Scouts and Koeman ...

Nah top 10 imo

West Ham will be in the top half this season after some good signings.

I fancy Everton to be back in the top 10 too.

Saints to finish between 11th and 16th.

It's not just Koeman, Saints have been good at this for some time. Swansea have also been good at picking the odd quality player who makes all the difference.

However, Villa haven't been that bad. Benteke, Vlaar were good buys. Bacuna and Gil are decent players. I've a feeling Kozak will prove to be a good one. Our trouble is that we sign a load of dross to go with them. Hopefully with a better scouting setup and a change in direction at the top that will stop.

One thing that Southampton, Swansea and us have in common, we don't throw loads of money at transfers. Every transfer is calculated.

comment by MARLO STANFIELD. Can you fly... (U7553)
posted 2 minutes ago
West Ham will be in the top half this season after some good signings.

I fancy Everton to be back in the top 10 too.

Saints to finish between 11th and 16th.
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Stoke, Palace, Swansea and Everton to finish in top 10 for me.
West Ham will probably fall away in 2nd half of the season.

Agree with all of that DJ except I'd have the 'Ammers in there instead of Swansea.

Have this feeling that they will be similar to Saints next season.

The Swans have purchased well but I see them finishing between 11th-14th. The honeymoon period is over for Monk, it's time to see if he can replicate his impressive 1st season.

No offence to Southampton but as a Villa fan it's so annoying seeing smaller clubs getting in players who would significantly improve us like Clasie. Saints will no doubt finish above us next season and in a position where we would love to be, in and around Europe.

Having said that, Sherwood does seem to be taking us in the right direction and the signings so far have been decent - but we still need a few more signings of the right quality if we are to enjoy a comfortable season without any relegation worries.

Whatever happened to football being unpredictable?

Top six already sorted: (in no order) ManC, ManU, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spu-ds, the Mousers.

Most people reckon Swansea, WHU, Saints, Everton, Stoke and Palace could do well.

That's the top 12 places sorted out.

Watford and either Norwich or BMouth in the bottom three.

If thats how it actually goes, the only 'competition' is between the remaining 6 teams playing for the last relegation place!

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Agree but it's still frustrating.

Villa have the fan base, the stadium, the big city, the history - the last five years have been diabolical but we do have the infrastructure to be a successful team on the pitch.

Southampton were in League One five years ago.

I guess you can't take anything for granted in football any more.

It's frustrating. But in a way Southampton and Swansea benefited through dropping through the divisions. When they bottomed out both teams put a sound development plan in place. It worked. What you see now is the culmination of years of good club management, and an up to date approach. As a result they deserve to be where they are.

We're actually not in a bad place. We have the resources to do a similar job without dropping down to League 1. The problem we've had is a weak, misguided approach from the top. MON going was a blow, but actually I think the Houllier appointment was a good one; if his health hadn't broken down he'd have reformed the way the club worked and we wouldn't have had the problems over the last 4 years. I'm convinced we'd never have dropped out of the top 10. But when he went the result was a shambles, no planning, just a hope that we could survive on minimal resources.

I hope that period is now over. There's evidence of very serious planning going on. The first task is to make sure the club is on a stable basis, which translates to being comfortably clear of relegation. That provides a basis on which we can build. There's no certainty at all about how we'll do this season, but at the moment I'm opting for optimism.

The one thing you can say about the PL as a whole is that there are no certainties at all. All predictions are based on notions of how strong clubs are. The reality can be and indeed will be quite different.

One factor is that the newly-promoted clubs apart there's virtually no weak clubs in the PL. That means that the top teams are going to find it tougher than ever to maintain their positions; expect surprises. The team to win the PL will be the one who consistently gets results week after week against weaker but not that weak opposition. My bet is Chelsea, again.