Welcome to the third and final part of Premier League predictions. We’ll cover who’ll finish top 4 and who will be crowned Premier League champions. So, let’s get back into it.
The club which I predict will finish sixth is Arsenal. Arsenal has recruited well this summer bringing in Tierney’s cover Tavarez, midfielder Sambi Lokonga, and young British centre back Ben White. Xhaka staying divides Arsenal fans as some of us love him and some can’t stand him. But an injury to Partey means it’s a good thing that he is staying. Wasting the summer transfer window for 70-million-pound Maddison rather than signing 17-million-pound Houssem Aouar is such an Arsenal thing to do. Aubameyang has been out of form for the last one year now and finishing inside the top four seems highly unlikely to even a biased fan like me. The club that’ll miss out on the top four by the nearest margin will be Leicester City. In the last two seasons, Leicester has found ways to finish outside the top four from comfortable positions. Once again, they have recruited well. Yet, it seems unlikely that Leicester will be able to pose any challenge to the top four clubs.
The clubs who will finish inside the top four are two Manchester clubs, Chelsea, and Liverpool. You can make case for any of these clubs to be Premier League Champions at the end of the season. I think Liverpool will finish fourth. It might come as a surprise to many, but I think the lack of depth in their midfield will cost them while competing on all fronts. They will be without Salah and Mane during the African Cup of Nations which will be a huge blow to them. Manchester United have improved a lot but I do not reckon it will be enough for them to challenge just yet. The addition of Varane and Sancho should improve their chances, but we can all agree that they still need a midfielder. It will also be interesting to see how Greenwood, Sancho and Van De Beek will perform for them this season. If they push for the title maybe Pogba will sign a contract extension.
I think the battle between Chelsea and Manchester City for the title will be interesting to watch throughout the season. Both teams have the squad depth to compete for all the titles. Chelsea has signed Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan for 115 million euros which should help them in scoring more goals. On the other hand, the current Premier League champions have signed Grealish from Aston Villa for 100 million pounds. They are also interested in Spurs and England striker Harry Kane and are reportedly happy to pay 150 million euros for him. Regardless they sign him or not it will be hard for contenders to win the premier league. I predict Manchester City will retain their title in a close fight with Chelsea.
No matter who wins it in the end, another exhilarating season of the world’s most entertaining league is upon us.
Welcome back to the second part of the article. We’ll cover the 7th to 13th position in this blog. So, without wasting much time let’s get straight back into it.
One of the most frustrating teams to watch in the premier league since the last two seasons is Brighton & Hove Albion. Don’t get me wrong, they play good football. But it is frustrating because they hardly convert their good performances into positive results. For example, last season they registered xG (expected goals) of 52 but only scored 40 goals during the whole season. If they can improve their finishing, they certainly can do well this time around. The next team in discussions is Wolves. With the new Manager, GK and Jimenez returning after 9 months we are not sure what to make of them just yet. But they have enough quality in their squad to make sure they finish midtable. Aston Villa was expecting to finish this season inside the top 10, but it seems a bit unlikely now that they had to let go of Grealish for 100 million pounds. But they have invested that money well by signing Bailey, Buendia, Young and Tuanzebe (on loan). They will do well to finish 11th this season.
Everton started the last season well and then drifted off. I fear it will be more of the same for them this time around as well. Richarlison will take some time to come back into starting eleven after winning Gold for Brazil at Tokyo Olympics. James Rodriguez looked dejected during the preseason friendlies. New manager Rafael Benitez needs to bring him back into the squad to make sure they perform well this season. West Ham United had a year to remember last season. They have done well to keep hold of Rice. They need to buy a forward to cover injury-prone Antonio. They will be taking part in Europe this season and I think that means they’ll finish the season at 9th position.
Marcelo Bielsa signed a one-year contract renewal last night which means his murder ball will carry on at Leeds United. After returning to Premier League after 16 years last season, they were a joy to watch. Signing Harrison permanently and keeping hold of brilliant Brazilian Raphinha means they will keep entertaining us this time around as well and will finish at 8th position. Tottenham Hotspurs might have to suffer the consequences Kane transfer saga. No doubt, they still have Son, Moura, and Alli is slowly getting back into his best form. It is still unclear how Nuno Santos will make them play. I think it’ll be close between them and Arsenal who’ll finish 6th this season. As I’m an Arsenal fan, I’ll back my team to finish sixth and above Spurs.
In the last blog of Premier League predictions, I will cover which clubs will finish at which position in the top 6.
The Premier League is the top tier of association football in England and has been since its founding in 1992. The league is one of the most-watched leagues in the world, generating an average of 4 billion pounds per season. So, it is not surprising that many people are interested in predicting who will be champion this year and who will finish where. So, I thought it will be interesting to predict how the PL table is going to look like at the end of the season.
