General Premier League Thread 2022-23 - mod note in OP 12/03/23

Only just seen tonight's score. Well done Brighton.

Checked the table and thought, "jez Liverpool can catch utd for the last CL spot". Then noticed that Brighton can catch Liverpool too!

Interesting run in for 4th , as well as the relegation battle.

Brighton are an outstanding watch, deserving of a European spot. They should fear no one.

The annoying thing is, entertaining teams like this usually get raided of players in the close season.

The biggest loss could be the manager. I'm sure he is in the sights of a few clubs now .

They are brilliant at it, and are getting better while doing so.

McAllister will leave this summer and you'd imagine that Bounanotte will step up into that role, or maybe Encisco. Milner joining the dressing room is no bad thing either.

I remember when Southampton were flying, selling all their players to bigger clubs and getting all the plaudits for their scouting and for being a well run club. How are they doing today?

The more things change the more they stay the same, there have been any amount of Premier league clubs that excelled for a few seasons and then dropped back down the standings. Brighton will do exactly the same.

Sure there are reasons for Southamptons decline, but there are always reasons, that would rather be the point. These clubs punch above their weight for a while and then fall back down again. Its happened time after time.

Just in the past decade Fulham had a stretch were they were consistently a top half team, finishing 8th and 9th every year. Then within 2 years they were relegated. Swansea used to be that well run little club that competed with the big boys for a few seasons, and are another who went from top half finish to relegated within a few seasons. Ipswich once finished 5th and then got relegated the following season. Charlton were 7th, gone a few seasons later.

I have no problem with Brighton, fair play to them, and I'm not saying these clubs shouldn't bother. I'm just not going to overstate what they have done, and I'm certainly not going to ignore history and think that they will continue this success.

On a slight tangent, for these same reasons I wouldn't get too exceited about De Zerbi either. Just another in a long, long list of managers who had relative success for a little while, it does not mean he is the next big thing.

It's inevitable that Brighton won't continue an upward trajectory next season because a number of their best players will no longer be at the club. McAllister and Caicedo look certain to move to Liverpool and Arsenal respectively. They look pretty ordinary without that pair. Behind the scenes, they have lost their head of recruitment to Newcastle. DeZerbi seems inclined to stay on although, from a career perspective, now would be the right time for him to move to one of the bigger Italian clubs, while he's "hot" so to speak.

Graeme Souness quits and start mouthing off about everyone, pointing fingers in all directions. Admonishing Gary Lineker and his colleagues for being political when he was often that himself re the royal family etc., playing to the gallery of Rangers fans. Criticising Neville for not being impartial, he was hardly impartial in the recent Liverpool drubbing of Man United. A hypocrite and an embarrassment. Glad we won’t be seeing him on punditry again.

Even better. Perhaps that’s part of the reason for the bitterness. Making a show of himself as he exits.

Souness is absolutely horrible to listen to, sounds like a man who has a massive chip on his shoulder all the time.

Yeah, his time is long gone. Similarly to Giles, it just appeared that he shows up, no research, just talks and based his analysis on values that were important when he was a player.

To be fair to Giles, unlike Souness; he never made an idiot of himself ranting and kicking and screaming as he went out the door.

With Sam Allardyce in charge at Leeds, will his tactics of playing 5 keepers, and 45 defenders lead to a shock result in the Title Race ? We all know he ain't going to City today to play them off the park, it will be block after block of players trying to prevent a City goal for 90 minutes, can he pull it off though, or will City find a way through the jungle of players