2019/20 Premier League Thread - The Longest Season

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Mon 13 May 2019, 9:04 am

First topic message reminder :

2019/20 Barclays season thread

Start off by asking how long you think Ole will last at the wheel? For me, sacked by February 2020

by Soul Requiem Wed 04 Mar 2020, 6:52 pm

Pires and Henry were one of the most devastating duos and it goes far beyond a few statistics.

by Beer Thu 05 Mar 2020, 12:09 pm

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:I think Mane and Salah are better than Pires. Little overrated cos he was a bit sexy, he might get in as a 10 with Vieira and Gilberto behind him

Eh, Dolphy, what's french for 'va va voom'?

by Guest Sat 07 Mar 2020, 4:54 pm

PL standard is woeful, just look at today’s showing. Huge win for the Toon though.

by Duty281 Sat 07 Mar 2020, 5:44 pm

I'm sure West Brom, Leeds and...um....Millwall will boost the quality of the Premier League next season!

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Sat 07 Mar 2020, 8:49 pm

Is a lack of goals now football is bad?

by **hampo17** Sun 08 Mar 2020, 4:12 pm

Everton were truly shocking at the back today.

by Atila Sun 08 Mar 2020, 6:43 pm

Well done United. A 2-0 win in a derby game is always a good result.

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sun 08 Mar 2020, 7:42 pm

PaulHv2 wrote:Everton were truly shocking at the back today.

That feels like a compliment, Holgate and Davies were like conference players

by Soul Requiem Mon 09 Mar 2020, 8:36 am

This Bruno Fernandes looks like quite the player.

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Mon 09 Mar 2020, 3:32 pm

Yeah, excellent job at United to chase him for 18 months and time the transfer perfectly

by **hampo17** Mon 09 Mar 2020, 6:54 pm

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:Yeah, excellent job at United to chase him for 18 months and time the transfer perfectly

Interesting listening to some United fans on 606 last night who believe had they not had injuries in midfield then they wouldn't have signed him.

by **Afro** Wed 11 Mar 2020, 6:56 am

City v Arsenal postponed due to CoronaVirus

I say just cancel that season, write it off as if it hasn’t happened, give everyone a rest and we go again in August

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Wed 11 Mar 2020, 8:37 am

Only logical to delay or cancel the season ala Serie A. And provide some funds/loans to lower league clubs to cover the gate receipts they'll lose from not playing games, to allow them to not get into financial issues.

by **Afro** Wed 11 Mar 2020, 8:43 am

Have to make sure that there is no winners or relegation, and no record of who would have won/gone down...

by lfc91 Wed 11 Mar 2020, 8:44 am

Seen a few mentions of postponing the Euros until 2021, freeing up the summer to allow for delayed leagues to be finished. Seems a decent idea.

by GSC Wed 11 Mar 2020, 8:55 am

I think we're heading to a straight cancellation of this season.

by GSC Wed 11 Mar 2020, 9:25 am

I'm not sure what the rules provide for but I would be surprised if a club relegated in a shortened season didnt end up taking it to court

by Soul Requiem Wed 11 Mar 2020, 9:33 am

GSC wrote:I'm not sure what the rules provide for but I would be surprised if a club relegated in a shortened season didnt end up taking it to court

If there's many more postponements I'd say a full cancellation is likely, not a chance that teams are going to accept relegation or missing out on European competition.

by **Afro** Wed 11 Mar 2020, 9:48 am

Soul Requiem wrote:
GSC wrote:I'm not sure what the rules provide for but I would be surprised if a club relegated in a shortened season didnt end up taking it to court

If there's many more postponements I'd say a full cancellation is likely, not a chance that teams are going to accept relegation or missing out on European competition.

Definitely not. The argument is strong for a team who is relegated, and has played Liverpool and Man City twice for example, and then a team that stays up still has to play both again.

by GSC Wed 11 Mar 2020, 10:41 am

plenty of examples where a team has gone on a late season run to survive as well

by Soul Requiem Wed 11 Mar 2020, 10:42 am

GSC wrote:plenty of examples where a team has gone on a late season run to survive as well

What year was that Portsmouth run under Ol' Harry? I remember D'Alessandro being incredible during his loan spell.

by TwisT Wed 11 Mar 2020, 10:47 am

I suppose it is lucky as well that no teams are running away with it in the leagues below.

by GSC Wed 11 Mar 2020, 10:50 am

I want to say around 2004/5 but that's a guess

by Soul Requiem Wed 11 Mar 2020, 10:51 am

GSC wrote:I want to say around 2004/5 but that's a guess

Close, 05/06.

by Duty281 Wed 11 Mar 2020, 11:01 am

Afro wrote:City v Arsenal postponed due to CoronaVirus

I say just cancel that season, write it off as if it hasn’t happened, give everyone a rest and we go again in August

I think the powers that be will aim for a delay before getting the season finished in the summer months, probably knocking the Euros to next summer, but the football calendar is so tightly squeezed that this will be very difficult to do. Cancellation is a very viable possibility.

by **Afro** Wed 11 Mar 2020, 11:20 am

In Italy they are talking about playoffs to decide champions, european places, relegation.

