Going team by team here.

Arsenal

Park Chu-young (Monaco, undisclosed), Andre Santos (Fenerbahce, undisclosed), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen, undisclosed), Yossi Benayoun (Chelsea, season loan), Mikel Arteta (Everton, £10million).

Great news Arsenal signed some players…..on the cheap of course. The reality however is if this was fantasy soccer and someone offered Benayoun and Arteta for Fabregas and Nasri you’d be laughed out of the room. With that said I like all the players Arsenal have signed but are they a better team than a year ago? The answer is no and between the five players it adds up to what they got for Nasri never mind that Fabregas money. I can understand Newcastle pocketing some of that Andy Carroll money, Arsenal I can’t.

It’s also telling Chelsea let Benayoun go on loan to Arsenal. If Chelsea considered Arsenal a threat there would be no way they would let a player go on loan. Arsenal have become the new Liverpool where their fans would be pleased if they kept a Champions League spot going into next season.

Aston Villa

Alan Hutton(Tottenham, undisclosed), Jermaine Jenas (Tottenham, season loan).

I’m a big fan of the buy low theory where you take a chance on players who have fell down the peaking order. I think it was a good piece of business for them to pick up Alan Hutton and Jermaine Jenas from Tottenham. Each player can put in a shift out there and while Jenas never became the player people figured he’d be there is enough there for a club like Aston Villa to see if a change of clubs is what a player like Jenas needs.

Blackburn

Scott Dann (Birmingham, undisclosed).

After being linked with the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool Scott Dann must of grined and bared it when he put pen to paper on his Blackburn deal. If it keeps going like this Dann may be playing Championship football again next season.

Chelsea

Raul Meireles (Liverpool, undisclosed)

Everyone knows I’m a fan of Raul Meireles. He got to where he is through hard work, he wasn’t a natural talent coming up through the racks and will be a perfect fit for Chelsea.

Everton

Players in: Denis Stracqualursi (Tigre, season loan), Royston Drenthe (Real Madrid, season loan).

They sold Mikel Arteta and Jermaine Beckford for 14 million and brought in two players on loan. Really all you need to know.

Fulham

Zdenek Grygera (Juventus, free), Orlando Sa (unattached), Bryan Ruiz (FC Twente, undisclosed).

I can not believe Harry Redknapp went to Holland to see Ruiz play Benfica and decided not to make a move for him. Fulham may of picked up the best player on deadline day with Bryan Ruiz who will find English football a lot different than Dutch football but should produce goals. Looking forward to see how Ruiz will adapt to the English game. Exciting signing for Fulham I must say.

Liverpool

Sebastian Coates (Nacional, undisclosed), Craig Bellamy (Manchester City, undisclosed).

I understand the Bellamy signing and more importantly it’s ok to have one head case on the team as it keeps everyone else loose, having two kills your team however. Provided Bellamy is ok with coming off the bench and starting 15-20 times then he’ll make for a useful signing. Even still coming off the bench is much better then his place with Manchester City where they wouldn’t even let him into the stadium. No risk, high reward. Also love the Coates signing, if he can shine at the highest levels of South American football then at some point he should translate that into European football.

Now onto Raul Meireles leaving Liverpool. Raul Meireles did what he needed to do and Liverpool did the right thing in selling a player who wasn’t going to be happy. Meireles read the tea leeves and it wasn’t hard to figure out he was going to be the odd man out. He wasn’t a King Kenny signing and over the summer he sees Liverpool spend 30 million in two players who play in the same area of the pitch as he does. A coach needs to justify that spending so you know Henderson and Adam will get every chance to start, then you have the golden boy Steven Gerrard coming back and they need to fit him in somewhere. That equals to Meireles coming off the bench which equals to him handing a transfer request.

On a side note I wish the press would ask these two questions.

1) Can someone ask Mourinho what he thinks about Villa-Boas joining Chelsea. I want that answer.

2) How in the world do you get a groin infection? Just saying that hurts me. Did the doctor not wash his hands or something….what is the back story here cause I’ve never heard anyone get a grion infection before.

I also love how Liverpool fans the second Raul Meireles leaves start bad mouthing him. Think about it for a second like a normal person and not think these millionaire football players are robots without emotions. You go to work for a company where everyday you bust your ass in an environment where most of your co-workers have quit on they boss (let’s call this boss Roy) yet day after day you produce good work. How are you thanked for this? With a raise….no of course not but even worse the company brings in two new people who most likely are being paid more to work in your position. Well, if that doesn’t cause a person to update the resume I don’t know what does.

I’ve also wanted to get this off my chest for awhile but I see Liverpool fans offering up their daughters to Luis Suarez cause they love him so much. Great player, let’s get that out of the way. In Suarez however you have a player who while I’m not going to say dives I will say goes to ground easy, who gets mad at the refs and pouts when I call goes against him and is a bit of a pretty boy. You know who that sounds like?

Cristiano Ronaldo!!!! Who Liverpool fans could not stand but Suarez walks on water.

Manchester City

Owen Hargreaves

I like this signing for Manchester City. What downside is there really? I’ve read all the jokes on Hargraves but a club like City needs a player who has won titles like Hargraves. If he can play the role Patrick Viera played last year, City are a better club for it. I still remember Portugal-England in WC 2006 where the only two players I feared on England where Aaron Lennon and Owen Hargraves. Every other English player played like they were scared of the moment. Hargraves was also the only English player to score during penalty kicks.

NEWCASTLE

Davide Santon (Inter Milan, undisclosed)

They badly need a striker but those don’t exactly fall from the sky when you are a club like Newcastle. I like Santon and he is well worth the risk. He fell out of favour at Inter and will now go to Newcastle where there will be less pressure and less questions wondering why he hasn’t progessed after such a great start to his career.

Q.P.R

Joey Barton (Newcastle, free), Luke Young (Aston Villa, undisclosed), Armand Traore (Arsenal, undisclosed), Tommaso Trani (unattached), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City, undisclosed).

It’s like QPR is trying to sign the England B team. They also signed Rio little brother at the deadline. It should give the club a boost and a belief that they may be able to stay up this season.

Stoke

Wilson Palacios (Tottenham, undisclosed), Cameron Jerome (Birmingham, undisclosed), Peter Crouch (Tottenham, initial £10million).

