New season preview at Premierships team improvements

I’ve been looking through the PL transfers to date and tried to assess who has improved their squad. My conclusion is that the following have definitely strengthened since last season.

Chelsea: Boswinga, Deco
Fulham: Pantsil, Zamora, Schwarzer, Gera, Stoor, Andranik
Man City: Jo and Ben Haim .
SAFC: Chimbonda, Malbranque, Tainio, Diouf
Spurs: Gomes, Modric, Dos Santos, Bentley

And about the other teams:

Arsenal
They have added Sami Nasri and Bischoff, but lost Hleb and Flamini, and  could still lose Adebeyor. Much will depend on Wenger being able to establish a couple of his youngsters. Losing Adebaeyor would present a real problem.

Blackburn Rovers
Have lost Bentley but added Paul Robinson, a highly-rated youngster called “Villaneuva” and curiously, Robbie Fowler. Difficult to see how they’ve improved and could yet lose Sanata Cruz and possibly Warnock to Newcastle.

Bolton
Have ‘ejected’ Diouf and added Elmander and Muamba - probably a marginal improvement.

Everton
Have lost Carsley and possibly Andy Johnson, without as yet recruiting anyone. Right now, they must be marginally weaker.

Portsmouth
Added Crouch, but lost Muntari to Inter (I wonder why we’re not chasing him -Ed.). Overall, probably not much different.

ManU: no change up to now.

Liverpool
Signed Keane (Surprising me - Ed.), Degan and Dossena and a few kids, but lost Crouch, Riise and probably Pennant. Much depends on Keane, but it doesn’t look to me as though they have materially strengthened.

Aston Villa
Have added Friedel, Sidwell and made the Curtis Davies loan permanent. Probably slightly improved.

West Ham
Sold fringe players Pantsil and Zamora and added Valon Behrami from Lazio. Little changed overall, although they will of course have Kieron Dyer as virtually a new player!

Wigan
Added Kapo, De Ridder and Cattermole, and are probably slightly stronger.

And for all the newly promoted teams, they have all added players, but it’s rather difficult to assess the likely impact. It looks to me as though West Brom may have made slightly the better acquisitions.

That leaves NUFC, with Emre, Carr, Rozenahl and Ramage out, and right now only Guthrie, Gutierrez, Bassong and let’s say Coliccini coming in, the squad should be a little stronger than last season.

However, that assessment depends entirely on how Gutierrez and Coliccini perform in their first season in the PL, as well as on the fitness of ‘permacrocks’ Owen and Viduka, and it is still lacking of full-back and players depth.

One Response to “New season preview at Premierships team improvements”

1. Mark on August 3rd, 2008 1:41 am

   Thanks for the heads up on the Premiership players in and out! Good luck to the Toon for the new season. Can’t wait for it to start.

   Marks last blog post..Gone but not forgotten.

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Email Address (required)

Website

Your Comment

Project Wonderful - Your ad could be here, right now.