[Football] Are Man U really in danger of getting relegated?

Alex BH said:

Manchester United: Ruben Amorim senses danger, but is Premier League relegation battle really possible?

Manchester United are 14th in the Premier League and seven points above the bottom three, but could they really be relegated?

www.bbc.co.uk

Does anyone seriously think United even have the remotest chance of getting relegated? Surely the beeb have outdone themselves here?! Can we all just drop the banter for once, is it really realistic that the likes of Southampton, Leicester or Ipswich could overtake them??! What’s the most surprising relegation you can remember?

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Han Solo said:

Nopes.

Don't think the relegation battles will be particulary exciting unless the league is decreased to 18 teams.

The league has been growing (in financial and football terms) too quickly. You need to have absurd money and organisation to compete with with the ~14-15 biggest clubs and once a few more find that extraordinary money, its going to be a locked league with the promoted teams getting relegated each season. Simply because the gap is too big, and once that happens there will be even less interest in investing in the horrible business that is EFL clubs.

If relegation battles are to be exciting, the PL can choose between sharing more money with EFL clubs (and they really really don't want that, not least for the reason above), or they can reduce the size of the league so that newcomers get more resources (fewer teams sharing TV money) upon arrival. Which is possibly something also other clubs would be interested in. It would also solve the "too many games" issue.

It will be interesting to see how it is resolved once this looming problem becomes more obvious. I said before the season that teams are likely to stay up on 30 points this year and I could see it being 25 the next. There will be three or in the best of worlds four teams fighting for relegation and eventually people won't find it exciting. And the TV companies don't like that, so it is something that will need to be resolved sooner or later.

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kojak said:

We used to have play offs for relegation
Then Chelsea fans rioted and that was the end of that

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Han Solo said:

Bit odd that the powers that be haven't force fed the PL with some sort of playoff.

I've been expecting the top 7 to pull away from the rest for the now (but looks like that might not happen any time soon as some of them are clearly completely clueless) and in that world I could envision some sort of "8-12th" club playoff for a spot in Europe or something. And maybe some sort of relegation playoff between the 15th-18th placed teams. Would perhaps remove the need to decrease the league.

Would it feel wrong with those playoffs...? Well maybe. But it would be exciting.

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Han Solo said:

Nopes.

Don't think the relegation battles will be particulary exciting unless the league is decreased to 18 teams.

The league has been growing (in financial and football terms) too quickly. You need to have absurd money and organisation to compete with with the ~14-15 biggest clubs and once a few more find that extraordinary money, its going to be a locked league with the promoted teams getting relegated each season. Simply because the gap is too big, and once that happens there will be even less interest in investing in the horrible business that is EFL clubs.

If relegation battles are to be exciting, the PL can choose between sharing more money with EFL clubs (and they really really don't want that, not least for the reason above), or they can reduce the size of the league so that newcomers get more resources (fewer teams sharing TV money) upon arrival. Which is possibly something also other clubs would be interested in. It would also solve the "too many games" issue.

It will be interesting to see how it is resolved once this looming problem becomes more obvious. I said before the season that teams are likely to stay up on 30 points this year and I could see it being 25 the next. There will be three or in the best of worlds four teams fighting for relegation and eventually people won't find it exciting. And the TV companies don't like that, so it is something that will need to be resolved sooner or later.

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kojak said:

After the European super league has been formed
Anything is possible

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Harry Wilson's tackle said:

I think your view might change if you spent a month in England, visiting clubs and sniffing the air.

The English never know when they are beaten (or, indeed, when they are shit) and the idea of English football sublimating from solid to a nebulous puff of franchise gas, boredom and channel-hopping TV entertainment is nil.

I have followed this madcap sport for nearly 60 years. The relegation promotion dance is exactly the same as it ever was. The massive clubs were fewer, but the relegation churn was the same. The dreams are the same.

As far as excitement is concerned, the quality now is off the scale. Every season we see a new 'best match ever' for skill and excitement. Anyone bored with this needs to examine what is wrong with their wider lives.

We also need to factor in that as we get older (you are very young in relation to the most noisy of the NSC posters) our priorities change. Of course, standing in the North Stand when we thought we were going up to div 1 in the late 70s was intense, but these days I would rather submit to proctology than stand in a 1970s North Stand.

I'm not saying it won't all change. Everything changes. Or it dies.

Bring it on, I say.

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Han Solo said:

The Super League would be the best thing to ever happen to football imho.

I'm struggling to think of one really big European club that I wouldn't want to f*** off to the Super League and stay there.

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