Alexander Isak will be on Homes Under The Hammer - Premier League 2025/2026

Decided to bite the bullet. Haven't started a thread in many years.

Will Arsenal finally win the league? Will Liverpool be worse despite spending 200m? Will Man City get relegated due to 115 charges or grimly return to form? Will Man United stop being funny? Can even one promoted team stay up? How angry can Newcastle fans get?

Have at it!

Something about Spurs. Setpieces/violent roughhousing?

Finally, on the right board

Hooray! Looking forward to watching MOTD with the boy and not otherwise engaging unless Liverpool win something and there's another parade.

Oh and beating that cunt from Mumford & Sons at FPL again. Is there an ILX FPL league out there?

You won't watch it live? I have to say through a combo of getting older, TV subscriptions, Liverpool being fairly consistently good, and general ennui of life, I am prob deeper in than ever. Several podcasts a week, BT and Sky at home etc. Maybe also Liverpool finally winning the league then repeating it means football doesn't have the grinding painful anxiety it had every season when I was younger. I can enjoy it more.

i look forward to another season of grinding painful anxiety

Tbh after I posted that I started thinking how anxious I was even when we were miles ahead last year.

I dunno, it's so hard to find a stream these days and I just have so much to do every Saturday anyway. Might be changing jobs soon though so maybe things will change a bit. It's something to talk about at family gatherings, though the family still in Liverpool either support Everton or Forest (long story)

All three promoted teams to go straight back down for, I think, the third season in a row?

Have seen a couple of pundits tip Leeds to buck the trend at the expense of Wolves

A couple of evil pundits.

Sunderland have spent loads also

West Ham not great?

West Ham will be fine I reckon. Brentford seem the best candidates to keep one of the new teams up but I doubt it tbh. I reckon City will win it. My football consumption (other than League 1) is just Second Captains and 3min highlights on YouTube

Brentford hiring Keith Andrews with zero management experience is a brave move (though to be fair he does have some assistant manager experience, though to be even fairer it was for MK Dons and they were relegated that season)

Definitely a worry. He is red hot favourite to be sacked first.

I wish Keith well obviously as long as he finishes below us

Bournemouth have decided to set the fifa setting to ultimate for iriola and he's clearly done a great job but I think they'll struggle , same with forest. not enough to go down tho probably.

in amongst all the money lfc are throwing around I hope I've missed them extending konate's contract or are they going to let him leave for nothing next summer?
if lfc don't win tmrw then the winless in the league streak stretches to what 5 games?
slot out in that case.

I think city will be closer to last season version than 2019-2024 version.
think arsenal will win the league.

Sounds like Konate could be off. There were even a few rumours Real might try to buy him this summer.

I think they need to keep him if at all possible. the way the team sets up this season him and vvd will have to do a tonne of one on one defending and I trust both of them to manage that, not sure anyone we've been linked with could cope as well. of course it helps to have allisson mind you.

I know it's twenty mins in but feel like there's not a lot of attacking coherence in Liverpool at all.

Good game this.

Liverpool all over the place defensively

Never in doubt (that Mo would score in the opening game).

What a game. Unbelievably sad to see Mo crying at the final whistle as the whole stadium sings for Jota.

I think Liverpool's problem is midfield exposing the defence. Wirtz is quality but isn't going to do anything besides attack. Szobo at 8 is too undisciplined, and Gravy is suspended. That said, Konate was terrible tonight.

Ekitike looks brilliant tho, exciting player. Wirtz still settling but love how his first touch is almost always a pass.

Could be a mental season with this attacking setup but I hope they find a more controlled structure for the sake of my health.

indisciplined*

For three seasons we’ve had more points than any other team in this league, which is incredible. That’s how you have all the consistency. Now we have to do it in a season to have one more point or the same amount of points and more goals different than any other team. That’s the objective.”

apparently this isn't even true, man city have more, but also... this is why people dislike arteta. he makes it sound like they need to just flukily be top of the league when the season ends having done the harder bit of having a good average points score.

not sure whether to watch this

looks like Martinez is suspended for Villa, wonder what happened there?

