Manchester City’s

Real Madrid will face similar destiny and if they don’t stand much chance, what can City expect?

It perhaps sounds strange, but there is something in the tradition, colour of the jersey, genes. There are teams destined for success and there are others that simply decorate the football scene.

In just a blink of an eye, referee’s decision, atmosphere in the locker-room, the awareness of the club you are playing for all lie trivial but crucial details that separate the big ones from the rest. City can win United, when inspired, perhaps live through the autumn part of the season on top of the standings, but such dreams will fall apart as soon as the club starts believing that they can do something big.

Robinho described it best when he said that most of the players don’t have motivation, as there is no pressure that pushes big clubs forward. The Citizens will settle for little things, as mere thinking about the top makes them tremble with fear of the unknown.

Some will say: they will buy eleven winners and a coach used to winning trophies. Precisely, and again they won’t win a thing, as it is not enough to spend money, because the players that come for money like Tevez or Robinho will settle for average status.

Actually, even if they come to the club they won’t be there because they want to but because they need to pay their managers and support their family. Story old as time, we’ve heard it so many times before and the outcome will be well-known even before the Arabian owners hoped for.

How will it look?

Marc Hughes will lose few away matches and won’t stay to see November. The club will get a famous name on the bench, spend new 50 or 100 million dollars in January to fix things and end the season seventh or eighth.

Next year the owners, faced with the fact that such a club is a bottomless hole, will start seeking for a way out in selling the players. And the story will be reduced to reality.

Football laws are like the ones of nature, unchangeable.

Benfica are the most successful Portuguese club ever, having won 2 European Cup titles, 31 Portuguese League trophies and 27 Portuguese Cups, but the Eagles have been unable to match Porto for quite a while. The fans were optimistic before the start of last season as the team had been significantly reinforced, but coach Quique Sanchez Flores couldn’t get the best out of his team and they finished the league campaign in third place, 11 points behind champions Porto.

After careful consideration, the club management decided to sack Flores and brought talented Braga boss Jorge Jesus to replace him. His first task will be winning the first league title since 2005 but Benfica stand a pretty good chance this season. Their main rivals, Porto will be severely weakened since Lucho Gonzalez has already left, while Lisandro Lopez and Bruno Alves are also on the verge of leaving.

On the other hand, Benfica stayed without Suazo, Reyes and Katsouranis, but they will still have a formidable squad. Full-backs Jose Shaffer and Patric are added to the back line, whereas Ramires, who exploded at the Confederations Cup, and Javier Saviola will add a lot of quality to attack. River Plate striker Radamel Falcao Garcia is also on the verge of joining La Luz outfit, and these are all players who will definitely improve the quality of the team. With Aimar, Luisao, Cardozo, Di Maria and others already in the team, Benfica squad look really impressive. They have a great chance to finally win the title next season but knowing Benfica, they are bound to have some unexpected problems on the way. Nevertheless, I believe they have enough quality to lift the Liga Sagres title and maybe it’s time for Porto’s domination to end.

The market reacted right away and the price on this blonde striker grew up so his club Groningen won’t sell him for less than 10 million Euros.

Berg has already made his debut for the A squad; actually, he has been a part of the senior national squad for the last year or so, but he was loaned to U21 squad for this championship.

He is 22 years old, born in Torsby, a place best known as Sven Goran Erikson’s home town and he drew attention to himself playing for Goteborg, from where he moved on to Netherlands.

Few Italian clubs were interested in him before he moved to Groningen; there were even some speculations about Lazio, the team, as he himself admits, Berg is a huge fan of. However the overall estimate was that a lower but more offensive league would suit his style best. And what better place to go to than Netherlands? Many worldwide famous scorers like Romario, Ronaldinho established their name precisely in this country.

Berg is 184 cm high, very strong and the experts say that he has an astounding technique for a player of such physique. He is excellent in the air and has a natural sense for scoring; Berg scored 37 goals in 56 games in Netherlands. However, the most impressive thing is the number of his assistances.

He has grown past Groningen but his contract expires in 2011. Recently, the club asked him to prolong the contract till 2014 in order to get a higher price on him, but the player didn’t agree. German clubs like HSV and Stuttgart were interested in him and now they have fierce competition in Premiership clubs, first of all Manchester United.

