Season Review - English Premier League

10 – Newcastle United

Ok. 10th place finish. Decent Enough right? Wrong.

When Newcastle offered Pardew a six year contract, most of them lauded the decision because they thought that Pardew would bring stability to the club and avoid chaos. Oh the Irony.

Newcastle’s first half of the season was memorable. They defeated Manchester United at Old Trafford (well, who didn’t?) and ended 2013 with victories over Palace and Stoke. And, after that, they lost 13 games from the remaining 18.

Then began the chaos. Pardew began headbutting players, abusing people and antagonizing the fans. He sold his best player and benched the next best.

Pardew has lost it and he needs to go feel Newcastle supporters. But, Mike Ashley, the owner of the club who is famous for ‘losing it’ has decided that Pardew will stay. How interesting!

9 – Stoke City

Stoke City were one of the odds on favorites to get relegated this season. They had one set of players who know how to play in a certain way and a manager who wanted to play in another way.

But, Hughes did pull a surprise. He made them play decent football and made Charlie Adam score. He deserved the LMA award just for the last thing in my opinion.

8 – Southampton

Their fans claim that they are the Barcelona of England (Or, the Swansea City of this season). Mauricio Pochettino still maintains that he can’t speak in English to the press and media because he can’t convey his thoughts properly.

But, his team is doing okay. They are going to make a truck load of money. Shaw will be sold, Lallana will follow suit. What about Pochettino himself? Tottenham is looking likely. So, what is the point in talking about them? They are going to get relegated next season.

7 – Manchester United

Manchester United had a season to forget

Oh. Where do I begin?

Murphy’s Law states that Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. And, that is what happened at Manchester United.

The same team sans Fellaini, Januzaj and Mata were crowned as the English Champions in April, 2013. And how the mighty have fallen.

Let us for a minute assume that David Moyes is indeed a fine manager and leave all the tactics out of it. Start with the summer transfer window. Cesc Fabregas. Really? Do you really expect Fabregas to leave his boyhood club in just 2 seasons to come back and play for David Moyes?

And, the Ander Herrera fiasco. And United ended up paying way more than the buyout clause for Fellaini.

Alex Ferguson claimed that he would kick Liverpool off their perch and he wanted the media to print that. David Moyes aspired to play like Manchester City. The Fundamental Difference.

Januzaj, an 18 year old skinny kid is the team’s single biggest winger and that should say a lot about how bad United were. Moyes signed Mata and admitted that he had no idea where to play him.

United this year made you wonder how Sir Alex made people like Young, Cleverley and Valencia play football. Like I said, anything that could go wrong did go wrong for United.

6 – Tottenham Hotspur

I don’t know if Spurs know this or not but this is the truth – A selling club can never win the League. Carrick, Berbatov, Keane, Bale and Modric. All 5 their best players and all five sold.

In an entirely Football Manager inspired manner, Daniel Levy splashed around 100 million in buying players from different leagues and assembled them together. It might’ve worked in FM but not here.

The sad thing is, Tottenham never learn from their mistakes. Year after year, it is the same story. They want to be the Champions but play like a relegation threatened team especially against the Top – 4 teams.

Their conceded 23 goals and scored only one against the Top 3.

Sherwood is going and he had to go. He had no philosophy and just expected his team to win. They need a Manager who has the balls to tell Levy to shut it.