There are no certainties in football but some of our pre-season predictions have aged like milk.
With the season drawing to a close, our writers look back at their most questionable calls.
I got everything wrong
By Daniel Storey, chief football writer
I picked all three promoted clubs to go, which was thick. I predicted Liverpool to win the league, which was thick. I predicted Maxim De Cuyper to be the signing of the season, because I tried to be a hipster and was thick.
Liverpool champions
By Kevin Garside, chief sports correspondent
Fooled by Liverpool’s conquest of the summer transfer window. The overhaul was too disruptive. Florian Wirtz struggled with the tempo of the Premier League, Alexander Isak never got going, Jeremie Frimpong was lost somewhere between right-back and wing and Milos Kerkez was not trusted by Arne Slot. Only Hugo Ekitike hit the mark. Add in the decline of Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool did well to avoid Chelsea’s dysfunctional fate.
Sunderland to go down
By Michael Hincks, sports writer
Through the gap in my fingers I noted my August prediction had Brentford finishing 16th and Chelsea coming fourth. Worse though was putting Sunderland 20th. Hindsight makes it easy to be critical, but I realise I had not fully appreciated the transformational work of Black Cats owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus. Sunderland were not merely another promoted club destined to go back down – as had been the case the previous two campaigns for all three teams – but snatching their Premier League place in the play-off final blinkered me into thinking, lazily, that they would go straight back down.
Thomas Frank to finish top eight
By Kat Lucas, football news editor
The hill I will die on is that this would not have been quite such a faux pas had Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison not been out for his entire reign. And yet – I believed Frank would bring the missing ingredients defensively that deserted Spurs in the final days of Ange Postecoglou. What I underestimated was the extent to which Brentford’s processes had helped foster a magic formula there – one that was never going to translate at Tottenham.
Liverpool’s ‘all-timer of a window’
By Mark Douglas, northern football correspondent
Scrolling through my WhatsApp messages for a story last week, I spotted one that said “Richard Hughes has had an all-timer of a window”. I know I wasn’t the only one who got this so badly wrong but what looked like Liverpool genius has turned out to be an absolute shocker.
How could the self-styled smartest guys in the room not notice the trend towards a more muscular brand of football? Or that signing talent only works if you get character to match? Alexander Isak deserved to fail for his conduct. Liverpool should have discouraged it but didn’t – and paid the price. Arne Slot seems to think one window will correct it but they look absolutely miles off it.
Man Utd should have appointed Frank
By Pete Hall, north-west football correspondent
As a Manchester United supporter, I was somewhat jealous when Tottenham moved quickly for Thomas Frank. I really felt United had missed out on a tactical flexible manager who could do great things at Spurs. From the press box at the Etihad in August, as Tottenham played Manchester City off the park, I was totally sold. That was as good as it got.
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