Now I’m not a great believer in omens, but for those of you that are, here is something to make you just a little bit excited:
The Charity Shield was contested by Man Utd the league champions, and Chelsea the FA Cup holders. Game finishes 1-1 and United win on penalties.
Spurs were being talked up as possible Champions League candidates under manager Glenda Hoddle.
Sunderland were back in the premiership under a former midfield international and Newcastle were again being spoken of as possible UEFA Club spot challengers under a manager many rated and who had achieved some semblence of success with a smaller club elsewhere.
Man United spent nearly £50 million on players, Liverpool also spend loads in the hope of adding Premiership glory to previous cup wins; as do Chelsea. Arsenal, in contrast, spend very little in the transfer market and are written off by all and sundry before the season starts.
There are even more parallels that I’m sure some of you can remember and come up with (we signed a fox in the box, natural goal-scorer for £8m, for instance, but we obviously hope that is not replicated
) Have you guessed the season yet? Yes, it was 2001/2!! And we all know what eventually happened come the merry month of May!!
Now obviously, things are not exactly as they were then – Leeds were also title challengers remember? – and I’m in no way suggesting something similar might happen this year, as I’m one of life’s pessimists.
But the truth is there are enough people out there who like to look at and believe nonsense like this and make their predictions for the season based on it.
Mind you, lets all keep our fingers crossed and hope that this mumbo jumbo proves to be correct for a change!!
