Yet More Definitive Footy Takes

You got the kit takes, and on the first day of the 2026-27 Premier League season (Holders Arsenal host newcomers Coventry City at 3:00, live on USA), you get another definitive analysis. I offer you the GTB vibes-based Premier League predicted order of finish.

First, a few opinions from the experts:

Opta is a analytical outfit that uses data to model predicted outcomes. Here's their take.

Three of NBC's pundits offer their opinion.

Finally, the BBC weighs in here.

I crunched the numbers to see how our vibes compared with the experts, and a few things stood out.

In this view, the higher the number, the better the expected finish. 20 for first, 19 for second, down to 1 for 20th and last. 

We are more bullish than the experts about Liverpool, Leeds, Sunderland, and Fulham (not saying much - the experts are not high on the Cottagers) and generally more bearish about Man City (we're right on this one, hear me now and believe me later), Forest, and Newcastle. And now we've got a way to track our gut. Game on!

GTB's Definitive Review of the 2026-27 EPL Kits

At the time of posting, we're fewer than 36 hours away from the start of a new Premier League season. One of the league's traditional preseason activities (in addition to exhibition games/money grabs in places far from the UK and Chelsea overpaying for middling talent) is the release of new kit designs. Which, come to think of it, is also a money grab.

ESPN has helpfully catalogued and ranked all of this season's new looks so you can judge their relative attractiveness (or lack thereof) for yourselves. But we're here to serve, so if you don't have that much time, allow us to tell you what's Good, Meh, and Ugly.

The Good

Sunderland were surprisingly frisky last season after being promoted from the Championship. The Black Cats took some major scalps early in the campaign, and wound up in 7th place, good for a Europa League spot. They celebrated by dropping a pair of sweet kits:

ESPN ranks their away kit as the very best of the new season's offerings. I like it, too.

But don't sleep on the update to their classic home togs, which are an homage to the club's 1937 FA Cup winners, and feature a ton of vintage details:

Coventry make their first return to the Premier League since the 2000-01 season. They were in the fourth division as recently as 2014. They're headed back up wearing a sweet home getup:

Crystal Palace has punched above its weight the past few seasons, winning the FA Cup and the UEFA Conference League. They've always had a sharp kit featuring diagonal red and blue stripes, and they've modernized it a bit this year:

Some observers don't like Brighton's away kits, claiming they're too bland. Those people are wrong. These are really clean:

The Meh

Adidas has done this thing recently where they leave a cap in the three stripes markings that run down the sleeves, probably to fit in more sponsorship logos. Let us go on record as disliking it - see Fulham's fairly unambitious home kit as an example of the form:

Chelsea is a mess in a lot of ways (though I expect them to be pretty competitive on the pitch under new manager Xabi Alonso). Their home kit design seems to be a complete afterthought.

A bunch of clubs, including the aforementioned Fulham, are basically running back the same home kits they've used for a while now. So don't expect anything interesting from Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester United, Bournemouth, and several others.

Everton is a blue club, just like Chelsea, and they didn't break any new ground, either, but I do like the little splash of yellow on the collar.

The Ugly

With due respect to our man Marls, Newcastle's home kit is a nice try, but a bizarre execution:

Hull City is newly promoted. Let's hope they play better than they design kits.

I generally like Leeds United's kits, but someone should've thought about how this season's home kit would look when the sponsor's logo was applied:

And finally, for good reason, Spurs seem to understand that their home kit is fairly standard, so they went for it with their away togs. They should not have done so.

Check out the rest at the ESPN link. There are some decent kits out there and some other fairly boring efforts. Tell us how we did.

Dog Days

Belated Glen Hansard Appreciation Post

Not exactly dipshittery, but a return to a normality. Glen Hansard, who passed away in a motorcycle accident on July 29, was your favorite musician's favorite musician. Hansard was beloved by the greats, the goods, the unknowns, and the up and comers because he just absolutely loved music with all his being. Here are just a few of the things he did, and a few of the ways the community celebrated him.

I didn't realize until his passing that he'd played guitarist Outspan Foster in The Commitments. Check out his story about getting the part and then enjoy his stylings.

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Hansard started as a busker, playing on the streets of Dublin. He never forgot those roots, and organized a annual Christmas Eve Busk starting in 2010 to raise money for the Dublin Simon Community, a group that works to support homeless Dubliners. Here he is at the 2015 edition of the Busk with a few folks you might know.

Look at how much he loves watching others - this is him at a recent Busk glowing as he looks on while young Dubliner (who started as a busker herself) Allie Sherlock plays. Shit breaks your heart.

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In addition to his solo work and numerous collaboration, Hansard recorded three gorgeous records with Czech singer-pianist Marketa Irglova as The Swell Season. Shlara turned us on to them years ago. The 2007 movie Once is a fictional depiction of their musical pairing, with the pair starring. You'll be familiar with "Falling Slowly". Just fucking beautiful. True story: I have a female friend with whom I share tunes I think are cool (and she with me). I sent her this song when I first heard it. And then had to quickly explain that I just thought it was a cool song - no deeper meaning. 