Berg wishes to perform as regular starter and he stated recently that he wants to stay in Netherlands but in a bigger club. Of course, there were speculations about Ajax but the famous club denied any interest. The rumor has it that AZ Alkmar will try to spend their money on Berg if Dembele leaves the club.

We will see is there any truth in it, though Groningen management say that they won’t stand in Berg’s way of playing in a bigger club.

Olympique Marseille

During the ‘90s Olympique Marseille were one of the best teams in Europe but their decline started with the relegation to the second division following match fixing scandal involving the then club president Bernard Tapie. The famous French club have been struggling ever since but they have reminded their fans of the glory days during the last few years. Two second places and one third place in the last three seasons of Ligue 1 are the sign that the club are moving in the right direction and Marseille are aiming the first league title after 1992.

The team will undergo some changes during the transfer window but as it now seems, new boss Didier Deschamps will have a tremendous team at his disposal. None of the key players left the club, although Cana is near the exit door, while on the other hand, OM signed three excellent players and I am sure more will follow. They managed to steal Souleymane Diawara from title rivals Bordeaux and the Senegalese will definitely add a lot of steal to the back line. Eduard Cisse returned to French football from Besiktas and he is a solid rotation player but Lucho Gonzalez is definitely the star of this transfer window. The Argentine playmaker is capable of producing magic on the football pitch and numerous Marseille strikers will definitely profit from his creativity. Rennes’ Stephane M’Bia has expressed desire to join the Velodrome outfit and he would certainly be a great signing.

You shouldn’t forget that Mandanda, Taiwo, Cheyrou, Ben Arfa, Kone, Niang and several more excellent players are already in the squad, and I therefore see Marseille as hot favourites for Ligue 1 title next season. Everybody at the club are extremely motivated to do well this season and with a tremendous support from the fans, the team are destined for success next season.

Emanuel Adebayor expressed his desire to leave London after yet another disappointing season for Gunners and Milan were expected to react immediately. However, the Rosonerri failed to make any bids although Galliani did contact Wenger regarding the transfer once it was clear that Dzeko would not be leaving Wolfsburg. Milan definitely have enough money to fund the transfer having sold Kaka to Real, and if this deal goes through, Arsene Wenger would have no problems finding a replacement.

The French manager has admitted that he would move for Marouane Chamakh, who is set to leave Bordeaux, but only if Adebayor leaves the club.

“If he does not want to stay, he will leave, but I think he will be still at Arsenal this season,”

“Yes, but only in case of a departure,” Wenger said regarding his interest in Chamakh.

The Moroccan striker has been in excellent form last season, scoring 14 goals in 42 appearances and he helped Les Girondins win the Ligue 1 title. The 25-year-old striker has already amassed 50 appearances for the national team, in which he scored 15 goals.

The player has already made up his mind and he will leave Bordeaux this summer, thus he should be available at the knock-down price. If Adebayor moves to Milan, Wenger will have enough money to buy Chamakh, while he would also have some cash to spare and maybe bring a couple of more players.

Barcelona have just had the most successful season in club’s history and considering that the team that won the historic treble are probably the best there is, the Catalans were expected to just keep the players together and continue their quest for trophies. Nevertheless, when Real signed a couple of world class players, Joan Laporta was aware that his team also required strengthening.

The club are thought to have already agreed a deal with David Villa, who is set to sign a five-year deal worth €7.5 million per season, whereas they will offer Valencia around €45 million for the player. Valencia are forced to sell some of their stars since their debt is now over €500 million, and knowing that, Barca decided to try and sign Juan Mata as well.

Mata has a long-term contract with Valencia but Barcelona are ready to offer him a significant pay rise if he is to join the club. Mata’s father is a FIFA agent and he has been in contact with Barca regarding the transfer of Keirrison. This allowed the Catalans to find out all the necessary information regarding the younger Mata and it seems they are ready to make a move for the promising forward.

Villa and Mata could be the perfect replacements for Eto’o and Henry, since the pair will not be able to play at the highest level for much longer. Together with Messi, Valencia pair would create a fantastic attacking trident, similar to that Ronaldo, Kaka and Benzema will form at Real. With the latest signings Spanish Primera threatens to steal the spotlight from English Premier League, but whatever happens we can expect a fierce title battle between Barcelona and Real.

