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Madrid stand Real chance

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Having come so close to reaching the Champions League final last season, La Liga title holders Real Madrid (7/2 Champions League 2012/2013 outright) have a great chance of claiming the European crown in the prestigious competition next season.

The men from the Santiago Bernabeu were denied a place in the final in the cruellest of circumstances, as they went down in the dreaded penalty shootout to eventual runners-up Bayern Munich. Manager Jose Mourinho has committed his future to Real and with that assurance, the club and the players will be even more determined to win the title for their Portuguese tactician, who has a wealth of experience in the tournament.

Star striker and arguably one of the players of the European Championships, Cristiano Ronaldo, proved on the big stages on Poland and Ukraine that he is a formidable opponent. With the former Manchester United striker playing some of his best football, Madrid will certainly be serious contenders for the biggest prize in club football.

Real’s arch rivals Barcelona (7/2 Champions League 2012/2013 outright) will have something to say about that, after they lost their Champions League title to surprise package Chelsea. Pep Guardiola has left the club and it will be interesting to see how his replacement Tito Vilanova will do as manager of a team that has enjoyed so much success over recent seasons.

Barca were somewhat found out last term, as their impressive passing game was undone by some ardent Chelsea defence in the semi-finals of the competition. The lack of a ‘Plan B’ from the Catalan outfit was a major criticism of the team and that is something they will have to address if they are to snatch back their European crown.

Chelsea (12/1 Champions League 2012/2013 outright) will have a massive challenge ahead of them to keep the Champions League trophy in the cabinets at Stamford Bridge beyond next summer. The final of the lucrative competition this time around is at Wembley Stadium, as it prepares to host the showpiece event for the second time in three years, as a celebration of the 150th year of the Football Association. This will certainly be a massive incentive for the Blues, who have a decent record at the national stadium.

The loss of Didier Drogba, who was a key figure in bringing the European crown to The Bridge, will be a massive blow and the likes of Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge must fill the void. Chelsea look like they will have strengthened their squad significantly by the end of the summer but it’s hard to see them pulling off the same heroic victories to win the title this time around.

Premier League champions Manchester City (7/1 Champions League 2012/2013 outright) are obvious favourite to fly the flag for England in the Champions League this coming season, and for good reason. Manager Roberto Mancini and his men are a year older and a year wiser and with their star-studded squad they will certainly be there or thereabouts come this business end of the tournament.

With the likes of David Silva, Yaya Toure in the midfield and Argentine duo Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero up front, you can write off City in the Champions League at your peril.

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Championship trio stand out

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The new football season is set to get underway in just over a week’s time as the Football League sides start a week earlier than the top flight and in the Championship it will see another intriguing nine months of battling to reach the cash-rich promised land that is the Premier League.

The three teams that drop out of the Premier League – West Ham, Blackpool and Birmingham – are usually billed as favourites to make an instant return, but on this occasion I can’t see that being the case as only Sam Allardyce’s Hammers look like having the capabilities of winning the title.

In addition to the east Londoners, it is former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Leicester City and Nottingham Forest, managed by the Swede’s one-time assistant and Three Lions successor Steve McClaren, who are the three clubs standing out, while there are two dark horses in Derby and newly-promoted Brighton as potential winners in the race for Championship glory.

West Ham

The Hammers appear the most likely to charge back to the top table of English football (9/2 Championship Outright).

Big Sam has already made a great acquisition in persuading Kevin Nolan to drop down from playing in the Premier League with Newcastle to help the promotion push, while he has so far retained most of his top players, including Scott Parker, Carlton Cole and Rob Green.

It seems unlikely all three will still be at Upton Park come the closure of the transfer window, but if Allardyce can make a few more additions and keep players such as Frederic Piquionne (12/1 Top Goalscorer), who is capable of scoring 20 Championship goals, it would be hard to back against them.

Leicester

While West Ham have a squad littered with quality Premier League-standard players, Foxes boss Eriksson has assembled a squad of players full of top Championship players with vast experience of playing in second tier of English football – just like Neil Warnock did at QPR last year – and that could give them the edge.

Republic of Ireland defender Sean St Ledger, one-time England striker David Nugent and highly-rated Reading centre-back Matt Mills have joined other new faces such as Lee Peltier, Kasper Schmeichel and Neil Danns at the Walkers Stadium and there could be more in the door before September 1.

Following the spending spree, Eriksson has made no secret of the club’s ultimate aim this coming season.

