Watching the Premier League on the TV during the 2021/22 season finally felt like normality had returned to life with the fans returning to the stadium. We no longer had to look at empty stands and listen to pre-recorded fan noise, we finally got a sense of that fantastic atmosphere that games had seriously missed during the pandemic but please can we stop with the pitch invasions are they really needed? 

This season was a bit of a mixture really with plenty of lows especially for me as a Manchester United fan, but let's not go there just yet. The season was so close this time around with no clear winner right up until the final day and even down at the bottom the relegation battle went down to the wire which just goes to show how close the season was all round which for me is always the best I much prefer when it is constant battles rather than one clear winner. There were plenty of shock results throughout the season too with the team you thought would struggle actually coming out on top, I am quite glad I didn't place any bets this season as I would have definitely lost far too much money.

As for Leeds United this season they definitely got very lucky on that final day and honestly thought Burnley would have ended up scraping it and staying up not Leeds. I am interested to see how Leeds do next season as I think they are going to have to bring in some quality players whilst also try to cling onto some of the bigger names in the squad that are being looked at by bigger teams. 

Everton were probably one of the teams that shocked me the most throughout the season as I really didn't expect to see them in the relegation battle for as long as they were and to be honest I think they had a bit of a lucky escape due to the fixtures they had towards the end of the season compared to Burnley & Leeds. When you look at the Everton squad on paper with the names they have they should be challenging for European places so let's hope they can get back on track next season and perform much better. 

Being a Man Utd fan when it came to who won the league honestly I didn't want Man City or Liverpool to win it but in the end I am honestly quite glad that Man City won it as they actually looked great all season, the quality in their team is unreal really and they are only strengthening it going into next season which makes you wonder if they will be able to run away with the league next time around? Fingers crossed though there will be a few other teams really pushing and challenging for that top spot next time around though.

Chelsea seemed to have had a hit and miss season too but I think theirs isn't just down to the players as we saw the results start to change when the ownership issues begun, with players uncertain about their futures I guess things were always going to take a bit of a turn but at least they are resolved now and they can look ahead to a new chapter where they are playing as they should once more. I am gutted to see Rudiger go though as I always thought he was such a good player, I would also really love to see them give the youngsters a bit more of a chance next season too. 

Well I guess it is time to talk about Manchester United, what an absolutely terrible season they had and honestly I actually stopped tuning in to most of their games as they were painful to watch the majority of the time. Obviously they had all the issues with Greenwood which really didn't help but then again neither do the owners that just don't seem to do anything to help the club get back to where they once were. There are also players who seem to think they are untouchable and management helped them with that case by still picking them even after consistently terrible performances. I am just really hoping that bringing in the new manager will really shake things up and bring in some players that actually want to play for the club for a change. A lot of people are blaming Ronaldo for the issues but at the end of the day he has been back for one season now and these issues have been going on for a lot longer than just last season and a big rebuild is needed in a variety of areas at the club.

I really do feel for Norwich as they are one of those yo-yo teams who just bounce between the Championship and Premier League, I think a few people expected them to be relegated this season but fingers crossed that when they reach the Premier League they can stay up for a bit longer. They just couldn't seem to hit the ground running this season though winning just the 5 games. 

West Ham are a team that really surprised me this season. They ended up finishing a comfortable 7th this season and put in some great performances whilst also going a very long way in the Europa league which I don't think anyone expected. It is going to be an interesting off season for West Ham and I think if they can keep hold of some of those bigger names we could see them having another good season in 22/23. Tottenham are another team that surprised me as I really didn't expect to see them finishing in 4th place, Spurs seem to be a bit of a dark horse team lately and I think with the right recruitment in a few years we could really see the best out of them and maybe even see them start picking up some trophies. 

With the start to the season that Newcastle had I really don't think anyone expected to see them finishing in 11th place but the new owners and Eddie Howe really turned the club around and got them playing a whole lot better than anyone expected. I think if they keep hold of some of the big names and bring in a few new players to strengthen some positions and the squad overall we could really see a Newcastle team that are capable of anything, these new owners seem to have come in with a lot of promise so lets hope everything works in their favour. 

Brighton are another team that really stood out to me and put in some great performances throughout the season. Again they are a team that I didn't think would finish so high up the table as they finished 9th. They are another team that can be seen as a bit of a dark horse and again if they can keep as much of the squad together as possible whilst also strengthening other areas I think we could see some more fantastic performances from them, ones to rival that 4-0 win against Manchester United which honestly I still can't believe.

I think it is safe to say that during this off season we are going to see a lot of change at a lot of clubs with plenty of interesting transfers taking place and I am looking forward to seeing where a lot of players end up moving to and seeing who brings the most strength into their squads. Fingers crossed we are going to be in for another really close and interesting season for the 22/23 season but with the World Cup disrupting the season in the winter I guess it is all going to be which team can adapt and stay strong during a busy schedule, maybe some of those dark horses will make a big push during those periods especially if they have a lot of players who won't be playing all those extra World Cup games. But for now the countdown to the start of the new season begins.

Would you be interested in more Premier League content next season?

