Liverpool without Michael Owen? It’s like Japanese without cameras, Arsenal without Patrick Veira … it just doesn’t feel right. But it looks like that’s the way it’s going to be. Just when it looked like Owen was about to join Steve Gerrard, along came the news that the 24-year-old is set to leave his beloved Liverpool with a year left on his contract.
It’s hard to think of a more cataclysmic start to the season than Chelsea versus Manchester United at Stamford Bridge. If Chelsea win on Sunday, everybody will be shouting about the way Roman Abramovich has bought the championship for £210-million. If Manchester United win, everybody will call for the head of Jose Mourinho.
When unbeaten Premiership champions Arsenal kick off the season with the Community Shield showdown against FA Cup holders Manchester United, you won’t be seeing the two best clubs in the land. You’ll have to wait a week to see that, when Sir Alex Ferguson’s United go to Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge.
Sunday, sunny Sunday. It’s the height of the one-week-long English summer and already we are awaiting the start of another frantic 10-month football season. Arsenal, unbeaten on their way to the Premiership title last season, take on arch-rivals Manchester United in the Community Shield “friendly” at Cardiff’s Millennium stadium.
It’s been a tough few days for Wayne Rooney, who is learning the harsh lessons of life rather too quickly for an 18-year-old. He started the week as a happily engaged lad-made-good, the most wanted teenager in football. Last Sunday, the Sunday Mirror revealed England’s Euro 2004 top-scorer had been scoring with an escort.
Never in the history of the Premiership have three sides been promoted from division one (now renamed the Coca-Cola Championship) with such a lack of fizz. Norwich, West Bromwich Albion, Crystal Palace. Poor lambs. All that work last season and, according to the bookies, they’re just relegation fodder.
Predictably, there’s an outspoken Scottish codger who thinks Chelsea are rubbish and that sanity (otherwise known as Manchester United) will prevail in the Premiership despite Roman Abramovich’s millions.His name? Alexander Chapman Ferguson, the son of a docker born in grim Govan.
Sir Bobby Robson, easily the oldest boss in the Premiership, is entering his last season in charge at St James’s Park. Alan Shearer is in his final season of goal-getting after 15 years of successful plundering at Southampton, Blackburn and his beloved Newcastle. Neither is likely to blow it on his swansong.
So it looks like Arsenal are finally going to pay the price for their lack of financial clout. For too many years the North London club have kept pace – and more – with the moneybags European powers but something has to give. Last season’s unbeaten champions could be about to see the heart of their side ripped out by Real Madrid.
The Jonny Wilkinson debate rages on. Given the same quotes this week, half the newspapers decided he was on his way back, the other half decided England’s World Cup winner was in serious dwang. The problem is, nobody can agree just what the England flyhalf has wrong with him.