Not sure entirely how it would work, but could be another option to curtail the season, but still have an outcome

by GSC Thu 12 Mar 2020, 2:12 pm

3 Leicester players in self isolation so that may be it for this years PL season for a while

by Duty281 Thu 12 Mar 2020, 2:47 pm

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11956076/coronavirus-uefa-members-to-meet-on-tuesday-to-discuss-domestic-and-european-club-competitions

Meeting on Tuesday by UEFA to decide how to proceed with the domestic leagues, European comps and the international stuff. Likely we'll have the blanket suspensions announced then.

by GSC Thu 12 Mar 2020, 3:04 pm

Euros being postponed to next year apparently.

by Duty281 Thu 12 Mar 2020, 3:10 pm

Would be sensible and there's plenty of room in the calendar for it. Also means more space to finish the club events, domestic and European, in June and early July if the Coronavirus abates by that point.

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Thu 12 Mar 2020, 6:28 pm

We won 7 of 9 the Tevez year. Clubs would sue.

But then Champ teams might have budgeted for promotion and could be a bit court-happy.

by **hampo17** Thu 12 Mar 2020, 6:36 pm

If you write off this season you’d imagine the FA will have a number of court cases to answer.

by westisbest Thu 12 Mar 2020, 9:07 pm

Reports saying the season will be scrapped after this weekend.

Leeds and WBA will be promoted.

22 teams. 4 down next season.

by GSC Thu 12 Mar 2020, 10:32 pm

Arteta has tested positive, this cant go on much longer surely

by Duty281 Thu 12 Mar 2020, 10:55 pm

GSC wrote:Arteta has tested positive, this cant go on much longer surely

Time to bin the whole sporting calendar for a few months.

by GSC Fri 13 Mar 2020, 7:07 am

expected to be suspended today, Chelsea whole squad are self isolating because Hudson-Odoi has tested positive

by GSC Fri 13 Mar 2020, 8:20 am

The EFL have now suspended all game

by GSC Fri 13 Mar 2020, 10:46 am

PL and EFL suspension until the 4th of April to be announced with a further review at that time

by Duty281 Fri 13 Mar 2020, 11:59 am

This could be the event that triggers the collapse of many heavily indebted football league clubs.

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Fri 13 Mar 2020, 6:36 pm

Yeah, for all the focus on Liverpool, they really aren’t the worry here

by dyrewolfe Sun 15 Mar 2020, 9:52 am

GSC wrote:PL and EFL suspension until the 4th of April to be announced with a further review at that time

Well I guess its sensible to review the situation every couple of weeks, but I'd bet next month's salary, there won't be any football until May at the earliest, given the number of players now self-isolating. Possibly even later, given that the "peak" is expected to be around June.

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Mon 16 Mar 2020, 12:39 pm

My feeling is they should be prepared to end this season and make some changes to next season. I’d rather a normal season next year rather than an end to this one in July and then starting the next straight away.

Ideal is to finish, but I don’t see it being fair if it starts again later than May.

I like the idea of a 22 team league, adjustments across divisions with extra relegations one/two/three seasons.

by lfc91 Mon 16 Mar 2020, 12:49 pm

Think if it wasn't for the financial implications they would happily just end the season right here. TV companies won't pay out for a contract that wasn't fulfilled you would imagine. Teams lower down the league could go bankrupt from revenue loss. Lawsuits from a number of teams.

May well implement a cut off point. If they can't safely restart games by a certain date then it gets cancelled. Under continuous review up til that point.
Can't see them being able to start the season again before this "peak" they talk about. Every time a players or staff member is diagnosed it's a 2 week quarantine.

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Mon 16 Mar 2020, 3:21 pm

I am sick of people talking about the “integrity of the league/competition” like that’s a thing.

by Samo Mon 16 Mar 2020, 4:41 pm

Couldnt they take each clubs average points per game from across the season then add that amount per game left? That was winners and losers are still judged by how they did over the course of the season.

by Soul Requiem Mon 16 Mar 2020, 4:46 pm

Samo wrote:Couldnt they take each clubs average points per game from across the season then add that amount per game left? That was winners and losers are still judged by how they did over the course of the season.

Teams will have played the bulk of the top twice by now whilst others will have played the bulk of the bottom half.

by Marky Mon 16 Mar 2020, 5:07 pm

The issue with ending the league as it is isn't the issue about Liverpool and their title. It's the impending lawsuits from the unfairly relegated sides. So they need to finish the season. Easy to say "don't relegate anyone and have two extra teams in the PL next season", but they'll have to do the same all the way down the pyramid!

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Mon 16 Mar 2020, 5:12 pm

I do think leagues would be safe from litigation from clubs expecting to be promoted.

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Mon 16 Mar 2020, 10:08 pm

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:I am sick of people talking about the “integrity of the league/competition” like that’s a thing.

Funny how “fairness” only matters now isn’t it

by Duty281 Mon 16 Mar 2020, 11:00 pm

With the coronavirus not expected to peak in this country for another 2-3 months, and things to be shut down until then (pretty much), this season should be given the elbow.

I could just about cope with Liverpool being awarded the title, as they would be 99.99999999% likely to secure it were everything in a state of normality, but Leeds and WBA certainly shouldn't be promoted as they are far from secure in their respective positions. Indeed, no promotion or relegation should happen. I doubt there'll be litigation and such like because I'm sure extraordinary events like this one are covered in the exhaustive regulations of the PL and Football League.

With another coronavirus peak expected next winter, and a vaccine unlikely to have been developed by then, I hope the powers that be are anticipating more disruption for next season and planning accordingly.

In terms of sport, the greater worry is that many clubs up and down the pyramid (living a hand to mouth existence) could go to the wall with no football and no income for the next couple of months, but with expenditures still having to be met. I doubt there'll be any government bailouts to assist them, either, because there are other industries that need such help and will be considered of greater importance (understandably so).

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