Sent off at end of last season

[lightly quivering] not ringing any bells

Yeah i detected the note of fake insouciance

Not notably missing Martinez so far

new guy looks good so far. he's had more to do than I'd like

Well yeah, he's done good tho

Every pass is going wrong, this is getting tiresome. That said, the tempo is pretty crazy. Newcastle’s midfield get in there so fast

New goalie looks legit, this could be a big step up from Olsen

Weird seeing both teams in the same colour shorts. What is this, Ted Lasso?

Think Villa had a bit more impact in the last 5 minutes, hopefully they build on that

Welp, the Prem's back baby

newcastle could really use a prolific striker, you feel.

Classy celebrating like they've just won the league tho

not sure there are many groups of fans who will relish hating one of their own players as much as newcastle fans will with isak.

if there's one thing Newcastle fans can't stand, it's Jamal Kashoggi's widow. But if there are two things they can't stand, you can add A Player That Doesnt Give His All For That Famous Black and White Shirt as well

alan shearer - got newcastle relegated

alexander isak - won a trophy for newcastle for the first and last time in their history

yet the latter is the villain here???

only one goal in the prem so far today and it's richarlison

Richarlison’s second goal was tremendous.

Forget yer Arsenal v. Spurs or Chelsea v. Fulham or whatever, Newcastle v Sunderland games are going to give the Premier League a taste of a truly venomous derby.

Grant Xhaka as Sunderland captain should def help with that

so wolves are going to beat man city 4-0 then

https://i.postimg.cc/B6dXNmZS/Screenshot-20250816-165109.jpg

I'm enjoying this brief moment of respite trying to work out e.g. if West Ham are shit or not

before I end up crying into this thread in a bit

Wolves playing p well so far

Well yeah buf

Southgate has surely been around English football too long to step on that rake

he's the worst pound for pound PL manager of all time imo

― Number None, Monday, 5 January 2026 10:37 (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lampard and Shearer don't need to be disrespected like this

Ah Blanc was like 15/2 earlier, shifting sands.

Weird that Maresca is favourite. Would prob be a bad move for him.

would probably be a bad move for anyone

They made him work over Xmas and new year only to sack him on the first Monday of the new year, that’s sir jim ineos for you , a brutal employer

— Y (@tinscognito__) January 5, 2026

lol

This is beautiful.

There is also an insistence that the leadership of Berrada and Wilcox is best in class and that Amorim or any other head coach cannot outrank them.

From the report I am reading it sounds like Amorim hadn't read his contract.

bbc just now

We're hearing that Manchester United hope to appoint a caretaker for the rest of the season and that person won't be Darren Fletcher, who is taking charge of their next match against Burnley on Wednesday.

Good move imo, just call every manager a caretaker from now on and save money when you sack them after 6 months.

https://y.yarn.co/f8c1c780-8ce4-4cfe-9c39-efa440498883_text.gif

They made him work over Xmas and new year only to sack him on the first Monday of the new year, that’s sir jim ineos for you , a brutal employer
— Y (@tinscognito__) January 5, 2026

He must've got time and a half tho

Not sure why but the phrase "best in. class" which Ineos keep using doesn't make me think of elite technical human resourcing or whatever grim guff they would like people to believe it suggests. It makes me think of like a stingy man reviewing a mattress on Amazon that he bought for when his mother in law comes to stay in the spare room.

marginal gains tbf

Never should have let Dave Brailsford leave.

Brailsford surveyed his task as Head of Doping and concluded that the problems at Utd were beyond any gas that he, or any other mortal, could source

interesting dynamic where Southgate is a knight and got England to to some international finals, so the mainstream discourse has to straight-facedly be that he might potentially be the solution they need because why wouldn't he be, while Utd fans nervously smash the downvote button on BBC Sport

it's like one step above the rival fan wags texting in to say give it Bruce or Rooney til end of season, but state-broadcaster sanctioned

Wilfred Nancy is available. Just sayin' like.

Awesome day for mega clubs

There was a brief window where Southgate seemed the favourite, think Dan Ashworth (RIP) was reported to be a big fan. Sadly never happened.

