On Saturday, I watched my first competetive game of the season. Hadley FC lost 0-2 at home to Hitchen Town FC at Brickfield Lane in the Southern League Division One Central. It was not the start I'd hoped for, as Hadley had a good pre season. Hitchen had come down from the Southern Premier Division and are strong favourites to go up. Their pre match boasts of 'outnumbering' the Hadley fans was a bit wide of the mark, but after an even first half, they took control and won comfortably in the second half. Over the last seven years, I've become a Hadley fan, buying a season ticket and enjoying supporting a grassroots team. I couldn't make it last night, but they got the show rolling away to Northwood last night, with a decent 0-2 win. I am looking forward to Saturdays FA Cup gane against Maldon & Tiptree, who by all accounts are a very strong team. I am rather hoping Hadley will once again be in the playoffs and maybe do a bit better in them than last year. The team has got some good players and in pre season and in the first half against Hitchen, looked very solid. Manager Anthony Clark has done an excellent job establishing them as a step four club.
My other team is the world conquering Manchester City FC. I've yet to buy any tickets for games or make any arrangements. We have a busy social calendar, but I hope to get to see them in September. City had a poor (by their standards) season last year. Winning nothing and finishing third, a long way short of Liverpool. I genuinely can't see City performing as badly again. They are my favourites for the title, although they've lost their talisman Kevin DeBruyne, who will be missed. They look to have bought well.
Liverpool look very strong, especially if they secure their transfer targets, but retaining the league is harder than winning it. When you are the champions, teams are up for it. I don't think anyone expected Arne Slot to win the league in his first season. In truth, he won it at a canter, as both City and Arsenal pretty much fell apart and gave them a pretty easy time. It is a bit harder, when you are neck and neck and need to win your last twelve games on the bounce, as has happened to City in previous years, when tussling with Liverpool. I expect to see a far harder test for them this season.
I am not sure that Arsenal have done anything to persuade me that they will make a stronger challenge. I am surprised that they are not going for Isaak, as they need a top class striker. I think they will be top four, but not really do much else. Chelsea are an enigma. For much of last season, looking pretty poor, but finishing in a Champions League place, with the Europa Conference and World Club Championship. Nothing would surprise me with them. I think they are a good wild card to actually win the Premiership. They seem to be able to pull out performances in big games and that is priceless.
Tottenham Hotspur have a new manager and silverware. I liked their manager at Brentford, but he's not been proven at a big club. I am not really sure that Spurs have a squad that can compete for the Premiership, a top four place and a cup is the best I can see for them. They have to cope with Champions League football. I find it hard to understand their strategy as a football team. I liked Ange and felt he should have been given another season.
Then there is my least favourite team, Manchester United FC. It strikes me that the club has become toxic. They have actually made a few decent signings. If he wasn't the Utd manager, I'd like their coach, Ruben Amorim. I think he made a mistake going to Utd mid season. It looked to me, escpecially in the Europa League final, as if his players didn't understand his game plan. Bruno Fernandes, who I dislike intensely, but is a good player, seemed to spend a lot of the game with the ball at his feet, looking for his team mates to make runs, that never materialised. If Amorim manages to explain how he wants them to play, they may do OK. If they still look as clueless after a couple of games as they did against Spurs, he will be in big trouble.
As for the clubs that have come up? I expect Leeds to stay up. I think they have what it takes. I expect Burnley to go down, unless another Prem team falls apart. I think they will finish above Sunderland, who I expect to finish bottom of the pile. Burnley have recent Prem experience and know what to do, so may just scrape enough points if the bottom of the league is poor. I don't believe Sunderland do. I expect Sunderland to finish bottom.
And as for the other teams I take an interest in, across the leagues. Watford in the Championship are a favourite. Sadly, the club seems to be in a permanent state of chaos, with owners who seemingly don't have a clue and plan A is always sack the manager if he loses a few games. For many years, when they were in the Conference and before that, I used to go to watch Wrexham play when they were in London. We'd do a beer trail and have a curry, punctuated by a usually pretty poor, but entertaining game of football. I've not seen them for since they left the Conference, I can't get tickets. I hope they do Ok, but I think they will struggle. If they stay up, it will be a successful season.
In League one, I'll be looking out for AFC Wimbledon. Like many real fans, I see them as what real football is all about. A phoenix club, which rose from the ashes, when the money men nicked their club and moved it to Milton Keynes. If Wimbledon ever won the Premiership, it would give me nearly as much joy as if Manchester City did (or even Hadley, but that would doubtless involve the club losing what I love about it). I've never been to Plough Lane, but it is on my list. I think they'll struggle on low budgets and in a tough league. I think they'll just about stay up, but it will be tight.
In League Two, there is Barnet. Until they moved to Harrow, my second team. I don't like the Hive, I don't like their chairman, but I still have a soft spot for the club, even if I never go! The last time I saw them, I went in the away end, with my Wrexham mates, when Wrexham were still just an ordinary conference club, struggling with no cash. It didn't persuade me to break my boycott of the Hive.
The False Dots recorded a song with Lee Thompson of Madness, called Saturday, to celebrate football and football fans. I co wrote it with Poet Allen Ashley, who sings. We will shortly be releasing a new version, called Hadley FC We Love You, with Tom Hammond on Trumpet. Here is Allen & Lee doing their stuff with us, enjoy. I love the thumbnail, which I think sums up football in the Premiership in 2025. It's my nephew Martin looking happy! He's a Man U season ticket holder for his sins, and rather unusually, he lives in Manchester. I've no idea who the glamourous lady behind him filming is.
