The Football Thread 2022/23: End of season reviews pg79

[Mommy Christmas]

Oh I bet your arse was twitching

I'd just finished a 12 hour shift in A&E.
Went to my mates house he has a bar in his garden. A real bar. It's great.

Hes a blue. Was emotional at the end. Had a cigar and a glass of bubbly with him and told him to savour every second of it.

It's been twitching and dilating for the last 35 years of watching them.
That will never stop. The joys of being a Bertie...

[Lotus]

Real shame to see a club like Man City win the CL, but it had an air of inevitability about it. It'll always be a tainted treble.

twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1667585033970884611

Good signing there. Would have happily seen spurs try for him.

Can't say I'm thrilled by this, as he seems to have a poor attitude, but on a free it could be worse. I'd have preferred Harvey Barnes, but we have been linked to him as well, so might end up with both. Also appearing to be signing Oxlaide-Chamberlain on a free, which is baffling.

[Mommy Christmas]

Real shame to see a club like Man City win the CL, but it had an air of inevitability about it. It'll always be a tainted treble.

twitter.com/AVFCOfficial/status/1667585033970884611

Good signing there. Would have happily seen spurs try for him.

Can't say I'm thrilled by this, as he seems to have a poor attitude, but on a free it could be worse. I'd have preferred Harvey Barnes, but we have been linked to him as well, so might end up with both. Also appearing to be signing Oxlaide-Chamberlain on a free, which is baffling.

Tainted?

Not from my point of view.

[Moggy]

Tainted?

I have heard that you love a bit of taint.

[Preezy]

Quite the story for Luton, can't wait to see how it all unfolds next season!

[BOR]

A couple of sources suggested that the Qataris have won the bid and they will become the owners of Manchester United.

Hmm...

[Moggy]

A couple of sources suggested that the Qataris have won the bid and they will become the owners of Manchester United.

Hmm...

It's going to be amusing to see some people changing their "tainted titles from oil money FC" narrative.

[Ecno]

A couple of sources suggested that the Qataris have won the bid and they will become the owners of Manchester United.

Hmm...

Be funny (and the right thing to do) if, after all that the PL or UK government blocked the sale.

[Preezy]

Figured we might want to do an end of season review of our respective clubs, as is tradition.

Club: Man United
Final position: 3rd
Highlight: Winning a trophy for the first time since 2017 was lovely, great start to the ETH era
Lowlight: Can't think of any particularly devastating results... nope nothing comes to mind
Best player of the season: Rashford, 30 goals is not to be sniffed at.
Worst player of the season: Harry strawberry floating Maguire - hopefully he strawberry floats off in the summer.
Best signing: Toss up between Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez
Worst signing: Jack Butland, don't think he made a single appearance so that was a good investment.
Manager rating: 7/10 - top 3 and a trophy was above my expectations for his first season, great foundation for future seasons.
Overall season rating: 7/10

[DML]

Club: Portsmouth
Final position: 8th
Highlight: Beating Cardiff City 3-0 in the League Cup and having some belief for a brief moment.
Lowlight: The winless run midway through the season under Cowley and the constant defence of him because he's a 'nice guy'.
Best player of the season: Colby Bishop, 21 goals in a pretty poor team.
Worst player of the season: Owen Dale. Went completely off the boil.
Best signing: Colby Bishop, at least that shows some level of ambition.
Worst signing: Owen Dale on loan. Took far too long to realise he was pony.
Manager rating: 7/10 - Not bad from John Mousinho since he took over as underwhelming as his appointment was, hes only had 4 losses in 23 without his own players. Certainly deserves this season on that record, just a shame he wasn't appointed much, much earlier because of Mr. 'Nice Guy'.
Overall season rating: 3/10. Next season HAS to be better on all sides. On the pitch and off.

