MANCHESTER UNITED
Manager: Alex Ferguson
Last season: Premier League winners, FA Cup semi-finals, League Cup quarter-finals, Champions League runners-up.
In: David De Gea (Atletico Madrid) £18.3mil, Ashley Young (Aston Villa) £17mil, Phil Jones (Blackburn) £16.5mil, Pierluigi Gollini (Fiorentina) free transfer,
Out: John O’Shea and Wes Brown (Sunderland) £6mil joint fee, Nicky Ajose (Peterborough) £300,000, Joe Dudgeon (Hull) £300,000, Ritchie de Laet (Norwich) season-loan, Bebe (Besiktas) season-loan, Robbie Brady (Hull) six-month loan, Ryan Tunnicliffe (Peterborough) six-month loan, Scott Wootton (Peterborough) six-month loan, Owen Hargreaves (released), Paul Scholes (retired), Edwin van der Sar (retired).
Outlook: As Alex Ferguson slumped into his seat on the touchline towards the end of United’s Champions League final defeat against Barcelona, the Scot wore the resigned look of a beaten man. It didn’t last long. That Wembley loss has only served to strengthen Ferguson’s appetite for success. United may have secured a record 19th league title, but Ferguson is determined to meet the challenge thrown down by Barca’s brilliance and has embarked on a rebuilding programme that he hopes will pay dividends in the Premier League and Europe.
For once Ferguson’s philosophy appears to be revolution not evolution after a busy close-season at Old Trafford. The retirements of Edwin Van der Sar, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville left major holes that Ferguson has been quick to fill with the potential of David De Gea, Ashley Young and Phil Jones.
That £52mil spending spree looks like a wise investment in United’s future, however Ferguson still wants an experienced signing in midfield and would love to lure Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder away from Inter Milan. Even if that deal doesn’t happen, United look set fair for another season of domestic dominance at least.
CHELSEA
Manager: Andre Villas-Boas
Last season: Second in Premier League, FA Cup fourth round, League Cup third round, Champions League quarter-finals.
In: Thibaut Courtois (Genk) £7.9mil, Oriol Romeu (Barcelona) undisclosed fee.
Out: Michael Mancienne (Hamburg) £3mil, Jack Cork (Southampton) £750,000, Jacopo Sala (Hamburg) undisclosed fee, Gokhan Tore (Hamburg) undisclosed, Danny Philliskirk (Sheffield Utd) free, Jeffrey Bruma (Hamburg) season-loan, Sam Walker (Northampton) season-loan, Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid) season-loan.
Outlook: Villas-Boas has to prove that age isn’t everything as the Premier League’s youngest manager tries to dethrone Manchester United with one of the top flight’s oldest squads.
When Roman Abramovich found that not even his power and influence could prise Guus Hiddink from his role as Turkey coach, the Chelsea owner responded by taking the biggest gamble of his reign at Stamford Bridge by appointing Villas-Boas after the 33-year-old’s record-breaking success at Porto.
Villas-Boas has been a boss for just two full seasons and has never managed in the Champions League or outside Portugal. Yet Abramovich has charged him with rebuilding an aging squad that include nine players over 30 and looked to have lost their hunger last season. Judging from his track record to date, Villas-Boas – a former protege of Jose Mourinho – seems made of the right stuff, but out-witting the likes of Ferguson under the glare of the world’s media will test his mettle to the full.
MANCHESTER CITY
Manager: Roberto Mancini.
Last season: Third in Premier League, FA Cup winners, League Cup third round, Europa League last 16.
In: Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid) £38mil, Gael Clichy (Arsenal) £7mil, Stefan Savic (Partizan Belgrade) £6mil.
Out: Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich) £10mil, Shay Given (Aston Villa) £3.5mil, Felipe Caicedo (Levante) £880,000, Jo (Internacional) undisclosed, Donal McDermott (Huddersfield) undisclosed, Scott Kay (Macclesfield) free, Andrew Tutte (Rochdale) free, Shaleum Logan (Brentford) free), Patrick Vieira (retired), Michael Johnson (Leicester) season-loan, Ben Mee (Burnley) season-loan, Kieran Trippier (Burnley) season-loan.
Outlook: When Manchester City’s players took the acclaim of their ecstatic fans after their FA Cup final victory over Stoke, it was hard to escape the feeling that this was only the start for a club on the rise.
Even Carlos Tevez’s desire to quit Eastlands for family reasons is unlikely to derail City after their Abu Dhabi-based owners responded by giving Mancini the funds to sign Aguero. Tevez’s future remains uncertain but while money can’t guarantee success, it certainly goes a long way when spent wisely – as both Blackburn in the 1990s and Chelsea under Mourinho can testify – and Mancini’s squad look strong enough to challenge for the title.
