add that their striker options are mostly players who seem permanently crocked (only fit one is Callum Wilson!), and it just looks bad.

 

I think West Ham are one of those teams that have spent years spending bits of money only to not really improve. Not just in comparison to efficient clubs like Brighton/Bournemouth/Fulham, but it very much reminds me of Villa in the 3-4 seasons before they went down, or Newcastle under Ashley before going down, or West Ham the last time they went down. They've just been in steady decline, relying on other teams being bad, and suddenly are one of the worst teams in the division.

 

I think aside from Wolves looking down, there'll be 5-7 teams in the mix for the other 2 spots come March, and while I thought Fulham would get clear, they'll need to find a run of form at some point. 

[kaosmark2]

8 hours ago, thetime said:

I don't think Chelsea have much to worry about, if they won yesterday they would be sitting in 2nd place now. Likewise if Utd lost yesterday, they would of been sitting in 10th place. 

 

There's only 6 points between 2nd and 15th, for me the league hasn't settled down yet. More to do with internationals, or perhaps the amount of teams in European competition. Maybe telling 3 of the top 5 are not playing in Europe. 

Depends what you mean "worry about". I can see Chelsea finishing anywhere from 3rd to 7th. 

 

But yeah, league hasn't settled down at all. I think you're right that both internationals and Europe are impacting more teams than normal. Am I right in thinking there's a November international break? Probably that is when the table might start feeling relevant.

[thetime]

30 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Depends what you mean "worry about". I can see Chelsea finishing anywhere from 3rd to 7th. 

 

But yeah, league hasn't settled down at all. I think you're right that both internationals and Europe are impacting more teams than normal. Am I right in thinking there's a November international break? Probably that is when the table might start feeling relevant.

 

Yes mid November 😒

 

I would lump a fair few teams in that 3rd-7th bracket, Newcastle could finish 3rd or 7th. Same goes for Liverpool, Spurs and even Villa. 

[kaosmark2]

2 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

Yes mid November 😒

 

I would lump a fair few teams in that 3rd-7th bracket, Newcastle could finish 3rd or 7th. Same goes for Liverpool, Spurs and even Villa. 

Yeah same. I don't think Liverpool are likely to be below 5th/6th (though I hope so!), and I can see Villa committing a bit more to the Europa League if their PL form is sketchy and finishing bottom half. Bournemouth are probably one of the more interesting ones, I can see their lack of European football giving them a good run to nick 4th/5th given they seem to have replaced their sold defenders pretty efficiently.

[Comfy Bean]

7 hours ago, charlierc said:

 

Hearts being 8 clear in Scotland is quite a story too. 

That it is. Still early but they’re on a great run and Celtic are a complete mess. No European football for Hearts and McInnes is a really experienced manager up here. 

[pink_triangle]

9 hours ago, Comfy Bean said:

That it is. Still early but they’re on a great run and Celtic are a complete mess. No European football for Hearts and McInnes is a really experienced manager up here. 

I’m not quite old enough to remember the last time someone from Scotland outside the old firm won the thing. I remember one year (think late 80s or early 90s) Aberdeen were quite close. Interesting that Hearts don’t seem to have spent huge money, but are taking advantage in lapses in the other  two.

 

In Scottish related news Stephen Fletcher didn’t make it to the championship, but in 2 seasons became a bit of a legend who will never have to buy a beer in Wrexham again.

 

Interestingly we have managed to find another Scottish gem in Dom Hyam who has looked fantastic and a few weeks in was made captain. I am shocked to see he has only played once for Scotland. Are you stacked in centre back? I saw one recent game Hanley was playing and I’m sure he is better than him.

[fraybentos1]

2 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Interesting that Hearts don’t seem to have spent huge money, but are taking advantage in lapses in the other  two.

Tony Bloom has got involved so they've picked up some gems for cheap from abroad. 

 

3 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Are you stacked in centre back?

We certainly aren't but Clarke loves Hanley and he is a stubborn old goat 

[pink_triangle]

5 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

 

We certainly aren't but Clarke loves Hanley and he is a stubborn old goat 

I’m just surprised as Hyam has pretty much been playing consistently in the championship for 5 years. While that doesn’t sound particularly sexy, normally it translates to plenty of caps for a country like Wales or Scotland.

