Premier League 2022-23 fans’ verdicts
Premier League 2022-23 fans’ verdicts. Pic: Julian Finney/Getty Images
The best campaign in a couple of decades of underachievement. Few were tipping us for the top four, so there’s no shame in being the only club to challenge City’s dominance – particularly impressive given the continued absence of a deterrent against financial doping. There’s no escaping the sense, though, that we might be waiting a long time for a better title-winning opportunity, given our lack of cup and European distractions at the business end. The test now for Mikel Arteta is whether he can improve the squad depth enough for us to arrive in the finishing straight looking less burned out next season.
: Ramsdale, Ødegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Saliba and Zinchenko starred, but really it was a team effort. The only letdown was Vieira’s failure to grasp his opportunities. Fábio’s body language doesn’t exactly scream hunger and desire, but I’m not about to write him off just yet.
: I’ve been saying for years that we wouldn’t achieve top four so long as Xhaka remained at our fulcrum. But with Partey protecting the defence Granit moved into a more advanced role and became everybody’s darling. He saved his best season to last.
: Best were Bodø/Glimt, despite their loss. Worst? Always Spurs. Most of them were out the door long before the final whistle.
: Tony Adams on Strictly; Emiliano Martínez’s Villa own goal; Conte’s meltdown press conference; and Newcastle 6-Spurs 1.
Bernard Azulay
Since November the season has been beyond any realistic dreams. The style and the effectiveness of our football have been a delight and the strategy and tactics from a different textbook entirely. “Unai Emery” could be my first tattoo at 51 (sorry, wife and kids). He’s brought a fractured club together, taught new tricks to senior dogs like Mings and McGinn, and been beautifully humble throughout. A demonstration that hard work and great coaching can achieve almost anything. I’m very confident we’ll squeak into Europe today but, either way, the 90 versus Newcastle and the two first halves against Spurs and Liverpool will never be forgotten. Just wow.
: Douglas Luiz rightly won player of the year despite starting only two of the first seven games. Tyrone Mings ran him very close having been dropped in August. If you want a flop, then it’s the former manager. The list of heroes is long. Ramsey, Martínez, Watkins, McGinn – I could go on naming players with 8+/10 seasons.
: The change in mood. Emery mentions the “connection” with the supporters in every interview. Performances and this all-for-one spirit have aligned perfectly and the fusion is complete. Today’s Villa Park will be electric, and win or lose it will be a love-in – a mile away from the mostly bored, sometimes poisonous atmosphere last autumn.
: Everton best, Fulham worst. But really they’re all the same (and so are we) – sing when you’re winning, yawn when you’re not.
: All the players apparently shouting: “Don’t shoot,” at Bertrand Traoré in the 87th minute at Leicester, just before he smashed it into the top corner.
Jonathan Pritchard
We survived. Job done. And barely anyone but us Cherries supporters thought we would. In a season where we were the first team to change our coach, were bought by a new owner, suffered a record-equalling 9-0 defeat and couldn’t get a point for an eternity after the World Cup, that’s an incredible success. Gary O’Neil and his team deserve high praise. We’re very conscious that he lacks experience, and in many games we’ve seen him learning painfully on the job – often, it’s not been pretty. But we got there in the end, and we’re looking forward to another top-flight season.
: Jefferson Lerma, Marcus Tavernier, Phil Billing, Neto and Dom Solanke. But everyone worked their socks off. Flops: Ryan Fredericks and Junior Stanislas were both too injury-prone and barely played.
: The impact of new owner Bill Foley: ambitious, outgoing and positive. He’s building on the substantial legacy of Max Denim.
: Arsenal never stopped singing that Saliba song. The worst were Everton, abusing their own players and nearly starting a fight with some of them after the game.
: Our club social media team produced an end-of-season video compilation of all the pundits saying we would get relegated. What do so-called experts know, eh?
