Last season: 14th, 42 points; FA Cup sixth round; Carling Cup second round
Transfers:
In: Sven-Goran Eriksson; Roland Bianchi (Reggina, £8.8m); Geovanni (Cruzeiro, free); Martin Petrov (Atletico Madrid, £4.7m); Gelson Fernandes (Sion, £4.2m); Elano (Shakhtar Donetsk, £8m); Javier Garrido (Real Sociedad, £1.5m); Vedran Corluka (Dinamo Zagreb, undisc.); Valeri Bojinov (Fiorentina, €8.5m)
Out: Stuart Pearce; Joey Barton (Newcastle, £5.8m); Sylvain Distin (Portsmouth, free); Stephen Jordan (Burnley, free); Nicky Weaver (Charlton, free); Trevor Sinclair, Hatem Trabelsi (both released)
Official Website: http://www.mcfc.co.uk/
Official Kit:
Manchester City managed a rather extraordinary record last season – They failed to score a goal at home after New Year’s day till the end of the season and still managed to stay up and avoid relegation! The record was of scoring the fewest goals at home – 10 all season!
Well now they have a highly controversial wealthy owner in former Thai Prime-Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and a high-profile manager in Sven-Goran Eriksson. Eriksson has spent millions and brought in players none of us have ever heard of! He’s brought in Stars from smaller teams.
Man City supporters need to have a printed copy of the team roster in their hands to be rooting for a specific player! New players include – Brazilians Blumer and Geovanni, Bulgarians Bojinov and Petrov, Spanish Garrido, Swiss Fernandes and Italian Bianchi.
Two players they are sorely going to miss are Barton and Distin. Joey Barton sans his wild behaviour is one of the most promising talents in the Premiership.
Another thing which might be a real problem at the City of Manchester Stadium – and that is language and communication, caused primarily due to the cultural amalgamation which is being seen there.
City should interest quite a few neutral footballing enthusiasts this year – and managing to gel such a team together would be managerial lessons for a lot of international club level managers.
Schedule via English Soccer Talk:
"The schedule doesn't look to be too difficult for Manchester City. They've got only one real long, tough stretch of games, but unfortunately it comes towards the end of the season when it could be make-or-break time for the Blues.
February 2-April 8 brings 9 league games, including trips to Manchester United, Bolton, Reading, and Birmingham (who by that time may be desperate) and home games against Arsenal, Everton, Wigan, Tottenham, and Chelsea. Manchester City shouldn't be anywhere near the relegation zone, but they don't want to leave anything to chance. That run of games will be very difficult, particularly for a team that doesn't score many goals and will probably give up their fair share of goals this season with a young defense.
City is away to Liverpool and Middlesbrough to finish the year, but they should be in decent shape by then."
EPL08.com prediction:
League Position – 9
A top 10 finish might be on the cards. Sven-Goran Erikkson has pretty much bought a truck load of players and that too not for cheap. I bet he's not even see half of them play! Language is going to be a serious problem at City this season, but I still have a feeling that Erikkson might be able to prove his managerial acumen and pull off a top 10 finish.
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