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!

Next Season..Update

A quick update on the newly released Premier league fixtures and my predictions.

Manchester United do indeed start the season at home to a newly promoted team (Birmingham City) followed by another (Burnley) away in the second game.

The Manchester derby takes place in the last four games, with the Chelsea game two weeks earlier.

The final game of the season is against Stoke City who struggled this season, their first in the Premier league.

Stoke are expected to struggle again so the only prediction I got wrong is that the game is at Old Trafford and not in Stoke.

Random indeed.

Football. Bloody hell.

Another topsy-turvy day in the English Premier League.

After watching Liverpool set themselves on the way to a 3-1 victory at Hull courtesy of a cheating little Argentinian and reclaim top spot on goal difference, it was time to settle down to the real action, Manchester United v Tottenham.

The day seemed to take a turn for the worse when Tottenham went in at half time with a surprising 2-0 lead. I tried cheering myself up by telling my Wife about the game a few years agao at White Hart Lane when Tottenham were 3-0 up at half time and United came out 5-3 winners. I was probably just trying to convince myself it wasn't all over.

United got a fortunate penalty which Ronaldo tucked away to give us a glimmer of hope. I say fortunate because I've seen a lot of similar challenges go unpunished but the Tottenham goalkeeper did make contact with Michael Carrick and a penalty was the right decision.

Wayne Rooney hit the equaliser 10 minutes later, and set Ronaldo up for the third just a minute later and the game was turned on it's head. There was no stopping United now with Rooney getting his second, United's fourth.

Even Dimitar Berbatov got in on the action, forcing in a fifth against his old club.

This certainly made a refreshing change from the scrappy 1-0 wins that have seen United through this far in the season. I think the game was coming where they would find things going their way, even if it was just the second half today.

Hopefully this result will boost their confidence and give them the momentum to see them through to the end of the season. United need three wins from the last five league games to clinch the title for the third year running.

There's also the small matter of the Champions League Semi-final against Arsenal. Teams often get in the habit of winning. Maybe this was the game that reminded United what they are capable of.

It's been a crazy few weeks whatever team you follow, reminding us all why we love this game. In the words of Sir Alex Ferguson: Football. Bloody hell.