F.A. CARLING PREMIERSHIP

1998-99

Arsenal

Whether or not Arsène Wenger jumps ship to prepare Japan for the 2002 World Cup, Arsenal must start as favourites to defend the title they won in stunning style last season. All their internationals enjoyed highly impressive World Cups (with the exception of Bergkamp), and their confidence coming into the new campaign could hardly be higher. The main question mark is the back four: they weren’t spring chickens to begin with, and they’re all another year older now. Furthermore, the only new purchase has been David Grondin, an obscure full-back who came from St-Étienne for half a million. But if Wenger’s motivational qualities can rekindle the camaraderie and self-belief that took the Gunners to the championship, there seems no reason why they shouldn’t hang on to the title.

Aston Villa

When he took over from Brian Little seven months ago, John Gregory initially experienced problems in harnessing Villa’s squad of misfits and pragmatists into a coherent team, but anybody who saw their 2-1 win over Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Cup last March will know that the Midlanders can beat anyone on their day (as the cliché goes). If Dwight Yorke does leave the club, there may not be enough firepower up front to get Villa into Europe again, which is where Doug Ellis’ spending power (or lack thereof) comes in. Forget about the wretched Collymore and watch out instead for young Lee Hendrie, the striker who caught the eye so often last season. The most notable new face is Alan Thompson, who came from Bolton Wanderers for £4.5m, spurning Leeds and Liverpool in the process.

Blackburn Rovers

After four months of last season, Blackburn looked like the only realistic challengers to Man United’s domination of the 1997-98 title race. Things eventually panned out rather differently, of course, but it’s illuminating to note how quickly Rovers’ confidence drained away from them after a 4-0 beating at Old Trafford. By April, they were a shadow of their former selves, and their demoralised state of mind was exemplified when they feebly lost 4-1 at home to Arsenal, a side they’d beaten 3-1 at Highbury earlier in the season.

Roy Hodgson may have paid well over the odds for Southampton’s Kevin Davies (£7.25m), while his signing of Newcastle’s abominable Darren Peacock has to rank as pure stupidity, so he’ll be hoping to on to Colin Hendry in the face of stiff temptation from Rangers. Rovers look good value for another top-six finish, but little more, especially given their horrific recent record in the cup competitions.

Charlton Athletic

This year’s Barnsley? The bookies certainly think so, having installed the Valiants as odds-on favourites for the drop before a ball has even been kicked. Such an unwanted accolade is not necessarily the kiss of death, as both Leicester and Derby have proved in recent seasons, but Charlton will need more than a handy goalkeeper (Sasa Ilic) and two serviceable midfield grafters (Neil Redfearn and Mark Kinsella) to stay up.

Watch out, though, for Clive Mendonca, a veteran goal-poacher who spent more than a decade knocking around in the lower divisions before finally making it into the big-time by scoring twice against Sunderland in the Wembley play-off last May. If there is room for any romance whatsoever in the cash-saturated Premiership, his story provides it.

Chelsea

With Gianluca Vialli seemingly hell-bent on speculating to accumulate, in the process prolonging the free-spending traditions of his predecessor, the Chelsea car park will now house four new flash foreign motors this autumn. The pick of the new signings is the outstanding Brian Laudrup, but perhaps a little too much has been read into Marcel Desailly’s imperious performances in the World Cup, and it would be instructive to remember that he has just endured two dismal seasons at the heart of Milan’s creaking defence. Ex-Barcelona man Albert Ferrer and former Lazio striker Pierluigi Casiraghi make up the numbers; Ferrer is a tiny right-back with experience of two World Cups for Spain, while Casiraghi’s lumbering gait up front partially disguises the fact that his scoring record for clubs and country leaves much to be desired.

Chelsea probably won’t win the title this season, thanks in part to the inevitable bickering caused by Vialli’s well-publicised squad rotation system, but they’ll come closer than they have for some time.

Coventry City

Coventry, like Southampton, were one of the unfashionable tiddlers of the Premiership who last season swapped sackcloth and ashes for goal-feasts and thrashings, storming their way to the relatively lofty heights of 12th place while chortling at the flounderings of Newcastle and Tottenham below them. Their 3-1 win at Anfield in the FA Cup illustrated what they’re capable of, and the fact that Darren Huckerby and Dion Dublin have pledged their futures to Highfield Road should help to at least anchor them in mid-table respectability for the time being, despite the sale of Romanian forward Viorel Dinu Moldovan to Fenerbahçe. Robert Jarni of Croatia has now arrived as the latest big-money continental signing; all in all, don’t expect to see Coventry propping up the table too soon.

Derby County

Little of note took place at Pride Park during the summer, save for the acquisition of Horacio Carbonari, an Argentinian sweeper who set the club back £2.7 million – and another defender, Stefan Schnoor of Germany, has also arrived. Otherwise, the team sheet is much the same as last season, with agile goalkeeper Mart Poom behind a defence that includes Laursen, Stimac and Dailly; the gifted Stefano Eranio and the less skilled Lee Carsley running the midfield; and Costa Rican striker Wanchope doing his bargain-basement-Asprilla act up front in tandem with Francesco Baiano. Eighth place, anybody?

