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By kind permission of Four Four Two magazine....



Sheebo

Well-known member
Jul 13, 2003
29,297




Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,786
West west west Sussex
Spot on. Clueless predictions which I'll admit made me chuckle when I first saw them on here a couple of months back. Ignore some of the sensitive clowns on here who won't acknowledge some of your sensible points.

Do me a favour, he'll be spot on with 90% of what he's said there. That's nothing to do with counting chickens - he's hardly saying we're as good as promoted already is he.

If you or anybody else thinks he's being embarrassingly optimistic and taking things for granted by proclaiming that we will finish in the top half, can you please just say so? Just so that we know what your own position is when you laugh at him for doing so.
The point is it's the Championship.
We're not talking City, Chelsea, Utd then Arsenal here, we're talking about a division that has Bournemouth as the current title holders.
Plus another transfer window.

So I'll not be laughing down my sleeve at 4-4-2 after just 8 games, although as you say when this was last on here I think most of us chuckled at our 23rd place.
I'll certainly not be predicting the table either.

Just so you can all point and laugh come May, I will say I don't think the Albion will be in the play offs, which, a la 4-4-2, could be amazingly stupid if Tony decides to spent that £10m striker fund.
I think they could finish anywhere between 9th and 15th separated by 4 points.
Who those other 7 teams might be I haven't got a clue. (Pretty much the position a fair few of NSC would have settled for on 01.08.15)

That's why we should all love and enjoy the Championship, before it gets too predictable and corrupted by the Sky money trickle down.
 


el punal

Well-known member
That's not the point though. I can understand nobody predicting the likes of BMuff to go up but I think we were all a bit suprised at their lack of faith / knowledge on the Albion and our Summer signings (who seemed promising at the time). Piss poor from 442 - give them pelters - I've tweeted them a few times asking what month our relegation will be confirmed. Long way top go but we are not going down I'm almost certain of that!
My view regarding Bournemouth as unexpected champions was prompted by the fact that the "big boys" in the league failed to fulfill their potential. I fully expected teams like Middlesbough (although they did reach the play-offs), Derby, Nottm.Forest and even Fulham to be challenging for promotion. On the other hand, this time last year, I never would have thought that we would be in a relegation struggle right to the end of the season.

It goes to show that the Championship is a wonderful, crazy league. You predict at your peril.
 




Leyton Gull

Banned
Sep 14, 2015
411
After 8 games last season Bournemouth had one more point than the Albion. 9.

Really! I AM surprised. In fact I don't believe you. If you are right that means Wolves might indeed win the title. Obviously we don't seem to want to if the Wolves game is anything to go by.
 




AZ Gull

@SeagullsAcademy Threads: @bhafcacademy
Oct 14, 2003
11,754
Chandler, AZ
Really! I AM surprised. In fact I don't believe you. If you are right that means Wolves might indeed win the title. Obviously we don't seem to want to if the Wolves game is anything to go by.

He's right, you know:-

LeagueTable.jpg
 


SweatyMexican

Well-known member
Mar 31, 2013
4,101
The point is it's the Championship.
We're not talking City, Chelsea, Utd then Arsenal here, we're talking about a division that has Bournemouth as the current title holders.
Plus another transfer window.

So I'll not be laughing down my sleeve at 4-4-2 after just 8 games, although as you say when this was last on here I think most of us chuckled at our 23rd place.
I'll certainly not be predicting the table either.

Just so you can all point and laugh come May, I will say I don't think the Albion will be in the play offs, which, a la 4-4-2, could be amazingly stupid if Tony decides to spent that £10m striker fund.
I think they could finish anywhere between 9th and 15th separated by 4 points.
Who those other 7 teams might be I haven't got a clue. (Pretty much the position a fair few of NSC would have settled for on 01.08.15)

That's why we should all love and enjoy the Championship, before it gets too predictable and corrupted by the Sky money trickle down.

I know we've only got last season's perspective to compare this season to, but I've been really impressed by some of our performances this season. The first 30 minutes at Fulham were some of the best football I've seen Brighton play, easily, since we got promoted.

