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2024-25 Premier League Thread

Brighton owner-chairman Tony Bloom has made a £9.86 million offer to buy a 29% stake in Edinburgh-based Hearts, believing he can “disrupt Scottish football”. It’s viewed strictly a business relationship and Hearts would not become a feeder club. His share would be non-voting shares, leaving club operations to Foundation of Hearts, which is the majority shareholder.
 
andyt said:
Brighton owner-chairman Tony Bloom has made a £9.86 million offer to buy a 29% stake in Edinburgh-based Hearts, believing he can “disrupt Scottish football”. It’s viewed strictly a business relationship and Hearts would not become a feeder club. His share would be non-voting shares, leaving club operations to Foundation of Hearts, which is the majority shareholder.
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He's certainly welcome to join the fairly long list of people who've tried to crack the mortal lock that the Old Firm have on men's football in Scotland. Turns out it's harder than it looks. Only Sir Alex Ferguson was able to do it with any conviction.
 
Villa keep sneaking up on the back door to the Champions League spots. A less than scintillating 1-0 win over Bournemouth combined with Newcastle thrashing Chelsea and Nottingham Forest posting an inexplicable draw with DOA Leicester leaves them in 6th ... tied with Chelsea on points, trailing on goal diff and one point clear of Nottingham Forest. Chelsea and Nottingham Forest play next weekend. It would be a terrible shame if they drew ... lol. Villa's last two are against Spurs and Man United, who both have other things on their mind.
 
Bailey and Martinez both in tears at the end of the match today leading to a lot of speculation that it was their last home match at Villa park. Crap on a stick for the Martinez part of that for sure. Fuck PSR.
 
Honestly, Bailey has played himself out on his own and Martinez has had a weird, weird year. I'll miss him for sure, but he was always going to be too expensive to keep at some point.
 
Listen, I'd have driven Bailey to the airport last season coming off his best season. I know football is a business, but McGinn, Martinez and Mings are Villa to me and the fact that two of them might be gone this summer (I really hope Mings stays, but it'll probably come down to him signing a new contract at less money) just sucks.
 
Arsenal clinched a Champions League spot, and all but clinched 2nd place, with a nervy 1-0 win over Newcastle. The battle for the other 3 spots is going to be crazy. Newcastle, Chelsea and Villa are all at 66 points, Man City (with 1 match in hand) and Nottingham Forest are at 65. City hosts Bournemouth tomorrow. Then on Sunday, Newcastle hosts Everton, Villa visit Man U, Man City visits Fulham and, in what might be a de facto playoff match, Nottingham Forest hosts Chelsea. Also, either Man U or Spurs will be in the Champions League by virtue of winning the Europa League. That final is Wednesday, so Man U may have a Championship hangover on Sunday.
 
Villa are dead in the water on goal diff thanks to the combination of an insane number of defensive man-games lost and their offensive struggles prior to the close of the January window. Not since they needed three points to avoid relegation back in 2020 have I been this nervy heading into relegation day.
 
Manchester United letting me down yet again. All they had to do was not allow a guy who is only listed at 5'8" because he had his hair up that day to score a header. I'm sure our match won't go well against them even though they absolutely suck, cause no matter how bad they are, we just can't beat them.
 
Glad I'll be able to celebrate winning the League with a couple hundred friends on Sunday. ;) Openly hoping that somehow, someway, Villa makes it in. It would be even better if they made it at the expense of Manchester City. And maybe, somehow, Forest edges in there, too. We'll see. Sunday will be fun, regardless.
 
Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Newcastle get the Champions League spots. Villa ties Newcastle on points but finishes 6th on goal difference and will play in the Europa League. They were screwed by a quick whistle that would have given them a 1-0 lead over Man U in the 75th minute but lost 2-0. Nottingham Forest will play in the Conference League. Palace finished 12th, they’ll play in the Europa League by virtue of winnng the FA Cup. And, as noted, 17th place Spurs will play in the Champions League.
 
Ha’way the Lads! Sunderland are back in the Premier League, beating Sheffield United in the Championship playoff final. They last played in the Premier League in 2016-17. They suffered back to back relegations, and played in League One from 2018-19 to 2022-23, making the playoffs in 3 of the 4 seasons. In their first season back in the Championship, they finished 6th and lost to Luton in the semifinal, 3-2 on aggregate. They finished 16th last year before a 4th place finished this year. They beat Coventry in the semifinal, 3-2 on aggregate.
 
Whelp, gonna be angry about this one for a long while. I like to think of myself as someone who isn't overly effected by sports, but I haven't been this "sports mad" since Netherlands lost to Spain in the WC final. I decided not to go out to a cookout this afternoon cause I don't really want to be around other people, partly just cause I don't want to have to explain my bad mood (and partially because I live north of Boston and going all the way south to Dorchester is just a pain in the ass).

What an almost fittingly horrible way for Martinez to possibly say goodbye and then my goodness were we robbed of an obvious goal by and incompetent buffoon, who then gave an absolute trash penalty that was close enough that they were never going to overturn it cause that's not what VAR do. It almost makes it worse the fact that the way we played, we didn't deserve anything plus the fact that we got clearly robbed. Yeah, gonna be mad about this one a good long while.
 
andyt said:
Ha’way the Lads! Sunderland are back in the Premier League, beating Sheffield United in the Championship playoff final. They last played in the Premier League in 2016-17. They suffered back to back relegations, and played in League One from 2018-19 to 2022-23, making the playoffs in 3 of the 4 seasons. In their first season back in the Championship, they finished 6th and lost to Luton in the semifinal, 3-2 on aggregate. They finished 16th last year before a 4th place finished this year. They beat Coventry in the semifinal, 3-2 on aggregate.
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That goal, from the kid Watson, who got some boos coming on? Hollywood stuff: last moment goal from the homegrown talent leaving for greener pastures but gifting his hometown team one final treasure? Insane stuff! And a great goal, too.
 
I was trying to fall asleep last night and as I'm laying in bed, my brain reminded me of the face that Rogers made when the ref blew the whistle and I got angry all over again and couldn't sleep for at least a half hour. So, still not over it.
 
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