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

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

La Liga is in fine fettle - the arguments against

There is, of course, a strong case to suggest there is no need to be concerned about the health of the Spanish league.

For a start, Javier Tebas stated that he is confident of a resolution to the television deal. Currently, Real and Barca enjoy a 49% share of the money from broadcasting, although Tebas is optimistic that their portion will diminish to 34% by the 2014/15 season.

Tebas said: “We’re working towards a similar situation to that in England.”

In England the governing body, the Premier League, deal with the money from broadcasting rights and then distribute the monies in a more even manner. “In three or four years it will be like that in Spain,” Tebas affirmed.

Mind you, Tebas would say that. No lawyer would admit to having little chance of winning his case. Acknowledging the chances of victory are slim would only hinder his argument.

The former LFP vice-president also claimed that this period of dominance from the big two is nothing new. Historically, they are Spain’s two most successful clubs with 51 La Liga titles between them.

Tebas said: “It’s been 60 years that these two clubs have been at the top in Spain so it is not just because of the television money. Even throughout these years there have been occasions when the competition has been good and that someone else (other than the big two) have been at the top.”

Their supremacy is nothing new, but the distance between them and the rest has reached an unprecedented level. Never has the gap been so wide and it is showing no signs of abating. In the 2009/10 season they both recorded a record points haul and last season was more of the same.

In addition, they both reached the last four of the Champions League and, arguably, would have met in the final had they been kept apart in the draw. Of the three major trophies on offer to the top Spanish clubs (the Champions League, the Copa del Rey and La Liga), all ended up in the hands of Barcelona or Real Madrid.

Phil Ball, author of Morbo: the story of Spanish football, argues that Tebas will succeed as the rest of Spanish football demands it and, therefore, Barca and Real will have to respond to that demand. In turn, the fans will demand it too.

He said: “I think Tebas is right. In three or four years from now the money from television will be more evenly spread.

“Barca and Madrid can argue that, given that they generate all this (TV) money anyway, that they should have that amount (49%) of the pie. (But) I don’t see how you can sustain that argument over a long period because if the league continues, if the bridge continues (to widen), then by the nature of logic the league becomes less competitive and it messes up those who are at the top of it – Barca and Madrid. In the end they have a vested interest in the league being competitive.”

This would ring true in most other countries but in Spain things are a little different. Not least because the fans tolerate the dominance of the big two far more than in any other country due to what has been termed ‘second club syndrome’. This is where many Spaniards support one of Real or Barca in addition to their local club. And this devotion is evenly split which enables them to tolerate the lack of competitiveness within La Liga.

When asked to confirm the theory of ‘second club syndrome’, Grimsby fan Ball concedes: “That’s an interesting point. I had not thought of it like that because that’s definitely true. You can go to any pueblo (small town) in Spain and knock on the door and say: ‘who do you support – Barca or Real?’ and they’ll give you an answer. And the answer they give you is not always football based. It is a political, cultural answer. A lot of Spanish people won’t accept this argument but a lot of them do.”

Ball recognises that things have changed in recent years. He added: “Since the whole ‘galactico’ thing at the beginning of the century the face of Spanish football has changed. It was never like this (the gap between the big two and the rest) before. There was a feeling of democracy before but not now. You’ve got a three-tier league. There’s Barca, Real. Then there are those teams who aspire to reach the Champions League placings. Then there’s the rest.”

There is an equally strong argument that suggests it is just two tiers – Barca/Real and the rest. It is more conceivable that any of the other eighteen Primera Liga clubs reach a Champions League spot (finish in the top four) than it is that Real or Barca fail to finish in the top two. This is quite a statement. Could you imagine Norwich City or Wigan Athletic qualifying for the world’s most prestigious club competition? No? Well this illustrates just how unlikely it is that Barca or Real will finish outside the top two this coming season and for the foreseeable future.