Here he is eulogizing Shane MacGowan just a few years ago.

Just hours before he passed, he spent an evening in a pub in West Dublin. Cliche to say he died doing what he loved, but he certainly did what he loved right to the too-early end. He was celebrated by just about everyone:

Indulgence

Person Is Killed in ICE-Involved Shooting in Maine

Person
Passive
Forever now

Agents
Active
Shot him dead

Our polite society
Chooses to forget
The words that
Describe the truth

So a person is killed
Impunity granted
A little girl grows up 
Fatherless. 

Our editors write
The next headline.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Financial precarity aside, being one of the founders of a startup has its perks. in my recent case, it means i can fuck off for a few weeks to various locales and not worry about job security. It doesn't hurt that our little company is entirely virtual and I can check in from places far and wide. 

What follows is a journey in (mostly) pictures from a river in Maine to the mountains of Colorado to the Atlantic Ocean white with foam in North Carolina.

I've chronicled my various paddles down the St. Croix River in northeastern Maine before, so I won't bore you with all of the details, but my fifth multi-day canoeing and camping trip with family and friends was top notch once again. Water was a little bit higher than most trips, so we got to run some rapids that had been previously inaccessible (and required portaging, which is less fun than paddling). Saw some eagles, cool ducks, chipmunks, couple of sunrises over our four days and three nights. 

We paddled the stretch between the Vanceboro Dam and the Grand Falls Dam

Smaller crew this time

Little Falls, site of our first night's campsite

Egg Point, last night on the river

Logo of the St. Croix International Waterway Commission 
captured at Loon Bay. Would make a good tattoo.

After a seven-hour delay at Logan, dragged my tired ass into my house at 3:00 am and spent most of the next day napping. Two days later, my wife and I headed out west to help our daughter move into a new place in Boulder, but we took advantage of the occasion to spend a few days in Colorado Springs before shlepping household goods.

I'd been to the Springs once before for a conference on youth sports. Met Jeff Ament and Edwin Moses (shoutout KQ!) at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum, but otherwise didn't get to do too much sightseeing. As an aside, Ament has run a non-profit called Montana Pool Service since 1992. It's dedicated to creating skate parks to connect kids in the state to arts and skateboarding opportunities. 

This time, a lot more opportunity to see, do, eat, and drink. Our AirBnB was almost literally in the shadow of Garden of the Gods, which is a city park fill of spectacular rock formations and meandering hiking trails. These photos really don't do it justice.

This formation is called the Siamese Twins

You can see Pike's Peak off in the distance
through the keyhole in the Twins

Mrs. Rob and I scrambled up a rock,
unaware of the impending danger

We drove up the aforementioned Pike's Peak, all the way to the summit at 14,115 feet. The effects of altitude at that height are no joke - felt like I'd had a few high octane beers in a short span of time. We saw marmot and mountain goats, though we missed out on Bigfoot, despite warning signs that he might be around.

The view from 14k'

We had an opportunity to see the Olympic museum, and had great meals in Old Colorado City. Missed out on a chance to climb the Manitou Incline (2,744 steps, a 2,000 foot altitude gain over 0.9 miles at an average incline of 41%) due to storms. Bummer?

This is the actual scoreboard from the arena in 
Lake Placid used in the 1980 Olympic hockey
tournament

Jimmy Craig's gameworn

Not much worth reporting from Boulder - been there a bunch and shared a lot of photos. Moving out of a third-floor apartment is a young man's game. Thank God my kid is strong like bull. Here's a gratuitous shot of her and her Mom.

Closed out my three-week gallivant with one of the highlights of my year. Much fun, many beers, lots of fresh fish, late nights, cool ocean water, one very ill-advised attempt to paddleboard while drunk (which cost me a pair of sunglasses), and camaraderie that's an absolute blessing. Couple shots of the lads to wrap things up.

2,270 miles of travel, 25 of paddling, nearly three up a mountain over 25 days. 27.5 if you count the time it took to recover. I'd happily do it all again.

Gheorghasbord: The Slimmining

Been an active three weeks or so for your boy, and I'm working on the comprehensive travelogue. I'm not saying it's on a Gheorghemas Day 12 schedule, but I'm not not saying that. I jumped on the scale this morning after a strict three-day regimen of PBR, Red Stripe, and gobs of tuna and was nonplussed, to say the very least. Gonna be doubling down on fiber and vegetables the next few days ahead of my annual physical on Wednesday.

All that's to say that the brain is a day or two away from firing on even one cylinder, so you'll get what you get.

I promise I'll stop hyping Michael Brennan at some point, but I find it very cool to see kids that are friends with mine doing big stuff in the world. Here's the moment after his win at the Wyndham Championship where his mom told him he's headed to Augusta. 

Easiest way to earn a trip to Augusta National? Win. pic.twitter.com/WON4Q2TIYh

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 9, 2026

Here's a picture I took last year from the dune protecting the venerable Martha Wood Cottage from the ravages of the Atlantic Ocean. Possibly the best photo I've ever taken. Looks better the larger you make it. Feel free to use it for your own ends.

That's all I got, y'all. Gimme a few days.