FA Premier League Thread

[geek_rohit]

The 2006-07 FA Premier League season, the fifteenth since its establishment, will begin on August 19, 2006. Reigning champions Chelsea will be looking to become only the fifth side ever to win three consecutive English top-flight titles, following in the footsteps of Huddersfield Town 1924-26, Arsenal 1933-35, Liverpool 1982-84 and Manchester United 1999-2001.

Changes

Sponsors

Online gambling sites are joining the traditional industries of automakers, breweries, electronics and financial institutions as team sponsors. For the 2006-07 season, there are no fewer than three internet wagering sites as new kit sponsors, joining Middlesbrough with 888.com. Here are the current lists (as of June 12, 2006) of changes:

* Arsenal will revert back to their traditional red and white home kit, but now with gold side striping on the shirt, and with Dubai-based Emirates, who also will sponsor their new stadium, as their new shirt sponsor replacing cellular provider O2.

* Aston Villa will have a new jersey sponsor, with internet betting site 32Red replacing German-based DWS Investments. Many internet posters and fans thought that the company logo for DWS actually said "COWS" because of the hexagon's placement in front of the initals. Also, white replaces yellow as the new alternate kit. A joke amongst Aston Villa fans is that 32Red's logo on the shirt has been altered, so it doesn't look like the word "BORED".

* Blackburn Rovers will also have a new jersey sponsor, with internet betting site Bet24 taking over on the front of the jersey while Lonsdale, who served as the uniform sponsor in 2005-06, remains their kit provider.

* Charlton Athletic will go into their first full season of jersey sponsorship with the Spanish financial firm Llanara, who came on board at mid-season.

* Chelsea have switched from Britain's Umbro to German adidas after the adidas-Group made an eleventh-hour bid that was higher than American-based powerhouse Nike. Electronic maker Samsung will remain sponsorship on the front of the jersey.

* Liverpool will change from Reebok to adidas as a result of their merger, as Danish brewers Carlsberg stays on the front of the jerseys.

* Everton have a new home kit made by Umbro featuring the classic diamonds down one shoulder, and will retain their sponsor, the Thai based brewer Chang.

* Fulham will have a new home kit, with Germany's Puma being replaced by French-based Airness, and their long-sleeve shirts will feature thumb holes. British internet provider Pipex will stay as the team's shirt sponsor with their new insignia.

* Manchester United will have a new home kit as US-based AIG becomes the new sponsor after celluar phone providers Vodafone stepped down.

* Reading will be in Puma kits with blue and white hoops at home and sponsorship on the front of the shirt from copying titan Kyocera.

* Sheffield United will wear le coq sportif kits with the famous red and white stripes on the shirt, and US-based credit card bankers Capital One as sponsor in the front.

* Tottenham Hotspur have switched their kit provider from Kappa to Puma and will feature a new shirt sponsor, internet based betting site mansionpoker.net replacing Thomson Holidays.

* Watford will be in yellow with Diadora kits and internet financiers Loans.co.uk as the team's shirt sponsors.

Stadia

* Arsenal moves to the larger 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium after 93 years at Highbury. The first game will be a testimonial match for Dennis Bergkamp, who retired following the 2005-06 season as Arsenal will take on Ajax, the club where Bergkamp began his career, on July 22. Highbury will be converted to luxury apartments as both the East and West stands will be retro-fitted and the newer North and South (Clock) ends will be razed to build apartments from the ground up, while the pitch will become a garden. The clock from South end will be placed in the new facility. The first Premiership match there will be against Aston Villa on August 19.

* Manchester United will have Old Trafford as a fully completed 75,000 seater stadium, with its debut a friendly against La Liga team Seville in July or August. Fulham will serve as the first Premiership visitors on August 20.

* Reading's Madejski Stadium will make its debut in the Premiership, with Middlesbrough providing the opposition in the first match there August 19.

Managers

* Newcastle United was the first to make a change as they will begin the campaign with Glenn Roeder as their manager after being named on May 16, despite not holding the required UEFA Pro Licence. [1]

* Charlton Athletic will start the season with Iain Dowie as their manager after his appointment on May 30. His first league game in charge will be away at West Ham United on August 19.

* Another person not holding a required UEFA Pro Licence will be Middlesbrough's Gareth Southgate, who was named as player-manager for the 2005-06 UEFA Cup runners-up on June 7. He will make his FA Premier League managing debut away at newly-promoted Reading on August 19.

* Aston Villa will have a new manager after the resignation of David O'Leary on July 19.

