A new football season is upon us and transfer activities and pre-season games take the order of the day. The 2014/2015 football season (EPL) wasn’t a surprise to me as it panned out exactly as I predicted; Chelsea to win the league, Manchester City to finish runner up, Arsenal will come third and my beloved Manchester United would complete the top 4. For confirmation you can follow this link http://www.dipoogun.com/top-4-predictions-201415-season/.
Enter the new season. I am not making my top 4 predictions just yet, I will wait till the season starts. I usually judge who wins the EPL by the excitement and enthusiasm shown by the players of a particular team (the regular top 4 sides in particular) in their first game. Last season I only saw Chelsea for 20 minutes and was convinced they would win the league, despite an unconvincing run in during the latter part of the season. Same way I felt about Manchester City in the 2013/2014 season and Manchester United in the preceding season. I digress.
My team, my second religion (Manchester United) have concluded the signing of 3 players during this rather slow transfer period and they are Memphis Depay from Dutch side PSV Eindhoven, Matteo Darmian from Italian side Torino and in case you missed it the last player Man Utd signed from Torino went on to become a Legend. Does the name Dennis Law ring a bell? The third player signed was Bastian Schweinsteiger from German champions Bayern Munich and he would be the first German player to feature for Manchester United’s senior team. All 3 players are good signings judging by their stats, but I only saw Memphis Depay play at the Brazil 2014 World Cup and he wasn’t a regular (barely started) though he scored a wonder against Australia in Netherland’s second group game. Matteo Darmian represented Italy at the same tournanent and unfortunately for him they were eliminated in the first round.
As for Bastian Schweinsteiger I know him very well (not that he’s my friend) and if I start to talk about his achievements this post would be too lengthy. Simply put he’s won major tournaments for club and he won the World Cup with Germany. I have always admired him and wished Man Utd had signed him about 4 years ago. I think he’s a tad bit old now and might have problems adapting with the pace and pressure of the English Premier League but the £14.4m price tag shows he isn’t over priced and a good bargain of some sort for the Red Devils. I would however have preferred a younger Morgan Schneiderlin though because he’s been in the league a few years, he’s much fitter (I think) and by miles the best tackler in the EPL over the last 3 years. I sincerely pray King Louis (Louis Van Gaal) still goes after the acquisition of Schneiderlin and gets us a striker (I would love Kareem Benzema), a Center Back Nicolas Otamendi comes to mind but I think he’s a bit slow and most importantly a goalkeeper because David De Gea is gone to me its just a matter of time and the earlier that is sorted the better.
My grudge with King Louis (not that he knows me) is allowing youthful goalkeeper Ben Amos leave and the subsequent sale of Tom Lawrence, Martin Keane and Saidy Janko. These are a core group of our youth set up and this brings to me asking if Louis Van Gaal is really the man for this United job. I still respect him though but I think he should have sealed deals before letting players such as Van Persie, Nani go and even the eminent departure of David De Gea. My major concerns would be Adnan Januzaj, Juan Mata and Maroune Fellaini because if these lads don’t get enough playing time they would walk out the door by the end of the season.
I will love Ryan Giggs to take over from Louis Van Gaal, but that’s story for another day. Thanks for your time guys and do have a fabulous week ahead filled with Blessings from the ALMIGHTY.
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