European Season

Here's a response to Andrew's post. Let's get this out of the way: good job getting rid of Joseph Niouky.

Concerning the EPL: My pick is Man United to win it. True: they didn't make any headline signings other than Javier Hernandez. However, Hernandez IS a big deal in my opinion. Not only that, but it's time for the young players to take over the team; Ferguson has been blooding the new generation over the past couple seasons alongside the old guard. These players are as good as new signings as far as the first team goes. Welbeck, Macheda, Gibson, the Da Silva twins, and Evans are some of the main players I'm talking about. I'll go with these players to turn Man Utd into a winner, and I'd like to see a young league champion too.

I'd also like to register my prediction that Barcelona will win La Liga again. As much as I love Mourinho, I'm going with my other favorite club manager in the world to take it home again this season.

Also, Diego back in Germany will be GOOD. Wolfsburg could make a major comeback in the league this season after a disappointing 2009/10.

Di Maria will suck at Real Madrid. I can't believe Mourinho signed him. I watched him in three full games last season: once against Porto, once against Sporting, and once for Argentina against Catalunya. He sucked in all of them, despite scoring a goal against Catalunya. I asked Andrew to verify my judgment (which was that Di Maria was a piece of crap, and had no business being praised the way he was as the next diamond out of Argentina), and Andrew generally agreed with me. (The reason I asked Andrew is that he knows the Portugese league better than I do.)

Just throwing these out there. I could draw my explanations out much more detailedly (made "detailed" into an adverb) than this, but I figure I hate it when TV analysts try to apply science to predictions, so I'll leave it at this and consider them guesses. Except the Man United one, of course-- that's fact. The Barca bit too. And also the Di Maria thing...he sucks. Yeah, I'm unsure about Diego though. Seriously.

-John