Smelly McUgly":2gmamjbq said:
You are surely right because you know much more about this stuff than I do. When I made that post, I was specifically thinking that they could catch Everton for seventh and a potential Europa spot with the right transfers this summer. Everton finished about fifteen points ahead of them, IIRC, but they are probably shipping out Ross Barkley and possibly also Romelu Lukaku. The thing is that Everton has a massive transfer budget this summer IIRC even before sales of Barkley and Lukaku, but there's the chance they don't spend it properly.
And of course, for Bournemouth to pass Southampton and remain above the Watfords and Stokes of the league seems reasonable.
But yeah, this was the first full season I've watched, so it's extremely likely that I'm talking out of my behind, too and that I don't yet understand what it takes to move up the table like that.
It's the most competitive league in the world, which makes it the most entertaining. Not always the best product on the field, and as European competition has shown of late, nowhere near the best teams in the world.
This season really showed a massive gap in the qualities of the top, middle and bottom. I mean the gap between first and forth was 17 points. it's more of a spending gap at this point than anything else, and not just on players. The coaches at the top of the league are bigger names than many of the players.
It shows no signs of letting up either. However, for every season we get like this, you'll occasionally get a Leicester story.
Now, in terms of Bournemouth and Everton, you are absolutely correct. While they have been a consistent top 8 team the last few years, Barkley and Lukaku could be off and depending on how the Bitters spend their money, it could certainly leave them prone to dropping. Southampton is also prone to losing their best players (Van Djik is certainly off to a bigger club) and also could slip. So not as out of reach as I may have suggested.