The Premier League as I see it

If Arsenal can keep their players fit they will comfortably qualify for the Champions League, and may even be closer to the top than many people expect. Cazorla looks like an excellent signing.

Kagawa looks like a decent signing for United, too, but it epitomises the Glazer era as Hazard is the real deal and I suspect he will have a similar effect on the Premier League as Henry or Ronaldo. Not so much in terms of goalscoring, though I still expect him to score 20 plus goals a season, but his overall effect in that he will be rated as the league's top performer year in year out. He is who wUmited should've signed this summer. With him and Van Persie they could've made a realistic challenge for the Champions League. As it is, Fergie's men are still a fair bit behind Real and Barca but, as Chelsea proved, it is a cup competition so you never know.

I think the signing of Maicon is sound business on City's behalf, though a centre half like Agger would've been even more help as I still see Lescott as their weak link in an otherwise impressive line up.

Talking of weak links, I see Di Matteo as Chelsea's. I think he's a good manager but is he capable of winning a Premier League? I have my doubts. Plus, Chelsea have an impressive squad up until you look at their striking options. If Torres gets injured, and he has a tendency to do so, they will struggle.

Tottenham should end up fifth with Everton nearby but neither will be troubling the top four.

As for the bottom of the table, I fear for Norwich, second season syndrome and all that, aligned with the loss of their manager, Paul Lambert.

Reading will struggle too, unlike the other promoted sides who have invested heavily.

The final relegation place is much more difficult to predict but I am going to go for one really left-field: Stoke. Just not sure how much longer Tony Pulis's magic can continue to work at the Britannia Stadium.

A belated set of predictions, I realise, but I am just putting it out there.

1st: Manchester City
2nd: Manchester United
3rd: Chelsea
4th: Arsenal
5th: Tottenham Hotspur
6th: Everton
7th: Liverpool
8th: Newcastle United
9th: Sunderland
10th: Aston Villa
11th: Fulham
12th: Wigan Athletic
13th: Queens Park Rangers
14th: West Bromwich Albion
15th: Swansea
16th: West Ham United
17th: Southampton
18th: Stoke City
19th: Norwich City
20th: Reading

Disclaimer: from tenth downwards is a bit of a lottery

Does Dalglish deserve people on his back, rather than some slack?

Within the last few weeks the temperature has gone from warm to white hot in the pressure cooker at Anfield and there are a variety of people who are in the firing line.

Firstly, Damien Comolli who, it seems, is largely responsible for the player recruitment policy currently undermining Liverpool’s challenge for a top four spot, something the club’s owners demanded at the season’s start.

Their purchases over the last year or so, Luis Suarez apart, have varied from the disappointing to the disastrous.

Charlie Adam started well but has faded and has proven himself to be a decent Premier League player, though not someone who is going to dictate games in the upper echelons of the division.

Charlie Henderson has been a huge disappointment, not least as he cost almost £20 million, which for someone who had had one senior cap to his name, seemed pricey at the time. He now appears to be worth less than half that and much like Adam, appears out of his depth at this level.

Stewart Downing has not supplied the ammunition worthy of his hefty price tag which brings us to the ultimate flop of all – Andy Carroll.

At £35 million, much is expected of you. A paltry return of eight goals in 48 appearances and a languid style is not (what is expected of you). Add to that an apparent disdain for hard work and it would not be surprising if he left Anfield this summer, perhaps along with one or two other senior figures.

Yet Comolli and the players are not the only ones in the firing line. The ultimate responsibility has to lie at the feet of their manager – Kenny Dalglish.

It is still not clear who is the one calling the shots when it comes to purchases but he certainly has some kind of say in who gets to see the 'This is Anfield' sign.

What is not in any doubt is who picks the team, who is largely responsible for coaching and trying to goad the best out of them on a weekly basis. This has been Liverpool’s biggest failing this season.

Add to that King Kenny’s handling of the now infamous ‘Suarez’ affair, which in some quarters has been described as “a car-crash”, and you can see why the owners are disgruntled.

Dalglish claims you need an intelligence test if you question the progress made under his tenure, yet the fact remains his points per game ratio is not too dissimilar to that of his much-maligned predecessor, Roy Hodgson.