First, let’s start with the relegation. I think all three promoted teams will go straight down again and it’s just a matter of who will finish where. According to my prediction, Watford will finish the season in the 20th position. Watford owners are notoriously known for sacking their managers when the going gets tough. The quality of premier league teams is increasing every year and the recruitment done by Watford till now is honestly quite underwhelming. So, apologies to Watford fans but I think they’ll finish last. Many believe that Norwich will once again repeat the story from the 2019-20 season and will finish last. But I believe the experience from their last time around in PL will help them to not finish last. Their coach Farke has made them more solid at the back and players like Gilmour (loan), Cantwell, Gibson and Rashica will be interesting to watch. But ultimately selling their best player from last season, Buendia, will prove costly and they’ll go down. I seriously don’t understand how some fans are expecting Brentford to stay up and do well. Sure, their manager Thomas Frank is good, and they have Ivan Toney who is a really good player. But when you look at their roster, I am finding it difficult to believe that they’ll do better than few PL teams who have been flirting with relegation since the last few seasons.
Burnley have been flirting with relegation for the last few seasons actually and surviving because of their manager. Their transfer window this far has been quite poor, and they will need Sean Dyche and their sturdy defence to come through once more. They need some reinforcements in their team to change the situation before the transfer window closes. Life back in the premier league has been difficult for Newcastle and their fans since getting promoted in 2017. Last season they exceeded the expectations by finishing 12th but I think they’ll fall to 16th position this time around. They have good players to not worry about relegation and if they add Willock before the season starts it’ll be a huge boost for them, and they might finish higher. They’ll do it anyway if Wilson can remain injury-free for the whole season but as we all know it’s highly unlikely.
There was quite an optimism among Southampton fans when Ralph Hasenhuttl joined them a few years ago and rightly so. They exceeded expectations in the first two years, but the last two years have been quite a struggle. With Danny Ings leaving for Aston Villa and Bertrand leaving for Leicester, they are recruiting good prospects, but they might have to fight off relegation risk for one more season before it starts getting better again. Crystal Palace has been the most difficult team to place in these rankings. There are quite frankly far too many unknowns here to place them accurately. Placing them above Newcastle and Southampton will raise many eyebrows for sure but looking at their excellent recruitment, I can’t help but think they’ll do well this time around. Zaha and Benteke looked lively during the whole of the preseason. And yet, I’ll admit that they might finish anywhere between 12th to 18th this season.
Let me know if you agree with these positions or not… I’ll be back with 7th to 13th ranked teams very soon.
Euro Final on 11th July was supposed to be the pinnacle of football. We saw fans returning to the grounds after almost 18 months. TV viewership was through the roof as well. But it all changed with how Euro finished – England dramatically losing to Italy in a penalty shootout at Wembley.
England international players Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford were racially abused on various social media platforms after missing penalties. England manager Gareth Southgate was disgusted with the abuse received by these young players and told in a press conference that it is unforgivable and not what they stand for. This incident has once again shown to the football governing bodies that more needs to be done to fight against racism. Premier League started supporting the ‘Black Lives Matter movement by taking the knee before the start of every match last year. England players have continued this before and during the tournament to show their unity in a fight against inequality and racism. This act caused anger among parts of the British fanbase who chose to boo as the players knelt.
The reality is racism is an issue in football. Some people in our society feel that it is acceptable to criticize players for their sporting actions based on their skin colour. Education must be provided at the school level so that our next generation can differentiate between what is acceptable and what is not. Sadly, Football fans and players receiving racial abuse on social media is becoming a common occurrence. Social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. need to take some responsibility and verify every account with proof of identification to stop online racism or abuse. Similarly, football governing bodies need to implement strict rules to stop fans from abusing players on the ground. We understand that people will not change immediately but collectively we all need to take a step forward to be better.
It is that time again. Tax returns- it is your hard-earned money but still, it feels like winning a lottery. So, the desire to spend that money on expensive and unnecessary things is understandable. But check out these suggestions on how to use your money before you do that.
Pay off your debt
With the ever-increasing interest rates on different kinds of bank loans, it is becoming very difficult to be debt-free. You should consider paying off your credit card or education loan. You will be able to save your money by being debt-free.
Make an investment
Use your tax refund to earn more money. With the inflation rate increasing around 2-3% per year, it makes no sense to keep your hard-earned money in the bank account. Do the research, select the appropriate stock or ETF or managed index fund for you and start investing for your future. You will thank yourself for doing this.
Upskill yourself
It is critical to enhancing your skills in the current environment. Upskilling yourself gives you the flexibility to switch your career field or start your own business. Sign up for an online course that can improve your job prospects. The opportunities will be endless after that.
Create an emergency fund
Have you ever been short of money and needed to cut down your daily costs? Creating an emergency fund and putting some money into it from your tax refund should be high up there in your priorities. The money will come in handy during those rainy days.
Donate
I know this will not sound like a good idea to some. But helping those in need will do wonders for your mental wellbeing. Donating to a cause close to your heart will make you feel happy and fuzzy. Also, it might be a tax deduction during the next financial year.