Everton

The good news for Everton’s long-suffering fans is that the Merseysiders have finally got their hands on John Collins, a player who is (a) talented, and (b) hasn’t been purchased from Sheffield United. The bad news is that they’ve also signed Alex Cleland, the worst footballer in the western world.

New boss Walter Smith surely won’t do any worse than his predecessor Howard Kendall, but unless he can clear out some of the dead wood currently strewn around the Goodison Park dressing-room, another season of ugly football and unimpressive results looms ahead. Everton were extremely lucky to usher Bolton into the final relegation place last season; Middlesbrough and Charlton may not be so charitable.

Leeds United

Who watches Leeds for pleasure any more? Not even their own fans, who voted with their feet last season and caused an average 5,000 drop in attendances at the stadium. The fact that unknown Dutchman Clyde Wijnhard is George Graham’s only new signing of note suggests that the “House Full” signs at Elland Road will be conspicuous by their absence.

Elsewhere, an already workaday team has been robbed of what little sparkle it possesses with the departure of Rod Wallace to Rangers. A lot is depending on the form of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (a one-season wonder?), while the spectacle of David Hopkin and Gunnar Halle clamping down in midfield only increases the sense of bleak mundanity surrounding this once-great club. How they made it into the UEFA Cup I’ll never know, and they surely won’t last candlelight in that competition either.

Leicester City

No transfer activity took place at Filbert Street at all this summer, unless you count the fact that Martin O’Neill spurned the advances of Everton and Celtic, instead opting to stay put in the Midlands for another season of long-ball bollocks. Sure, their (relative) success represents a triumph for the small man in the avaricious world of today’s Premiership industry, and all that, but it is indisputable that Leicester purvey a monstrously crude brand of football, and – aesthetically, at least – the division would be better off without them. Sadly, it looks like we’re stuck with them for at least another three years.

Liverpool

Apart from the rapid canonisation of St Michael, the most significant close-season development at Anfield has been the appointment alongside Roy Evans of Gérard Houllier, the man who steered France to last-minute catastrophe against Bulgaria in the USA’94 qualifiers. Forgive the cynicism, but the prospect of two managers and two assistant coaches in the dug-out doesn’t sound like the perfect recipe for a harmonious working relationship, especially given that Liverpool’s close-season signings consist of a clapped-out defensive midfielder (Steve Staunton), an unwanted South African striker who flopped in the Bundesliga (Sean Dundee), and yet another Norwegian defender (Vegård Heggem). More may be resting on Owen’s shoulders this year than even he realises.

Manchester United

The recent promise of bank-account-emptying transfer activity by Alex Ferguson has so far amounted to the purchasing of one lanky Dutch defender and one erratic Swedish winger. For all that, Jaap Stam and Jesper Blömqvist should do pretty well in the Premiership, though this supposition says more about the league they’re playing in than it does about their own abilities. Elsewhere, despite abortive moves for Batistuta and Kluivert, United still haven’t signed a striker – though if it entails discarding Andy Cole and £8.5m in exchange for Dwight Yorke, you have to wonder about the point of it all.

In any case, if the new signings work out, if Beckham can put his World Cup troubles behind him, if the younger players (Mulryne, Brown, Curtis) can be successfully integrated, and if Keane can prove he’s fully over his knee injury, then United might be in with a shout for the title. If not, well, there’s always LKS Lòdz in the Champions League preliminaries. Whatever happens, it’s going to be a long season for Uncle Alex.

Middlesbrough

Last week, Francesco Moriero declined to become the third Italian to drop anchor at the Riverside Stadium, but fellow ex-Internazionale men Marco Branca and Gianluca Festa augment a foreign legion which includes Australian goalkeeper Schwarzer and Argentinian defender Lombardi – and hey, who needs Juninho and Ravanelli when you’ve got Vladimír Kinder of Slovakia at the back?

Most of the spotlight will, of course, fall on Gazza – playing his first English top division game since May 1991 – but the key men on Teeside this season will surely be Gary Pallister, returning after nine seasons at Manchester United; the mercurial Paul Merson; and prodigious striker Alun Armstrong, scorer of 15 vital goals last term. It’s no exaggeration to say that of the three promoted teams, Boro look by far the best-equipped for Premiership football.

Newcastle United

Newcastle have spent as heavily as anyone this summer, though they had little choice but to open their chequebook after the abominable performances of 1997-98. The most prominent of the new arrivals is France striker Stéphane Guivarc’h, whose pedigree is slightly better than his awful displays in the World Cup would suggest. With a £10m bid for Steve McManaman seemingly having fallen through, the other fresh faces are German ballwinner Dietmar Hamann, Greek midfielder Georgios Georgiadis, ex-Aberdeen man Stephen Glass, and Chelsea reject Laurent Charvet.

