Transfer window now closed,
it’s time to try ‘n’ predict how this season is gonna play out.
As usual, I’d never do this
piece until the main transfer window closes due to the obvious fact that teams can
either strengthen or get weakened by incoming & outgoing players – that’s
the reason for any delay you might query in such a prediction piece.
Firstly, my
predicted end-of-season league standings:
1st Arsenal
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2nd Manchester City
3rd Chelsea
4th
Liverpool
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5th Manyoo
6th
Brentford
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7th Nottingham Forest
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8th Tottenham Hotspur
9th Brighton & Hove Albion
10th Sunderland
11th Leeds United
12th Hull City
13th
AFC Bournemouth
14th Newcastle United
15th Aston Villa
16th Fulham
17th Everton
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18th Crystal Palace
19th Coventry City
20th Ipswich Town
Notable points
about that predicted, final table for the 2026/27 season, starting with us:
-
Goalkeeping
department:
I’m
going to say that the situation is about the same as last season.
I was certainly
not happy to see James Trafford go out permanently - I think that’s a big mistake considering the potential
future he has ahead of him. I would have much preferred that he go out on loan
to a Premier League side for a season and then reassess the situation.
I certainly
get it from the player’s viewpoint – he left with two domestic cup medals,
which is fantastic for both him and our club, but I’m sure there’s part of him
that must feel let down, even slightly betrayed, by Manchester City Football Club.
So,
we’ve swapped youth (23) for experience (34). Geronimo
Rulli has bags of experience at
very good levels of football both domestic and international. I’ve seen his
footage online and he looks very good indeed – a more than suitable back-up to Gianluigi
Donnarumma; plus being a potential, domestic cup keeper for the next two
seasons.
When
you balance Trafford’s achievements and youthfulness against Rulli’s
achievements and vast experience; I’d have to conclude that our goalkeeping
department is about as strong as it was last year. However, for me there is a
caveat in that Donnarumma’s performances did slide over time last season, in my
humble opinion, and the Community Shield performance from the 6’ 5” Italian international
left me with a bit of a frown on my face, I have to be honest. It’s been better
since but we’ll see.
-
Defensive
department:
Gone
are the largely injury prone pair, Nathan Ake and John Stones (plus Manuel Akanji now on a permanent transfer after his loan finished),
and in comes last season’s loanee, and already well respected youngster, Vitor Reis (Reis is pronounced “Heis” or “Hays”, in
case you didn’t know and would like to).
Other
than that, there’s been no changes and I would suggest that the defence is
about as strong as it was last season.
When
you look at our options at left-wing back as well as central defence, it looks
really quite strong and, for me, in Marc Guehi and Abdukodir Khusanov in
particular I think we have a crackin’ central partnership. Long may they both
stay fit. 👍
Last
season saw Matheus Nunes’ best season for us as right-wing back – a solid 7/10
from me over the whole season. However, I still think that this is our weakest
area in defence that [still] needs back-up / expertise coming in.
Still,
for this part of my blog posting, I don’t see any weakening nor
strengthening in this department compared to our last campaign.
-
Midfield
and wing department:
Losing Rodri and Bernardo Silva should lead to the
conclusion that we have been weakened for the campaign ahead. However,
following recent and rapid transfer activity I now say, “No”. Is it about the
same as 2025-26? Again, I say “No”.
I look
at a midfield that contains the options / combos of Bouaddi, Anderson, Kovacic,
O’Reilly, Fernandez, Foden, Elias and Cherki and when I ask myself the
question, is that better than last season’s midfield, Mr Blue chews-daze
writer? My answer is, “Yes it is”. And when you stick the wings onto that
midfield that includes the aforementioned Elias plus Ndiaye, Doku and Semenyo
then…wow! What a setup!
Of
course it’s going to take some time to properly settle to how the manager wants
it to you but despite the loss of Rodders and Bernardo, there’s some awesome
talent there and a great balance of defensive, attacking and central /
box-to-box; all with some serious attacking flair on the flanks.
-
Striking
department:
I
suppose having lost our one and only secondary striker - and that’s what Omar Marmoush was
when you’ve got Erling Haaland in your squad – and you don’t replace him, it’s easy to say that we’ve been weakened
in the striker department.
However,
with the creativity and goalscoring threat that I’ve just mentioned, not
wishing to forget Gvardiol and Nunes either who sometimes contribute that way,
I think we have enough goal threat-options whenever Halland is not able to
play. I actually believe that Antoine Semenyo has the physique and finishing
ability to perform as a Number 9 and, indeed, I think I’m right in saying that
he did for Bristol City and Bournemouth on occasions.
Additionally,
whenever Erling isn’t available, if Enzo Maresca can pull off a 4-6-0 / 4-5-1-0 formation like Pep used to do many seasons ago
then with that attacking wealth that we have at our disposal in midfield / the wings,
I can see that working very well too.
