Top 7 places over last 20 seasons.

fritter

UTC Legend
This is our 4th season in the premier league. There has been a lot of talk about getting into Europe or being relegated.

I took some time to look at the facts. What are the chances of finishing in the top 7 and becoming an established and sustainable premier league team based on the last 20 seasons.

There are 7 teams that have been in the PL way longer than anyone else. Arsenal 100, Everton 65, Liverpool 57, Mufc 44, Spurs 41, Chelsea 30,Mcfc 17. A Total of 354 seasons.

The other 13 teams total 45 (consecutive) seasons. The most being West Ham and Southampton with 7 each.

In the past 10 seasons there have only been 9 out of 70 top 7 places occupied by a team outside of the longest serving 7.

These 9 places were occupied by 7 different teams. Villa (2), Southampton (2), Fulham, Newcastle, Leicester, West Ham and Burnley.

The ten seasons before that it was 24 places occupied by 10 teams:-
Leeds, Villa, Newcastle (4)
Blackburn (3)
Bolton, Sunderland, West Ham (2)
Ipswich, Charlton and Middlesbrough one each.

Many of these were seen as established premier league teams.

Only 14 teams in 20 seasons finished in the top 7 other than the 'big 7'. Of those 14 only 6 are still in the premier league. 3 of those have been relegated and promoted since being in the top 7.

Full list here.
98/99 Leeds, West Ham, Villa
99/00 Leeds Villa Sunderland
00/01 Leeds Ipswich Sunderland
01/02 Newcastle Leeds West Ham
02/03 Newcastle Blackburn
03/04 Newcastle Villa Charlton
04/05 Bolton Middlesbrough
05/06 Blackburn Newcastle
06/07 Bolton
07/08 Villa Blackburn

08/09 Villa Fulham
09/10 Villa
10/11
11/12 Newcastle
12/13
13/14
14/15 Southampton
15/16 Leicester Southampton West Ham
16/17
17/18 Burnley
18/19 ?

The top 6 seem pretty set, 7th is up for grabs. Let's see.
 
To my mind playing in the Europa League is not exactly a glittering prize. It generates a miserable round of Thursday/Sunday football and puts a very big strain on a small squad. Particularly if qualifying rounds eat into pre-season as was the case at Burnley this year.

You might get a glamour tie against Milan but equally could find yourself playing at MSK Zilina of Slovakia. And before anyone else points it out, Zilina is a bit rundown but is an ok place with friendly people and good beer surrounded by attractive countryside. But then so is Huddersfield.

Sure some clubs and their managers have done well out of the Europa League, notably Sevilla, but ultimately that only led to them losing their manager.
 
So the Europa League is a waste of time , no point trying for that .
Elsewhere on here we should just abolish both cup competitions or not bother with trying to do well and when we get beaten by the “ top six “ “ what do we expect? “
Blimey , let’s just give up now then if trying to do well in anything is such a chore ...
 
So the Europa League is a waste of time , no point trying for that .
Elsewhere on here we should just abolish both cup competitions or not bother with trying to do well and when we get beaten by the “ top six “ “ what do we expect? “
Blimey , let’s just give up now then if trying to do well in anything is such a chore ...
It must be the after Christmas blues syndrome!
I never got that Xbox either.
 
So the Europa League is a waste of time , no point trying for that .
Elsewhere on here we should just abolish both cup competitions or not bother with trying to do well and when we get beaten by the “ top six “ “ what do we expect? “
Blimey , let’s just give up now then if trying to do well in anything is such a chore ...

It's an interesting thought... I agree that the Europa cup is a bit of a poisoned chalice, especially for a club like us with a wafer thin squad... But, if we don't want that then wtf is the point...? I enjoy the PL and do worry a bit about what will happen 'when' we get relegated, but, in the lower leagues you always have something to play for... Now it's just playing for the dollars...
 
It's an interesting thought... I agree that the Europa cup is a bit of a poisoned chalice, especially for a club like us with a wafer thin squad... But, if we don't want that then wtf is the point...? I enjoy the PL and do worry a bit about what will happen 'when' we get relegated, but, in the lower leagues you always have something to play for... Now it's just playing for the dollars...
Just to let you know we are playing for points to stay in the best league in the world. Anybody who prefers to see us playing in the lower leagues is a fool.
 
Just to let you know we are playing for points to stay in the best league in the world. Anybody who prefers to see us playing in the lower leagues is a fool.

That's quite a sweeping statement there KC..!!!!

I'm certainly no fool, but I definitely prefer the competitiveness of the Championship, and to a degree, the ruggedness of League 1, to the squeaky clean, tourist watched PL...

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying being part of the "best league in the world", however, it grates on me that we're 'just' playing to stay there...

We simply can't compete with almost half of this league. We flirt with the top 7 or 8 but our true position is probably the bottom half. This will NEVER change until we expand and improve our infrastructure.

In this league you need bigger support which requires a bigger ground. You need bigger squads which require better training facilities (CAT A or at least B) to get you better and more frequent reserve games and stiffer opposition, to keep your bigger squads happy... Happier, bigger squads bread better competition and an ability to spread the load successfully during fixture congestions...

We don't have and cannot afford (financially and physically) any of the above... We moan at Eddie making changes for the cups, yet we all want the fringe players to play out their skins, when given their chance, having never had any game time...!!! We have a small squad, which create a smaller pool of quality... and with a small pool of quality, we will always struggle in the PL...
 
