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The following sentence seems needlessly cumbersome. Can we rewrite it without changing its meaning?

But what I will say is that at the start of the season I'd have said they would have had absolutely no chance of finishing in the top four.

Is the use of would have had necessary? Can we rewrite the sentence to use have without changing the meaning? For example:

But what I will say is that at the start of the season I'd have said they have absolutely no chance ...

Here's the full sentence for more context.

Do I think Arsenal will finish in the top-four? Right here, right now...no. I think they'll finish fifth. But what I will say is that at the start of the season I'd have said they would have had absolutely no chance of finishing in the top four.

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  • The soccer guru has messed up his tenses. What would he have said at the start of the season? “Arsenal have absolutely no chance of finishing in the top four.”. So the reported version, stated several weeks into the season is: “... I would have said that they had absolutely no chance of ending in the top four.”.
    – Tuffy
    Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 22:01

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Leave out "would have." Hence, ". . . said they had absolutely . . ..". (I'd like a comma after "season" because of the introductory prepositional phrase.")

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  • But why "had" and not "have"? At that point, now in the past, he was talking about the future. Would "have" not make more sense than "had"?
    – fantousha
    Commented Oct 22, 2018 at 23:26

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