When you are a club who lives and dies by the long ball and set plays it makes sense to go out there and sign Peter Crouch. I also like Palacios and think it was smart for clubs like Stoke and Aston Villa to pick off players just handing around at Tottenham and not playing much.

Sunderland

Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal, season loan).

I’ve just happy those Bendtner to Porto rumours weren’t true.

Tottenham

Scott Parker (West Ham, undisclosed)

Signing Scott Parker for 5 million is a good piece of business but you know what else would of been a good piece of business? Selling Modric for 40 million! How in the world do you turn that down? Now you are going to have a player fuming over the millions of dollars he is missing out on not going to Chelsea. Tottenham will be lucky for Modric is worth 20 million in two years time. The problem I see all the time with English clubs is that they think their players can’t be replaced. Like the world will come to an end if Modric got sold. Every club should have of a list of players on other teams they would go out and sign if they sell a player. For example Modric to Chelsea for 40 million, call up Lyon and offer 15 million for Miralem Pjanić who could easily turn into a new Modric down the line but no Tottenham decides to hang on to a player who clearly doesn’t want to be there. On a side note…actually an end note since it’s the last point I’m making Roma look to be an interesting team this season. It will be interesting to see how their new players fit into the club.

Can’t believe this is the 4th EPL preview I’ve done. Time flies. Also thanks to the BBC for the players in and players out recap.

20th Norwich City

Before I doom Norwich City back to life in the Championship let me first give a tip of the cap to their head coach Paul Lambert who took this club from League One to the EPL in two seasons. When you are a club coming up to a new division there are two ways you can go about it. You can make wholesale changes and bring new players in at the expense of many players who took you to the top tier or you can pocket all the TV money and go with the players who brought you to the dance. I can’t fault Norwich for taking the latter route and in a way I’m glad these Norwich players will be rewarded with playing in the top league after making their way through the Championship. On a side note it will be interesting to see how Canadian Simeon Jackson can handle himself playing against the best players English football as to offer. In the end there just isn’t enough depth in this squad to think it can stay mid table at the end of the season but stranger things have happened.

Players in: James Vaughan (Everton) £2m*, Steve Morison (Millwall) £2.8m*, Bradley Johnson (Leeds) Free, Anthony Pilkington (Huddersfield) £2m*, Ritchie de Laet (Manchester United) Loan, Elliott Bennett (Brighton) £2m*, Kyle Naughton (Tottenham) Loan

Players out: Jed Steer (Yeovil) Loan, Luke Daley (Plymouth) Free, Owain Tudur Jones (Inverness Caledonian Thistle)

19th Queens Park Rangers

On a side note I’ve always liked the name Queens Park Rangers. It has a ring to it. Last year Q.P.R got off to a quick start in the Championship and never looked back, winning the division and punching their ticket to the EPL. Over the summer head coach Neil Warnock has bumped heads with Q.P.R’s billionaire owners to fund him in the transfer market to little avail. While Adel Taraabt appears is staying foot how happy will he be with a move to PSG falling through? It will be interesting to see if Warnock can keep Q.P.R up after failing to do so with Sheffield United a couple of years ago, losing to Wigan on the final day of the season. I also loved the first coach to get fired bet and with Warnock not being well liked by those in charge plus the cloud of new ownership on the horizon it wouldn’t shock me if Warnock if the first to go.

Players in: DJ Campbell (Blackpool) £1.2m*, Kieron Dyer (free agent), Danny Gabbidon (free agent), Jay Bothroyd (free agent), Bruno Perone (free agent)

Players out: Mikele Leigertwood (Reading), Peter Ramage (Crystal Palace) Loan, Lee Brown (Bristol Rovers), Angelo Balanta (MK Dons) Loan, Joe Oastler (Torquay), Max Ehmer (Yeovil) Loan

18th Blackburn

Blackburn were awful the second half of last season and I’m still not sure how Steve Kean got to keep his job. Even more curious is how Kean compared his only signing thus far David Goodwillie to a young Wayne Rooney doesn’t help matters either. Losing Phil Jones to Manchester United and Niko Kalinic to Dinpro doesn’t help matters. Blackburn does have a decent back line with the likes of Christopher Samba (If he sticks around) and Ryan Nelsen but it wouldn’t shock me if their midfield gets over run week after week. I can somewhat understand going into the tank last season but to have no real plan heading into the summer transfer period signals big problems in store.

Players in: David Goodwillie (Dundee United) £2.8m*, Myles Anderson (Aberdeen) Free, Radosav Petrovic (Partizan Belgrade)*

Players out: Phil Jones (Man Utd) £17m*, Frank Fielding (Derby) £400,000, Jake Kean (Rochdale) Loan, Michael Potts (York) Free, Zurab Khizanishvili (Kayserispor) Free, Keith Andrews (Ipswich) Loan

17th Swansea

Just about every season at least one club that comes up from the Championship stays up the following season and for this honour I’ve picked Swansea to manage their way into safety this season. Andre Villas-Boas can smile knowing he won’t be the only EPL manager who will be asked questions about his Mourinho days since Swansea head coach Brendan Rodgers also has a connection to the Special One from their Chelsea days together. Despite Swansea getting headlines in the papers trying sign players like Marcos Senna who are long in the tooth Swansea has wisely signed players who excelled in the Championship last season bringing in the likes of Danny Graham from Watford, the well travelled Wayne Routledge from Newcastle and Leroy Lita from Boro. It will be interesting to see if Routledge and Lita can kick start a once promising career in their return to the top flight.

Players in: Danny Graham (Watford) £3.5m, Michel Vorm (FC Utrecht) £1.5m, Jose Moreira (Benfica) £750,000, Wayne Routledge (Newcastle), Leroy Lita (Middlesbrough) £1.75m, Steven Caulker (Tottenham) Loan

Players out: Dorus de Vries (Wolves) Free, Darren Pratley (Bolton) Free

16th Wigan

I like the relationship Roberto Martinez has with the suits in the ivory towers. The owner backs Roberto Martinez and in return Martinez knows when it comes time to cash in on a player like Charles N’Zogbia the club will do what it needs to do. On the flip side when Martinez does drip his toes in the transfer market it’s usually for the likes of promosing young players such as James McCarthy and Victor Moses. Despite that I just can’t place Wigan any higher, the back four has always been poor and when the player who kept the team up last year moves on it’s tough to say the club will do better next year without him.