So why was it enough for Hodgson to receive the boot but not the current incumbent? That is an excellent question and one that John Henry and his cohorts may just answer should, as now appears certain, they fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Defenders of Dalglish, and they are plenty, will point to their first trophy in six years as evidence that this ship is more HMS Victory than Titanic.

However, to say that trophy was won in fortuitous circumstances is a slight understatement. The penalty shoot out victory over Championship side Cardiff was lacklustre and was achieved in spite of two misses from the spot.

Should Liverpool continue to plummet down the table further then Dalglish’s position will become untenable.

3. Scotland in the sun: How La Liga’s problems are more than just skin deep

Financial Matters
 

Spain has never had more people unemployed. Currently, that figure stands at five million.

Even Latin Americans who moved to the Iberian peninsular in search of work are seemingly desperate to return home, much like the Polish exodus from English shores in the last couple of years.

Government ministers insist it has reached a peak and that it won’t get any worse but the people of Spain are not convinced.

Football mirrors these troubles.

Spanish football writer Sid Lowe wrote on the website cbc.ca in 2010:

Luis Manuel Rubiales, the new president of the Spanish players union, the AFE, explained that 85 per cent of footballers in Spain's top three divisions either get paid late or not at all. Then there's the fact that the Spanish Football Federation, the RFEF, still owes the AFE €8 million.

According to Rubiales's predecessor, €100 million are still owed to footballers in unpaid wages.
The situation, Rubiales said, is the worst it has ever been.

Spanish football is in crisis according to José María Gay, Spain's leading expert on football finance and an adviser to Uefa: "La Liga is dying."

The Osasuna president, Patxi Izco, admits: "I fear a financial meltdown."

"Football," insists another director, "is seriously ill."

Real Madrid were saved from the threat of bankruptcy a few years ago only when the municipality of Madrid agreed to pay a large sum for the land on which their training ground sat.

The fact that the Spanish government and the country’s banks have helped Real is greeted with little more than a sigh from the other clubs in Spain. Can you really imagine the outcry in England if the government helped Manchester United stay on top or Barclays, at their customers’ expense, came in to rescue Liverpool from the oblivion of relegation? How would fans of Portsmouth, Leeds United and Southampton react to such news? These last three clubs have had to bite the bullet and accept their fate as they slid down the divisions due to the enforced sale of their best players, enabling them to stay in business. Manchester United would be expected to do the same. The Spanish government, seeing a similar fate bestowed on its most famous club, bought their training ground.

In England such actions are treated with a mixture of suspicion and bemusement. In Iberia, and perhaps throughout the Latin countries, it is treated as the norm.

Sid Lowe argues that it was in the country’s interests to help Real Madrid in their time of need, though he concedes it was not without some underhand tactics.

He said: "Institutional support in Spain is relatively normal but Real Madrid would argue the support is reciprocated as they do a lot of work for the community in terms of tourism and image. They would also argue that as the club represents the community they should get support."

And what about the deal whereby Madrid sold their training ground to the local government only to get it back again? "This is the big bone of contention. Real Madrid will say that the council got a good deal in terms of what they paid but it was Florentino Perez (the club President) who enabled the deal to happen. He, with the government, re-classified the land so that it was apt for construction.

"Perez is a construction magnate whose contacts are very strong in local government. This kind of tactic, though, is relatively normal. It has been used before and it will no doubt be used again."

Barcelona are not without their own problems on a financial front. Last summer they were late in paying the players’ wages and had to take out an emergency loan to help alleviate their difficulties in meeting their wage bill.

Sports lawyer Javier Tebas believed neither case was comparable to the troubles at the smaller clubs. "Barcelona and Real are a money making machine. They don’t have significant problems," he said. "Certain newspapers eight years ago said Real Madrid were going to go bankrupt and look at them now."

Well, with the government’s help and the aid of Madrid’s banks is it any wonder they survived?

"It was a help,” Tebas agreed, with a gesture suggesting inverted commas when he said ‘help’. "But with the help the competition can become distorted," he admitted

"The problem is not just that the big two have a greater budget than the rest," Tebas explains. "It is that all the other clubs have a lot of debt. There some smaller clubs where the interest repayments on their debts alone could pay for the salaries of Lionel Messis and Cristiano Ronaldo combined." In other words, €15 million in interest.