Promoted and Relegated Teams

The following teams have been promoted from the Coca Cola Championship:

* Reading (Championship 2005-06 winners and a all-time English football record 106 points earned)

* Sheffield United (Championship 2005-06 runners-up)

* Watford (Championship 2005-06 play-off winners)

The following teams have been relegated from the FA Premier League:

* West Bromwich Albion

* Birmingham City

* Sunderland (after an all-time English football record low 15 points earned in 2005-06)

Source

Barclays Premiership Fixtures 2006/2007 in full.

The teams in this season:

Arsenal | Aston Villa | Blackburn Rovers | Bolton Wanderers | Charlton Athletic | Chelsea | Everton | Fulham | Liverpool | Manchester City | Manchester United | Middlesbrough | Newcastle United | Portsmouth | Reading | Sheffield United | Tottenham Hotspur | Watford | West Ham United | Wigan Athletic

Transfer window will close on 5:00pm, 31st August. So lets begin the dicussions on the forthcoming new season fellas. As for the pole, I know Ruud van Nistelrooy's position in Manchester United is not certain, IF he leaves the votes will goto whoever will replace him.

[Martyn]

I was going to make a thread like this, but I thought I would let someone else have a go considering I did the World Cup one :p.

This season I think hopefully Liverpool will win the league, or at least mount a serious challenge. With players like Bellamy, Gonzalez (amazing player), Aurelio and Paletta coming in, as well as hopefully Alves and maybe Kuyt along with the return of God (Fowler) I would expect nothing less. Rafa Benitez has really turned Liverpool round, and is one of the best managers I have seen for a while. However, Chelsea may prove to be to strong again this year as they have bought proven class in Schevchenko and Ballack.

Michael Owen will do well to get top scorer considering he will probably not be returning to action until March :p. It would of been better if you added a relegation poll as well.

Bring on the Premiership!

[Ksg]

I have a good feeling about the season :D

It's going to be hard to get to the top and stay there but im sure utd will do well :rolleyes:

[deuz]

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiivvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpppppppppppppppppppoooooooolllll

or Liverpool :)

[Bobster]

The best league in the world! Can't wait for it! :D

COME ON YOUR IRONS!!!

[davemania]

Ruud is out of the premier league, so you might as well remove him from the poll.

Its looks like Man U is going after Fernado Torres, it would be great to see him in the :devil: uniform

[L3thal Veteran]

Pinned

[PaulCabby]

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!

I wonder how Arsene Wenger is going to play our midfield next season. With the likes of Rosicky, Ljungberg, Fabregas, Hleb and Reyes...

[Shibby]

I think next season the top is going to be fun. I think it will be between Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea. Even thou man utd is my second team i just can't see much that is improving.

I hope my dear Portsmouth do well this season. We got a few people on trial at the mo but no perm deals. Hopefully we have some great signings again before the window closes

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

Come on Reading! Suprise winners this year methinks! :p

Just kidding, I hope Arsenal will regain the crown this year, it's a shame they're reverting to the red/white kit as I was quite fond of the redcurrent version, but their new staduim looks impressive.

[ekerazha]

Manchester United is my favourite foreign team. I hope it will win the Premier League.

Then... Serie A and UEFA Champions League will be won by F.C. Inter :p

[leesmithg]

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrsenallllllllllllllllllllllllllllll, 1-0 to the Arsenaaaaallllllllll, 1-0 to the Arseeeenallllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!

Chelsea, Liverpool, Moan United, Tottenham Hotspur you can eat our dust!

[CeNoEviL]

Me thinks it is going to be a lot closer at the top this season than last! I still see Chelski just taking the title (I dont think anyone can match their spending power), but I think this year Livewrpool will mount a serious charge for the title. I think it will be Chelsea, Liverpool, Scum Utd, ###### and Spurs in the mix this season...

[Martyn]

Then... Serie A and UEFA Champions League will be won by F.C. Inter :p

May I borrow your crystal ball?

[ekerazha]

May I borrow your crystal ball?

Yeah... but maybe it is a little broken :cry:

[Crazysah]

This season I think it is Arsenal's stadium. We (I am a big Arsenal supporter, probably the biggest in India and on this forum) anyways... with the moving of the stadium and all... I think we might have a slow start but we will get into a rythm and start winning and we will make it a top 2 finish if we don't win. I think we can do well in the CL and FA Cup too.

As for other teams... I think Manchester United won't be getting a top 3 finish this season. Chelsea and Liverpool will do well.

As for the promoted teams... Reading and Watford will do well and survive and I think Sheffield will go down.

[Orange]

Arsenal :cool:

[Shibby]

I think we might have a slow start but we will get into a rythm and start winning and we will make it a top 2 finish if we don't win. I think we can do well in the CL and FA Cup too.

That is quite true, generally if someone who is in europe normallys has an ok season in the home league.

For instance liverpool had to fight for 5th place with spurs while in europe.

