Sea, Sea, Seasiders!

Little did I imagine when I wrote this post on the demise of Burnley Football Club less than a month ago, that they would be immediately replaced in the Premier League by their Lancashire neighbours, Blackpool, who won a sparkling Championship play-off match with Cardiff City this afternoon at Wembley.

So, clubs based within the County Palatine once again comprise 40% of the teams making up the Premier League.

Many congratulations to Ian Holloway and his team. I suspect they will be partying even harder than usual in Blackpool tonight; and that's saying something...

Football predictions...How did I do 2009-2010?

Before I venture into the murkier waters of the General Election, it’s time for me to hold my self-styled football pundit status up to potential public ridicule once again.

I posted this article last August 18th, giving my assessment of who would finish in which position in the English Premier League at the end of the 2009 – 2010 football season.

I have reproduced my predictions below, and put the actual positions the teams finished in alongside them in red, for ease of comparison.

Starting with the good (for me) news, I’m pleased to see that I correctly called that Chelsea would win this year’s title, closely followed by United in second place and that I also correctly called three out of the top four, with Arsenal who I had finishing fourth, actually finished third.

I also correctly called two out of the three teams to be relegated, having put the hex on both Burnley and Portsmouth. I didn’t get their final positions exactly right, but, as Meatloaf observed, two out of three ain’t bad; particularly when the third team I tipped for the drop, Wolves, only just survived, whilst Hull, who I thought would survive, disappeared through the relegation trap door by a relatively narrow margin.

Other than that, I was spot on with Man City in fifth, one out (either way) with the final positions I predicted for four clubs (Wigan, Bolton, Fulham and Portsmouth), two out (for better or worse) with five other clubs (Blackburn, Burnley, Villa, Hull and Everton) and three out with how I thought Spurs would do (for the better in their case) and Sunderland (for the worse in theirs).

Not too dusty then, so far…

But then I haven’t mentioned my wildly inaccurate predictions for Birmingham, who finished seven places above the one I thought they’d finish in, West Ham, who finished eight places lower, narrowly avoiding relegation, and Liverpool, in respect of whom I was over generous by four places.

Anyway, here is the evidence: judge fo yourself…


1. Chelsea Chelsea
2. Manchester Utd Manchester Utd
3. Liverpool Arsenal
4. Arsenal Spurs

5. Manchester City Manchester City
6. Everton Aston Villa
7. Spurs Liverpool

8. Aston Villa Everton
9. West Ham Birmingham
10. Sunderland Blackburn Rovers
11. Fulham Stoke
12. Blackburn Rovers Fulham
13. Bolton Wanderers Sunderland
14. Stoke City Bolton
15. Wigan Athletic Wolves
16. Birmingham City Wigan
17. Hull City West Ham

18. Wolves Burnley
19. Portsmouth Hull City
20. Burnley Portsmouth

I'm sure the non-football fans amongst you (those who are still actually reading!) will be ecstatic to learn that I'll be back to this subject in August, to do it all over again for the 2010-11 season...

But before I finally sign off on my prognostications for this season, let me offer one more thought. Sadly, England won't win the World Cup this summer; anyone care to differ?