 

I wonder if the fact he hasn’t played in Scotland counts against him. I had never heard of him but been completely blown away by his start.

[charlierc]

18 hours ago, Comfy Bean said:

That it is. Still early but they’re on a great run and Celtic are a complete mess. No European football for Hearts and McInnes is a really experienced manager up here. 

 

8 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I’m not quite old enough to remember the last time someone from Scotland outside the old firm won the thing. I remember one year (think late 80s or early 90s) Aberdeen were quite close. Interesting that Hearts don’t seem to have spent huge money, but are taking advantage in lapses in the other  two.

 

In Scottish related news Stephen Fletcher didn’t make it to the championship, but in 2 seasons became a bit of a legend who will never have to buy a beer in Wrexham again.

 

Interestingly we have managed to find another Scottish gem in Dom Hyam who has looked fantastic and a few weeks in was made captain. I am shocked to see he has only played once for Scotland. Are you stacked in centre back? I saw one recent game Hanley was playing and I’m sure he is better than him.

Mid-80s saw Aberdeen win back-to-back titles under Alex Ferguson, and that was the last time anyone that wasn't from Glasgow won the Scottish title.

 

Hearts have been here before - in 2005, they won 8/8 only to implode. Though that fell through because Vladimir Romanov was so chaotic as an owner that it's even got its own Wikipedia page. This time, you assume they wouldn't be so dumb to sack the manager at this point.

 

Certainly, Celtic and Rangers have looked a shambles for much of this season so far. So the possibility of success is there.

[charlierc]

22 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Yes mid November 😒

 

I would lump a fair few teams in that 3rd-7th bracket, Newcastle could finish 3rd or 7th. Same goes for Liverpool, Spurs and even Villa. 

 

22 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Yeah same. I don't think Liverpool are likely to be below 5th/6th (though I hope so!), and I can see Villa committing a bit more to the Europa League if their PL form is sketchy and finishing bottom half. Bournemouth are probably one of the more interesting ones, I can see their lack of European football giving them a good run to nick 4th/5th given they seem to have replaced their sold defenders pretty efficiently.

On the subject of internationals, it'll be interesting next season when the current September & October international breaks are merged into one late-September mega-break lasting two weeks.

 

As for the PL, it's unquestionably going to be the case that we're still a few weeks until the table properly filters into the blocks that will dispute title, Europe, etc. But there are a few interesting teams. I think we're in the mix for Europe by league if we can get things to click, and indeed we've had 3 successive top 7 seasons, but it's evidently taken us longer than we thought to go straight into the post-Isak groove. Though it's kinda easy to forget we were in the bottom half last December then went on a big run, so the theory we can click is there. Maybe.

 

Bournemouth are unquestionably dangerous and could be a wild card assuming they avoid an injury crisis like the one that blew up their season in the final 2 months of last season. Brighton could be in that bracket too but they do seem a bit more erratic than Bournemouth so far. Villa have the Europa League specialist so yeah, the idea of them looking at that more after Christmas like we just saw Spurs & Man Utd do cannot be ruled out.

[doogie]

Bournemouth are looking impressive in second place, but they haven't beaten many of the top teams yet this season.  I'll be surprised if they're still up there in a month's time.

[thetime]

18 minutes ago, doogie said:

Bournemouth are looking impressive in second place, but they haven't beaten many of the top teams yet this season.  I'll be surprised if they're still up there in a month's time.

 

There next 4 looked quite favourable, with only city on paper looking like a loss. Then its Villa, West Ham and Sunderland. 

 

 

 

 

[thetime]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

 

On the subject of internationals, it'll be interesting next season when the current September & October international breaks are merged into one late-September mega-break lasting two weeks.

 

As for the PL, it's unquestionably going to be the case that we're still a few weeks until the table properly filters into the blocks that will dispute title, Europe, etc. But there are a few interesting teams. I think we're in the mix for Europe by league if we can get things to click, and indeed we've had 3 successive top 7 seasons, but it's evidently taken us longer than we thought to go straight into the post-Isak groove. Though it's kinda easy to forget we were in the bottom half last December then went on a big run, so the theory we can click is there. Maybe.

 

Bournemouth are unquestionably dangerous and could be a wild card assuming they avoid an injury crisis like the one that blew up their season in the final 2 months of last season. Brighton could be in that bracket too but they do seem a bit more erratic than Bournemouth so far. Villa have the Europa League specialist so yeah, the idea of them looking at that more after Christmas like we just saw Spurs & Man Utd do cannot be ruled out.

