Part 6: English Premier League Season Preview and Predictions
Manchester City
One of the surprise teams for this coming season of the Premier League are Manchester City. City have previously had very little or no success in their recent history but all of that looks to be on the verge of changing. Manchester City have had a change of owners and their new in charge has brought in with him, what seems to be an infinite source of money to the team.
What this means is that City can easily change their squad at any time during the transfer windows, based on the mangers decisions. Roberto Mancini was brought into the club last season to help steer the team to levels of success that the team had never seen before. Mancini helped the team climb up the ranks but could not help the team achieve that last Champions League spot. City ended their last campaign with a fifth place finish. It was the best the team had done over the past couple of years but it didn’t seem to be enough.
Mancini went transfer crazy in the summers. He said that he did not have the time to develop quality at the club and went on to spend over a 100 million pounds to bring quality to the team instead. He felt that this was required to help steer the team to an better position than last term.
It is almost impossible to assume where the team will end up at the end of the season. They possess superstars as well as player’s who no one had really heard of before. The team could either implode or do better than any ones expectations. There was some doubt about Robinho’s future at the club, but it appears that with the new stars making their way to the club, the Brazilian has lost the spark that he once had with the fans of the team.
The most impressive aspect of City’s line up is the fact that they have tremendous depth. They have at least one or two players for each position. Which means that if a player manages to get injured, there won’t be any catastrophic side effects since there would be a more than worthy replacement for the player just waiting to take the field.
City managed to acquire their latest target, James Milner last night after a series of transfer battles between Aston Villa and City over the player. However it appears as though City always end up getting whatever player they want.
With Milner now a part of the squad, City might just become a force to be reckoned with this coming season.
The players that were allowed out of the club are, Valeri Bojinow, Martin Petrov, Benjani, Sylvinho, Robert Mark, Gunnar Nielsen, Javier Garrido and Stephen Ireland. The players that were brought in to start the revolution at the club include, Yaya Toure, Jerome Boateng, David Silva, Aleksandar Kolarov, Alex Henshall, Albert Rusnak, Kosice, Mario Balotelli and James Milner.
Experts are not sure as to where City will end up this coming season or as to how they will perform. In their opening game with Tottenham, City seemed to have been pushed around by their opponents. However they didn’t concede a goal and held on for the draw, some experts say that this is Mancini’s way of introducing the Italian style of football to the Premier League, others say this is City imploding already. However City have become the favourite team to watch in the league due to the squad that they possess. According to experts it would be wrong to rule City out from any of the domestic Cup’s that they participate in. They possess the talent and squad to win almost everything this coming season. They might even produce the biggest shock of them all by going on to life the English Premier League trophy.
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