Players in: Dave Jones (free agent), Ali Al-Habsi (Bolton) £4m*

Players out: Charles N’Zogbia (Aston Villa) £9.5m*, Antonio Amaya (Real Betis) £250,000, Mauro Boselli (Estudiantes) Loan

15th Wolves

Loved the drama on the final day of the season last year when despite losing 3-2 the all important second goal by Stephan Hunt kept Wolves up. There really isn’t nothing flashly aout this team. The nicest thing I can say about Wolves is the fact they generally don’t roll over but Mick McCarthy doesn’t have anyone on this club who can be considered a game changer. Do like new signing Roger Johnson who will be a big boost to their back line however. It may not be pretty but Wolves should have enough professional players who know their role to keep them up for a 3rd season in a row.

Players in: Jamie O’Hara (Wolves) £5m, Dorus de Vries (Swansea) Free, Roger Johnson (Birmingham) £7m*

Players out: Greg Halford (Portsmouth), Scott Malone (Bournemouth) Loan, Carl Ikeme (Middlesbrough) Loan, Danny Batth (Sheffield Wednesday) Loan, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing (Sheffield United) Loan

14th Stoke City

Great home fans, great story for them making it to the FA Cup final, play boring but highly effective football. Sums up Stoke City who finished 13th last year and I expect them to stay right around that mark this year. A credit to Stoke City as I don’t think they will sneak up on teams anymore, no one is shocked when Stoke takes points against the big clubs at home but when you really only play one style of football that catches up to you after awhile and I feel teams will game plan better against Stoke thus preventing them from making the next step up to the top half of the division. Aside from the tin man Jonathan Woodgate Stoke hasn’t been able to bring anybody in, most notable failing to sign Cartlon Cole from West Ham.

Players in: Jonathan Woodgate (free agent)

Players out: Abdoulaye Faye (West Ham) Free, Matthew Lund (Oldham) Loan, Carl Dickinson (Watford), Andrew Davies (Crystal Palace) Loan

13th Fulham

After bouncing around in Holland and Germany the last couple of years former Tottenham coach Martin Jol returns to English football taking over from Mark Hughes who left the club this summer. On one hand credit to Mark Hughes for leaving when his heart just wasn’t into it but hey how is that big club search coming along for Mark Hughes? Maybe Hughes and Martin O’Neill can have tea together watching the games this weekend wondering how come no club has called yet. I do like Fulham bringing in former Liverpool defender John Arne Riise to play along side his brother Bjørn Helge Riise and fellow countryman Brede Hangeland. It will also be interesting to see if these whispers of Clint Dempsey leaving the club grow louder as the deadline comes close. I also like the signing of former Palermo midfielder Pajtim Kasami. With a bit of playing time Fulham may have themselves a good little player there. Even without Bobby Zamora last year Fulham finished 8th, they may take a step back with a new coach and new system in place but they have the depth to stay out of the danger zone.

Players In: John Arne Riise (Roma), Pajtim Kasami (Palermo), Marcel Gecov (Slovan Liberec), Dan Burn (Darlington), Csaba Somogyi (free agent)

Players out: Jonathan Greening (Nottingham Forest), David Stockdale (Ipswich) Loan, Kagisho Dikgacoi (Crystal Palace), £600,000*

12th West Brom

Here you have another club who has done little aside from a few free agent signings in the transfer market this summer. You know what your going to get out of a Roy Hodgson team. Nothing will be flashy but nothing will be given away. Except a lot of ties and low scoring games as West Brom have done a 180 from the style of play under former coach Roberto Di Matteo to Roy Hodgson. The best signing this club can make would be tieing down leading scorer Peter Odemwingie to a new contract.

Players in: Zoltan Gera (free agent), Ben Foster (Birmingham) Loan, Billy Jones (free agent), Gareth McAuley (Ipswich) Free, Marton Fulop (Ipswich) Free.

Players out: Boaz Myhill (Birmingham) Loan, Scott Carson (Bursaspor) £2m*, Borja Valero (Villarreal), Chris Wood (Birmingham) Loan

11th Newcastle

I’ve always taken shots at Alan Pardew and think he is a hack of coach but I do like how he has gone about his business in the transfer market. A new french revolution should be on display this season with new signings Yohan Cabaye, Sylvain Marveaux, and Gabriel Obertan to go along with Demba Ba who wasted no time leaving West Ham after they went down. It will also be interesting to see if Hatem Ben Arfa can stay fit long enough to display his talents. If It wasn’t Newcastle it wouldn’t shock me if they made it into Europe but since it is Newcastle I’m sure something will go wrong during the season.

Players in: Yohan Cabaye (Lille) £4.3m*, Sylvain Marveaux (Rennes) Free, Demba Ba (West Ham) Free, Mehdi Abeid (Lens) Free, Gabriel Obertan (Manchester United) undisclosed

Players out: Kevin Nolan (West Ham) £4m, Wayne Routledge (Swansea), Kazenga LuaLua (Brighton) Loan,
Daniel Leadbitter (Torquay), Michael Richardson (Leyton Orient) Loan, Ben Tozer (Northampton) Free, Patrick McLaughlin (York) Free, Jose Enrique (Liverpool) Undisclosed

10th Bolton

I like the way Owen Coyle goes about playing the game and more importantly so do his players. I’m sure Coyle is still hoping to snag a top young player on loan from one of the big clubs as Bolton has been quiet on the transfer market this summer. I do like the pick ups of Nigel Reo-Coker and Chris Eagles. Reo-Coker should add some toughness to the midfield and Eagles has that little something that can turn a nothing play into a goal. I don’t see Bolton making it to Europe but they should be comfortably outside of the drop zone all season long.

Players in: Darren Pratley (free agent), Nigel Reo-Coker (free agent), Chris Eagles and Tyrone Mears (both Burnley), joint £3m*

Players out: Ali Al-Habsi (Wigan) £4m*, Matt Taylor (West Ham) £2.2m*, Danny Ward (Huddersfield) £1m*, Joey O’Brien (West Ham) Free

9th Aston Villa

I don’t like Alex McLeish but they finished 9th last year with Martin O’Neill taking his ball and going home on the eve of the season then Gerald Houllier having heart troubles. Having a steady coach week in and week out should mean they stay right about the same area as last season. Gone of course are Downing and Young, I do like N’Zogbia as a replacement and I also like Shay Given giving another shot at starting in goal. Most people’s key player will be Darren Bent but you know at this point what you are going to get out of him. He’ll bag 15-20 goals a season. If Aston Villa plan to have success this season Gabriel Agbonlahor will need to raise his game. Stephen Ireland coming back from the dead wouldn’t hurt either.