 

Main problem Newcastle, Villa and even Spurs will have is fixture congestion. There isnt a big 2/3 month European fixture free now, just 4/5 weeks. Then the fixtures with Europe, league, carabao and FA Cup will catch them out. 

 

I don't see those clubs sustaining the level of performance needed. Where Arsenal, City, Liverpool and even Chelsea have the experience. 

[charlierc]

37 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

Main problem Newcastle, Villa and even Spurs will have is fixture congestion. There isnt a big 2/3 month European fixture free now, just 4/5 weeks. Then the fixtures with Europe, league, carabao and FA Cup will catch them out. 

 

I don't see those clubs sustaining the level of performance needed. Where Arsenal, City, Liverpool and even Chelsea have the experience. 

Feel like Villa are getting there imo given this their third season in a row with European football. Lack of depth in certain positions could be a problem though. Tbf I also thought Harvey Elliott would be helpful in that regard as I thought he was decent at Liverpool only for him to be dropped yesterday and Emery to suggest he's not doing enough to even make the bench right now.

[Comfy Bean]

5 hours ago, charlierc said:

 

Mid-80s saw Aberdeen win back-to-back titles under Alex Ferguson, and that was the last time anyone that wasn't from Glasgow won the Scottish title.

 

Hearts have been here before - in 2005, they won 8/8 only to implode. Though that fell through because Vladimir Romanov was so chaotic as an owner that it's even got its own Wikipedia page. This time, you assume they wouldn't be so dumb to sack the manager at this point.

 

Certainly, Celtic and Rangers have looked a shambles for much of this season so far. So the possibility of success is there.

Celtic looking even more of a shambles tonight. 
 

Incredible statement from Celtics owner on Rodgers and bizarre interim appointment. Great chance now for Hearts.

[Comfy Bean]

13 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

I’m just surprised as Hyam has pretty much been playing consistently in the championship for 5 years. While that doesn’t sound particularly sexy, normally it translates to plenty of caps for a country like Wales or Scotland.

 

I wonder if the fact he hasn’t played in Scotland counts against him. I had never heard of him but been completely blown away by his start.

Im not familiar with him and wouldn’t think that not playing up here counts against him. As was mentioned earlier, Clarke is certainly the stubborn type and is often accused of being a bit too loyal. 
 

After the last 2 performances I’d like to see a few new faces but that ain’t happening and at the end of the day we got 6 points. Was an odd atmosphere leaving Hampden after those games. We’re far more familiar with being a plucky loser than playing shite and getting the 3 points.

[charlierc]

7 hours ago, Comfy Bean said:

Celtic looking even more of a shambles tonight. 
 

Incredible statement from Celtics owner on Rodgers and bizarre interim appointment. Great chance now for Hearts.

I'd heard about the resignation but it was only this morning where I saw that the owner had gone so far to essentially call Rodgers a bullshitter. It's pretty extraordinary. 

 

Former co-worker of mine is a Celtic fan and he's pretty unimpressed by the whole mess. As you would be. 

[Comfy Bean]

12 hours ago, charlierc said:

I'd heard about the resignation but it was only this morning where I saw that the owner had gone so far to essentially call Rodgers a bullshitter. It's pretty extraordinary. 

 

Former co-worker of mine is a Celtic fan and he's pretty unimpressed by the whole mess. As you would be. 

Aye it’s a mess and all being played out in public. Interesting to see if Rodgers has his say. Hearts have the old firm in turmoil 😂 

 

Martin O’Neil in is bizarre. I thought he was struggling a bit as a pundit when I last saw him. With the injuries Celtic have I thought they’d need someone already at the club who knows what they have in reserve.

[Comfy Bean]

On 27/10/2025 at 09:50, pink_triangle said:

I’m just surprised as Hyam has pretty much been playing consistently in the championship for 5 years. While that doesn’t sound particularly sexy, normally it translates to plenty of caps for a country like Wales or Scotland.

 

I wonder if the fact he hasn’t played in Scotland counts against him. I had never heard of him but been completely blown away by his start.

Tuned in tonight but see Hyam is on the bench. Anywayz good luck 👍 big game.