Can Manchester United repeat their success this year after their unexpected win last time? No London club has ever won the Champions league and Chelsea would dearly love to smash that unwanted record.
Leagues are not won on paper. Despite two Champions league finals in the last three seasons it is the English Premier league their fans are so desperate to win. They have spent big money this time too under their new American owners, a reported 22 million pounds on Torres alone from Athletico Madrid.
As in the past two seasons Spurs remain the most likely to break into the top four. Spurs have four other top strikers, and Martin Jol has shown he likes to rotate his players. Newcastle have a new owner, new chairman, and new manager in Sam Allardyce, and some tasty new players too. They have signed former Middlesbrough striker Mark Viduka, they should have the fit again Michael Owen available at last, plus the signing of the tempestuous Barton from Manchester City and Alan Smith from Manchester United. A vitally important season for the manager, and many of the players who are at a crossroads.
Manchester City is another club under new ownership and managership. I suspect not, because Sven is a good manager.
England Under 21 skipper Reo-Coker has just been signed from West Ham for £8 million though they will need more than him if they are to worry the top teams. Martin O’Neill’s side started last season on fire but drifted away alarmingly. The loss of Sidwell to Chelsea is a big blow, though they have signed several of the club’s more promising players on long-term contracts. This will be their difficult second season, something that so nearly sank Wigan last time. Fulham are another club who went into freefall last time and only stayed up through a last minute change of managers. Anything else would be major achievement for their yo-yo manager Steven Bruce.
The Lancashire twins of Blackburn and Bolton both had good seasons again last term and with small crowds and little money to spend, that is a huge testament to their managers. The third Lancashire town club Wigan stayed up last time by a single point and have since lost their talismanic manager. That is not a great start and though they have signed a handful of new players, their new manager Chris Hutchings is unproven in this league.
Portsmouth only just missed a Uefa Cup place by a whisker last season and they have been busy again in the market buying Nugent, the England under 21 striker from Preston, plus signing Kanu for another year.
My predictions then: Champions: Chelsea. European Champions: Manchester United. Relegated: Derby, Birmingham, and Middlesbrough. Sorry chaps! In our youth football coaching program, we teach our team the fast way to defend and how to defend.
In our youth football coaching program, we have what we call the 5-3 defense. This kind of defense would consist of 8 people: we have 5 down line men and then 3 line backers (defensive backers).
The important players in this kind of defense are the Nose Guard (or Nose Tackle), Line Backer and the Tackle.