Players in: Shay Given (Manchester City) £3.5m*, Charles N’Zogbia (Aston Villa) £9.5m*

Players out: Ashley Young (Manchester United) £16m*, Stewart Downing (Liverpool) £20m*, Brad Friedel (Tottenham) Free

8th Sunderland

Truthfully, I have no idea what to make out of Sunderland this season. They can finish 5th or 15th you just don’t know. I like the players they have bought in, I also like the fact they seemed to have a plan and how to spend the Jordan Henderson money after he was sold to Liverpool. What I don’t know however is how this Sunderland team will gel with so many new faces.

Players in: Ahmed Elmohamady (ENPPI) £2m*, Conor Wickham (Ipswich) £8.1m, rising to £12.5m*, Sebastian Larsson (Birmingham) Free, Kieran Westwood (Coventry) Free, Ji Dong-won (Chunnam Dragons) £2.1m*, Craig Gardner (Birmingham) £4.5, rising to £6m*, David Vaughan (free agent), Wes Brown (Manchester United) £5m*, John O’Shea (Manchester United) £1m*, Roarie Deacon (Arsenal) Free, James McClean (Derry City) £350,000

Players out: Jordan Henderson (Liverpool) £16m*, Cristian Riveros (Kayserispor) Loan, Steed Malbranque (St Etienne) Jean Yves Mvoto (Oldham), Nathan Luscombe (Hartlepool), Robbie Weir (Tranmere), Michael Kay (Tranmere), Liam Noble (Carlisle) Loan

7th Everton

I worry about Everton and it wouldn’t shock me to see this club slide down the ladder this season. It seems like year after year Everton get off to slow starts only to dig themselves out of a hole and finish the season in a respectable position. The problem I see is the fact with no new players, there is no new blood and after awhile your current crop of players just check out mentally. They may not have a ton of depth but the starting 11 is still talented with the likes of Tim Howard, Arsenal bound? Phil Jagielka and Tim Cahill but unless one of their young players makes a break through it may just be another ho hum year for Everton.

Players in: Eric Dier (Sporting Lisbon) Loan

Players out: James Vaughan (Norwich) £2m*

6th Tottenham

I do understand the fact Tottenham are in a tricky position. To get Champions League caliber players you need to be in the Champions League. Without that it’s hard to find players who are better then the players you currently feature. So far they have fought the good fight keeping hold of Luka Modric from Chelsea but what they really need is rebound years from the likes of Peter Crouch and Jermaine Defoe who each had dissapointing years for Spurs. Going down the list player but player there are many top players but they are missing something and it’s not money that will vault them back into the top four of English football.

Players in: Brad Friedel (Aston Villa) Free, Soleymane Coulibaly (Siena), Cristian Ceballos (Barcelona) Free

Players out: Jamie O’Hara (Wolves) £5m, Bongani Khumalo (Reading) Loan, Nathan Byrne (Bournemouth) Loan, Ryan Mason (Doncaster) Loan, Kyle Naughton (Norwich) Loan, Stephen Caulker (Swansea) Loan.

5th Arsenal

Yes, I am aware I’m really being edgy calling for Arsenal to drop out of the top four as I’m sure 100′s of other previews of also said the same thing. What is there to say what hasn’t already been said about Arsenal? They dig there heads in the sand and hope something changes. When Manchester United sold Ronaldo they didn’t wait until the final weeks of the transfer window. It was done and dusted two weeks after the end of the season. That allowed Manchester United to move on where as Arsenal fans have had to drag on with this silly Fabregas and Samir Nasri saga for far too long. News flash Fabregas wasn’t that good last year if anything I truely believe Thiago will have more of an impact in Barcelona then Cesc will. The second Fabregas heart wasn’t set on leading Arsenal anymore it was time for Arsenal to sell him. I do like the singing of Gervinho from Lille but the story will remain the same. Arsenal will run over the poor teams and look great doing so then get bullied against the top clubs.

Players in: Gervinho (Lille) £10.7m*, Carl Jenkinson (Charlton) £1m*, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain £15m* (Southampton)

Players out: Gael Clichy (Man City) £7m*, Denilson (Sao Paulo) Loan, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (Ipswich) £1.5m-£2m*, Mark Randall (Chesterfield) Free, Roarie Deacon (Sunderland) Free, Wellington (Levante) Loan, Kyle Bartley (Rangers) Loan

4th Liverpool

Now that Jose Enrique is signed all that is left for Liverpool to do in this busy transfer season is sign a centre back. My only question about this Liverpool team is the fact there is a lot of dead wood on this club. With no European football this seaosn it’s not like they can give the likes of Joe Cole and Christian Poulsen those games as a run out. Dead wood can easily rot into other areas of the club. For all the heat Torres took over his awful play at Chelsea last season Andy Carroll didn’t exactly light it up either. It will be interesting to see how he starts the season but he can’t blame lack of weapons around him with the likes of Stewart Downing and Charlie Adam being able to cross a ball from 20 years right into his forehead. I’ve already gone on record to say Carroll will be the next Stan Collymore. Good player but you always sensed there was more to give. Another interesting question will if Liverpool gets off to a hot start how will Kenny Daglish fit Steven Gerrard back into the starting lineup.

Players in: Stewart Downing (Aston Villa) £20m*, Jordan Henderson (Sunderland) £16m*, Charlie Adam (Blackpool) £8.5m*, Doni (Roma) Free, Jose Enrique (Newcastle) Undisclosed

Players out: Paul Konchesky (Leicester) £1.5m*, Milan Jovanovic (Anderlecht), Gerardo Bruna (Blackpool), Martin Hansen (Bradford) Loan, Stephen Darby (Rochdale) Loan, Tom Ince (Blackpool)

3rd Chelsea

Simply put I’ve seen nothing to suggest Chelsea has closed the gap on Manchester United this summer. New coach Andre Villas-Boas is in a very tricky spot. You have so many egos that need to be stroked on this club and he simply can’t make his mark on Chelsea with the likes of Terry, Lampard and Drogba leading it. Those are Mourinho’s players, Villas-Boas needs to push them aside at some point and build around his core group of players which won’t be easy. It also doesn’t help when Michael Essien blows out his knee at the start of pre season. I like all of the young players Chelsea have signed this summer but the key question is how much will they play and at whose expense?