Jeff Hayward
Come on guys, you knew this was coming 😘 pic.twitter.com/k5L0TvqfD9
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) May 14, 2023
It’s been magnificent. I predicted, maybe optimistically, that we’d finish a place higher than last season’s 13th. Never did I think we’d thrash United, comfortably beat Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs, and be the only team to best City on their own patch. We’re still in with a shout of Europe with one game to go, so I can forgive our terrible cup runs. You know Thomas Frank is doing a grand job when the so-called big boys come sniffing. As the song goes, he knows exactly what we need.
: Ivan Toney has been the undoubted star, but Brian Mbeumo has come into his own since Toney’s absence. Ben Mee and Ethan Pinnock have been incredible at the back; Rico Henry is arguably the best left-back in the country but constantly gets overlooked for an England call-up. Flops? It’s hard to pick holes but, if I had to, Frank “the Tank” Onyeka hasn’t quite fulfilled his potential.
: Beating Man City in their own backyard. We deserved it, too. I also didn’t foresee pundit Micah Richards finally backing down and admitting we were a decent team after coating us all last season. Fair play.
: Gillingham brought loads, sang loads and celebrated their League Cup shootout win like they’d won the final. The Priestfield was one of my first away games in the 80s. It’s hard to believe we were close rivals who used to play each other every season since then, until 10 years ago. Fulham were the worst, walking out on 85 minutes when we went 3-1 up, missing Vinícius making it 3-2. A real disrespect to their players. It wasn’t as if they had far to go home either. Weird.
: Bees fans chanting “Daniel Levy we want you to stay” during the 3-1 victory at Spurs. See also “Frank Lampard we want you to stay” at Stamford Bridge.
Billy Grant
Incredible, we’re the luckiest fans in the world. Our best-ever finish, Europe for the first time, breathtaking football, a manager hailed by Guardiola as “one of the most influential in the last 20 years” and our owner, Tony Bloom, a lifelong fan who has given all the staff a 20% bonus. Brilliant, just brilliant.
: Roberto De Zerbi is a genius, he’s motivated the whole city – we’ve got loads more and better songs, and the Amex is rocking. It’s heartwarming to see so many youngsters thriving and stalwarts such as Lewis Dunk and Solly March playing out of their skins. Even when we sell players another star pops up. What a time to be alive. Nobody flopped: there probably isn’t one player who hasn’t enjoyed their best season – and it feels as if there is a lot more to come.
: Potter going to Chelsea. Why leave such a well-run outfit for such a shambles? Also, the sheer resilience has been eye-opening: bouncing back from losing 5-1 at home to Everton by beating Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates was quite something.
: The best were the City fans who clapped Julio Enciso’s wonder goal before it hit the net. The worst? Entertaining Palace gets more stressful and unpleasant every season, obnoxious lot.
: Putting six past Wolves on my 60th birthday. And the club’s De Zerbi cam on YouTube that follows him on the touchline: he’s all whistling, gestures and knee slides.
Steph Fincham
An absolute shocker that nobody saw coming. League form was a shambles; it was only the performances in Europe that saved us from total disaster. Sacking Tuchel so early was ridiculous; Potter looked good to oversee a long-term project but couldn’t manage a large squad, find his best XI or find a way through so many injuries; and Lampard was clearly hired to appease fans and put players in the shop window: there’s no other explanation for some of his team selections.
: It’s hard to pick stand-out players, but Thiago Silva was great and Kepa made big saves. Cucurella was the chief flop, constantly out of position, a £62m headless chicken. Hopefully a new manager can sort him out.
: The scale of the implosion, aided by a mad transfer policy and replacing the whole structure from the medical teams to the boardroom – it all felt like a strange business strategy from people who are supposed to be experts in their field. It tore the heart out of the club.
: Dinamo Zagreb, all in black, made an impression. The worst were West Ham: a sea of flat caps and crossed arms. Not a good look.