Did you know the Euros are coming up? I don't think I have mentioned it enough times on here just yet do you? Here at Edge of the Area we are going to make sure we have plenty of content posted over the next month to document the tournament which is being hosted here in England, hopefully it will be content we can always come back to when we want to remember England bringing the silverware home but honestly I guess you don't really know how the tournament is going to play out. This is the first big women's tournament that we will have covered on Edge of the Area and here is the plan...

Predictions post

It isn't the start of a competition if we don't do a prediction post is it? We do it for the leagues so why not do it for the Euros? I think it is going to be fun to see if we get any correct too as you just never know what you are going to get in these competitions. We will be doing these at every stage, the groups, quarter finals, semi finals and of course the final. 

Round up posts

I am really looking forward to writing these posts at every chance I get, to be honest I aren't sure if they will be after sets of group games or just after the groups are over and after each round. Either way though I really can't wait to be able to sit and write these posts as I think they will be fun to look back on.  There will also be a dedicated post at the end of the tournament just as an overall round up of our experiences etc. 

Match Reports

Strangely one of my favourite posts to write has to be match reports, I actually really enjoy getting home from a game sitting down at my laptop to write my thoughts on the game. Originally I wasn't going to be doing any for the Euros and I won't be doing them for every game but there will definitely be a fair few reports going up throughout the competition.

Shirts 

Of course we can't forget about the shirts throughout the tournament that is why we will be making sure to break up other content with hopefully a lot of shirt content. That might be a close up of one we have purchased or just a break down of what the teams will be wearing but you can definitely expect to see plenty of shirts on the blog and certainly on social media. 

Gameday Videos

This is something I wanted to do during the 21/22 season however, I just never got around to doing it. Now though confidence to film & edit is growing so why not make a start on doing this during the Euros. These videos will be going up on our Instagram and TikTok pages and will hopefully capture the atmosphere of the games whilst we are there, plus they are another fun thing to look back on in the future. 

Polls

We want to get others involved too with content so over on our social media pages we will be running polls, possibly daily. These could be anything from favourite shirts to who you think will win each game. We are really looking forward to running plenty of polls throughout the competition as it will be great to see other peoples opinions too, especially when it comes to the shirt ones.

Live reporting

Now this won't be happening at the games we are going to as we will probably be lacking signal to keep up to this however, for those days where we are sat at home watching games we will probably put a poll on Twitter to see which game people want us to live tweet & post on Facebook about. This should be something a bit different for us and fingers crossed this is something we enjoy and can carry into the 2022/23.

Tournament thoughts & memories

As I mentioned earlier we will be doing a blog post at the end of the whole competition to share our experience of going to games and just watching them on TV, who knows when England are next going to host a Women's International tournament so this is a post we will always be able to look at in the future and remember what happened when we got to witness hopefully a fantastic tournament on home soil. 

Players of the tournament

This is probably going to consist of one very long blog post or will be broken down into two different ones but that hasn't been decided just yet. There will be a player that we pick from every nation that has been that nations player of the tournament then we will break it down to the top 5 that we think were the best of the tournament. We will also be doing polls and asking on Instagram who would get your vote so keep an eye out for those. 

So there you go that is the content you are going to be seeing on the blog over the next month or so as the tournament really gets underway. We are really looking forward to documenting this competition and looking forward to seeing other peoples thoughts throughout it too. 

Let us know if there is anything else you would like to see us post throughout the Euro either on the blog or social media.

I think the majority of Bradford City fans will look back on the season like we have and just wonder what actually happened? What we thought was going to be a fantastic season didn't go to plan at all and had a few twists and turns before finally showing some promise however, it was a little too late in the end and we ended up finishing 14th in League 2, way off the mark of where most fans thought we would be. 

The pre-season build up made all us fans pretty hopeful for the season ahead with Derek Adams coming out with plenty of promises and interviews saying the sort of thing he had in store for us but we saw just a few months into the season those promises were definitely not going to happen and morale in the squad had dropped massively. It didn't take long for fans to start turning on Adams & owner Rupp after performances were absolutely shocking and nowhere near what those players in that squad were capable of, it just looked like they didn't want to play. Still the club kept Adams around and even with his post match interviews angering fans even more due to his ego and the fact he didn't seem to care about the results he was still there to oversee the January transfer window. 

It is safe to say there were some fantastic loan signings like Jamie Walker and Dion Pereria (who we never even saw play under Adams yet turned out to be a fantastic signing when he did play) and then there were some more questionable ones like Daly who we just didn't get the best out of and Bass who somehow became a solid first choice 'keeper even after a fair few questionable mistakes. I think the biggest shock of the window though was us losing our captain Canavan right at the end of the window leaving us short of experience in the centre back position, this was clearly due to something in the background due to how it shocked almost everyone. 

Finally though not long after the end of the transfer window the club finally got rid of Adams with his ego seeming to get the better of him and we had a brief spell of Trueman being back in charge stepping up from the assistant role. What makes the Adams sacking even better is how he said 'you will never find a better manager than me' .... well step aside Adams as us Bradford City fans had a massive shock when the club announced the new managed to be Mark Hughes, no one expected it. In fact it was that much of a shock I honestly believed it was the parody account that had announced it not the actual Bradford City one and honestly I still can't get my head around that it is Hughes in charge now and who knows maybe we might get out of League 2 sooner rather than later with him in charge.