In some of the last few games, I keep coming away from the ground thinking "we won, but I don't think we've seen our best yet". This to me shows championship qualities that I think will see us much higher up the table than a 9th - 15th finish. Don't forget, in our first season we finished 10th, but I don't think that team was as good as our current one. Not by a long shot.

It's all a game of opinions, but I think if we can play into our potential which I think this side has, I see no reason why a solid play off position isn't on the cards. I'm usually quite a reserved Brighton supporter, but I think we've got something about us this year.
 








NooBHA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2015
8,584
I keep their predictions each year and their accuracy rate is not good, but to be fair, as you write, it must be hellishly difficult to predict really before any transfer activity has been started, let alone concluded. It's a bit of fun and wise not to take it too seriously, and I am sure that most don't. In their defence, how many of us really anticipated the start we have had, and at the end of last season CH did receive much flak for the poor finish after an initial hopeful burst last Xmas, so perhaps a prediction of bottom half may not seem so fanciful.

I think I disagree with the last statement........Its like being a weather forecaster and saying its going to snow and the sun ends up coming out all day.

The magazine is a specialist football magazine. For such an article trying to predict the positions of the following year I admit is very difficult; however, a journalist should be doing research for such an article and trying to find out who is likely to be spending money and who is not. That's not an easy thing to do but good journalists CAN do it. On the other hand, LAZY journalists just sit at their desk and guess.

Or maybe they used some sort of computer prediction based on previous years stats(taking into account of course promoted and relegated clubs) - If that was the case, then they should have made that clear what they had done.
 






Mo Gosfield

Well-known member
Aug 11, 2010
6,285
Still have no idea why they thought Wolves would win it when you look at clubs with decent managers who had spent much more. It's not like Wolves were that good last season and have they strengthened that much??

What would be the thinking behind that prediction other than "wishful"?


When FourFourTwo went to press they already knew that Bakary Sako ( Wolves best player ) had gone. The subsequent loss of Dicko was a big blow, that the magazine couldn't have foreseen but they seemed to pin all their hopes on Afobe and Jed Wallace ( in from Pompey )
They go on to say that..." there is an argument to be made that Jackett is the best manager in the division "....I think you will find that most people working within the game agree that KJ is very good for two seasons but then his teams seem to tail off and he struggles to lift them.
Could be third season syndrome at Wolves for Jackett.
 


Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
They go on to say that..." there is an argument to be made that Jackett is the best manager in the division "....I .

Really?? Can someone remind me how many teams he has taken out of this division and how high his teams have finished in the Championship. Best manager in the division, I'd like to know the thinking behind that. Was the writer a Wolves fan perchance?

Not saying he's not a decent manager but I could never consider him the best in the division.

If the argument revolves around overall (not Championship) win statistics you could argue that Steve Cotterill is the best in the division, Simon Grayson is also up there :smile:

http://www.managerstats.co.uk/championship/
 
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NooBHA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2015
8,584
Really?? Can someone remind me how many teams he has taken out of this division and how high his teams have finished in the Championship. Best manager in the division, I'd like to know the thinking behind that. Was the writer a Wolves fan perchance?

Not saying he's not a decent manager but I could never consider him the best in the division.

If the argument revolves around overall (not Championship) win statistics you could argue that Steve Cotterill is the best in the division, Simon Grayson is also up there :smile:

http://www.managerstats.co.uk/championship/

Those statistics are not actually accurate for the Championship. They obviously don't take account of managers stats when they were at other clubs.

I actually like Kenny Jacket. He is a good manager but he tends to hit the ground running and then after a few years he sort of runs out of ideas.

I think he knows the lower divisions really well but I don't think he has the right connections within the game to find the players that can get his teams to the Premiership. The same applies to his scouting team. I think they know the lower divisions very well but they cant really identify the players it takes to buy at affordable prices that will just have that little bit extra to get out of the Championship.

Kenny is also a bit of a gentleman in terms of as a person. Why the hell he and Ian Holloway are best of friends is beyond me. They are like chalk and cheese as people
 


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