: Amid the gloom, Spurs, as usual, didn’t let us down. Conte’s press conference where he ripped his squad apart telling the world what we all knew was pure box office. Once a blue, always a blue.
Paul Baker in memory of Trizia Fiorellino
It’s a season of two halves. All Palace fans wanted Patrick Vieira to succeed but there was just no way back for him from the dismal cup campaigns, the run of games without a win or a shot, the joylessness and the collapse in confidence of our flair players. Roy Hodgson’s impact has been immediate: wonderful, attacking football with a team full of freedom to play to their potential and score for fun.
: It’s just a matter of time before Marc Guéhi becomes a mainstay of England’s defence. Michael Olise, Cheick Doucouré and Jordan Ayew all impressed, and then there’s Eberechi Eze: a broken man in his substitute appearance at Brighton in March, but just two months later he’s in the England squad. Édouard and Mateta still aren’t convincing up front, though.
: The return of Roy. At the time it felt like his comeback represented the failure of a project that fans had bought into – a new style and new generation. That it took Roy and Ray Lewington to make it click was something no one saw coming.
Man United were loud. Everton were silent.
: The ecstatic, unbridled celebrations at Selhurst when Mateta scored the winner against Leicester with the last kick. It was the end of a terrible run, and a win in Roy’s first game. Perfection.
Chris Waters
90+4. #CPFC | #CRYLEI pic.twitter.com/KfgSA5hiv3
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) April 1, 2023
Quite the most disastrous season. Everything that could go wrong has. A squad bereft of goals and with a suspect defence was always going to struggle. Lampard was inexplicably retained by Moshiri and the board after an aggregate two-game league and cup 7-1 loss to Bournemouth before the World Cup – and they compounded that decision by not firing him until late January. Dyche has improved results, and our destiny remains in our control, but to even be in this position says everything about the appalling manner in which the club has been run in the Moshiri era. However, a vociferous bear pit at Goodison today will see the fans dragging the club over the line for the second successive season.
: Pickford has excelled and, in my opinion, is the best keeper in the league by some distance. Honourable mention to McNeil in recent weeks. Too many flops, Maupay particularly.
Biggest surprise: The board’s decision to vilify their own fanbase, and the regular feed of pro-board, anti-fan messages in favoured print media.
: Brighton were best, great to see a club being rewarded for doing things well. Newcastle fans the worst, for just being Newcastle fans.
: Has to be Ben Godfrey winding up Haaland at the Etihad. Haaland lost it and ran away after a crude tackle on Mykolenko.
The Esk
Many “experts” tipped us for relegation, so a comfortable 10th is superb. Marco Silva alone deserves – with maybe half a point docked for those Old Trafford shenanigans.
: Most have improved immeasurably under Silva (and Boa Morte), notably Tim Ream and Kenny Tete, and the team ethic and spirit was evident from the off as we gave Liverpool a real fright. João Palhinha patrolled midfield magnificently, Bernd Leno kept goal with authority, Andreas Pereira and Willian added application to their skills. Few disappointed, but Mbabu and Chalobah didn’t shine. Top of the flops has to be the appalling use of VAR (Variously Applied Rules). So much for “clear and obvious”; and so much for a coherent and uniform approach. Ironically, the plethora of camera angles has just served to highlight the different assessments of similar incidents, often on the same day.
: Was our squad being so competitive. Newcastle and Arsenal were setbacks, but otherwise we were a match for anyone. And that included City, who needed some generous interpretations of the rules in both games. Less surprising, alas, is the hike in ticket prices for next season at a time when many are finding it tough.
: Sunderland fans made a lot of noise. Villa’s didn’t.
: Finishing above Chelsea for the first time since 1983, aided by Carlos Vinícius’s headed winner against them at the Cottage. Having initially struggled as Mighty Mitro’s stand-in, he grew in confidence after that cult-hero moment.
