General Premier League Thread 2024-25

I don't think €800m was ever anywhere close to £450m. Looking at Transfermarket I'd say it's closer to £680/700m.

Sure Rice and Havertz were the best part of £150/160m on their own.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/mikel-arteta/spielertransfers/trainer/47620

You're miles off. There's some difference between 450 and 700.

Did you read the article? The article is talking about net spend and the person you replied to was talking about what Arteta has actually spent. You are not comparing like with like.

So the OP was right then and Arteta has spent the best part of €800m.

Arsenal need to change their mentality, as a Pool fan I genuinely want Arteta to stay. Yes he has done well but they are winning nothing & it is hard to reach the next level after n yrs with the same manager.

There are always excuses with Arteta & I think that filters into the mindset of the players.

This season they were not really close to Liverpool, think Chelsea were the closest over Xmas as I think if they had beaten Everton they would have moved into 1st place.

The match v West Ham was the one chance to put real pressure on & yes they have injuries up front but they should still win.

After 28 games 2 seasons ago [2022/23] Arsenal were 8pts ahead of City, they had played a game more, for me that was their big chance and they did not take it, it definitely has impacted them since.

A new manager would make them more likely to win the league in my opinion, I know that will not happen nor do I think Arteta should be in any danger of losing his job. Football is so short term that if they are 8pts or more off the top at Xmas this year, it is likely Arsenal fans who believe he will bring them a league title will want him sacked.

Having Havertz play up front is an issue. He can create and score when playing deeper or out wide on the left, he has never been a target man or central forward.

It's only in the last three seasons that they have become rivals to Man City. It strikes me as strange that Arsenal never made an attempt to sign young talent from Man City before then. Instead signing Jesus (£45M) and Zinchenko (£30M) helped Man City to offload players that weren't good enough for their squad.

Chelsea signed Cole Palmer from Man City because Arsenal had rejected an approach for Emile Smith Rowe who they subsequently offloaded to Fulham. I'm not sure what the logic was there. Similarly taking Sterling on loan from Chelsea this season wasn't the brightest idea.

Looks like the top 4/5 might be the only prize that is still up for play in the last few weeks of the season. Looking at Leicester here all relegation spots are already locked in

If five champions League as looks likely,is it two Europa ? So top seven incentive?

5 in CL thanks to the extra performance spot

2 in the EL. One of those goes to the FA Cup unless already qualified.

1 in the ECL which goes to the league cup winners, unless they have already qualified for CL or EL, in which case it goes to next highest in the league.

Game week 27 table

League placing infor correct butwiki misled me re Europe winners It said the UEFA Champions League and Europa League could not fill the European Performance Spots.

Evnetually found that UEFA says

What if the winners also qualify via their domestic league?

Under the 2024-27 club competition format, if the Europa League winners were to qualify directly for the league phase of the Champions League via their domestic league, then the club with the best individual coefficient of all the teams in Champions League qualifying (champions path and league path) goes directly through to the league phase.

However, no leapfrogging is permitted here, meaning a team from the league path could only move up to the league phase provided that this club is the highest ranked domestically of those from its association that have not already qualified for the league phase of the competition directly. If this is not the case, the automatic league phase place would go to the club with the next best coefficient.

I'm one of the few that probably prefers the expanded format to the old KO competition.

In general at least. It might have evolved a step too far for me with the group stage this season. 8 Group games just to end up getting PSG.

Having 7 teams from the one country would be just ridiculous. Even the 5 we have now is too much if you ask me.

In reality the domestic champions in countries below the Portuguese league add little to the competition. It’s great that they are there and they should be there but the purpose of the competition is to find the best club in Europe and I’m not sure adding more domestic champions adds much intrigue to that purpose.

I think UEFA get the balance right

Look at the amount of domestic champions in the bottom 8

But then football got globalized. Expecting UEFA to be able to reorganize competitions so that red star belgrades are contenders to win the champions league is impossible.

Don’t follow the point on stuttgart .