[Tomous]

Club: Swansea
Final position: 10th
Highlight: Beating Cardiff City 3-2 with a 99th (!) minute winner to secure only the 2nd league double ever in the South Wales derby (with the other being ours the previous season )
Lowlight: The run of games post World Cup where we kept losing and destroyed any playoff hopes
Best player of the season: Joel Piroe had a solid campaign (20 goals) but Ryan Manning was sensational. And is now leaving on a free, brilliant.
Worst player of the season: Difficult to pick but Obafemi threw his toys out the pram and had to be shipped off to Burnley on loan. Great player (in the Championship at least) but terrible attitude.
Best signing: Joe Allen, love that he's home, even if injuries did impact his season he's still a class act
Worst signing:Matthew Sorinola on loan. Completely out of his depth but Martin kept playing him because he tries hard
Manager rating: 5/10 - Difficult one. His game management was terrible (we threw away a lot of points needlessly) and he's very one dimensional in his approach at times. But it was coming together at the end of the season. But he's going now so it doesn't matter anyway.
Overall season rating: 6/10. Average season but I gave it an extra point for another Cardiff double. Unfortunately with Martin's exit and some of our top players it's back to the drawing board. No expectations for next season.

[Mommy Christmas]

City
Final position: 1st
Highlight: Winning the Treble
Lowlight: Not much to moan about. Losing home and away to Brentford, our Spurs jinx continuing (2-0 at home although we escaped with a win). Gundogan leaving would be a blow, Bernado too.
Best player of the season: Haaland
Worst player of the season: Phillips because of the price tag, but he hasn't had the opportunities
Best signing: Despite the obvious answer, Akanji has been brilliant.
Worst signing: Phillips
Manager rating: 10/10'.
Overall season rating: 10/10. Tougher season next year. Stronger opposition and WCC to play. Would be happy with anything next season.

[Moggy]

Club: Bristol City.

Final position: 14th (Championship).

Highlight: While we lost, I thought we played amazingly against Oil Barons FC, and it was nice to have a little cup run.

Lowlight: Most of the season, just painfully mediocre.

Best player of the season: Alex Scott. And it's not even close.

Worst player of the season: Take your pick from everyone else.

Best signing: Arctic Monkeys.

Worst signing: Whoever the first AM support act was.

Manager rating: 7/10. I think Pearson is a decent manager overall, but he really needs to push the club on next season.

Overall season rating: 5/10 - bang average

[Drumstick]

Club: Brighton and Hove Albion
Final position: 6th
Highlight: Making it into Europe for the first time.
Lowlight: Losing on penalties in the FA Cup semis.
Best player of the season: There's many that deserve a mention but Moises Caicedo is a player than will end up playing at an elite team.
Worst player of the season: Hard to really pick one. I wouldn't say anyone has been poor as such, but probably Sanchez for his attitude.
Best signing: Pervis Estupinan. He replaced the club's 21/22 POTY and we've not noticed any loss.
Worst signing: n/a
Manager rating: 10/10, absolutely phenomenal.
Overall season rating: 9/10, the only disappointments were some injuries and at times poor decision-making.

[jawa_]

Club: Arsenal
Final position: 2nd
Highlight: Genuinely believing that we had a crack at winning the league.
Lowlight: Form slipping over the final ten matches.
Best player of the season: Martinelli. 15 goals in 36 league games from a young winger.
Worst player of the season: Vieira. I'd say disappointing rather than bad; seems just a bit too lightweight for the rigours of the Premiership.
Best signing: Gabriel Jesus. A big player who helped change the belief in the squad.
Worst signing: Vieira.
Manager rating: 9/10 - Vastly exceeded my expectations. It'll be very tough to maintain the league position next time out.
Overall season rating: 8/10. No trophy but excellent league position.