Players in: Oriol Romeu (Barcelona) £4.35m, Thibaut Courtois (Genk) £7.9m*, Lucas Piazon (Sao Paulo) £10.7m**
**Sao Paulo confirmed a fee of 12m euros in March 2011. Piazon will join Chelsea in January 2012.

Players out: Yury Zhirkov (Anzhi Makhachkala) £13.2m*, Michael Mancienne (Hamburg) £3m, Jack Cork (Southampton) £750,000*, Thibaut Courtois (Atletico Madrid) Loan, Jeffrey Bruma (Hamburg) Loan, Fabio Borini (Parma) Free, Sam Walker (Northampton) Loan.

2nd Manchester United

I’m a bloody fool for picking United to finish 5th last season but considering Liverpool never got out of the gate, Arsenal was Arsenal again, Chelsea fell apart and Manchester City weren’t quite ready, the title was almost defaulted to Manchester United who to their credit never lost focus at the ultimate goal. I also love how they have gone about retooling their club. David DeGea has all the talent to replace Edwin van der sar, Phil Jones and Ashley Young are so happy to be at United they would be ok with not playing week in and week out cause they trust Sir Alex Ferguson in the overall picture. It’s true that the title is United’s to lose and while it wouldn’t shock me to be wrong I do believe they will come up just short.

Players in: Ashley Young (Aston Villa) £16m*, Phil Jones (Blackburn Rovers) £16.5m*, David de Gea (Atletico Madrid) £17.8m*

Players out: John O’Shea (Sunderland) £5m*, Wes Brown (Sunderland) £1m*, Bebe (Besiktas) Loan, Ritchie de Laet (Norwich) Loan, Corry Evans (Hull) Loan, Robert Brady (Hull) Loan, Ryan Tunnicliffe (Peterborough) Loan, Scott Wootton (Peterborough) Loan, Nicky Ajose (Peterborough)

1st Manchester City

Roberto Mancini isn’t the type of coach players run through a brick wall for but he is no dummy. If he is smart and I’m sure he is Mancini is going to use the Charity Shield as a perfect reminder to these players that they need to play 90 minutes because against the top teams they are going to keep coming after you. You let your guard down and just like that it was 2-2. I worry with City about the fact there is too much talent 4-5-1. 4-4-2, 4-3-3 they pretty much have the players who can excel in any of those systems. For example I can’t see Sergio Aguero leading the line in a 4-5-1 but he can kill it in 4-4-2 so finding that right balance will be interesting if they can find it early and stick to it Manchester City can make the step up from being FA Cup Champions to EPL Champions.

Players in: Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid) £38m*, Gael Clichy (Arsenal) £7m*, Stefan Savic (Partizan Belgrade) £6m*, Costel Pantilimon (Poli Timisoara)

Players out: Shay Given (Aston Villa) £3.5m*, Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Jo (Internacional), Michael Johnson (Leicester) Loan, Kieran Trippier (Burnley) Loan, Ben Mee (Burnley) Loan, Donal McDermott (Bournemouth) Loan, Andrew Tutte (Rochdale) Loan, Scott Kay (Macclesfield) Loan,

Each and every single game this weekend I kept thinking to myself there is no way this upset will happen right? First Peru, then Uruguay, then Paraguay and finally Venezuela make up an unlikely final four. Congrats to all four teams but much like the press does instead of focusing on the winners I’ll be throwing dirt on the losers, most notable Brazil and Argentina.

First Argentina, you know I’d love to slang Lionel Messi the rare chance that I get but even now I can’t bring myself to slang him too hard. Two weeks later and it still puzzles me why Sergio Batista had four defensive midfielders playing against the “offensive powerhouse” that is Bolivia. For all the grief Maradona took from the press at least his teams liked playing for him and knew how to score. Be it the egos, the system, the pressure of playing at home or the coach himself it looked like these players were annoyed on the field. I also find it fitting that the people’s player Carlos Me First Tevez was the one who missed the penalty kick to knock out Argentina. It was after all Batista who tried to remove Tevez from the national team before bowing to pressure and bringing him in only to do nothing.

Brazil is up next. First and foremost I couldn’t under why Mano Menezes didn’t call up Hulk. Are you telling him Fred who sulked his way out of Lyon is better than Hulk? Even if you wanted to make the case of putting Hulk out wide like he is used at Porto anyone who watches football could easily tell you Hulk is a better player right now than Robinho. I also hated the white shorts with the yellow jerseys. Yellow Jersey and Blue Shorts is the way it should be. There is a real problem with this Brazil team. There are no leaders, no alpha’s on this squad. Brazil has always had a shining star be it Kaka, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Romario, Zico, you get the picture. Who was the leader of this Brazil squad? Robinho? Please he is a career sulk who offers nothing when he doesn’t have the ball. Pato looked like a deer lost in headlights half the time, he too is more robin than batman. Neymar is an inmature kid, he is not ready for that position. No one on this Brazil side stepped him. Putting on that Brazil jersey is like going into a phonebook to put on a superman costume but none of these Brazilian players came close to living up to the highest of standards of Brazil teams past. They can blame the field all their want over four of the worst penalties I have ever seen but they didn’t look good in any of their four games and have no reason to feel unlikely over not making it to the semi finals.

For the people who read my website I hope you get my Specials reference as the title. If so that is a sign we’d get along smashing in real life. Also for the people who read this site outside of Canada sadly this post will mean little to you.