Middlesborough did poor in the home league but went to the ufea cup final!

[Crazysah]

I disagree. I think teams can balance it out if they have the right statergies and talent. Look at Barca... they played well in Europe as well as in the Spanish La Liga.

I think we will have a slow start because of the new stadium but we will win the first match but it will be close. Then from the second or third match we will get into a rythm.

[Martyn]

To do well in both Europe and domestically you need a very large squad. When Liverpool won the Champions League they played superbly in Europe because quite often are strongest XI started the game. Domestically though we quite often had to rest players so we could do well in Europe, and because we had a lot of injuries that season (Smicer, Gerrard, Cisse, Baros, Garcia, Traore, Morientes and Alonso were all out for extended periods of time that season) we had to play a weakened squad in the league. Now Liverpool have dramatically increased the squad depth we can fight on two fronts hopefully as now we have two good players for each position roughly.

[faraway.]

COME ON LIVERPOOL! Let's start this season well with a win over Chelsea in the Community Shield and an away win against new boys Sheffield Utd.!!!

[Xell0s-]

To do well in both Europe and domestically you need a very large squad.

Barcalona didnt have a large squad.

edit - Chel$ski have already bought the Premiership

[geek_rohit]

BBC SPORT

Van Nistelrooy returns to Man Utd

Unsettled Ruud van Nistelrooy has reported back to Manchester United for his first day of pre-season training.

The 30-year-old striker has asked to leave Old Trafford, with Real Madrid and Bayern Munich leading the chase.

Real have had a bid of about ?12m turned down, while Bayern say they have held talks with the player.

With his future unresolved, there had been speculation Van Nistelrooy would not turn up for training - but he arrived at Carrington on time.

He was joined by most of the United players who appeared at the World Cup, all of whom had been given extra time to recover from their summer exertions.

That meant the England contingent - Wayne Rooney, Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand - as well as Dutchman Edwin van der Sar and South Korea's Park Ji-Sung were there.

But manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who had ordered Van Nistelrooy to be at training, was not there himself to meet the Dutchman.

"Ruud knows to report on Monday. I expect him to be there," said Ferguson, who is expected at Carrington later in the day.

There had been reports that Ferguson would fine Van Nistelrooy two weeks' wages if he did not report in.

Instead, it seems likely that the striker will play in Wednesday's friendly against Celtic or the game against Preston at the weekend.

Ferguson had earlier revealed that Van Nistelrooy has asked to leave Old Trafford three times since May 2005.

Ruud has told us he would like to play for us next season. We have already spoken about money with him but it would be United who will finally decide

[/b]>Bayern president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

"Ruud asked away before the Arsenal FA Cup final last year, then asked away through his representative, and has now asked away himself in writing," he told the News of the World.

"Quite frankly, if he wants to leave, there really is no point trying to persuade him to stay.

"I couldn't tell you why he wants to leave or why his heart isn't in it - all I can tell you is that he has asked away and we have accepted that."

It is thought Van Nistelrooy would prefer Real Madrid but Ferguson said: "They have made an offer, we have rejected it.

"If they don't come back in and increase their offer, he won't be going and I would be content with that. It would not bother me one bit."

United are understood to want somewhere in the region of ?15-16m, with Real offering ?12m.

Bernabeu vice-president Juan Mendoza said last week: "We are not going to drive ourselves crazy trying to meet valuations that don't bear any relation to the market.

"We're about to reach the point where we break off all negotiations, even though the player clearly wants to play for us.

"It's time to make it clear to Manchester United that Real Madrid are not going to be held to ransom over exorbitant prices."

New Real boss Fabio Capello has said "there is no question that I want Van Nistelrooy" but, with doubts over the fee, Bayern seem to think they are in the driving seat.

Certainly the German club are openly admitting they have held talks with the player.

"He wants to come to us. Now the ball's in Manchester United's court," Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness told the Bundesliga club's website on Sunday.

And Bayern club president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told the Bild newspaper: "Ruud has told us he would like to play for us next season. We have already spoken about money with him but it would be United who will finally decide."

United signed Van Nistelrooy for ?19m from PSV Eindhoven in 2001.

Story from BBC SPORT:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/sport2/hi...utd/5209074.stm

Published: 2006/07/24 09:04:27 GMT

? BBC MMVI

Manchester Untied fans rejoice!!! RVN is sta:Dng :D

[Crazysah]

Nope. Bayern Munich have just upped their bid for RVN and look like they will be getting him!@

[Martyn]

Manchester Untied fans rejoice!!! RVN is staying :D

Why would you want a 30 year old player who looks like a horse, and yet does not want to play for you to stay at your club?

Edited July 24, 2006 by Martyn