He said: “Our ambition to reach the Premier League (6/4 Promotion) is being underlined each day and the owners’ vision and commitment is first class.”

Nottingham Forest

McClaren’s arrival at the City Ground has breathed a new lease of life into Forest (3/1 Promotion) – a side that flirted with promotion for several years under Billy Davies but failed to ever negotiate their way through the lottery of the play-offs.

McClaren has no experience at Championship level which works against him – as it did for Gordon Strachan at his former club Middlesbrough when they were the favourites for the title a year ago only to struggle badly and the Scot jumped ship by the end of October.

However, while Strachan’s gamble on Scottish Premier League players being able to cut the mustard in the Championship backfired to an extent, McClaren has been wiser in bringing in players with experience of second-tier football such former Forest man Andy Reid, Fulham midfielder Jonathan Greening and 35-year-old ex-Holland international George Boateng.

The latter two plied their trade under McClaren a the Riverside during his stint as Boro boss so he will know exactly what he is bringing to the club and I fancy Forest to do well under his leadership.

Dark Horses

Brighton romped to the League One title last term and made an immediate statement by beating off some bigger guns to the signing of striker Craig Mackail-Smith (14/1 Top Goalscorer).

They arrive in the Championship at the same time as moving into their brand-new stadium with a good young manager in Gus Poyet at the helm and a side buzzing from last season’s impressive run.

You only have to take a look at how well Norwich did by securing two successive promotions to know that, while it is a rare a feat, it can be achieved, and the Seagulls definitely have the potential (6/1 Promotion).

Nigel Clough has also been a busy man at Derby this summer with virtually a new team of players moving to Pride Park as the club’s owners show ambition and their confidence in the manager to get things right after several uneventful seasons at the East Midlands outfit.

Providing the new faces can all gel quickly then I could quite easily see the Rams, who are 14/1 shots, making a charge for a promotion spot.

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Reds running to stand still

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Sunderland have been the busiest club in the transfer market so far this summer while Premier League champions Manchester United have not been shy to splash the cash either, but it is Liverpool’s dealing which are arguably providing the biggest talking points.

The Black Cats were beset by horrendous injury problems as the 2010/11 season wore on and it was only a late rally which saw them ease any outside chance of relegation to finish in a respectable mid-table position.

Stadium of Light chief Steve Bruce also lost star striker Darren Bent to Aston Villa in January – possibly the worst possible time – but he has responded by landing new players including the likes of Wes Brown, John O’Shea, Craig Gardner and Sebastian Larsson, among others.

Bruce maybe just needs a new striker and his work is done until the mid-season window, but his side is never going to overcome odds of 1000/1 to lift the Premier League trophy.

The fight for the title will be a five-horse race with the traditional big four of Manchester United (7/4), Chelsea (9/4), Arsenal (7/1) and Liverpool (10/1) joined by filth-rich Manchester City (4/1) in the shake-up.

The London pair have so far failed to add to their ranks – Gervinho’s switch to the Emirates from Lille is yet to be rubber-stamped – while City have been fairly low key by landing defenders Gael Clichy and Stefan Savic.

The Citizens are probably more pre-occupied with getting the best price for want-away captain Carlos Tevez although his touted replacement, Atletico Madrid’s Sergio Aguero, will not come cheap.

United and Liverpool, in contrast, have been pretty active so far, with the Reds of Merseyside continuing this summer where they left off in January following the big moves for Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll.

Many onlookers felt boss Kenny Dalglish paid well over the odds for Carroll, who at the time was not fully fit, and the same eyebrows were raised when the Scot raided Sunderland for Jordan Henderson, who reportedly cost in excess of £15m, and then added £20m-rated Stewart Downing to the squad from Aston Villa.

United have also thrown around bags of cash this summer on winger Ashley Young, defender Phil Jones and keeper David De Gea, with the latter two unproven at the highest level, like Carroll and Henderson.

However, the difference is that Liverpool are adding to their options from a position of weakness – they are on to their second manager since Rafa Benitez left just over 12 months while the ownership has also changed in the last year.

It remains to be seen whether or not their policy of recruiting players who promise much but have much to prove is successful.

But the fact is that United are arguably the most stable of the Premier League title challengers, have won the title four times out of the last five years and have appeared in three of the last four Champions League finals.

So Sir Alex Ferguson can afford to stir the pot, move players on and see who sinks and who swims.

And that underlines the fact that while Liverpool are making a lot of the running in the summer transfer market, they are ultimately running to stand still because not every move works out.

Just ask Alberto Aquilani.

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