Now for the reason I’m writing this post. You see I work a block away from the Giant Rogers empire in Downtown Toronto and every once in a while I see Keith Pelley head of all this Rogers Media doing a power walk back to his office. On a side note I also see Hockey Central’s Doug MacLean walking he dog which I find likable. Ok, back on topic every once in a while I’ve been meaning to bump into Keith Pelley to say hey read my site to get an idea on how to make people stop hating Setanta Sports for hoarding most of the top football matches. Then I realize Keith Pelley has better things to do so I don’t bother. Today my friends, Rogers Sportsnet will be holding their upfront event to get those evil advertisers to buy their stuff this fall. Keith Pelley will be there but I’m too chicken again to bump into him but Scott Moore or “thing two” as Bob McCown would say will be. I briefly talked with Scott Moore last year when he was at CBC so today my goal is to get him to take 10 minutes at some point to read this. Keeping my fingers cross.

Maybe it’s just me but I see Setana Sports Canada has this own little island in the Rogers media empire left alone to drift without any direction and since I love soccer I figure it’s high time I give my ideas to bring Setana Sports and soccer in general closer to the Rogers empire. With that here we go.

First thing I’d do is change the actual name of the channel. When people think of Setana sports they think of that expensive channel that usually airs the best EPL game on the weekend. They may also think of Setana as the station which went broke trying to complete with Sky Sports over in England. Neither very positive. Mind you I’m sure the people at Rogers have heard this many times before.

The second thing I’d do is combine and expand Setana Sports within the framework of the Rogers Sports Pack. Last time I checked Soccer is a sport so it should be a part of the sports pack. I’d use this to expand Setana Sports by providing more content. For example MLS has been in Toronto for five years now. Why don’t any television providers offer MLS Direct Kick for all the out of market game? I’d combine MLS Direct Kick with the likes of NHL Central Ice, MLB Extra Innings, and NFL Sunday Ticket. Truthfully, I know being able to see Sporting Kansas City isn’t going to make a mad dash to order the Rogers Sports Pack but I’m all about increasing content to football fans.

With this in mind the same way NFL Sunday Ticket lines up all the NFL games on Sunday Rogers should do the same with EPL games. I know they sell the package online but bring that to my TV where if I’m a Tottenham fan and I wanted to watch Tottenham vs Sunderland I’m able to watch it much in the same fashion I could watch the Chicago Cubs vs St Louis Cardinals on MLB extra innings.

The Canadian Soccer rights landscape pretty much looks like this Rogers/Sportsnet has the rights to EPL, TheScore has rights to Serie A, TSN has MLS, Euro Sports World Lique 1 in France, GolTV/MLSE has the rights to La Liga, Some South American soccer and the Bundesliga. Teams like Boca Juniors, River Plate, Many Mexican teams, Porto, Benfica and Sporting in Portugal, Celtic and Rangers in Scotland, Ajax, PSV in Holland, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, and AEK Athens in Greece are shut out. There is a lot of football from parts of the world with a large Canadian immigration base that isn’t covered. Show those games in a newly created “World Football Package” for a lack of a better term.

Now the pricing not that this is my specialty. I figure there should be three programming packages for the Rogers Sports Package. One would be $50 a month and that includes Setana Sports, the extra soccer I mentioned above, MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, OHL, and Nascar.

You can then keep the current setup for the people who don’t like soccer and don’t want to pay extra for it. Mind you these people should like soccer.

Then you can have a soccer only sports pack of $25 dollars a month which gets you Setana Sports, Goltv, Fox Soccer Channel, Euro Sports World, and to go along with my ideas for expanding football coverage. $25 is the bare minimum what I should spend going to the bar once to watch a match.

My last point is regarding the Sports Pack itself. While it’s marketed to the hard core sports fan let’s face it a great deal of people who are into sports to that degree also like to gamble of it. Let’s get a sponsorship package together with someone like Bodog. I saw them only yesterday sponsoring the TSN top 10 during Sportscentre. The Sports Pack would be an ideal fit for them to pour money into before the United States busts Calvin Ayre.

That’s it for now. I wouldn’t to keep this under 1000 words since it’s only a blog post ot a novel so things like digital integration shall wait. If Scott Moore ever does read it I’d be honoured. First and foremost I’m a fan who wants to see soccer keep growing in Canada but hey if Rogers ever creates a head of soccer programming they now know where to find me.

Been always meaning to do this but figured I’d run down the list of players I follow on twitter and give my opinions (not like they care what I think about them)

@jamesdrodriguez Truthfully just started following him yesterday after Porto won the Europa League. Decided to follow him cause in 2-3 years he should make his mark on European football.

@anton_ferdinand The younger Ferdinand is over shadowed by big brother Rio both on the pitch and on twitter. I do enjoy how he took it to heart when West Ham went down.

@Charlie26Adam One of the saddest things I see is people asking footballers for a RT from some kid Timmy who has a problem and Charlie Adam must be a nice guy cause he RT’s a lot of these. I’m sorry people but if you think Timmy is going to find a cure cause Charlie Adam RT’s your tweet then you have a problem or no life. Can’t wait to see if Adam will break the news on twitter over the summer which club he plans to go too.

@WayneRooney I’ve been knocking Wayne Rooney for along time but I love him on twitter. He engages with fans, talks some shit and all around seems like a early 20′s kid who is finding himself not a multi million dollar football player. Enjoy his tweets about playing video games with team mates and sending out pictures with the number 19 shaved to his chest. Also find it interesting he doesn’t follow Ronaldo on twitter but does follow Gerald Pique.

@themichaelowen Another player who I really enjoy on twitter. I’ve always wondered how players who have hit the highest of highs deal with coming down from the top of the football mountain. Owen seems at peace with his place in football and his future. He also still likes to make a wager or two as well which never hurts in my book.

@luisnani He tries that’s the best I can say.

@DominicCervi I follow the back up Celtic goalie. Mostly because he is American. Kinda enjoy the culture shock American footballers have to face and how they handle it.

@jack_wilshere His first post after I decided to follow him was about how much he enjoys Jose Mourinho. From there I knew he’d be a quality follow with great taste in football coaches.

@rioferdy5 The king of twitter. He may not have the most followers but he has over a million. He is interesting, gives away prizes, asks questions, doesn’t duck away from an issue and picks fights with Pier Morgan.

@landondonovan Landon Donovan is a prick in real life and a prick on twitter but he is just being himself which somehow endears himself to me. He is a sarcastic prick who is living out his dream. Still don’t like him much but hate him a lot less since he joined twitter.

