The Premier League campaign is back up and running at long last and, while many football fans like to have a flutter or prediction on where certain teams will end up come next May, the majority appear to be intrigued about how Manchester City will fare.
The current managers of the ‘big four’ have been sending out mixed signals as the new season approached with Liverpool’s Rafa Benitez admitting a certain degree of wariness, Arsene Wenger backing his young guns not to be muscled out of their top four spot and United’s Sir Alex Ferguson has dismissed the chances of his neighbours in terms of the title race.
City have splashed out major money on the likes of Carlos Tevez, Gareth Barry, Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz and Kolo Toure, while they are relentlessly pursuing Everton’s Joeleon Lescott after an ambitious bid to sign Chelsea skipper John Terry failed to materialise.
Then take into account Arsenal sold Adebayor and Toure to City, United have lost Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo, while Liverpool agreed to sell the influential Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid. Chelsea have managed to keep their squad intact but have failed to bring in the ‘marquee signing’ which was anticipated!
All the indicators show that City have managed to bridge a significant amount of the gap between them and the big four that existed last season and can at least mount a sustained challenge for a Champions League place, if not the Premier League crown itself.
The main obstacle to City progressing into a genuine force this season is that the amount of new faces that Mark Hughes has taken to Eastlands will need some time to settle down into a team. But, with the quality available to field two strong sides at his disposal, the temptation to tinker could prove irresistible and that might prove his downfall similar to Claudio Ranieri’s first season with Roman Abramovich’s cash at Chelsea.
However if Hughes can bed the new boys in quickly and find a winning formula early then anything could and may well happen. After all many teams have failed to keep up with the big four in the past – Aston Villa last season – simply because their squads have not been strong enough in depth – that cannot be levelled at City.
The fact the top four clubs will have the distraction of Champions League football is another fact to take into consideration as City have not got anything but the Premier League and domestic cups to aim for.
Hughes also has the possibility to spend more money in January if needs be and that could also prove to be crucial in the long slog through to next May.
At the moment only the absence of a top drawer central defender stands between City being a top six club to a top-four. If Hughes can remedy that situation in the next two weeks then who knows what can happen?
Written by Craig Smithson, a professional sports writer who blogs about football betting.
