A New Season
It’s always interesting at the start of each new football season. Over the summer months there are usually reasons to get excited about a new season - your club might have signed a few new players, they might have done well in a pre-season tournament or even the unveiling of a new kit can be reasons to think positive.
For me, the most interesting aspect of the upcoming 2003/2004 Barclaycard Preimiership is keeping an eye on Chelsea, or Chel$ki, as the press have started calling them.
The millions poured into the club over the summer by new owner Roman Abramovich has completely transformed the clubs playing staff. 6 new players have been brought in, at a combined cost of £60m (rising to £80m if the rumours of Christian Vieri are true). People have commented that Roman’s rubles are bad for English football, but he’s actually bought good young English players (Bridge, Cole, Johnson), instead of drafting in expensive foreigners.
I’m not of the opinion that you can buy the championship, but if they gel together quickly, Chelsea could be a real force in England and in Europe.
As for Newcastle United, well for once they haven’t splashed the cash during the summer - their only signing being Lee Bowyer. My initial thoughts on signing Bowyer were not positive, but I think he’ll do well under guidance from Bobby Robson, and (sticking my neck out) might even earn a recall to the full England squad. I even think him worthy of my Telegraph Fantasy Football team - which believe me is praise indeed :-)
If Bellamy can stay on the pitch for a bit longer than last season and other players (take note Dyer, Bellamy & Ameobi) take some of the goal-scoring responsibility from Shearer, I can see Newcastle joining Chelsea in pushing Man Utd all the way this season.
Posted 8 years, 6 months ago
Mmmm... Chelsea are starting to worry me. They could do really well this year (and in coming years).
As for Newcastle, I’m really enjoying watching the progress of Ameobi now. He’s come on in leaps and bounds (very appropriate given his lankiness) over the last year and is still improving. In fact, he’s one I’m hoping can make it to the fringes of the full England squad by the end of the season. I just hope he gets a run in the Newcastle first team to promote him.
mal · www · 8 years, 6 months ago
It’s amazing what’s going on at Chelsea. Whereas virtually every other club (including Arsenal and Man Utd) are tightening the purse strings, Chelsea are buying up every player in sight. I have no idea how they’ll all play together.
The pressure on them to be successful must now be immense. The danger is that they ‘do a Leeds’ - spend like there’s no tomorrow but win bugger all and find themselves hugely in debt and having to sell off their prize assets at knockdown prices.
I guess it all depends on where ‘Red Rom’ draws the line. No-one has a bottomless pit of cash.
Phil · 8 years, 6 months ago
Mal, interesting point you made on your weblog about the fans reaction to Bowyer.
I think as long as he keeps out of the papers and does well on the pitch, the majority of Toon fans will back him - despite his past.
p.s. when can we comment on your weblog?
Phil · 8 years, 6 months ago
[phil] p.s. when can we comment on your weblog?
You’re the second person to ask me that today. :) Okay, I should really get off my backside and commit some time to site upgrades. I was hoping to move hosting to 5dollarhosting.com and change my ASP stuff to PHP, but they won’t support mod_rewrite. :( Maybe I’ll stay where I am for now and just get on with ASP, a lack of access to the server software (IIS) and google-unfriendly URLs. Hey ho. Oh, and Blogger’s redesign broke my comments on petrolhead. :/
mal · www · 8 years, 6 months ago
Oh, and I’ll happily back Bowyer *if* he reforms his ways, but there’s no way I’m giving him a hero’s welcome from day one. I just hope Bobby’s got the necessary touch to rein him in.
mal · www · 8 years, 6 months ago
Fair point Mal - he hasn’t proved anything yet so a hero’s welcome is totally unjustified.
As for your website - I’ve been with Xcalibre hosting for a couple of years now with no problems. MySQL & PHP support, 1 Gb bandwidth, telnet access etc. for around £50 a year. I’d thoroughly recommend them.
http://www.xcalibre.co.uk/hosting_packages.php
Phil · 8 years, 6 months ago
Man United to win the title
Scott · 8 years, 1 month ago
Wolves will win the title , they will be winning europe nxt year to with Paul Ince
Ashley · 8 years, 1 month ago