@D6MERIT Jay Demerit The US captain with the bad groin who cheered on Green Bay to the Super Bowl and Vancouver during this Stanley Cup run. Interesting sense of humour, quick witty and you can tell he seems to be the type of guy everyone likes in the locker room.

@ClaroRonaldo Considering how uncomfortable he seemed to be in the press Ronaldo was the last twitter I figured would enbrace twitter but he has and I get a kick out of it when he replies to someone in English.

@davidamonsalve He is a Toronto goalie who has bounced around from Toronto FC to Finland and now Columbia. Interesting travels for sure. Hope he is able to make a break through somewhere.

@kaka Seems like a nice humble man in real life….seems like a nice humble man on twitter.

@Cristiano Interesting to see Ronaldo’s PR team convince him to join twitter. Not convinced he tweets however. I don’t care if he is a robot I’ll always football him.

@herculezg Herculez Gomez went from MLS reject to a top goal scorer in Mexico and onto the United States World Cup roster. Plus he is a Real Madrid fan so I follow him.

@GiuseppeRossi22 Feel bad for the grief he gets from American fans who bitch him out over not playing for the United States. Another player who if you followed blindly on twitter you wouldn’t think he was a millionaire footballer. Fist pump to Jersey. Also like how he dealt with not making the Italian World Cup squad.

@thehp3 (Heath Pearce) Don’t know why I follow him. He is weird who doesn’t talk about soccer. Which I don’t blame him, it’s not like I go home and talk about my job 24/7 but his rambling about his moustache is weird.

@huntfree (Hunter Freeman) Followed him when he was playing in Norway. Happy he now gets to play in his home state of Texas and also happy for him that he has a baby on the way.

@CarlRobinson33 Followed him when he was a TFC member. Turthfully I really don’t know what to say about him.

@jdeguz Enjoy how he always is on the look out for TFC streams to watch his brother play. Have a feeling he is enjoying the good life in Spain.

@JozyAltidore17 Jozy sure has bounced around going from Spain to England and now Turkey which makes him interesting.

@CharlieDavies9 Hope his story has a happy ending either staying in MLS or going back to Europe.

@MauriceEdu Love the fact Maurice Edu stills list Toronto as one of his locations on twitter. Back on twitter now with the season over. Love the way he interacts with his followers.

@FreddyAdu11 Nice guy, loves his followers, I don’t mean to go Dr Phil here but just seems like he hasn’t put it all together yet either on the field or in real life. I know he is young but still seems child like which is weird considering all the things he has already done.

@dwaynederosario Another player who I think has someone handling his tweets. His tweets mostly seem to be about promoting himself which is very similar to the way he plays on the pitch.

There is my list and I know I could follow 100′s more players on tweeter so now I ask you who do you like to follow on twitter?

I’ve been meaning to write this for a while now but since I got the question if I think Rafa Benitez is a good coach I figure now is the perfect time to stop being lazy. I think Rafa Benitez is a great coach and one of the best at x’s and o’s in the world. Anyone who can tear apart Real Madrid 4-0 in the Champions League isn’t a fool. I don’t rate him as one of the elite mangers in football but he is right below them.

My issue with Rafa to go along with the likes of former Bayern Munich and Schalke coaches Louis van Gaal and Felix Magath is why in the world do you need to be a miserable prick for? These coaches were in charge of some of the world’s best teams and rarely cracked a smile. I realize Benitez didn’t have it easy with all the issues from ownership and on some level it must of bugged him seeing the press fawn all over Mourinho and Ferguson but on a player level you rarely seen players go to bat for Benitez. What you did see is players like Albert Riera and Jermaine Pennant hit out at Rafa the same way Bayern and Schalke players hit out on van Gaal and Magath once they were shown the door.

I realize fans think football players are million dollar robots but for coaches not to try and connect with players on a human level annoys me. I do think players run through a wall for Mourinho because he cares about them. He takes an interest in their lives and realizes what is going on at home is as import as what is going on at the pitch. I remember a story Wesley Sneijder telling a story during his first days at Inter Mourinho goes up to him out of the blue and sends him and his family on vacation to Dubai saying he looked tired and needed rest. Sneijder said from there I would of ran through a wall for Mourinho.

Being likeable should be easy for most people, drawing up top tactics like Benitez, van Gaal and Magath should be the hard part which is why I never get when a coach alienates his players who are the direct cause of his success.

I have more issues with Rafa cause I do think he is a politician who was always quick to pull out the ownership sucks card to deflect any heat, plus I think it was a dumb move the way he tried to run over Inter under a bus saving give me money or sack me to the press when he was coaching the same team who won the Champions League…..the same team he then took to 6th in the standings the next season but he is a very smart coach.

While watching the Real Madrid vs Barcelona game on Saturday I came across a tweet that basically said Real Madrid have turned into Stoke. I don’t know why this bugged me but it sightly did. I guess enough to write this post.

You know what matters in football? As Charlie Sheen would say Winning duh. That is all. At the highest level football really is a game of rock paper scissors. What separates a team like Real Madrid from a one trick pony like Arsenal is the fact they can adapt their tactics depending on who they are playing. I have a strong dislike for this snobbish point of view where the Barcelona beautiful game is the only style of play to be played. Barcelona is also a one trick pony to be fair but boy what a trick. It’s also something that has been preached to some of these Barcelona players since they were kids. It would be simply foolish to try and match it. If Real Madrid can control Barcelona by kicking long balls over the midfield and making Ronaldo and Di Maria chase them down so be it. It actually means Dani Alves and Adriano actually have to play defence. I loved Pepe bullying Barcelona players off the ball time and time again. What a shift he put in, just too bad Raul Albiol had to try and ruin that with his silly foul on former team mate David Villa. It will now be interesting to see how Pep Guardiola tries to respond tactis wise in the Copa del Ray on Wednesday.

What bullshit took place on Sunday. Let’s revelate one’s hierarchy of morals. What is worst. a) a player who may or may not be a punk but let’s just say he is a punk. Who does try to take advantage of things by getting a foul called in his favor to the annoyance of fans. or b) a player who of course it can not be proven picked the perfect time to try and injury a player. Being 2-0 up close to half time it isn’t the worst time to take a shot. What an awful tackle, how can a player who has played the game since he was a kid make a tackle like that? Surely, you know beforehand you are going in high. Another thing which I always find curious Nani is five foot nothing. Does hurting the kid really make you tough? Wayne Rooney (also five foot nothing I know) who is also a punk, why doesn’t he ever get on the receiving end on such a tackle? I’m sure the story would be different today if it was Mr I don’t show up for big games unless it’s Manchester City Rooney instead of Nani.

