Season 25 week 1 processing ... the new season ...

Welcome to season 25.

I have orders from Man City, Newcastle, Plymouth, Watford, Charlton, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Schalke and Inverness.

Nothing from Birmingham or Leicester.

from the IT availability sheet it looks like :-

Geoff will be managing Brazil & Brazil B & Brazil U21
Ben will be managing Argentina
Tom will be managing England & England U21
Rob will be managing England B, Scotland B, Italy U21
John will be managing Greece & Scotland & Scotland U21
Iain will be managing Spain.

let me know if I have any of that wrong, thanks. 

Tomorrow ( tuesday ) I will assign the other teams to non-forum managers depending on their preferences.

That's great, thanks Paul.

Man City v Plymouth

What a game to start off the season!  Last years Champions, against a team never far away from the honours trying to regain glories in the managers last reign.  Difficult one to call, as both teams will play at a very high level but also both have new players that need to settle in and get up to speed quickly.  The arrival of Chambers, Di Maria and Mangala will be exciting for the home fans
and once they get settled they will be a real force once again this season.  City have also improved bringing in Andy Carroll and Leighton Baines, two very good signings.  Whilst not having the overall quality of the Plymouth squad, as hardly anyone has, you would think that it would be the new signings of City that should settle the quickest.  Will it be quick enough to cause an upset here?


Birmingham v Fulham

Birmingham seem to have been relatively quiet in the transfer market this close season aside from the capture of Kagawa last week. Fulham have lost the considerable talents of Baines, Carroll and Willian this summer, whilst bringing in Kolarov.  Will they feel the strain this year?
Not sure they will be in the top three come the end of the season but will the upheval cause them to end up near the bottom when all the dust settles? With a front line of Balotelli and Suarez?  Probably not, they still have more than enough quality there to cause a few upsets.
Having a quiet summer is not always the worst thing in the world, it will keep harmony within the squad and the Birmingham manager will hope his team come out firing this season.


United v Tottenham

Premier League newcomers against a decent Spurs side.  United come up with a lot of quality and will surprise a few people this year I'm sure. Can Tottenham repeat last years heroics and finish a comfortable mid-table.  This game may prove key for both sides in starting off on the right foot.


Liverpool v Watford

After just falling short last year, Watford have managaed to bring in yet more firepower in the form of the Premier Leagues hottest property right now, Diego Costa.  If he can start as well as many expect, then Watford will certainly be serious challengers for the title this year.  Although firepower certainly wasn't a problem last year, the addition of such a stellar name can really push them onto the next level.
Liverpool, like Spurs, have all on to repeat last years heroics, but with three unknown teams getting promoted from the Championship they will fancy their chances of picking up points when needed once again.


Blackburn v Everton

Two newcomers square off in the first week this season.  Although they won't be strangers to each other, they are certainly new to this league.  A first 3 points would be massive for either club. Will Blackburn persist with the rarely-seen SLO formation that got them promoted last season? Can Everton hold their own having finished only 5th in the Championship last season?  This game, although won't show how they will perform overall for the season, may show who has more fight for the battle.


Wolves v Newcastle

New beginning for the Geordies in the Championship this season, facing off against a decent Wolves side who finished only just out side the playoffs last season. Being one of the three major favourites for the title this year, it is important that they get off to a great start.  Not much transfer activity happened at St James' as far as I saw over the summer but the quality already there should have more than enough to finish in the top three this year.


Sunderland v Leicester

Another team facing different pressures this year is Leicester, who will start off as one of the favourites for the title in the Championship and need a fast start to get points on the board ahead of their main rivals Arsenal and Newcastle.  The Foxes face a really tough start away to Sunderland,
who must still be smarting from being the team that finished third but missed out on the playoffs.  Leicester should have enough quality to see this game off, whilst Leicester fans are left wondering whether the considerable talents of Siem De Jong will be making their way over to the East Midlands?


Blackpool v Villa

A new era begins. Exciting times doesn't really cover it for all the Villa fans out there at the minute.  THe busiest club over the summer by far, it certainly looks like the only remianing
players that might start this season but also finished the last are Villa stalwarts Delph and Agbonlahor.  Enough signings have been made to field a completely different 11 to the one that finished midtable last year.  With all due respect to the outgoing manager, there is certainly a greater quality of player within the squad this year, surely enough to guide them through the division.  The only unknown, as always, is how the players will combine together and which will settle quicker than others.  Under the guidance of the vastly experienced manager Rob Wilson, the fans will be expecting big things this season especially with all the exciting activity over the close season.
A win on the last day of the season was not enough for Blackpool who had already been relegated the week before, however they will also be expecting to challenge for the title this year and hope that they are facing Villa at the right time, when the players are a little unsure of tactics and set pieces having been thrown together quite quickly.  Undoubtedly this is the game of the week in League 1, as it will be most weeks for Villa fans.


Other game : Chelsea v Charlton

Thanks for that Tom, always a great read as usual

Hi Paul, sorry for no turn back. Have been in the USA on a well earned 2 week break with Will (ex-Fulham) and Dan (ex-Sunderland). My liver and sleep pattern made it impossible to get the turn back in time. 

Can you send me a turn this week and I'll get some cash back to you.. I know I owe you now.

Paul I emailed you last night

Rich@Leicester wrote:

Hi Paul, sorry for no turn back. Have been in the USA on a well earned 2 week break with Will (ex-Fulham) and Dan (ex-Sunderland). My liver and sleep pattern made it impossible to get the turn back in time. 

Can you send me a turn this week and I'll get some cash back to you.. I know I owe you now.

Okay, thanks, hope you guys enjoyed yourselves.

Iain@RealMadrid wrote:

Paul I emailed you last night

Received okay thanks Iain, some exciting times ahead at Real Madrid it would seem.

Paul Hemmings wrote:

Iain@RealMadrid wrote:

Paul I emailed you last night

Received okay thanks Iain, some exciting times ahead at Real Madrid it would seem.

Sounds ominous......

Need to get my drive back and I thought a few big name sales should do that, get your wallets out guys

its 1430 here and i'm not even halfway through processing all the orders so it looks unlikely that the games will be run wednesday morning, so i'm aiming for the afternoon sometime, exact time to be advised later.

Games will kickoff at 1400 Wednesday. Confirmed.

and we're off...

First day nerves.....

Newcastle score the first league goal of the season as Lukaku nets inside 2 minutes at Wolves to make it

Wolves 0 Newcastle 1

Sociedad 0 Barcelona 1 Navas on 2 minutes.

Cruzeiro 0 Flamengo 1 Pato on 3 minutes.
Birmingham 1 Fulham 0 Fellaini.

Birmingham 1 Fulham 1 Lallana freekick on 7 minutes.

Lyon 1 Nantes 0 Damaio header on 8 minutes.

Betis 1 Osasuno 0 Milito on 10 minutes.

Cruzeiro 1 Flamengo 1 Villanueva freekick on 13 minutes.

Birmingham 1 Fulham 2 Kolarov header on 16 minutes.

Cruzeiro 1 Flamengo 2 Elias on 17 minutes.

Liverpool 0 Watford 1 Costa header on 18.