RETURNING to your local madhouse any day now by public demand: the crazy world of Premiership football.
So strap yourself in and enjoy the ride. Nine months of Fergie's fury. The madness of King Jose. Warnock the Weird. Tears and tantrums. Divers and divas. Red cards for Rooney. Rasberries for Ronaldo.
Does Theo Walcott really exist? Is Peter Crouch anorexic? Stay tuned in and watch it all unfold. Mad, bad, sad and unmissable. Yes, folks. Another Premiership season is upon us.
So what do I expect from the nine months of mayhem stretched out before us?
No, I'll rephrase that. What hopes do I have for the new Premiership season? I say `hopes', because in football there is invariably the world of difference between what you hope for and what you expect.
I hope - but don't expect - that Chelsea will not be crowned champions of English football for the third successive season.
If they do so, it will be further proof - if any is needed - that the Premiership title can be bought.
I hope that Roman Abramovich slings his hook and buys a different toy to play with in a different country.
Let's see how special the Special One really is without that bottomless fund at his disposal. Use your brain rather than Abramovich's millions to win the title, Jose, and I really will accept that you are the tactical genius you keep telling us you are.
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What will the next nine months have in store for Stuart Pearce and the Blessed Blues? I hope it's not another "curate's egg" season like the last one: Psycho's first full campaign in charge at Eastlands was good in parts and decidedly niffy in others.
With a limited budget at his disposal, Pearce has been shrewd in his transfer dealings during the close season. For a giveaway fee of é300,000, he managed to acquire the services of the former Liverpool favourite Dietmar Hamann - much to the displeasure of Bolton - and there won't be a single member of the Eastlands congregation who isn't thrilled to see little workaholic Paul Dickov wearing the sky blue shirt once again.
The arrival of Bernardo Corradi from Valencia and Hatem Trabelsi from Ajax will give Pearce more options both in attack and in midfield. And the coming campaign, I'll guarantee, will be a huge season for youngsters Nedum Onuoha and Micah Richards, who are both future internationals as sure as eggs are eggs.
With Joey Barton settled and Richard Dunne installed as new captain in preference to the outgoing Sylvain Distin, the Blues, I confidently predict, will improve on last season's disappointing position of 15th.
High enough to qualify for Europe? A possibility rather than a probability. But a top-ten finish? Put your shirt on it.
Prediction: 10th
Do you agree? Have your say.
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a bad start with pearce out chants from the usual suspects by mid september.then we shall see a momentous ressurection, top ten finish yes and maybe a good cup run.
I'd be happy with a 10th place finish but I reckon we'll finish round about where we finished last season, but don't think relegation will be too big an issue.
Top ten finish id like to think so but it all depends on who we bring in before the transfer window closes. With the squad we have now i think we will draw more than we will win as we lack the creativeness to break teams down. I predict 12th
I think Hince's predictions are spot on, apart from IMHO he has got City's and Wigan's mixed up. City will finish 8th and Wigan 10th!
You really should stop hincey from smoking the office pot plants. Top 10???? Where does he get that from? Let's see - Pearce should a spectacular inability to halt City's slide last season, with his one managerial technique of shouting lots and showing energy quickly losing all influence.
He has lost his keeper, has a centre back pairing that has never convinced and has a squad packed with veterans and journeymen. His summer signings smack of desperation - after all, who else was genuinely competing for half the players City have bought?
City will do well to finish 15th and Pearce will be gone by next May.
Dose anyone else get the feeling that Hince is realy a Rag loving fool. I remmber him writing at the end of last season about how all the rag players should shake the Chelsea player hands because next season it would be the rags that would be getting there cup back.Now that he knows that that will not happen he starts go on about Chelsea buying the league.
Rio 30m Veron 28 Horse Face 17 and Rooney 28 dose this not sound like buying the league to you Mr Hince. The rags did it for years but now just because a team has more money then them everyone is up in arms well all the rag fans.So shut up and give Fergie that big hug and kiss that you have wonted to do for so long and stop goin on about your socalled Blues when we all know that your one true love is the Rags.
Had to laugh at Hince's anti-Chelsea rant about them 'buying the title' and Mourinho only being 'special' cos he's got gobs and gobs of cash to spend. Isn't that exactly what Ferguson and the Rags have been able to do for the last decade? I hope Chelsea do win the title, again and again and again, cos everytime they do, it exposes the United myth and the Ferguson myth for what they are. A sham!
Ahem I for one are one of the congregation who isn't looking forward to seeing Paul Dickov return and just hope that Pearce has bought enough options to keep him in the reserves. I reckon Pearce has replaced well this year with the ones coming in twice as good as the ones going out. We only blew up last year when our bottles went and injuries meant we had to use the kids so I'm hopeful of a top 10 this year .... as long as we don't have to rely on Mr 110% effort (but no goals) !!!
Pearce has done well in the transfer market.but our main concern will not be the size and quality of the squad but the manager himself, can he win football matches again or doe's the free fall continue?
We are into survival so anywhere above !8th will be a job well done.
10th place, no chance. Losing distin is a massive, massive blow and the words "typical city" come to mind. What good is getting rid of distin now when we will only end up with nothing or someone from the mickey mouse league up north. We really are in trouble and after the porto match my only hope is that reading, watford and sheffield utd will be worse then us. Question, city are a bigger and better team/club than villa and we carnt find investers, strange because for two seasons we have been told they were looking for investers all over the world and nothing. I personally think this is just lies and the chairman and board have no intention of selling the club, why should they? they only got us in 60 mill of debt that doesnt get smaller even though we sell players and get rid of some big earners, we dont even own our own ground (that really is bad), were in danger of being left behind and potentially relegated in the next few seasons because every other club has money to spend and we have non, we need it now before its to late.