David Lloyd
People could write studies on how Leeds surged to the top, threatening to gatecrash the established elite with a thrilling team, only to throw it all away in two short seasons. Or they can just update the studies already written on Leeds United 2002-2004 with new chapters about blowing it again, in 2021‑2023. Nothing about Marcelo Bielsa makes it impossible for a club to build upon what he leaves, but everything about the way Leeds have been run has ruined what he did for us. The board hired the wrong coach, Jesse Marsch, then bought the wrong players for the wrong tactics. I don’t think it’s coincidence that we’re going down with Southampton, both looking at our Red Bull playbooks with buyer’s remorse. Even if we stay up today – it’s unlikely! – that won’t disguise the failure.
Wilf Gnonto turned out to be a wonderkid, only signed on deadline day with the club in a flap after loaning Dan James to Fulham to make room for Cody Gakpo (lol). Tyler Adams was good enough, and if he wasn’t injured we might have got to safety. Lots of flops, but Weston McKennie redefined letdown.
: This season is absolute trademark Leeds United Football Club. Not surprised by any of it.
: Palace were best, because they seemed too surprised about winning 5-1 to gloat much. Manchester City were humdrum.
: A power surge knocked out VAR comms just after kick-off against Arsenal at Elland Road. Twenty minutes of blissful lo-tech confusion followed. Switching it off then on again was as good a tactic as any Leeds tried this season.
Daniel Chapman
I truly think ours will go down as the most shameful relegation in Premier League history. Unbelievable levels of hubris, dither and delusion have turned a comfortably top-half squad into the most pathetic bunch of whipping boys I’ve seen in my 20 years as a season-ticket holder. A more activist fanbase would have turned Filbert Way into the toxic cauldron the club deserves.
: At a push, Nampalys Mendy turned out to be less crap than the rest of them. Flops? Literally everyone else.
: I genuinely thought we’d be comfortable in mid-table this season. What shocked me most about the club is just how deep the rot of complacency had set in. From the players to managers to the board and even the media covering the club, all of them hold a significant share of culpability for this calamity.
: I couldn’t tell you who the best were – I was too busy staring off into the distance contemplating the abyss on the many occasions we’ve been turned over at home. The worst were Nottingham Forest, because we don’t like them.
: The arrival of the new Big Strong Leicester Boys podcast, fronted by Jake Watson, was a rare positive - some real catharsis there. A sorely needed refuge for fans.
Chris Whiting
Until our run of eight wins in nine we’d been pretty inconsistent – 9-0 against Bournemouth and 7-0 against United tempered by below-par performances, defeats and listless draws. But the past couple of months have seen us get back to what we’ve come to expect and for every low, we’ve had multiple highs. The boss has had a rocky time of it too, obviously, but anyone doubting him needs a rethink. We didn’t challenge for the title, as we thought we would, but that’s football. That’s life, as Jürgen would say.
: Alisson has been immense. Without him we’d have finished in a lower position for sure. Mo Salah. Again. He’s scored over 20 goals and made numerous assists. Bobby Firmino was at his superlative best at the start of the season, until injury, and Stefan Bajcetic at just 18 was a star in midfield – looking forward to his return next season. A sometimes collective loss of form from some players, including our big names, added to a strange season. See below.
: The way we struggled at times, particularly away. Reams have been written as to why: loss of form, lack of investment, injuries, burnout from last season … We’ve probably witnessed the end of an era and are now looking to rebuild. But it hasn’t all been bad, we’ve had some great performances and good times along the way.
: Forest were brilliant. A group of them paid their respects and laid flowers at both the Heysel and Hillsborough memorials and once in Anfield unfurled a huge banner that read: “Respect the 97. Solidarity with Survivors. No to Tragedy Chanting.” Arsenal, too, for their honouring of the minute’s silence for the 97. The worst, all those who continue with vile chants mocking the dead and those in poverty. Shame on you.
Bobby scoring against Villa was ace. But the biggest win was publication of Uefa’s independent inquiry into the horrors in Paris at the Champions League final which, thanks to many, but particularly Spirit of Shankly, exonerated Liverpool supporters from all blame.