Since Florentino Perez deprived Manchester United and Milan of Ronaldo and Kaka, the aforementioned teams are in search for a striker. The big problem is that other clubs are inflating the asking prices, knowing that Milan and United have a lot of money to spend. Real snatched Benzema in front of Manchester’s noses, Milan flirted with Adebayor, but it seems that both have turned to Luis Fabiano. ‘O Fabuloso’ is currently first choice striker in Dunga’s Brazil, and the Confederations Cup showed why this was the case.

Galliani has already visited Andalucia in an attempt to close the deal but Sevilla’s demands saw him return empty-handed. United are thought to be ready to act and they will offer around €20 million, but that is unlikely to be enough.

On the other hand, United could strike a deal for a forward very soon, since Michael Owen is on the verge of joining the club. Once the best English striker is now out of contract and he could move to Old Trafford provided he passes the medical.

Liverpool fans see this transfer as a laughing stock and one of them even states that Mickey will finally help the club in which he started his career to win the long awaited title.

Jean-Michelle Aulas, the creator of big Lyon, can certainly be pleased with what his team have achieved during the last decade, although he probably regrets the fact that they never really had a lot of success in Europe. Olympique were always so close to the finals stages of the Champions League, but they never really made that final step. Their domestic domination ended last season, when they finished behind both Bordeaux and Marseille and it was evident that changes were imminent.

It was expected that the team would be reinforced and try to retain the title next season, but that was not to be. First, long serving Brazilian playmaker Juninho decided to leave the club, before Lyon accepted Real’s offer for Karim Benzema and thus Les Gones stayed without two key players from last season. Nobody could stand in Juninho’s way when he decided to look for a new challenge, but Benzema could have been stopped from leaving. However, it seems that Aulas has come to terms with the player’s desire to join Real even though he could have blocked the deal in more ways than one.

This decision to sell Benzema can be the testament of club’s ambition as it seems that Lyon are prepared to sacrifice a year or two in order to build a new team capable of repeating the success of Juninho’s generation. Kader Keita has also left the club, although he was not really indispensable player. On the other hand, Lyon are yet to sign any new players and even though I expect them to reinforce the squad this summer, a couple of years are likely to pass before they’ll be able to challenge for honours. The optimistic view on this would be to see it as a start of an era rather than an end of one, but we are yet to see if Aulas will be able to build a team like the one that dominated France for seven years.

Andrea Pirlo is on his way to Stamford Bridge. Roman Abramovic has sent his transfer emissary Vlado Lemic to speak with Galliani and it seems that Milan officials will agree to let the midfielder go. The deal is thought to be worth between €20 and €25 million, which is a very good price considering the player’s age. During the same meeting, Milan officials once again rejected the offer for Brazilian Pato.

Pirlo has already stated on several occasions that he needed a fresh challenge and that he would like to rejoin Carlo Ancelotti. If he signs for the Blues, Pirlo would be assigned the same role he had at Milan, the playmaker role.

The money raised from the sales of Kaka and Pirlo, Milan will continue to invest in younger players, and first target is Arsenal’s Cecs Fabregas, who would be younger version of Pirlo.

Goran Pandev and Claudio Lotito are definitely not at the same wavelength. Lazio president ‘exploded’ under the pressure from the fans, since he is aware he doesn’t have the means to keep one of team’s best players.

Lotito is furious and he started to threaten the player, while the Macedonian striker remains calm and states that the transfer will not go through without his consent.

“In the end the club can also decide to lose the player and not allow him to play,” stated the Biancocelesti’s president.

“If he wants to play tough, then Lazio will be even tougher. They think that they can threaten us with the excuse of the contract expiry, but I will nail him down to the bench for a year!”

Goran Pandev is currently resting in his hometown Strumica and he is awaiting the future developments regarding the transfer. The thing which made Biancocelesti president react this way is that Pandev already rejected Zenit and Shakhtar, who were willing to pay Lazio €19 million. The player is keen on Juventus move, but Lotito is not satisfied with €8 million plus two players that Old Lady is ready to offer.