I have exactly the same feelings and would predict a top ten finish also. But who would bet against Hince jinxing it?
So United, as the previous richest club before Chelsea, DIDN'T buy their Prem titles? The Prem was a busted flush fromn day one, as it enshrined the predominance of the bank balance. The world's most boring football league
this si the same Paul Hince that said we should stick with Weaver and sell SWP,forgive me for a moment whilst I stop myself from laughing at your comments Paul, but do you expect anyone of a City persuasion to take you seriously?
From your mouth to God's ear's.
What's with the egg fixation Paul? I'm sure our season will be eggstremely eggciting and some players will be eggstra special. Let's hope we're not too eggstravagent against Chelsea on Sunday.
As a city fan I don't think you should belittle Mourinho's accheivements just because he has had money available. Before Chelseas wasn't it exactly the same situation with United (obviously to a lesser extent). Regardless of that he won the European cup with a tiny club Porto which, when compared to your real madrids and ac milans is a comaparble gulf to gap than that between City and United would be for league dominance (ie practically impossible). Couple that with the fact that he has won the league 4 years running and has only lost one home game in 4 years (to barcelona) it seems to point to the fact that he can do it with money or without. The fact it is easier with money is not telling us anything we did not already know.
Get the straighjacket for Hince. Jose's UEFA and CHAMPS league winners Porto team cost a total of ¿¿1m to put together - all youth and free transfers. Get your facts straight before outting them to print.
Fair comment, the wigan game screwed our season up last year, lets hope Stu's learnt his lessons well & that's also directed at our fans who when the hammers went 1-0 up threw the towel in when the team needed them most.
Paul Hince is the special one and I dont mean in the Jose kind of way.
Paul Hince : Legend..best read by far in any publication about football. The man has wit as well as great knowledge. Keep up the writing Hincey, the MEN will never be the same if you go. Mind you, I said that when the football pink disappeared but you popped up with the same stuff in the white paper...thank god. No, I am not related!!
C1TY, what are you talking about exactly? Distin doesnt want to sign the most lucrative contract ever put to a player at our club, why let him leave in 12 months for free when we can recoup more than the original outlay? Not bad for a player going into his last year. If he thinks boro can better match his ambitions than us then off you go with my best wishes fool.
We have Richards and Ned coming through who between them can cover Distin in the centre of Defence, it pains me to say it but D Mills can play there, Jordan has in the past and not forgetting M Mills too.
In regards to investment - We dont own our own ground, we are 60 million in debt, our squad isnt exactly worth tens of millions, our most valuable asset is us the fans. It would cost a large amount for us to be bought out, near 90 - 100 million maybe? Then further investment in the playing staff? Dont hold your breath.
John Wardle has pumped his own cash into us, he isnt taking a penny in salary, he was a reluctant chairman to begin with and without him we'd be in big trouble. Think about that. Mckintosh shouldnt have publicly stated his intention to find an investor but he has and ultimately its this rope that will hang him but JW is a blue, just like us, we aint going to be setting the world alight for a few seasons yet, but we aint going bust either.
Only with graft and a bit of cute transfer activity are we going to get ourselves in a position to begin to look like a viable investment.
In regards to Hincey, well, hes a blue with an opinion who happens to write in a newspaper, no more explanation needed!
Paul Hince continues to write his usual nonsense.We never read comments from him criticising Uniteds BUYING of the Title etc did we? as it is now MUFC are trying to buy second place but Hince isn't having any of it perhaps he fearful of a tongue lashing off SAF? Chelsea have been a breath of fresh air they put a stop to Uniteds monopoly and to all the United connections Hince included that is wrong,thank you Mr Abronovich and Jose is really the SPECIAL one.MUFC and their followers simply cant stomach their dominence being taken away but as a City fan starved of success at least it was comforting not seeing the MYTHS get all their own way.we all know our team are some way from winning a trophy so in the meantime lets enjoy ANY other club winning trophies and not the RAGS its good for football.As for Hince saying City are on the UP and then predicts a top ten finish well that sums the CLOSET RED up well and truly.
Jose can do it with or without money and that is a fact. Like him or loathe him he has been a breath of fresh air to the Premiership, tapping up aside. Turning back to our predicament I think 10th is about the best we can hope for at present however, if the board dug deep and backed SP with a little bit of cash resulting in two wingers with pace, guile and the ability to cross the ball I think we would be a top 8 team. SP has strengthened the squad from a quality point of view and there is no doubt there however, the numbers are the same as last year and this was the reason given for our poor second half performance. If we have injuries we are going to struggle and not have much choice (just like last year). The following are either injured or coming back from injury Cole, Vassell, Hamann, Sun, Sinclair, Ireland, Dunne, Reyna and possibly Jordan. Five of those are first choice starters.
i want 2 see a top six this yer
Why is Hincey always having a pop at people like Mourinho and Wenger.Jose was offered the Chelsea job because of his achievements at his former club Porto where he won the Champions league on a shoestring budget.He plays the game without fear.I bet he does not fill his players heads with negative instructions meant to stop the opposition.If things are not going to plan,he does not hesitate to throw on all three subs to rectify the situation..Wenger has also been successfull on smaller gates than City.I do not share Hinceys optimism that City will finish in the top 10 either! While you are having a go at Mourinho Paul why not bring some balance into your article by highlight the fifty million that Ferguson has wasted on players that have since been shown the door with Evra and Vidice about to join them.