Target On: Season Predictions

Italy: in any other year when a club loses its coach to a disgraceful 10 month ban for impropriety, failing to report questionable activity at his former club granted, nonetheless Antonio Conte will be forced to sit out the year, but this is no ordinary season nor is it an ordinary Juventus. Conte was key to the bianconeri winning their scudetto but this Juve´s re-emergence is an institutional change, a paradigm change if you would. New management, new stadium, new belief and more than anything new players: Isla and Asamoah from Udinese and the return of a re-energized atomic ant Sebastian Giovinco from Parma. This will be a harder challenge than last year when they waltzed through the competition, but their main competitors Inter and Milan are still no better than they were last year, and the rossoneri are far worse since losing Zlatan and Thiago Silva. Roma and Fiorentina should suprise in the European slots. Relegation: Pescara because they have been gutted of players and the legendary Zeman who returned to Roma, Atalanta who were worst hit by the betting scandal, and Siena because they´re crap and because I always have a soft spot for Torino.

Spain: usually when a talismanic coach like Pep Guardiola leaves you can expect tidal changes in a club´s fortunes, especially when they hired his assistant Tito Vilanova. It is usually not a good thing to hire the second. He is usually a mouthpiece, or go-between, the nice-cop to the bad-cop that that the head-coach usually has to maintain. It is difficult to make that change. Barcelona will stay the course though. They have dedicated leadership on the field and they have weeded-out the more contentious players in the dressing-room. That still won´t be enough in the long-run to bridge the gap with this Real Madrid squad, especially if they finalize the Luka Modriç deal. It won´t be easy. It will come down to the wire, but the main culprit won´t be the fact that Barcelona isn´t up for the challenge; the league won´t give either of them a challenge and that is a detriment in my opinion more for Barça than Real Madrid. Madrid have a deeper bench for all competitions, and Barcelona don´t. In the past they have used their immense array of Barça-B youngsters to plug the gaps but they have slowly sold their best youngsters away. Keep an eye out for Sevilla this year what with the implosion that Bielsa´s Athletic are about to make. Valencia are always tough but first year coaches with little experience don´t make me confident. Relegation: Rayo Vallecano unfortunately has nothing left to stay off relegation. They sold their best and fired their coach. Celta just doesn´t have enough to stay up although Paco Herrera is a good football man so I don´t wish that on anyone...except for Real Zaragoza. Nothing personal, but I don´t think that the slightly nefarious way that they have been able to stay up, stay out of administration, and stay in  the good-graces of the Spanish FA is somewhat surprising. They´re my sentimental choice you can call it.

England:  this one is a tough league to call, and not because there´s too-much competition or that most clubs haven´t stopped wheeling and dealing, but that the competitive margins are so close. The Premier League has been called the best in the world, and it isn´t that right goes to the Bundesliga for many reasons that I don´t want to get to right here, but England have between six and eight teams under the current level that can rightly challenge for a title. Manchester City have spent a ton of money, and are Champions in name, but is anyone truly convinced that there has been a blue-shift and the status-quo is irrevocably different? Have Manchester United done enough to bridge the gap both financially and sportingly to win that elusive 20th title? I think they will mind you but it´ll be for the same reason that they have for four out of the last six years. Other then City and maybe Spurs, their main challengers have slipped. Liverpool aren´t the same since Rafa left and are on a philosophical journey to yet again change their style of play. New players are in the offing, incompatible ones are to be set aside. Like the changing of the seasons, Arsenal have sold their best player and captain, and Spurs have yet again shot themselves by hitting the reset button just as they were likely to pouonce on the top 4 for good. The only club that have a chance is Chelsea and unless they find a permanent solution for Drogba then it will be a very long season indeed. Fernando Torres is not the player he was at Liverpool. He is remarkably only 28 years old mind you, so people assume he has a handful of great years ahead of him, Drogba didn´t really come into his own until about this time, but El Niño, made his professional debut 12 years ago for Atlético Madrid. That´s over 500 appearances for club and country over that span. It´s about how many appearances Michael Owen has had over his own illustrious career, and like Owen, Fernando Torres will never be the same player again. I know this is redundant considering that there has been so much written about Swansea over the last week, and their impressive performance last weekend, but Michael Laudrup has finally found a club that match his ambition. No, not his ambition for trophies or titles because that´s just an elusive pipe-dream for the Swans, but ambition to play the sort of game that he was renowned for as a player for both Real Madrid and Johann Cruyff´s Barcelona Dream Team. I think it´s be an interesting year for them. Relegation: it is rare that all three promoted sides immediately go down, so I´ll remove West Ham from the bunch. Big Sam will will them to permanency. That leads Southampton and Reading who are not ready for prime-time. So, it´s between Wigan and Norwich. Roberto Martinez has his work cut out for him as usual, he generally pulls it out in  the end, but this year I believe his luck runs out. The final slot I believe is between two clubs that have had Paul Lambert´s imprint. Norwich has fewer assets so I think they go down instead of Villa.