manutd.com

With “Phase One” of clubs preseason workouts’ nearly finished and the final phase of preseason about to begin, there comes time for predictions to begin; bookies, fans and managers alike.  However, there are only a handful of managers in the Premier League that know both ends of the spectrum (winning and losing).  Here’s a hint; they are both Scottish.  And another hint.  This prediction is not from Kenny Dalglish.

After his side’s 3-1 win in the blazing Chicago heat last night, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson spoke about the expectations for the upcoming season, and even threw in a bit of transfer speculation as well.

Ferguson’s enthusiasm has certainly been fired as he eagerly prepares to take on the challengers who threaten United’s attempt to win their 20th league championship.

And he was happy to ponder over which team might finish second to his club in the Premier League.

‘That’s a hard one,’ he smiled. ‘There’s a big expectation on Manchester City and Liverpool. There’s a big expectation at City, obviously, but the bigger expectation is on ourselves. Most clubs will be expecting us to do something and there
will be more pressure on us than the rest.

‘We’ve faced that before and it shouldn’t be a problem, but we’ve lost three players with great experience – Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Edwin van der Sar – so that is where the expectation may bother us a wee bit this season.

‘Scholes will be a big loss, but I’m hopeful that David de Gea and Anders Lindegaard will solve the goalkeeping problem because Edwin was such a great professional, he had great experience and was great in the dressing room. It’s hard to replace that.’

Ferguson acknowledged United cannot afford to allow Chelsea to get off to the flying start they did last season when they won their first five games, scoring 21 goals.

‘Chelsea have done that a few times,’ he said. ‘The two times they won it under Mourinho in a row they were 10 points ahead of us within six weeks and we couldn’t catch them.

‘After that we made good starts and changed our training to make sure we started more quickly, and that made the difference. Last year we fell behind because we weren’t 100 per cent in the opening matches.

‘We had some stupid results at Everton and Fulham, dropping four points. We had nine draws away from home, which was unusual for us. Chelsea gave us a chance because they hit a bad spell and we took advantage. We did well in that period, got in front and held on.

‘Chelsea will still be there. They have the most experienced squad in the league with the likes of Terry, Lampard and Cech. Drogba and Anelka have experience, too, so they will be there. You can’t see them being out of the top four, so it is a pretty difficult league now. They are approaching an evolutionary stage and the new manager hasn’t signed anyone yet, so that will be a bit of a concern for Chelsea fans.

‘There are probably five clubs in the title race. Spursdid fantastically well last season, but the European run probably cost them a place in the top four when they got a few injuries. That, and their lack of experience of competing in the ChampionsLeague and Premier League, cost them.

‘They have a bit of work to do to get back to that level because it doesn’t look as though they are going to sign
any players.

‘But the rest? Liverpool have bought a lot of players so there will be expectation the rest. Arsenal have to replace Nasri and Fabregas because it looks certain that they are going to move.’

Ferguson also believes Carlos Tevez will not move from the Etihad Stadium.

‘I think it’s a certainty he will start the season at City because you look around and wonder who is going to buy him,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure Inter Milan would pay £45million, especially after he said he wants to go back to Argentina to see
his kids.

‘He told us at the time of our negotiations that he was only going to play for four more years so, if we had signed him on a five-year contract knowing that he was going to quit in four years, there is no resale value for us.

Ferguson has been rotating his players on an exhaustive tour which has already taken in trans-American journeys from Boston to Seattle and Chicago, to be followed by games in New York and against Barcelona in Washington this week.

But he insisted he would heed the lesson of the build-up to last season when he felt that certain players lacked match fitness because they had not played enough.

‘We made a mistake last year at the start. When we got to the Fulham game we weren’t really 100 per cent,’ he said.

‘We were well short in the opening games because we gave some of the players too many half games in the pre-season.

‘Now we will give the players a full 90 minutes in the game against the Red Bulls in New York and against Barcelona.

‘We have a big squad so it’s difficult to give some players the required number of minutes.

‘We are well off for strikers. Federico Macheda is all right and Mame Diouf has his certain qualities.’

With just under a month left until the Premier League kicks off, and mounds of transfer speculation to sort itself out, only time will tell where the would be challengers for the throne will find themselves.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Barclays Premier League Champions League 2012/13 Man Utd Player's stories Previews Transfers