My biggest question is why in the world wasn’t that a red card. Why are referee’s chicken shit. If you are a club of any importance heaven forbid a referee makes a tough decision in front of the home fans. Of course unless you are Arsenal, for some reason I think referee’s like annoying Wenger. Phil Dowd should of shown a red card. If that isn’t a red card what in the world is? Tackle was high, tackle was late, and tackle right through Nani’s leg.

The last thing which bugs me is hypocrisy. I love how fans quickly point out when a player on another team dives and “cheats” but either look away when their own players does it or my favorite just say “well everyone else does it.” and brushes it off yet want to run onto the streets with pitchfolks if someone on another team did the same thing.

Nani isn’t patient X when it comes to diving in football. This ideal that the English game is far above that is laughable and been proven wrong time after time. Captain on the decline (Gerrard is clearly Liverpool’s 4th best player, 5th is Carroll is worth half his transfer fee) clearly proves this

I can’t even link to his clear dive against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League because of some over the top comment made in the clips I’ve found. Yet players like Nani somehow is deserving of almost having his leg snapped in half. Fabio (edit Rafael) tackle would never needed to have happened if Dowd would of been a man, done his job as outlined in the rule book and shown the red card.

As for Nani getting up then going down. You know what if my leg was split open in two I’d be in shock and not exactly in control of my emotions. I loved seeing Captain M.I.A Gerrard saying get up. Was Nani over the top….of course but I’d be acting crazy too in that same spot.

As for the good, besides Luis Suarez ripping Manchester United apart. (why in the world did Carrick get a new 3.5 year contract? I’m sure it took him two seconds to sign that one.) Great job by Kenny Dalglish. I’ve been waiting to see how Dalgish adapts to a team he has faced before. The Liverpool team that took on Manchester United in his first game back is very different from today’s game but give him credit for getting everything spot on against Manchester United who really have huge questions to ask in midfield and defence.

By the way yes I know Carragher stayed in front of the United locker room after the game to say I’m sorry. I’m indifferent to that. Sure it’s a nice thing to do but what would of been nicer if he didn’t go knee high on his tackle.

As for Manchester United blanking out the media. Yeah it’s sour grapes but I’d be annoyed at the media in good and bad times too. If I was a manager i’d set up a twitter account to get my message out withing having it go through a middle man.

I was on the way home yesterday when it hit me. This ironic scene of Clubber Lang hitting on Rockey’s wife is exactly like the Barcelona-Cesc drama. I wish I had the time (or more important the knowledge) to put Xavi face in front of Mr T, Wenger in front of Rocky and Cesc Fabregas in front of Adrian. Instead of going back to his apartment I can just picture Xavi going hey pretty Cesc how about you come to Camp Nou and play with a real team then Wenger starts snapping.

As for Barcelona they are no doubt the best team in the world. My dislike towards them is how they are fawned upon by the press. Any club the press tries to poke holes at them through every possible angle. With Barcelona they just bow to their greatness all the time. In this great Xavi Interview from the weekend Xavi whines about Inter Milan saying no one will remember thre Champions League victory. In the Interview he was right about a lot of things (Footballers being selfish, the way other teams played Spain in the World Cup as example.) but this comes off as sour grapes. When you don’t win something for 40 years it’s going to be remembered.

I’ll give Arsenal credit for the fact they believed they could win. I see it all the time in La Liga where teams roll over after the first goal against Barcelona. Now for the second time in the Champions League Barcelona have lost a match after scoring first. They also scored first against Inter Milan before losing 3-1 in a game where Xavi whined to Mourinho that Inter only won because the referee was Portuguese….child please.

The 5-0 victory over Real Madrid also gets on my nerves. Not so much the result itself but the way people go on about it as if it’s the best performace in the history of football.

Above is the greatest performace in football history as the best team in the football just chewed apart the defending European Champions in the biggest game in the world. After all is said and done it was only 3 points for Barcelona. It wasn’t a Champions League title nor did it decide La Liga and if I’m Pep Guardiola (on a side note I just found out that when googling his name a picture from my site pops up on the first page, kinda cool.) I’m blasting all my players telling them haven’t won anything yet and to forget about the press crowning them the best team in the world when they haven’t done anything close to their 2009 season yet.

I don’t see Fernando Torres leaving Liverpool as the end of the world. I do think Liverpool should cash in on a player who isn’t interested in playing for them anymore. What I really wanted to point out is how idol worship is almost foolish in top flight soccer. I can’t blame someone for loving a player who plays well for their favorite club. That passion drives football I get that but come on Fernando Torres didn’t grow up wanting to play for Liverpool and Liverpool only. Torres grew up in the Atletico Madrid system and when it came time to leave, he did. Now if Torres is willing to leave his boyhood club you can be assured he has no problem leaving Liverpool.

Realistically who can blame Fernando Torres for wanting to leave? A footballer has 5 prime years between the ages of 24 and 29. It really is wishful thinking to except one of the game’s best strikers to give up three years as Liverpool rebounds from the Hicks and Gillett era. Players care about money and playing for the team with the best chance of winning and right now Liverpool isn’t in that spot. Sure being adored by the fans are great but it rarely stops a player from leaving.

While it’s a loss for Liverpool, it’s not the end of the world. King Kenny who can deliver this sppech better than anymore needs to remind these players what playing for Liverpool is all about and anyone who isn’t committed to that needs to have their agent call the club and get moved on. Now the challenge will be how to spend that money wisely, even if they have to wait until the summer to do it.

As a neutral I love this. I was getting bored with European soccer. Instead of the big four in England you really only have the big one in Manchester United with the other clubs having massive questions they need to answer. Barcelona is 7 points up on Real Madrid, A.C Milan is a comfortable 4 points up on Napoli and Borussia Dortmund are 11 points up in the Bundesliga. With all this transfer drama I’m loving the return of big bad Chelsea and if they wrap up a deal for Torres I wonder what Manchester City will be thinking as they alright spent 30 million on Edin Džeko only to see Torres find himself on the market.