Whatever you decide to do, it is a good idea to have a plan before you receive your tax refund. Because, as you might know, it will not take long before that money disappears again.
As the whole sport world is currently engaged in watching Wimbledon 2021 after its hiatus last year, I thought of posting the academic work that I have done during my Sport Management studies in 2019.
Since television emerged as the global dominant medium between 1960 and 1980, the sport has played a major role in the growth of tv. Sequentially, together with commercial sponsorship, television transformed the sport, prompting changes in its presentation, cultural form, rules and bringing significant new income (Whannel, 2009). Television played an important role in the economic transformation of sport and was central to the globalisation of sport. Sport is the focal point of intense commercial activity and it has been reshaped many times to meet the requirements of media and promotional parts of the industry. ATP stands for Association of Tennis Professionals, It is a men’s professional tennis governing body. There is a tennis enthusiast worldwide who wants to consume sport. According to BBC, in 2015, men’s tours registered 973 million viewers and women’s tennis attracted 395 million viewers.
Broadcasting live tennis matches on TV results in substantial revenue for ATP. TV networks and affiliates purchase the rights from ATP to broadcast tennis matches live on their channels. For example, channels like ESPN and Sky had the right to broadcast ATP matches until 2017. The network depends on programming that has the potential to captivate and capture an audience to attain a reasonable return on investment. TV networks and their affiliates across the world will sell airtime to advertisers during these live sporting events. Big corporations worldwide want widespread exposure, glamourous high-profile associations, strong demographics, and the attention of an upscale audience. These corporations want to utilize sporting events as a promotional tool for their products, services and companies.
Advertising agencies act as a middleman or broker. Agencies issues link between the networks who telecast live sporting events and the corporate clients who want to purchase advertising time during the broadcast of such sporting events (Shilbury et al., 2014). Advertising agencies analyse audience profiles created by the measurement agencies. Based on the measurements, these advertising agencies will advise the corporates on their advertising strategies to attain their goals.
Figure 2 gives an overview of the different factors operating at different levels in the sports broadcasting value chain (Solberg and Helland, 2011, pg. 19). ATP is the governing body of different tennis tournaments across the world and hence are the producers of the sports content. Various TV and radio networks who have purchased the rights of broadcasting the tennis tournaments are the producers of TV programmes. Cable operators and satellite, terrestrial channels and digital platforms like Kayo Sports, Optus Sport, etc. are distributors of TV programmes. Tennis enthusiasts and sports enthusiasts, in general, are the viewers of these tournaments.
The sport broadcasting value chain (Solberg and Helland, 2011)
When an organisation or a firm takes part in more than one stage of the production or distribution of services or goods it is known as ‘vertical integration’ (Solberg and Helland, 2011). ATP started to integrate with activities on a level which are closer to viewers since 2006. This is called forward or downward integration. In the pe-integration scenario, rather than broadcasting ATP tournaments by themselves, ATP sold broadcasting rights of live ATP tennis matches to Amazon (Bickerton, 2019). Amazon has secured rights for coverage of 37 ATP tour tournaments from 2019 until 2023. From the deal with Amazon, it’s obvious that the integration can be improved from ATP to decrease the collaboration with other streaming services like Amazon Prime and promote their streaming service, Tennis TV. Implementing a vertical integration strategy will mean reduced transaction costs for ATP. They can perform the broadcasting of ATP tour tournaments by themselves to increase profitability. It will also mean that inefficiency issues because of lopsided information between buyers and sellers will be reduced. From combined operations, maintenance of stable throughput and sharing of activities in a value chain will mean that economies of scale advantages can be internalised within ATP.
ATP currently has their own direct to consumer, over the top (OTT) streaming service, tennis tv, which they launched in 2006. OTT uses the internet to receive the sports content, essentially by-passing cable, satellite, and broadcast tv service providers (Atpmedia. tv, 2019). “Tennis TV is the official video streaming service of the ATP Tour” (Tennistv.com, 2019). Viewers can watch live tennis on multiple devices like mobile, computer and tablet and a TV – via Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Samsung Smart TV, PlayStation 4, Android TV and Xbox One.
ATP has done well to integrate themselves and have their digital output in the form of Tennis TV. It shows that they are following industry trends. For example, NFL has revealed in 2018 that consumption of NFL games on digital platforms has increased by a whopping 147 per cent, whereas TV devices also registered a 54 per cent rise from 2017 (Carp, 2018). Similarly, the impact of vertical integration on the value chain in tennis is visible. ATP’s annual revenue before integration in 2006 was 52 million US dollars, which increased to 107.1 million US dollars in 2014 (Kaplan, 2015). Tennis TV will only get more followers in future as it shows real-time stats, follows the players, shows their interviews and journeys to the fans who are no longer limiting their viewership to just the live tennis matches but are also seeking out videos of top game moments, which shows the 80% increase in sports highlights video views on different YouTube channels (Potter, 2019). Releasing such videos on Tennis TV will only increase the number of consumers in the future which will help ATP in increasing their annual revenues.
Sports Geek 