[Dowbocop]

Club: Arsenal
Final position: Champions of hearts
Highlight: REEEEEIIIISSSS NEEEELLLSSSOOOOOONNNNN!!!!!!!!! Doing the double over Spurs. Emi Martinez's comedy cameo. The vast majority of this season has been a highlight to be honest, I've had so much fun watching a great team.
Lowlight: The run in. Probably not giving City a proper go of it either time (for various reasons). The dogshit Brentford VAR decision.
Best player of the season: Saliba. Season dropped off when he was out of action.
Worst player of the season: You'd have to say Holding, but that's because the bar of the team has raised
Best signing: Tie between Jesus, Trossard, Zinchenko and Jorginho - basically all of them then
Worst signing: You'd have to say Fabio Vieira but I think he just needs to acclimatise and maybe bulk up
Manager rating: 9/10. I foggin luv im
Overall season rating: 9/10. The disappointing end will sting for a while, but on the whole it's been great.[/quote]

[KingK]

Club: Twice European Cup winners, and the last English/British side to retain it - Nottingham Forest

Final position: 16th

Highlights: Take your pick…. Surviving relegation. Beating Liverpool and Arsenal at home. Drawing with City at home. The home atmosphere every single game. The away atmosphere at every single game.

Lowlight: The away form. Losing by 5 or 6 at City and Arsenal is kinda expected, but to lose 4-0 at both Leicester and West Ham was bad. Must improve away performances next season.

Best player of the season: Morgan Gibbs White probably although closely run by Brennan Johnson, Felipe and Ryan Yates.

Worst player of the season: Jonjo Shelvey. Only got him in Jan but his welcome was worn out by time he passed to a Villa player in the penalty area to score in early April.

Best signing: How can I select just 1 out of 30 players? Morgan Gibbs-White showed why we splashed big, again closely followed by Felipe who was a snip at £2m. Notable mention for Danilo who looks like he’s going to be a decent player next season.

Worst signing: Of those who played its Shelvey. But we bought several and loaned out who are unlikely to ever feature (Josh Bowler, Hwang, and others I forget). Put signing Omar Richards from Bayern Munich for £17m and saying he’d passed his medical only for a broken leg to be revealed shortly after meaning he hasn’t played all season is surely the worst one ever?

Manager rating: 10/10 for keeping us up in the extreme circumstances he’s had to deal with (huge outgoings, ever larger number of new signings, plus continued speculation he’ll lose his job all season). Love Stevie Cooper

Overall season rating: 9/10. We stayed up! Won a fair few, lost a load badly but always knew it would take time for a team / XI to gel.

[Preezy]

Worst signing: Of those who played its Shelvey. But we bought several and loaned out who are unlikely to ever feature (Josh Bowler, Hwang, and others I forget). Put signing Omar Richards from Bayern Munich for £17m and saying he’d passed his medical only for a broken leg to be revealed shortly after meaning he hasn’t played all season is surely the worst one ever?

What?! How did that not get more media attention

[Tomous]

Worst signing: Of those who played its Shelvey. But we bought several and loaned out who are unlikely to ever feature (Josh Bowler, Hwang, and others I forget). Put signing Omar Richards from Bayern Munich for £17m and saying he’d passed his medical only for a broken leg to be revealed shortly after meaning he hasn’t played all season is surely the worst one ever?

What?! How did that not get more media attention

Didn't he hurt his leg in pre-season rather than get through a medical with it?! If he did sneak it through what are the club doing in those medicals

[Ste]

Club: Everton

Final position: 17th

Highlights: Brighton 1 - 5 Everton. One of the best performances I've seen by any Everton team.

Lowlight: Losing twice to Bournemouth in a week. The spell just after Xmas when we lost at home to Wolves and Soton who were both bottom of the league at the time. Also losing to West Ham around the same period. We were the only team, those teams had beaten around that time

Best player of the season: Pickford. Only outfield player in contention would be Tarkowski. McNeil & Doucoure done well after Dyche came in.

Worst player of the season: Maupey. But to be fair, we didn't play to his strengths and his one and only goal was the a winner so earned 3 points and every point counted.

Best signing: Tarkowski. Free transfer. Only outfield player in the league to play every minute of every game.

Worst signing: Maupey. See above.

Manager rating: 2/10 Lampard. 7.5 Dyce

Overall season rating: 1/10.