New Season

The new football season starts today so it is very exciting. Well, the Premier League kicks off today, the rest of the English leagues started last week.

It's always a long summer in an odd numbered year as there is no world cup or European Championship to fill the void.

This summer was fairly quiet on the transfer front. Ronaldo left Manchester United early and with the minimum of fuss which suggests a deal had been in place long before anyone actually admitted it. United can't complain about the service he;s given them over the last six years and the world record fee received will soften the blow further.

While still having a good season helping United clinch a third championship in a row and reaching the Champions league final, Ronaldo failed to reach the heights of the previous season and it was clear his heart wasn't always in it.

So the big four haven't really strengthed their squads during the summer and it coule be argued they are weaker. United also lost Carlos Tevez, Liverpool lost Xabi Alonso and Arsenal lost Emmanuel Adebayor.

Chelsea have made a couple of low profile signings and have retained their squad from last season so I think they have to be favourites this year.

Having said that, I definitely think it will be a lot closer this year. Manchester City have spent a lot of money and have assembled a good squad so it will be interesting to see how they fit together. This year may be too soon for them but they could be a threat over the next few years.

So there you have it, Chelsea are my tip for the championship, United and Liverpool will battle it out for 2nd and Arsenal and Manchester City will take 4th and 5th, although which finishes 4th will probably come down to the slightest margin.

Enjoy!

United bomb on Indonesian tour

Manchester United are spending the summer, as they always do, whoring themselves on corporate junkets to the other side of the world. This year, once more it is the turn of the far east including Indonesia & Malaysia.

The stop in Indonesia has been cancelled however after the Jakarta hotel the team were due to stay at was bombed, resulting in the death of nine people and injuring 50.

The incident had nothing to do with United's tour but it's not the first time the team have been mentioned in reports on terrorist attacks.

I remember a few years ago when I was working in Manchester, they used to hand out free copies of the Manchester Evening News at the bus station some Fridays so I grabbed one to read on the journey home.

The front page story was about a raid on a house in Manchester where suspected terrorists lived and the police had found tickets to Manchester United's game that weekend. United get over 76,000 people at every home game so it's not hard to imagine the chaos such an attack would cause.

Being a season ticket holder, I was attending the game, I think it was against Arsenal and I spent most of the time before, during and after the game looking for bearded men acting suspiciously.

Luckily, the game passed without incident but due to the coverage English football gets there is a very real chance that a game or team could be targeted.

United have cancelled a stop on the tour and are considering playing the game at another location but that still leaves 100,000 people who had tickets to the original game who will lose out seeing their heroes.

On the bright side, Michael Owen played his first game for United and scored the winner in a 3-2 win over Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

Not a bad record after being written off by so many. An average of a goal a game is better than most!