Proper Football Returns
And More Importantly Premier League Football Returns
So it's finally here, the new season is upon us and proper football returns as opposed to the meaningless friendlies we have been subjected to for the last month or so. Obviously this year wasn't too bad with the World Cup filling the gap slightly but it's still always nice to see the new season come back round and give us something meaningful to do with our Saturdays!
It's obviously even more significant this year with Newcastle making a speedy and welcome return to the Premier League, lets just hope the players can carry on the form of last season and give us something to cheer.
Of course this season is going to be tougher with many people simply looking to survive. Of course that is the main objective but personally I think if we go about things in the right way we can do a little better than that mainly because I think there are a lot of average bordering on poor teams in the Premier League and I don't think its the case any more where you would say that the 3 that come up are the 3 that will almost certainly go back down. For me any 3 teams out of us, Blackpool, West Brom, Blackburn, Wigan, Bolton, Stoke, Wolves, West Ham, Sunderland and Birmingham could go down. I think the likes of Stoke and Birmingham over achieved last season and all it would take is a bad start possibly a few injuries and teams like that could find themselves down there. Obviously I think unless Ian Holloway can perform a miracle then you would maybe say Blackpool are going to struggle but certainly I wouldn't like to guess the other 2.
For me if we can add another couple of new faces, not pick up any more long term injuries and get a bit of the rub of the green then I don't see any reason why we can't cause a bit of a shock and be comfortably around mid table. Im not saying we will but I think it is more possible than people are giving us credit for. Key to our survival will be our home form, we need to keep St James's the fortress it was last season and we should be ok.
Whatever the outcome its just going to be nice to see some big games and big players back at St James's. No disrespect to the Championship, in fact in a funny kind of way I enjoyed last season but you can't beat watching big games against the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U etc rather than the likes of Plymouth, Barnsley, Doncaster etc.
I said it when we went down that for all the bad things about it I think getting relegated has done the club some good in the long run but certainly come Monday night it will be good to see us back with the elite of the English game and long may we stay there.
What are peoples thoughts, are you looking forward to the season and simply being back in the Prem or are people worried that it's going to be a tough hard season with us struggling to survive?
