The Club

Formed in 1885, Southampton – The Saints – have long been a club that people respect. Famed for their brilliant youth academy and their sole FA Cup win in 1976, the south coast outfit have always been relatively well liked. With the likes of Matt le Tissier once making them worth watching, Southampton are a club that has been on an upward trajectory in recent years. An excellent footballing department in the club ensures that they can overcome the most unsettling of incidents and departures, always filling St Mary’s with passionate fans regardless.

16-17 – How Was It?

Ok. They finished 8^th and seen improvement in many of their younger talents. Manager Claude Puel, though, suffered from a lack of personality and it felt like much of the season faded out in rather average form. They lost the League Cup Final, too, in poor form, despite being by far and away the better side.

A rather awkward and simple season in many aspects, the uniform simplicity of the season seemed to become a problem for Saints fans who had finally see the limits of the clubs ambitions tested, with crucial departures really limiting long-term progress overall.

17-18 – What Lies Ahead?

A decent mid-table finish again seems likely. Ex-Liverpool player Mauricio Pellegrino has come into the club, a talented and intelligent coach. With the likes of Virgil van Dijk surely to leave, though, there is little appetite amongst the fans for anything too exciting.

New signings are thin on the ground, and many of them look to be young, hit-and-hope replacements for star names sure to be moving on. Wherever the Saints go from here, it will be hard to determine just where they should be given the relative quality of the talent that the club can afford and call upon.

The Club

The Hammers were once the darlings of London football, having won the FA Cup three times and also the Cup Winners Cup. However, grandiose ambition seen the club move away from Upton Park, instead moving to the Olympic Stadium in 2016. The club struggled greatly with the move (see below) and found a huge chasm forming amongst their working class fan base.

A club in relative flux, it’s hard to see where West Ham United can go from here – the glory days are gone, so what’s left?

16-17 – How Was It?

Awful. They stayed up but for many fans they were expected to challenge for Europe. Their rancid home form played a big part in this, too, seeing their new home become a curse in no time at all. They looked set to go down at some stages, and if it were not for the work of Slavin Bilic they may have done just that.

A good club, West Ham squandered money and security, likely leaving themselves with a much harder future as the learning curve settles. Overall, the first season in their new home quickly became an exercise in frustration.

17-18 – What Lies Ahead?

Obscurity. The club is not doing very impressive work in the market (yet), there has been little in the way of harmony between all interested parties, and the team in general does not look very exciting any longer. Much of their original verve and swagger under Bilic is gone, and they do not look up to the task of genuine improvement.

We expect that a solid mid-table finish is likely, without too much more really being possible without immense surgery. Given the competition and the negative club atmosphere, though, that may be somewhat harder to achieve than fans expect.

The Club

The Foxes are, to many football fans, a middling Midlands club that has never seen much success or glory. Always in the shadow of the likes of Aston Villa, Wolves, Derby County and Nottingham Forest, success for The Foxes was always quite fleeting. Until 2015-16, of course, when they managed to lift the league. Their famous title win will go down in history as one of the most impressive of all time, never to be repeated. Now, though, the club looks to be returning to relative, middle-of-the-road stability.

16-17 – How Was It?

Sobering. After the league win, the club never kicked on and poor signings were made. They lacked the ability to really continue on and an impressive run to the Quarter-Finals of the Champions League was a massive highlight. League form was awful, though, culminating in the exit of league winning coach Claudio Rainieri.

Star players lacked the same hunger as before and much of the club began to feel disjointed. A lifetime of goodwill was used up and gone in a single season, as the ‘second season’ struggled to live up to the hype and Leicester truly fell away spectacularly.

17-18 – What Lies Ahead?

It depends, really. Craig Shakespeare has been given the job full-time, and he looks to be on the market for some impressive signings. Little activity so far, though, means that some fans might be worried about where the club is going to be next season. Overall, we expect a season of relative obscurity from the former Champions.

They lost a lot of their verve and Shakespeare merely wants to try and play the same way as the title winning season. People appear to have worked that out, so what lies ahead will be determined by how adaptable they can be.