Steph Jones
It’s been phenomenal. I don’t think any City fan thought in early February that we’d be on for the treble. It looked like a season of transition, even with Haaland. But this has been one of Pep’s greatest triumphs, second only to the 2020-21 season when he constructed a title-winning team without a striker – which was properly ridiculous. It’s all been about him; the money is obviously a huge factor, but I think rival fans are realising he is the difference.
Haaland has obviously been the star, he’ll go from strength to strength. But I think most City fans would agree Rodri and Aké are comfortably second and third place for our POTY. De Bruyne, Grealish and Stones/Dias all deserve admirable mentions, but the unfancied duo are well-deserving of their top three slots.
The turnaround in form since that loss at Spurs in early February, and the Premier League charges that dropped the following day. We looked really disjointed at the time – Arsenal were imperious – and we’d just shipped a sulky Cancelo off to Bayern without a replacement. Most of our key players were struggling to recover their form and fitness after the World Cup. But Pep again proved himself an absolute genius of a coach and a brilliant man-motivator, too. His press conference immediately after the charges genuinely made my hair stand on end, seeing the pride with which he talked about the club. His club.
Leeds were best. I wanted them to stay up … before Big Sam. Worst? Surprisingly, Liverpool.
smile Away from City, watching Brighton has been an absolute joy. They play such daring and exciting football under De Zerbi and have a wealth of good young players. From a selfish point of view, I hope we can sign a couple in the summer.
Lloyd Scragg
It’s been mixed: we played some good football but also fell apart spectacularly at times, taking some heavy losses on the road. But losing Casemiro, Varane, Rashford, Eriksen, Martínez and Garnacho at critical times was unlucky. Ten Hag impressed, dealing swiftly with the Ronaldo sideshow, dropping the captain and improving the likes of Rashford, Shaw and Wan Bissaka. He now knows who he can rely on, and I expect the likes of Maguire, Martial, De Gea and possibly Sancho to follow Phil Jones out the door. He’s going to need several transfer windows to turn us into title challengers, but it’s been a good start.
Martínez defended like his life was on the line and his tacking and passing out from the back has been incredible. He has this natural ability to sniff out danger: our best signing for years. Rashford is fulfilling the potential we all knew he had and the emergence of Garnacho has been wonderful: a real match-winner for the future. Sancho, though, hasn’t matched his big reputation or price: a winger who won’t take players on. I just can’t see how he succeeds in this team.
It’s been a long old road but after 18 years we’re finally getting rid of our parasitic owners.
: West Ham brought big numbers for a televised midweek game in the FA Cup and were noisy throughout. Worst were Liverpool: not a peep out of them until they scored in the 81st minute.
Ten Hag’s dad-dancing at Wembley.
Shaun O’Donnell
"You should resign after that." 🤣
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) February 26, 2023
Roy Keane shares his thoughts on Erik ten Hag's dancing 🕺 pic.twitter.com/gCJKlReB1A
Fans hoped we’d build on last season’s extraordinary turnaround, but not many expected what we got: a first cup final since 1999 and a season in the top four. The football is some of the best since the Keegan or Robson eras, and Eddie Howe deserves the plaudits. He’s brought world-beating performances out of pre-takeover signings such as Schär, Joelinton and Willock, and created a fearsome team spirit.
: There were stars all over, from graceful striker Alexander Isak, midfield fulcrum Bruno Guimarães and ever-smiling sprinter Miguel Almirón to powerhouse Sven Botman, cult hero Dan Burn and our indefatigable leader, Kieran Trippier. Flops? Ryan Fraser ended up training with the under-21s and faces an uncertain future. For a player of his talent, that’s a waste.
The reinvention of Sean Longstaff. The local lad’s form dipped alarmingly under Steve Bruce and some fans got on his back. But under Howe he has established himself as integral to the high-press tactic. He deserves a nice lie down on a beach after the graft he’s put in.
