the new campaign starts...

so i'm not doing so hot on keeping this blog current. not much has happened since my last post, but i have been keeping strong tabs on the countdown to the start of manchester united's 2009/10 campaign. the season kicks off on saturday, but united start up sunday against newly promoted birmingham.

the past couple days, all the journalists have began writing up their predictions, which are all quite varied. seems this year is gonna be a wicked one. the traditional big four of united, chelsea, liverpool, and arsenal are all going into the season under a lot of pressure, and each could very well win the title. but i think the most exciting part of this season will be the battle between aston villa, tottenham, man city, and everton to knock arsenal from their 4th place spot.

now obviously, our biggest problem is filling the void left by ronaldo. as much as i hate the bastard, he was our best player and a phenomenal talent. he was incredibly to watch and could win a match by himself. he was great against the big clubs, and destroyed the lower half of the division. hell of a gap to fill. we got a bag load of cash for him though (£80mil). only problem now, who to spend it on. there was ton of flexing in the transfer market, with madrid, chelsea, and city being linked to every major star in the world. anytime a word would leak of a united target, the next day's gossip columns already had them linked with the abover four. benzema is who i was really hoping we would pick up. he is a solid striker who could bag goals in the fashion of van nistelrooy. but the 'galacticos II' project going on at madrid swiped him away. instead we got michael owen, which was totally out of the blue for me. at first i was stunned to say the least due to his form at newcastle for the past few years. but after thinking about it, it's not really a bad move. he moved on a free transfer, put on a 'pay-as-you-play' contract on the cheap, and we needed another striker. i said we can get 12 goals out of him, but fergie set the bar at 15. i think it's possible, and i think he can play a good role as a sub in the bigger matches, and a starter against the lower level. it would be nice if he could become a super-sub like the babyfaced assassin, ole gunnar solskjaer. but that might be asking too much.

so who will fill the void on the right flank? antonio valencia. hopefully.

but let's talk about that another time. there is much more to be discussed.