After a summer of rounds of tennis, golf games and cricket sets it’s finally back – the Weekly Pig’s Bladder. Oh and football. That returns too. By Kieran Davies.
At the end of last season, you were either bathing in success or glad to see the back of an uneventful campaign. By now every football fan up and down the country is salivating at the thought of the start of another season. A clean slate, a chance to right some wrongs. Last season is history now and you berate Liverpool fans for living in the past, no time for Tony Robinson impressions now. You’re only as good as your last game and your friends will make sure you remember that when times are bad and will accuse you of sounding like a broken record when you do well, but that is the life of a football fan and what we all enjoy whether begrudgingly or not. There’s someone important back in the life of every football fan from now, you’ll see them once of maybe twice a week and you will be hanging on their every word. Step forward Jeff Stelling. We’ve all missed Stelling, Kamara, Merson and the likes describing every hit, miss and goal line scramble and even occasionally miss the odd red card.
Tourism in Hartlepool must be gearing up for another seven months of free advertising as Stelling’s love his local team means they will be mentioned more than any product on in the ad breaks. Sky Sports will be taking Jamie Redknapp out of his cryogenics chamber preparing him for the new season. BT Sport have added Champions League football to their armoury, brilliant. The calibre of pundit on their channel is more akin to ITV than its satellite competitor. David James and Michael Owen fall into the same league as Adrian Chiles and Andy Townsend for most football fans. Although don’t sit there all smug Sky Sports, Alan Smith has caused many an armchair football fan slip into a coma and we still haven’t forgotten the whole Gray and Keys debacle.
‘He’s the best player I came up against last season!’ said John Terry. What it doesn’t elaborate on is what illegal narcotics tricky John was smashed up on when he made that astute comment? There’s people in under 15 leagues up and down the country who came up against better opposition than Radamel Falcao last season. Chelsea look to defend their title this season having not really made any major signings at all but having a plethora of talent in their ranks already. Man City has signed the renegade Raheem Sterling who apparently is now a world beater after scoring a brace against the Malaysian Tesco Night Staff XI. Hmm jury still out for me. This is a player who couldn’t finish a sentence last season. Their city rivals under Louis Van Gaal have added no firepower whilst losing RVP, showing an unnecessary reliance on Rooney, a player rarely hitting 20+ goals. He has added a wealth of centre midfielders in what seems a very disjointed side with players playing out of position.
Arsenal have spoken about a wealth of transfer funds available to Arsene Wenger this summer but the only person that will make happy is the bank that is currently holding those funds as Arsenal seem to be making any headway with any supposed transfer plans. Their first team is capable of being up there but without any depth it will be the same old story for Gooner fans. Liverpool have spent wisely in the summer and utilised a few free transfer signings but there is no time for players to be able to bed in so Rodgers will need to make sure his side makes a good start to the season.
Southampton have lost a big player in Morgan Schneiderlin but Koeman adapted well last summer after the mass exodus so am sure he will only strengthen last season’s assault on the top four where they fell away after their small squad was exposed after the New Year. Neither Everton or Tottenham have really spent any money strengthening their squads but their managers still have a lot to work with in their current squads. One side who made a surprise signing in the summer was Pardew’s Crystal Palace who signed Cabaye from PSG. He would get into a lot midfields in the Premier League attracting him to Selhurst Park was a real coup for Eagles. Having held on to their star turns from last season also, they should be able to build on last season.
Newly promoted Watford, Bournemouth and Norwich will be looking to take a leaf out of Leicester City’s books in their quest to survive that first season. None of the sides have taken the QPR approach of throwing money at survival and have been very wise with their money so far. Steve McClaren is not everyone’s choice for Newcastle manager but only time will tell if he can replicate his success in the North East previously. Things haven’t started too well for another new manager, Slaven Bilic. Having been dumped out of the Europa League in the qualifying stages he will be keen to a good start to the league season. West Brom have added Rickie Lambert to their ranks and with Pullis in charge will look to spend wisely as he has never really been one for anything but bargain buying during his time at Stoke.
Whether it’s Football Focus, Soccer Saturday, Match of the Day, The Football League Show or Goals on Sunday that makes a winter weekend just that to you, football is back and as much as it may infuriate you as it will this season, every low is worth that high of that last minute winner or dramatic equaliser.
