Your club 2021/22 did it reach your expectations

[foxes1]

Well apart from a couple of finals the season has come to a close. Were you happy with your clubs season.
Overall my club Leicester eventually finished 8th so missed out on Europe for next season, but am quite happy with 8th.
We won the community shield at Wembley pre-season so have something to show for it.
Our games in Europe didn't go as expected the Europa league was a disappointment so we ended up in the Europa conference league, but managed to reach the semi-finals getting knocked out by the eventual winners, at least I managed to get to some more European grounds in Warsaw, Naples, Randers, Rennes, Eindhoven and Rome.
So overall not to bad.

[pastpirate]

At the start of the season I expected a mid table finish for Rovers.
In December I would have taken 3rd from bottom.
All season we were never in the top 3. 5 mins from the end of the season we were 4th and in the play-offs and then we got a seventh and were up.
Certainly for me we exceeded my expectations.

What a game, what a day.
_________________
I am not gas, I am a Pirate.

www.bristolroversmemorabilia.weebly.com The definitive list of Bristol Rovers programmes

[Pete’s Picture Palace]

Palace went into last summer after a turgid final season under Roy Hodgson, when we finished 14th, safe and sound but dull as dishwater. So many players were out of contract or leaving the club that we had only about a dozen players signed on when Patrick Vieira was appointed. A few were re-signed and several additions made, mostly players of whom most of us had never heard - Marc Guehi for instance. Conor Gallagher was signed on loan for the season from Chelsea, after he had had a full season at WBA when they were relegated. I think it can be said that we weren't expecting much given PV's unimpressive track record, and in some quarters, CPFC were relegation favourites and the manager was first in line for the sack.

But how wrong they were. He completely changed the style of the team, pressing, playing out from the back at every opportunity, at first putting the fans' hearts in their mouths but that quickly passed. A game based on possession, patience and pressing ensued and it was a refreshing change from the last 4/5 years when the only tactic was counter-attack. Stalwart players like Joel Ward and James McArthur were transformed, and Wilf Zaha was re-born and scored 15 goals.

The only disappointing thing was the failure to close matches out, losing probably 7 or 8 points when games seemed to be won in the 90th minute. We finished 12th - behind Newcastle and Brighton. Had we beaten The Seaweed at home (1-0 up in the 93rd minute, drew 1-1) we would have finished 10th, above both those 2. There are half a dozen other examples of games frittered away in stoppage time, so we could/should have finished about 8th.

As for the above-mentioned Guehi and Gallagher, they are both now full England internationals and in the squad for this summer's Nations Cup. That would not have happened in Chelsea reserves.

And we also had our first FA Cup semi final for 6 years, which, sadly, we blew.

But I'd give PV and the team 8.5/10 and I urgently await next season, something I haven't felt for maybe 6 years.

[ndg1860]

I guess I'll add QPR to this.

During 2021 we had the second best record in the leagues (all four of them) behind Man City. Trouble was that in 2020 (second half) and 2022 (first half) we were rather poor.

By the end of January and occasionally after, we were in the top four of the Championship and looking rather certainties to at least qualify for the playoffs and even a smell of second behind runaway Fulham. But then the African Cup of Nations first and injuries second took over. During 2022 we lost five goal keepers to injury, even the two emergencies we brought in were both out. Our No. 1 keeper finally came back in the last game of the season and showed why we missed him.

Throughout the season, we were struck by injuries and being a small squad, this caused problems. The biggest loss was our best player who went down in mid-March for the remainder of the season and yet still was named in the Sky team of the season. And speaking of Sky, I guess moving 19 of our games from the original scheduled times did not help!

Then the club hierarchy caused some significant problems by not even talking to those players out of contract and the heads went down or were elsewhere. Eventually we finished just above mid-table, the win at Swansea on the final day a rare moment of happiness for the fans. That also meant that the manager, Mark Warburton, was "not renewed" and so we are rudderless with under two months to the beginning of the next season.

Overall, it was a great first half to the season and an ugly second half. We probably didn't deserve to be so high and got lucky quite often in that first half and similarly probably didn't deserve all the losses we took in the second half.