Even Ferguson is now willing to acknowledge the threat posed by City, describing the club as a potential “thorn in our side”, where once he dismissed them as noisy neighbours.
ARSENAL
Manager: Arsene Wenger.
Last season: Fourth in Premier League, FA Cup quarter-finals, League Cup runners-up, Champions League last 16.
In: Gervinho (Lille) £10mil, Carl Jenkinson (Charlton) undisclosed, Jon Toral (Barcelona) undisclosed, Hector Bellerin (Barcelona) undisclosed.
Out: Gael Clichy (Man City) £7mil, Jay-Emmanuel Thomas (Ipswich) £1.5mil, Roarie Deacon (Sunderland) free, Mark Randall (Chesterfield) free, Tom Cruise (released), Denilson (Sao Paulo) season-loan.
Outlook: Once an unthinkable prospect, it now seems increasingly plausible that the Wenger era at Arsenal could be approaching an unsatisfactory conclusion as the Frenchman struggles to keep his club among the Premier League elite. Wenger goes into the new season under serious pressure for the first time in his 15 years with the Gunners due to a barren run of six years without a trophy that is becoming a major embarrassment which new majority shareholder Stan Kroenke may not tolerate for long.
Wenger’s squad suffered a spectacular meltdown under the pressure of trying to end that drought last season and little has changed in the subsequent months to suggest anything else but more woe at the Emirates this term.
The sense of a club in decline is reinforced by the sight of Clichy jumping ship to City, while captain Cesc Fabregas and midfielder Samir Nasri have both made it clear they would prefer to leave. And it doesn’t help that Wenger is so cautious in the transfer market when a robust defender and a ball-winning midfielder remain essential purchases.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Manager: Harry Redknapp.
Last season: Fifth in Premier League, FA Cup fourth round, League Cup third round, Champions League quarter-finals.
In: Souleymane Coulibaly (AC Siena) undisclosed, Brad Friedel (Aston Villa) free, Cristian Ceballos (Barcelona) free.
Out: Jamie O’Hara (Wolves) £5mil, Paul-Jose M’Poku (Standard Liege) undisclosed, Steven Caulker (Swansea) season-loan, Kyle Naughton (Norwich) season-loan, Bongani Khumalo (Reading) season-loan, Ryan Mason (Doncaster) season-loan, Jonathan Woodgate (Stoke) free.
Outlook: Redknapp has rightly been lauded for transforming Tottenham into serious players on the domestic and European stages over the last two years, but even his powers of motivation may not be enough to keep the team on an upward curve after a close-season of discontent in north London. After missing out on Champions League qualification last season it was inevitable that bigger clubs would come calling for Redknapp’s star players, yet even he might not have appreciated just how destabilising Chelsea’s pursuit of Luka Modric would turn out to be.
Modric wants to make the move across London to improve his salary and increase his chances of winning silverware, but Spurs are determined to keep their prize asset and their decision to reject two bids from Chelsea prompted a furious response from the Croatian midfielder when he met with chairman Daniel Levy.
Even if Spurs do manage to keep Modric they will have alienated their most influential player and, although Redknapp has plenty of other talent at his disposal, the negative vibes from the transfer saga seems certain to take a toll.
LIVERPOOL
Manager: Kenny Dalglish.
Last season: Sixth in Premier League, FA Cup third round, League Cup third round, Europa League last 16.
In: Stewart Downing (Aston Villa) £20mil, Jordan Henderson (Sunderland) £16mil, Charlie Adam (Blackpool) £8mil, Alexander Doni (Roma) free.
Out: Paul Konchesky (Leicester) £1.5mil, Chris Mavinga (Rennes) undisclosed, Gerado Bruna (Blackpool) undisclosed, Dean Bouzanis (Melbourne Victory) free, Peter Gulacsi (Hull) season-loan, Stephen Darby (Rochdale) season-loan.
Outlook: When Ferguson announced his arrival at Manchester United in 1986 with bold talk of “knocking Liverpool off their perch“, it was Reds manager Dalglish who was in the Scot’s sights. Now it is Dalglish’s turn to try to unseat Ferguson’s United from their position as English football’s pre-eminent force as the Liverpool legend enters the first full season of his second coming at Anfield.
The sight of United clinching a record 19th league title was especially painful for Liverpool because it was their previous high tally that was eclipsed and Dalglish knows a serious challenge in the Premier League is essential after two seasons of under-achievement.
If Steven Gerrard can stay fit, then the signs are they can do just that after the club’s American owner John W Henry sanctioned significant spending on a trio of proven Premier League performers in Downing, Henderson and Adam
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