I think he also was keen on Eddie Howe which I actually think might have worked okay in the sense of instill a bit of fight/fouling.

allegedly it was Brailsford who wanted Southgate

Ashworth wanted Howe, Frank or or Silva

think the athletic today said ashworth wanted southgate as well as those. but idk.

1000 pages

Exclusive 💣

Oliver Glasner has prepared a 1000-page report on Manchester United's tactics this season.

He knew his time would come for an interview at the club. pic.twitter.com/to5WwSVhsa

— indykaila News (@indykaila) January 5, 2026

The Man Without Qualities

I'm thinking that scene from The Shining

'three at the back and no midfield make jim a dull boy. three at the back and no midfield make jim a dull boy. three at the back and no midfield make jim a dull boy.'

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jan/06/ole-gunnar-solskjaer-shock-return-manchester-united-interim-manager

wtf

Should follow Celtic's lead and get Fergie to manage them for the rest of the season.

surely the top brains in sports management didn't sack their manager mid-season, despite his results improving from last season, without a clear replacement already lined uo?

I mean the Ole idea is horrendous obviously but our results haven't actually improved

The table is very much lying on this case

I'm not saying Amorim was doing a good job but I don't see an emergency so bad that he had go without a successor being planned

Sounds a bit like he was pushed before he jumped tbh.

this is what happened, per The Athletic

Although the seeds of Amorim’s demise at Manchester United were sewn at various stages, the ground finally fell from beneath him during a tempestuous encounter with Wilcox on Friday.

Amorim, people at United would argue, was the catalyst, erupting when discussion turned to tactics and transfers. Amorim had sensed a creep onto his territory during recent weeks and the result has been described, by sources close to the club, as a “massive fall-out” between the pair.

In their face-to-face meeting at Carrington, Wilcox suggested to Amorim that the players were struggling to gain trust in his 3-4-2-1 system and had become confused over his vision. Amorim would train the team in a back four, only for a back three to be selected in games. They also sensed he lacked faith in them due to his selections and public statements.

Amorim responded that the players needed to be changed. Wilcox said he wanted to work through the issues, evolving the squad over time but sticking with Amorim. Amorim reacted by saying he wished to leave the club and would be calling his agent.

who knows the truth of it, but this is a guy who's threatened to quit in practically every other press conference

Is there something about the back three formation that makes its proponents such pigheaded zealots?

I've never see one quite as zealous as Amorim. He even has an origin story

Amorim started working as a manager in 2018–19, with third division team Casa Pia. After losing his first two games and, with his pride hurt and doubts setting in, he announced if he lost the third game he would quit. In the next match, he changed his system and played a back three for the first time. With the new system working, Casa Pia embarked on an unbeaten run.

Can I introduce you to Wilfried Nancy?

tbf Amorim's zealotry seems to lead to turgid dreariness whereas Nancy's is more Billy Smart's Circus.

Reading the various pieces today it seems mad how much the Jim Reaper is sticking his nose in. It seems he's tried to have a say in transfers, formation, suggested Mbeumo should be a wing back, and advised Martinez on rehabbing from injury. Seems a fairly big problem if this clueless tyrant won't keep his beak out.

always the mark of an idiot director when they think they've got anything valuable to contribute to football decisions

Director of football Jason Wilcox has spoken to Fletcher and his former United team-mates Solskjaer and Carrick about taking the role, while another former United player Ruud van Nistelrooy is also believed to be a contender.

the short-term plan seems to be basically be 'get someone the fans love to take heat off wilcox/berrada/ineos' i guess. as such be surprised if fletcher or carrick get it.

ruining their faves one by one, are we in Man U fan purgatory?

need to go more leftfield. louis saha. seba veron.

William Prunier (born 14 August 1967) is a French football manager and former player who is the manager of AS Villers-Houlgate.

willie's at the wheel

Anyway, how about that new Chelsea manager

Not going much better sans Amorim

we've been fairly shit, but Burnley scored an extremely jammy goal and Utd have had a goal disallowed and two cleared off the line

Fletcher's weird inexplicable thing (because every post-Ferguson manager must have one) is playing Cunha on the right wing and Dorgu on the left

man buns should result in straight red cards

lmao what the fuck is going on with Everton rn

we're gonna find a way to not take advantage of this

moyes bringing back the crazy gang