[Five and In]

At various times this season, my answer would have been, Yes, No, Yes, No, Please end it now, We’re the greatest, Please send help.

This, my friends, is what it’s been like being a Spurs supporter in 2021/22.

The Summer was a nightmare with Harry Kane being sold off by Sky Sports News on the hour, every hour, following “that” Interview with Gary Neville and the state of Abu Dhabi based in Manchester making lots of noises that they would be buying him. Even Pep spoke about him directly as a target on many occasions.

Unfortunately for them, Daniel Levy didn’t get the memo and played hard ball with them until they gave up, but Harry was unsettled, didn’t come back from holiday on time, effectively went on strike and was bloody hopeless until Christmas.

Transfer activity was slow with just Gil, Royal and Romero coming in. Gil lasted four months, Royal is still all over the shop, but Romero proved to be an excellent signing once he was fit.

In charge of the team was Nuno....It seems a lifetime ago now!
Nuno was everybody’s favourite Uncle, but lasted just ten league matches – five wins, five defeats, including a complete surrender at the hands of Woolwich where he looked completely overwhelmed.

With it looking almost nailed on that Poch was returning.....in came Antonio Conte. The same bloke that had turned the job down three months earlier!!
This wasn’t going to go well!

Slowly we picked up, but got kicked out of Europe as we had a covid outbreak and hardly any players fit enough to play in the final group match that we needed to win following another disaster at the hands of European giants.....erm, FC Mura!

January came and finally N’dombele, Gil and Lo Celso found the way out of the door to pastures new and sadly for those that know how he can play, Dele also left after three years looking lost.

In came Bentancur and Kulu, the Ginger from Sweden. What great signings these would prove to be.

Conte managed to get Doherty playing his best stuff since joining, until that clown at Villa ended his season with a shocking tackle, Dier became a rock at the back and Sonny scored goals for fun. Even Harry had returned to his best and looked happy.

The season was still up and down though. We played Liverpool and Man City twice each and won twice and drew twice, but then contrived to lose (no disrespect) to the likes of Burnley, Southampton and Brighton.
The Cups saw us lose to Middlesbrough and then forget to turn up in a League Cup Semi Final against Chelsea.

In the end, we grabbed fourth place and that Champions League spot, so it has to be seen as a success overall, even if we went the long way around to get there.

Now the real works starts and I just hope we get our transfer business done as early as possible.

So far it looks that way, but this is Tottenham, so anything can happen!

[paulobee]

Brentford FC did us Bees supporters proud.

"Just a Bus Stop in Hounslow" the RaRa's chanted just a few years ago. Thanks for that!

A brilliant first season, and could've been better, and enjoyed it all. I wanted one year in the big trough of cash, well, we have another year to come.

Top results: Arsenal (Home), Liverpool (Home), West Ham (Home), Spurs (Home), Watford (Home), Villa (Home) and, even, Chelsea (Home).

Then; Chelsea (Away), West Ham (Away), Wolves (Away), Everton (Away), Newcastle (Away), Leeds (Away) and Norwich (Away).

COuldn't have asked for much more. Plus our first season in the EPL at our new ground. As much as I loved Griffin Park (the original version!) the old ground would've struggled to cope with the EPL. Lionel Road (BCS) has been superb and I love the positon I have in the place.

It's a tough league and to progress further is hard. Bringing in players is tougher, as Clubs can trump your early bids due to agents touting their wares around once they know Brentford are interested! We'll find another gem or two and, hopefully, make it another year or two on from net season.

I do miss League 1 and the CHampionship though, at least you knew you'd be kicking off on a Saturday at 3pm.

[DoncasterRovers]

Only two words needed.

Atrocious
Doncaster

[hibernian]

In a word NO
Disastrous season from Hibs when European places should easily have been in our hands
Hibs and Aberdeen both ended in the bottom six and gave Hearts a easy run to 3d place and the millions they will get from group stage European football next season

[manutd1977]

Woeful, even the relegated Man Utd team in 74 put a shift in.
Only bright points is Pogba gone, if he can be bothered packing his case, and quiet a few others.
Sorry to see Juan Mata go, hopefully come back as an ambassador one day.
Fantastic to see the youth team win the FA Youth cup