The season will start in just a few days. Transfers may still be made, but here are my Premier League Predictions.
1. Man City
2. Man Utd
3. Chelsea
4. Arsenal
5. Liverpool
6. Tottenham
7. Newcastle Utd
8. Everton
9. Fulham
10. Sunderland
11. Stoke
12. West Ham Utd
13. QPR
14. Swansea
15. Aston Villa
16. WBA
17. Wigan
18. Reading
19. Norwich
20. Southampton
Time to write my Premier League predictions. Here goes:
1) Man Utd - I think this will be a very tough race with the top three all challenging. Ultimately I think Utd will win out.
2) Man City- I only want to see some more playmaking ability in the central midfield, then I'm convinced.
3) Chelsea - Again, this team will challenge in a very tight race. My only concern here is width.
4) Liverpool - A big improvement is expected. I think the big teams will outmatch them in possession at this point and make victories against the best difficult.
5) Arsenal - Fabregas and Nasri seem out. No centre-back was brought in. Yes, they are still better than 75% of the league and will be brilliant, but the loss of Fabregas especially is a huge blow. People continue to underestimate just how good he is.
6) Tottenham Hotspur - Need a forward to partner VDV. Dawson is the only consistent in central defence. Gallas is older and not as good as some claim; King, though brilliant, can only play so often in a good year. We don't know where Modric will end up.
7) Sunderland
8) Stoke City
9) Everton
10) West Bromwich Albion
11) Aston Villa
12) Fulham
13) Bolton
14) Newcastle Utd
15) Blackburn Rovers
16) Norwich City
17) QPR
18) Wigan
19) Swansea
20) Wolverhampton Wanderers - They gained way more points than can be expected against the top half of the table last season. Expect a giant regression in this area, and therefore you end up with a bad team.
1) Man Utd - I think this will be a very tough race with the top three all challenging. Ultimately I think Utd will win out.
2) Man City- I only want to see some more playmaking ability in the central midfield, then I'm convinced.
3) Chelsea - Again, this team will challenge in a very tight race. My only concern here is width.
4) Liverpool - A big improvement is expected. I think the big teams will outmatch them in possession at this point and make victories against the best difficult.
5) Arsenal - Fabregas and Nasri seem out. No centre-back was brought in. Yes, they are still better than 75% of the league and will be brilliant, but the loss of Fabregas especially is a huge blow. People continue to underestimate just how good he is.
6) Tottenham Hotspur - Need a forward to partner VDV. Dawson is the only consistent in central defence. Gallas is older and not as good as some claim; King, though brilliant, can only play so often in a good year. We don't know where Modric will end up.
7) Sunderland
8) Stoke City
9) Everton
10) West Bromwich Albion
11) Aston Villa
12) Fulham
13) Bolton
14) Newcastle Utd
15) Blackburn Rovers
16) Norwich City
17) QPR
18) Wigan
19) Swansea
20) Wolverhampton Wanderers - They gained way more points than can be expected against the top half of the table last season. Expect a giant regression in this area, and therefore you end up with a bad team.
With the Premier League start beginning, it's time for previews. Take it away, Amy Lawrence:
Gervinho might prove to be another classic Arsène Wenger bargain, an athletic and pacy ball player raring to step up a level, spirited over from France for a fee that doesn't make a certain manager with a well-documented devotion to cautious housekeeping choke as if he was asked to fix the Greek economy before breakfast.
So if I understand this:
Arsène Wenger may have purchased the rights to pay a footballer named Gervinho, an athlete who is athletic and quick, and a player who was caused to go to England, from France, for an amount of money, that actually was a spirit and not money, that a careful spender, who is often written about, but probably not Wenger (since it would not be in his best interest to choke himself), but an economist who works for the IMF or Germany or some other entity who woke up to realize that he or she had already been asked to complete an exceedingly difficult task in an arbitrary amount of time, but instead is devoting him or herself to the problem, decided to devote him or herself to football analysis, but this economist may not even have been asked because the writer may have just been positing a potential situation, but it is not a potential situation, since the optative voice was not used and this all actually happened, or Wenger may not have paid less than the market value for the player and Gervinho may not be bargain after all.
Gervinho might prove to be another classic Arsène Wenger bargain, an athletic and pacy ball player raring to step up a level, spirited over from France for a fee that doesn't make a certain manager with a well-documented devotion to cautious housekeeping choke as if he was asked to fix the Greek economy before breakfast.
So if I understand this:
Arsène Wenger may have purchased the rights to pay a footballer named Gervinho, an athlete who is athletic and quick, and a player who was caused to go to England, from France, for an amount of money, that actually was a spirit and not money, that a careful spender, who is often written about, but probably not Wenger (since it would not be in his best interest to choke himself), but an economist who works for the IMF or Germany or some other entity who woke up to realize that he or she had already been asked to complete an exceedingly difficult task in an arbitrary amount of time, but instead is devoting him or herself to the problem, decided to devote him or herself to football analysis, but this economist may not even have been asked because the writer may have just been positing a potential situation, but it is not a potential situation, since the optative voice was not used and this all actually happened, or Wenger may not have paid less than the market value for the player and Gervinho may not be bargain after all.
A giant question mark is lodged deeply over the head of Brad Friedal.
This pertains to the new Tottenham signing's performance last season. More explicitly, his performance fell of a cliff. Oh, and Tottenham just signed him and seem prepared to start him ahead of the error-prone but better Heuerelho Gomes.
Let us embark on a statistical head-to-head comparison. First, 2010-2011.
One stumbling block to a move appears to be salary, with the Dutchman currently on £250,000 per week, which does not fit into Man Utd's non-Rooney wage structure. However, if he lessens his salary demands, it seems a move may be in place.
Luka Modric really, really wants to leave Tottenham. Spurs Number 2 Kevin Bond now publicly acknowledges that the unhappy player may leave if a bid matches the club's valuation of the player.The scenario floating around the newspapers is a straight cash deal for Modric. Modric in exchange for money, giving Spurs cash to pursue other players in the transfer market. What I want to say is that this would be stupid business on Spurs's end. Modric is a player that possesses immense leverage in world football and so, if a club has to sell him, use his leverage for all it is worth, and that means for more than money.
Luka Modric is rumoured to have submitted a second written transfer request to Tottenham.
My feeling on the situation is that the player signed a contract for Tottenham and thus agreed to fulfull his end of that contract, which obliges him to play for Tottenham for the duration of that contract. If another club wants the player, they may submit a bid to Tottenham. If the bid is deemed acceptable, Spurs may give Modric the opportunity to discuss personal terms with the bidding club.
The challenge Spurs face is that Modric is trying to escape his contract. He desperately wants to leave and is pressuring Spurs to accept a bid from Chelsea to allow him to move to south London. He is Spurs' best midfielder, one of the best central midfield playmakers around. He is worth a heck of a lot of money to the club and it's fans, more than what Chelsea currently seem prepared to offer.