I do believe that we’ll do very
well this season.
🔩 We clearly still need to
tighten the bolts more at the back but I think we’ll be a little more solid defensively
over the whole campaign.
🦶⚽ We could do with cutting out some of our sloppy passing in midfield too but I'm sure that will have been spotted and will be fixed.
With the talent we have in the squad in
advanced areas - plus a manager who likes to play a system almost identical to
what most of these players have been used to, albeit more direct down the
flanks - it does bode well for the future.
Moving on…
…but just before I do and for the record:
I started to prep this piece, which I don’t release until September for
reasons already explained, way back in mid-July and it was a few weeks later,
in early August, that articles started to appear online regarding how many new
managers are starting in the Premier League this season. In other words, I swear that I haven’t simply
jumped on those and spun my own version. 🙏😇😊
Right…
I don’t give seasons
“titles” because that would be just weird. However, I am seeing this campaign
ahead as, ‘A manager’s season”.
TOP 6 IN
ALPHABETICAL ORDER:
-
Arsenal: I
was, initially, going to say that The Gunners could suffer champions ‘second
season’ syndrome. A lot of ex-players often say that it’s very difficult to
strike again straight away the following season; possibly for a variety of
reasons. In addition, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are already renowned for their
in-season wobbles over the years and as a City fan, I’m hoping that they may
just wobble too many times trying to defend their crown.
However, I just think with extra
quality reinforcements in the summer, last season’s champions of England will
do it again…but I think that we’ll push ‘em all the way once again.
-
Brentford: No
new manager for The Bees but the way they applied themselves last season after
they lost their entire Management Team and so many important players was to be applauded.
As a plus point for them this
season, they just fell short in their last campaign (9th) to get into
a European competition this season (8th or higher) and, therefore,
with them carrying on their good work with a very good start in 2026-27 AND
with no European games to…“get in the way”, I can see them finishing in a
stronger league position this time round.
-
Chelsea: A
side with plenty of spending power have got themselves a very good manager
indeed. I can see the new guy steadying the ship, which their fans are
desperate for, and they’ll run all title challengers very close indeed.
I see ‘em having a really good
season and, in fact, for a side that has been so inconsistent in recent
seasons, I see far more in the way of consistency this season; making them one
of the threats for the league title.
-
Liverpool: In
my opinion, they too have grabbed themselves a very good manager indeed and one
who will be relishing the chance to mold a set of higher-class players to his
liking, with no disrespect intended to a very good set of players he left
behind at Bournemouth.
However, ask any Liverpool fan if
their happy with the summer transfer window and you’ll be hard pressed to find
one who is being genuine if they say, “Yes”. They’ll do well, in my opinion,
but not well enough to keep the majority of Merseyside
reds happy.
-
Manchester City: A very
good manager with experience of two English leagues and trophies to his name.
In addition, not only does he know the club so very well from two previous
spells with us, his style of play is so like his predecessor; so much so, in
fact, that he was once labeled, “Pep Lite”. He even looks a lot like him!
He is the product of a
hard-working family - his father is a fisherman of 50 years and that graft is
the driving force behind his successes…just like a certain Catalonian manager
we know!
He carries a Guardiola like
football-perfection obsession and he also has, apparently, an amazing ability
to keep everyone in the squad bonded – he’s a proper player’s coach.
In addition, he is not only
adopting a side packed with talent but he has the bonus of managing young but
experienced players who will have just gained an absolute wealth of extra footballing
knowledge having played a big part with their respective clubs in the recent World Cup;
particularly the English ones who have faced such amazing talent themselves.
We’ve also added to those
existing players in a big way, as I’ve already mentioned.
As the summer progressed and
players arrived and departed from all 20 clubs, there’s been some movement in
my table above, I can tell you. 🥵
At one point, I had us down as
finishing 4th. I nudged us up to 3rd but in the last few
days, I’ve put us on Arsenal’s coattails once again.
-
Manyoo:
First full season in charge for a manager who did rather well, it has to
be noted, as interim boss last season. I can only see improvement from his side
who he will finally have full control over, personnel wise. They’ve added quite
well in midfield, I think.
All that being said, they’ve got
a pretty ropey defence and from their opening game in particular after, which,
I spoke to a red who had watched it; the manager clearly still has a lot to
learn about how to get the best out of his players.
They’ll win, they’ll draw and
they might go on half-decent little runs. However, I believe they’ll have too
many loses over the whole season that will dent any title hopes.
Perhaps a domestic trophy might
be on the cards for the team from Trafford this season.
- -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I had originally
included Tottenham Hotspur in my ‘top six’ spotlight but I’ve since
changed my mind. This is what I wrote:
Battered, bruised and on their third
manager in less than 12 months. Reaction? Like a fair few other clubs, ourselves
including, they’ve spent big in the summer! Despite their shocking start, I
believe that they’ll start to click and I expect far more from The Lilywhites
this season than last.