Tebas argues that it is only the last two years. More importantly, he adds, Barcelona are dominating with an exceptional team that has been made largely through an astonishingly successful youth scheme and good management, not through spending huge amounts of money on transfer fees.

He said: “Looking at Barca, their big stars were not bought, they were made in Barcelona.”

However, this is ignoring the massive signing on fees Barca pay and a world record in the history of sport on wages.

For the first time in history a football team, or make that two football teams, have topped such a list. The average wage for a first team player at the Nou Camp is £4.94m annually, and at Madrid £4.6m. The average Yankee earns £4.2m a year. So it is not just impeccable grooming that keeps Barcelona on top.

Finally, Barcelona crushed Manchester United at Wembley this year to be crowned Kings of Europe. Surely this augments the belief that Spanish football is in rude health.

However, Pep Guardiola is constantly linked with a move to English football due to a craving for the competitive nature of the football and Mourinho regularly refers to the Premier League in wistful tones. In addition, Arsene Wenger urged Cesc Fabregas to ignore the overtures of the Spanish giants if he is a competitive footballer.

Recipe for disaster

So the board of Norwich City approached Nigel Worthington to see if he wanted his job back.

Worthington is extremely fond of Norfolk and still spends a large amount of his time there when he is not on Northern Ireland duty.

He has done a steady, if not spectacular, job as coach of Northern Ireland but his work as the Canaries' boss was under appreciated at the time and it is probably only now that the board and fans are beginning to understand just how good he was. He was the guy who steadily improved the team whilst in the Championship, culminating in promotion as champions of the division in 2004.

Worthington's eye for a player was pretty accurate too. His astute work in the transfer market, either for loans or permanent deals, brought Peter Crouch, David Bentley, Dean Ashton, Robert Earnshaw and fans' favourite Darren Huckerby to the club. Oh how Norwich would love to be able to call on the services of just one of those players now.

It started to go wrong on the final day of the 2004/05 season. He had taken City to within a whisker of staying up after a remarkable run of victories, including a memorable 2-0 win at home to Manchester United, but on that final day they crumbled. Embarrassingly defeated 6-0 at Fulham and with it relegation.

The following 18 months saw them spend most of the time between mid table and the play offs but rarely threatening automatic promotion. After a defeat away at Plymouth, when the performance could be best described as 'limp', a letter to the fans was issued in the most appalling fashion, through the local press. Delia Smith and her husband Michael Wynn Jones issued a strongly worded statement that effectively gave Worthington two games to save his job.

Forget that memorable play off final where they missed out on promotion by the narrowest of margins. Forget the dominant season that led to promotion. Forget that memorable season in the top flight. Forget the quality of players he had brought to the club. Forget the fact that, despite a disappointing start to the 2006/07, season they still lied just a few points from the play offs.

These moments had been erased from the short-term memories of the fans and illustrated the short sightedness of the board.

Instead they proceeded with their threat with this statement. They may as well have sacked him there and then as with that statement Worthington's bolt had been well and truly shot. If you were a player after reading that statement you knew you had nothing to play for. No one to play for. You had the excuse already lined up for you. It was all the manager's fault, after all.

What followed was a 4-1 defeat at home to Barnsley and Worthington was out just hours afterwards. The board had even gone back on their promise of two games, he was gone after just one.

In every sense Delia et al let the club down.

They then appointed Peter Grant who later quit after admitting that he could turn things around but did not know if he wanted to. Shocking.

Despite his deficiencies, Glenn Roeder could not be criticised for his lack of trying but this club have been on a downward slope since 27 September 2006 when 'that' statement was released. And so we fast forward to January 2009 and after Glenn Roeder's dismissal the board finally realise the error of their ways, enquiring about the possibility of Nigel Worthington coming back to the club. It must have been tempting for him as he cares for the club dearly and loves the area.

However, he held firm to his commitment to the Northern Irish cause and you would expect nothing less of an honest football man. Well done Nigel.