The most realistic target for Newcastle this term would appear to be a UEFA Cup place. For that to materialise, they need more goals from the increasingly disgruntled Shearer, consistent defending from the richly talented Nikos Dabizas and the men around him, and a gentler, kinder style of man-management from Kenny Dalglish. Some hope.

Nottingham Forest

Apart from Thierry Bonalair and Pierre van Hooijdonk, both of whom joined the club a year ago, the Nottingham Forest squad is largely unchanged from that which was limply relegated to Division One the season before last. All the old familiar faces – Ian Woan, Steve Chettle, Scot Gemmill, Steve Stone – are still around, a year older and with a season of Nationwide League crudity behind them.

The last time Forest got relegated, in 1992-93, they came straight back up and then finished third in the Premiership in 1994-95. A similar feat this year looks way beyond them, to put it mildly, and should they suffer a bad start to the campaign, then God knows what could befall them.

Sheffield Wednesday

The Owls have lured Danny Wilson away from the Barnsley hot-seat to replace the venerable Big Ron, but little else of note has occurred at Hillsborough over the summer. The mooted purchases of Chelsea’s Michael Duberry and Napoli keeper Giuseppe Taglialatela have seemingly come to nought, while Benito Carbone and Mark Pembridge are both apparently hell-bent on getting away from the club.

Given that Wilson’s last job involved overseeing the worst defence in the Premiership, it should be just like old times watching Wednesday leak goals to all and sundry (this is a side who last year conceded five to Liverpool, six to United and seven to Blackburn). They’ll need their attackers to manage a distinct improvement on last season’s paltry showing if they are not to become embroiled in the relegation whirlpool again.

Southampton

The immortal opening sentence of Richard Kurt’s seminal Man U chronology United We Stand reads as follows: “Nobody looks forward to a game at Southampton.” He had the town’s apparently pitiful amenities in mind rather than the team, but the observation still stands up in both senses, given that Southampton now have perhaps their best side since they finished runners-up to Liverpool in the 1984-85 title race.

The splendid old warhorse Mark Hughes has joined the club from Chelsea, in what is surely his last port of call before retirement, while David Howells (arriving from Tottenham) and ex-Blackburn winger Stuart Ripley are the other new faces. The law of averages suggests that Southampton could slide inexorably back towards the relegation dogfight they are usually on such intimate terms with, but another reasonable finish certainly isn’t out of the question this time.

Tottenham Hotspur

Now that Christian Gross has accomplished the unexpected, having hung on to his job at a club where most of the playing staff seemingly hate his guts, Tottenham may be set fair for a more rewarding season than last term. The signing policy has so far been slightly perverse: goalkeeper Frode Grodås was sold to Schalke 04 after having a fine World Cup for Norway, and the only new arrival of note is Italian left-back Paolo Tramezzani. Talk, however, persists that the next signing will be Brazil captain Dunga, who constitutes a very adequate replacement indeed for the departing David Howells.

Even if Spurs’ defence is as rickety as a steamrollered fence, the presence of Ginola should ensure that they’re at least reasonably watchable, unlike some other teams in the division we could mention. A mid-table finish, probably.

West Ham United

Another rag-tag-and-bobtail outfit who did rather better than anticipated last season, the Hammers go into the ’98-’99 campaign with two new goalkeepers (Shaka Hislop and Stephen Bywater), a new forward (Ian Wright) and a new centre-back (Javier Margas of Chile – work permit, eh, permitting).

The loss of the ponderous David Unsworth back to Everton shouldn’t exactly destabilise the defence, while Wright’s partnership with John Hartson may be one of the season’s surprise successes, though Paul Kitson may have something to say about that. Harry Redknapp narrowly failed to get his hands on Gareth Southgate and Robert Lee, but the fact that West Ham are tabling bids for these people at all says something about their newfound ambition (and wealth). A top-half finish shouldn’t be beyond them again this season.

Wimbledon

Could this be the season when Wimbledon’s 12-year run in the top flight comes to an end? There have been no dealings at all in the transfer market, except for the sale of Norwegian midfielder Ståle Solbakken, and the continuing rumours linking Joe Kinnear with the Ireland job can’t have helped matters.

After the heroics of 1996-97, when they spent most of the season around the fifth-place mark, last term was a desperate disappointment for the Dons – in particular the second half of the campaign, with their defence resembling an eviscerated sieve for long periods as they crashed to massive defeats against Arsenal (5-0), Spurs (6-2) and Manchester United (5-2). You wouldn’t quite bring yourself to bet on them going down, but all the signs are that Wimbledon are facing their bleakest season for quite some time.

Predictions

Champions:

Arsenal

Runners-up:

Chelsea

3rd/4th/5th/6th:

Manchester United, Liverpool, Aston Villa, West Ham United

Relegated:

Charlton Athletic, Nottingham Forest, Wimbledon

Scottish League champions:

Rangers

Scottish Cup:

Aberdeen

European Champions Cup:

Internazionale Milan

European Cup-Winners’ Cup:

Lazio

UEFA Cup:

Parma