The best part about the Hughes appointment for me though was seeing those players who looked awful under Adams finally start looking like footballers again, they started to show up and actually play some football. They were moving the ball around and actually trying to score and creating some great chances whilst they were at it. At times with how they were moving the ball around it didn't feel like we were watching a League two team it looked much better quality and gave us hope for what the future holds at the club. even players who were missing for most of Adams reign seemed to slip back into the squad and make an impact. We saw Peraira magically recover from an injury that kept him from playing under Adams and he soon became a fan favourite after putting in some great performances. Even Gareth Evans returned to the squad after a long time on the sidelines and showed us what he was capable of  it is just a shame we have now released him as I think he could have done well under Hughes next season. 

Even though the players were starting to perform much better unfortunately results just weren't falling in their favour and we still weren't picking up those points that could have helped us climb the table a fair bit towards the end of the season but at the end of the day a 14th place finish is way better than we expected around the festive period.  

The team started to look so much better and honestly it has set the standard pretty high for us fans for the new season but I think we could definitely be in for a treat as the Hughes rebuild is well underway with us making some pretty good signings early on in the transfer window rather than leaving everything to the last minute plus we are keeping hold of some key players from last season. With a nice mix of new and old I think the season could go pretty well if the players settle into the Hughes way of playing early on and I think with more to be done in the transfer window we could see the club go from strength to strength in some positions where quality has been lacking lately. 

At the end of the day though last season didn't go to plan but it was nice to be back in Valley Parade watching the team we love with fellow fans rather than having to sit and watch it on a laptop screen through ifollow. I don't want to get my hopes up too high going into the new season as we saw how that played out last time but there is a real sense of excitement in the air at the moment so let's hope next season is so much better.

What did you think to Bradford City's 2021/22 campaign?

Well at least one thing can be said about the 2021/22 League 2 season... it was good to finally be back in the stadium, after the pandemic kept us out of the ground for so long it was just nice to be sat with other fans chatting & watching the game together rather than being sat at home watching games on the TV. You really can't beat the feeling & the atmosphere of those live games. It was a bit of an interesting season too with some teams doing a lot better than expected and others being nowhere near the mark, but don't worry Bradford City will have their own post coming very soon because what a season that was for us fans. 

The season saw Forest Green Rovers finally make their way out of the league and into league one after finishing the season as league winner but it very nearly didn't go that way with it being a very close race between both Forest Green & Exeter for that top spot. Forest Green just about held on though and won the league whilst Exeter gained automatic promotion after finishing in second place. The 3rd and final automatic promotion spot was anyone's really but it seemed a bit far fetched for Bristol Rovers to gain it seeing as they needed to win by 7 goals in the final game of the season... somehow though Rovers did it by beating Scunthorpe 7-0 on the final day to sneak into that final automatic spot. Now a few have questioned this result with Scunthorpe's fate been sealed earlier on in the season but honestly I don't think you can take away from how well Bristol Rovers have done all season and it is nice to see them progress into league 1. The final promotion spot was eventually taken by Port Vale after their fantastic win at Wembley vs Mansfield who are a team that have really surprised me this season and I didn't expect them to finish as high up the table as they did. 

As for the relegation spots I think it is safe to say that the first was decided pretty early on in the season as Scunthorpe just couldn't seem to hit the ground running and they were far from the team we were used to seeing and I am hoping they don't stick around the National League too long and soon bounce back but I guess only time will tell with that one. It is also a shame to see Oldham drop into the National League because they are a club with a lot of history and one who provide a good atmosphere when they have visited Valley Parade, with the right investment I can't see them staying out of the EFL for too long but it is just a case of are they going to invest to get back to where they should be? 

A surprise team for me this season definitely has to be Sutton United, I honestly didn't expect them to be in the position they were in at the end of the season, if I am 100% honest I thought they would actually be fighting for survival but they finished the season comfortably in 8th and were really pushing towards that final play off spot in the final weeks of the season. I thought Tranmere would have done much better than they did too but I guess things just didn't fall into place for them and they finished 9th. Talking about surprises of the season I think the biggest one for me was seeing struggling Bradford beat Forest Green at The New Lawn, I definitely expected us to come away with a heavy defeat but we really stepped up and showed what we would have been capable of if we gave it our all throughout the full season but as I said earlier we will have a whole post on Bradford City very soon. 

We are only a few weeks into the off season and we are already seeing plenty of movement before the new season begins and I think with some of the recruitment we have seen we could be in for a very interesting & entertainment. add in the new teams that have been relegated from League One and those coming up from the National League us fans could really be in for a treat. 

We are already on countdown for the new season and will have more League 2 content coming before the opening weekend but for now you will be finding us glued to social media keeping an eye on all the transfers taking place in the league.

Will you be keeping a close eye on League 2 next season?