: The best were the Spurs fans who endured their 6-1 drubbing and stayed to the end. The worst were the Spurs fans who abandoned their team 21 minutes in. Though you have to have some sympathy…
: The great reception given to our women’s side at half-time at our game against Brighton after their National League Division One North title win. It’s great to see such progress throughout the club.
David and Richard Holmes
It’s worked out OK in the end, hasn’t it? At the start and mid-points I said 17th would be a victory, anything else would be a bonus, so I’m delighted. Stevie Cooper is either the greatest conman of all time or he’s genuinely a brilliant coach and wonderful human being. The owner rightly realised Cooper’s the glue that bound the club and fans together for the last 18 months and stuck by him. It was all a bit hairy for a while, but it’s a for me.
: Morgan Gibbs-White looks a steal at £30m. Apparently survival stuck an extra £5m on the price, but we won’t pay the quoted £42.5m unless we qualify for the Champions League. Are Wolves fans still laughing now? But the beating heart of our team is Ryan Yates: homegrown and a Forest fan. We look so much more competitive when he is fit. Jesse Lingard didn’t work out, though – at least on the pitch. His personality and demeanour make him popular, but he never looked fully fit and made only a fleeting contribution.
We knew we needed 15 or so signings but got twice as many. Some actively made the squad worse. But even then we were carrying up to 12 injuries at a time for half the season, so the 25-man squad was stretched.
: Surprisingly I was most impressed with Man United – vocal, good-humoured, passionate. Credit also to Brighton for a good and loud following for a long midweek journey. Worst were Wolves: they can give it but they couldn’t take it when Gibbs-White beat them in the Carabao Cup shootout.
: Cooper screaming into the sky at the end of the game that secured our safety. Did I mention that I love him?
Rich Ferraro
We did it. pic.twitter.com/VLhpckYZLY
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) May 20, 2023
Where to begin?! An absolute train wreck from start to finish. Many argued for the sacking of Ralph Hasenhüttl either during the summer or at various points until he was eventually shown the door in November. If those people had been told who his replacement would be they might have kept their counsel. The absolute bin fire that was Nathan Jones’s tenure came and went in a few months amid ludicrous press conferences and nonexistent tactics. Rubén Sellés then got two wins in his first three, but none since, so essentially all three have failed miserably. is being generous.
: Not many stars, really. Roméo Lavia has been a standout for most of the season, Ward-Prowse hit yet more free-kick goals, and there’s been a surprise renaissance for Theo Walcott, but other than that, it’s thin gruel. Both keepers were terrible (one has the excuse of being 21, the other very much doesn’t). Meanwhile, we’ve been impotent up front, which naturally makes a winning combination.
Spending big without selling first to finance it. The only problem is it was mostly squandered, and we failed to get the centre-forward who might have seen us safe in what must be an all-time low-quality Premier League bottom half.
: Wolves fans seem to have a bit of beef with us for reasons best known to them, so their second-half turnaround at St Mary’s after spending an hour a man down was pretty loud (and put us out of our Jones misery). Most teams who have come to St Mary’s have left happy, although most of the games have blended into one by now so it’s difficult to pick out any particularly poor away crowds.
Jones’s unhinged post-match press conference after defeat at Brentford. Fortunately he only lasted another week, but that was pretty funny in a “laugh at yourself so it doesn’t feel so painful” kind of way.
Steve Grant
The season went exactly how it was always destined to go even if I spent the first half of it believing it would all work out in the end. Three managers, no identity, plenty of discontent. Conte the consultant imploded because he wasn’t really suited for us. A case of him making no concessions and Spurs appointing a coach for a quick fix without the necessary tools to achieve one. Again. , considering how hyped I was at the end of last season.