Since that write up,
I’ve had a little rethink with Spurs currently standing on just 1 point from a
possible 9 with zero goals, 5 conceded and some of their fans already having doubts
regarding some of their summer signings; Savio and Marmoush included.
I still believe that
they’ll start to gel and move up the table but my original prediction of a 5th
place finished has dipped to 8th, which I’m betting most Spurs’ fans
would be more than happy with right now.
- -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Back to the manager thing and Nottingham Forest
also have a new good fella who did very well with Crystal Palace; Bournemouth
have a
new German bloke at the helm who has managed some big German sides, Crystal
Palace have brought in a new French guy, Fulham
have themselves a new Spanish boss while Newcastle United were the most
recent to make changes in that department with the acquisition of Matthias Jaissle.
We also have three new [promoted] managers who are in the
Premier League this season for the first time with their current, respective
clubs (a nod there to Frank Lampard who has been
a Premier League manager before with both Everton and Chelsea).
WOW! That’s
a LOT of managerial change in the top flight to start off this season, don’t
you think? Just 7 teams who
start with permanent managers in the Premier League that they had at the start
of LAST season in the Prem. 😮
Some of the rest…
At first, I had Frank Lamard’s blues as the only
promoted team to stay up, such was their points dominance at the top of their
league last season. I’ve been watching football long enough to know that it
doesn’t always work out that way 🙄 and it appears as though it’s
not. They are yet to score a league goal and have now leaked 5 in 3 or 7 in 4,
if you include a cup game. It’s a long way to go but that’s not good. I’ve put ‘em
second bottom to Ipswich who I fear will yoyo yet again.
Palace have started ever so slightly better
than I thought they would with a crucial 2-3 away win at Fulham at the weekend. However, with both a managerial change and losing SO many key players, I just can’t
see them surviving this season. They have extra games in Europe once again this
season too.
Everton’s lack of summer recruitment has angered and
is of huge concern to their fans but I think they’ll JUST have enough about
them, experience wise, to survive. They’re used to a good scrap down near the
bottom and that’s meant with respect.
Fulham’s new manager will have tough debut in the
Premier League but once their young recruits learn to adapt, they should have
enough quality to have another go next season. Villa have had their squad torn
apart in the summer and with European football to contend with also, I think
they’re really going to struggled compared to last season.
City and the
cups?
Finally, here’s how I think we’ll do in the other
three competitions:
League Cup - Quarter Final.
F.A. Cup - Final and, therefore, possible
winners.
Champions League - League phase only, I’m afraid. That’s
one hell of a group stage draw that we’ve pulled. I hope I’m wrong, of course,
and our manager does have some pedigree in Europe. 🤞
To ‘sign off’…
Some of the things I’m
looking forward to seeing? Some of these I already have - as I say, I have
to start this long piece before the season starts.
1.
Our new midfield
develop into a real force once again.
2.
Phil Foden come back
to his best after three bizarre, largely underperforming seasons. I don’t think
Pep could have been any more supportive but, perhaps, a change in
manager will somehow help the 26-year-old put aside whatever it is that’s
blocking out his wealth of talent from shining through once again. There was
only so much one boss could say to him in three years to try an’ get through
whatever barriers there are surrounding Phil. Perhaps, over time, a change of
voice and perspective will help him. 🤷♂️
3.
Vitor Reis
incorporated into our defensive unit after a season out on loan. A perfect,
young, no-need-to-spend replacement for the departed Ake and Stones. I hope he
gets some domestic cup starts at the very least.
4.
Ayyoub Bouaddi blossom
into a very fine player. He looks class and mature beyond his years.
5.
The big personality
players that we now have all getting along in a larger-than-usual sized City
squad. 🤞
6.
A section of City fans
finally giving their heads a good enough wobble to stop the, ‘Pep’s gone’ panic
and ‘We’re all DOOMED’ thing. I’m not talking
young fans either. 🤯 Almost coming to tears or, in one case I witnessed, actually TO tears when we haven’t battered
sides 17-0; even though we’re a half-new-build side just getting going with a
new manager / management team. WTaF!?
7.
Our lads and girls playing
in our new kits.
8.
The new stand / tier
in full operation. And a big ‘well done’ to our club, by the way, for
introducing a £10 per ticket for every home game to those residents who live around the stadium. 👏👏👏👏👏…
What I’m NOT
looking forward to is the highly likely increased number of Sunday fixtures
we’re going to see, even more so than the last few seasons We might have to
face some Friday and Monday night games too, I dunno.
It won’t just be
us, of course, but with the increased number of Premier League sides who
qualified, last season, for Thursday night European fixtures this season;
whenever we’re due to face one of those sides in the league they’ll be simply no
choice but to play on Sunday afternoon or Monday night. 🤬
Thank you, as
always, for taking the time to read, especially such a long piece. 🙏