"I'm certainly no fool, but I definitely prefer the competitiveness of the Championship, and to a degree, the ruggedness of League 1, to the squeaky clean, tourist watched PL"
Sorry but I think you are way off the mark.
Lets enjoy sitting in the dark in the back room.
It's much better than seeing your team on the big stage week after week. I think Bmuff are building a team for the future at the moment and will entertain us in the top league for years to come.
Just remember where most of our players come from.
Incredible climb up the ladder and we are not finished yet.
Building a club like ours takes time and we have a foot on the ladder right now. I still believe our training complex and ground will get built at sometime in the future.
Just enjoy the ride.
 
"I'm certainly no fool, but I definitely prefer the competitiveness of the Championship, and to a degree, the ruggedness of League 1, to the squeaky clean, tourist watched PL"
Sorry but I think you are way off the mark.
Lets enjoy sitting in the dark in the back room.
It's much better than seeing your team on the big stage week after week. I think Bmuff are building a team for the future at the moment and will entertain us in the top league for years to come.
Just remember where most of our players come from.
Incredible climb up the ladder and we are not finished yet.
Building a club like ours takes time and we have a foot on the ladder right now. I still believe our training complex and ground will get built at sometime in the future.
Just enjoy the ride.
Good for you Sir. Reading that and then reading "cherrybright" certainly gives meaning to the glass half empty/ half full saying.
 
My point is that becoming a sustainable top 7 club is nigh on impossible. PL for most clubs is trying to be top of the league of 13 or 14.
This is an interesting point. I think there are a number of steps between where we are now and becoming a sustainable Top 7 club. We're coming out of the fighting relegation phase, although we still need to have it firmly in mind currently, in the future we can be looking at a consistent top half finish, then a one off 7th place challenge, then finally think about pushing to become a sustainable top 7. This is a number of decades in the making and obviously with the current premier League climate it's impossible to tell what will happen with money, club takeovers and all sorts of other things. Don't get me wrong, it's still a big big task given how many other clubs have tried/are trying, but who knows.
 
That's quite a sweeping statement there KC..!!!!

I'm certainly no fool, but I definitely prefer the competitiveness of the Championship, and to a degree, the ruggedness of League 1, to the squeaky clean, tourist watched PL...

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying being part of the "best league in the world", however, it grates on me that we're 'just' playing to stay there...

We simply can't compete with almost half of this league. We flirt with the top 7 or 8 but our true position is probably the bottom half. This will NEVER change until we expand and improve our infrastructure.

In this league you need bigger support which requires a bigger ground. You need bigger squads which require better training facilities (CAT A or at least B) to get you better and more frequent reserve games and stiffer opposition, to keep your bigger squads happy... Happier, bigger squads bread better competition and an ability to spread the load successfully during fixture congestions...

We don't have and cannot afford (financially and physically) any of the above... We moan at Eddie making changes for the cups, yet we all want the fringe players to play out their skins, when given their chance, having never had any game time...!!! We have a small squad, which create a smaller pool of quality... and with a small pool of quality, we will always struggle in the PL...
:clap:
 
Because I don't have the years of toil in the lower leagues to draw upon, I am more excited about achieving a "personal best". Europa is a goal, but others have pointed out that it can readily drain a small squad. I was happy to "go for it" in the League Cup, and we were less than 10 minutes (and a dubious call) from a penalty shoot-out .... I can't even imagine how that would have turned out. As to the FA Cup, I do think that we got tripped up by the injury bug at the worst possible time, and going out might be a blessing. Would be delighted to give it another go next year if the stars align, but impossible to forecast at this stage.

So, for this year, I personally am hoping for a 50 point season and a finish in the 7-9 range. What's wrong with that? :wahey:
 
Because I don't have the years of toil in the lower leagues to draw upon, I am more excited about achieving a "personal best". Europa is a goal, but others have pointed out that it can readily drain a small squad. I was happy to "go for it" in the League Cup, and we were less than 10 minutes (and a dubious call) from a penalty shoot-out .... I can't even imagine how that would have turned out. As to the FA Cup, I do think that we got tripped up by the injury bug at the worst possible time, and going out might be a blessing. Would be delighted to give it another go next year if the stars align, but impossible to forecast at this stage.

So, for this year, I personally am hoping for a 50 point season and a finish in the 7-9 range. What's wrong with that? :wahey:

I've been going since the mid 90s and seen all sorts of lower league toil, but I still agree with all of this and would be absolutely delighted with a 50 point season, a best ever position finish etc. Any Cherries fan who finds midtable PL as boring by this point, needs their head examining IMHO!

I was at Chelsea in the League Cup willing us to get to a first ever semi final. But I don't see success in the league and cup as mutually exclusive. The better we're doing in the league each year, the better players we have and can attract or retain and improve, the better squad, the more likely cup success is in the future (I hope).

I looked at that team announcement v Brighton on Saturday, and thought that considering the injury issues we have, it was a stronger side than I expected to see. The resulting performance was poor yes, but it was only a better Lys Mousset away from scoring 3 instead of 1. Or an Artur Boruc on a different day away from conceding at least one or two fewer at the other end. Eddie didn't misjudge it by too much.
 
Not mutually exclusive no, and winning is a habit that breeds more winning no matter what competition. However I understand the changes made, that was our tenth game in 36 days, that's gruelling, it really is, no matter how much they're being paid before someone pipes up with that
 
I find it quite ironic that those who take issue with fans saying how much they enjoyed the Championship are quite happy with sub-standard teams and performances in the Cup competitions.

I want us to the best in everything we enter, and not shrug our shoulders at what Eddie calls 'squad rotation'. Thats a mindset that has been created by the Premier League who are only interested in the money and preserving the status quo.
 

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