: Harry Kane. Obviously. Broke the Jimmy Greaves record: he’s our best forward, our best midfielder too. He’s rendered superlatives redundant. A modern-day tragedy that the past four years have been stagnant while Harry continues to define greatness. As for flops? I prefer “disappointments”. Factor in injuries, lack of rotation – Bissouma, Richarlison, Kulu, Bentancur too. We’ve had a rough time of it. Son’s form was, at times, tragic.
: Even though you always expect things to go wrong, I didn’t quite see us collapsing to this current numb state of apathy. I predicted Champions League but instead we have a fragmented fanbase, no design or leadership from the board, possibly no European football, three “managers” in a season and the awkward persistence of playing two in the middle. Oh yeah, and no recognisable philosophy. COYS, Daniel.
: Champions League nights are usually great because the away fans seem more interested in singing and chanting than interacting organically with the game, so that was always a pleasant soundtrack to distract from the lack of rhythm on the pitch. Worst fans? Arsenal. Why? Why not? Anyone singing about north London when they originate from Plumstead playing under the guise of Woolwich gets my vote every time.
I could write a book off the back of all the Spursy things that fizzled with bitter flavour across the season. However, Emerson Royal’s no-look pass résumé is unparalleled. I’ll add that I really like Emerson: him going from scapegoat to pretty decent right-back is heartwarming in a season of cold snaps.
Spooky
Our first European final since 1976. For success-starved fans it’s massive. At times Moyes’s counterattacking tactics looked outmoded and a £160m spend produced a relegation fight – though injuries to Aguerd, Scamacca, Paquetá and Zouma didn’t help. But Moyesy got results in the must-win games and credit to the board for sticking with him. Our near exemplary record in the Europa Conference has been underestimated; he deserves another crack at the job next season. Let’s see what he can do with Paquetá settled in and a fit Scamacca – though much will depend on how the money for Rice is spent.
: Declan Rice is our best player since Bobby Moore. Even though he’s probably off he’s given it everything and is still humble. It would be fantastic to see him join Moore and Bonds in lifting a trophy. Paquetá has provided memorable moments of showboating while Antonio has done well to see off the striking competition. Jarrod Bowen was more on fire after the World Cup break and Benrahma also had a mainly decent season. Flops include the hard-working but off-form Soucek, £35m Scamacca and Maxwel Cornet, who had a bad injury, but looked nothing like the player he was at Burnley.
Combining a relegation struggle with a European final. Pablo Fornals’s late winner against AZ Alkmaar will never be forgotten.
: Best were Leeds for noisily backing their losing side while dressed as nuns and Big Sam, which takes courage. Most overconfident were Arsenal for singing: “Are you in Tottenham in disguise?” and: “You’re going down,” only to see their 2-0 lead pegged back and their title bid derailed.
: Chelsea gave us fantastic comedy value by spending £600m but forgetting to sig a striker and then reappointing Everton reject Frank Lampard. Just hope they can stay up next season.
Pete May
Up to Christmas it would be 1/10 on the basis we were bottom but just about still breathing. Since Julen Lopetegui came in, though, it’s been closer to an 8. We escaped relegation with three games to spare and enjoyed a couple of fine victories. He’s been excellent and must be retained at all costs. So overall, for the season,.
: Rúben Neves kept us afloat in those horrible early months and made key contributions throughout. Craig Dawson and Mario Lemina were vital January additions. Matheus Nunes has to be a flop given what we paid for him and the expectations about what he’d bring, but he did produce a couple of big moments to help keep us up, including the goal of the season against Chelsea.
The January splurging. The owners have been notoriously stingy mid-season and always retained a very lean squad. This time they recognised the desperate need for reinforcements and that business was the difference. All six players contributed in some way.
: Leeds are the best and worst. Really loud and annoying. And yes, I am being salty because they’ve inflicted a couple of painful defeats in recent years.
: The reaction to Big Sam’s arrival at Leeds with four games to go. Especially one fan commenting: “Give him the next two but make sure there’s a replacement lined up for the run-in.”
Thomas Baugh
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