Pellegrini ‘absolutely sure’ City will win

A top-four place should be assured, and you have to imagine that is Pellegrini’s sole goal, but an ageing side simply hasn’t had the necessary injection of fresh blood to look like it can compete with Chelsea, Arsenal or even Manchester United for the title. We are making history and it is good to be part of that history. They may not have changed too much over the summer, but they didn’t need to.

He got his wish, leaving Liverpool for Manchester City, so now he must deliver.

Skipping ahead to joint 9 we have a barrage of clubs averaging 157 decibels: Swansea City, Manchester City, Burnley, and Hull City.

They have spent vast amounts of money in that time, with only mixed success, and during the close season Louis Van Gaal has continued to revamp his squad. To his credit score, the previous Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich supervisor received the workforce to play its greatest when it mattered most to safe a spot in a playoff for the Champions League.

Despite falling short in defence of their title, City have kept faith with manager Manuel Pellegrini, but with the club hierarchy continuing to flutter their eyelashes at Pep Guardiola and last season’s Golden Boot-winner Sergio Aguero short of fitness after the Copa America, doubts remain.

City have followed their £28m signing of Wilfried Bony in January with a £65m summer outlay on English trio Raheem Sterling, Fabian Delph and Patrick Roberts.

“It’s not the best debut but things can only get better from there”, he said.

But it is by recruiting players with the keys to remove the buses that regularly get parked in front of his team that Pellegrini has shown his hand.

It is thought that Everton manager Roberto Martinez intends to ease him into senior football at left-back, but should John Stones depart, Galloway may be given an opportunity to stake a claim for a first-team place at centre-back.

It has become widely accepted that United’s squad, despite containing some of the world’s best players simply switched off. If the manager wasn’t going to be there next season, then what was the point?

With the 2015-16 season looming, clubs can look forward to more of the same.

Marcos Lopes is now the only teenager on Manchester City’s books.

With the upcoming season about to kick off, the interest really intensifies, so have your say who will go down?

From Ryan Giggs to Harry Kane via Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Premier League has proved a breeding ground for some of European football’s biggest stars.

I won’t go into our woeful transfer dealings recently, I’ll merely mention the names Carroll, Downing, Borini, Balotelli and Lovren to illustrate my point.

The misfiring Spaniard managed 33 shots on goal without finding the net in the Premier League last term, and has been linked with a move away from the Etihad this summer.

What’s more, Martin Keown, member of the 1998, 2002 and 2004 title-winning squads, has seen a belief around this year’s crop that they can end their long title drought.

“Hopefully we can get over the Red Devils early – but our game will be on at the same time, so I won’t able to see it unfortunately”, he said.

Despite scoring the most number of goals in the country, City were always at an arm’s length from Chelsea. “Hopefully we can do well in it and I can keep pushing on”. While the likes of Stoke and Derby battle for a Premier League future, others like Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City have such belief in their position that they too have enjoyed something of a player spending spree over the last couple of months.

Liverpool have signed some good players and I hope my old club can reach the top four but it will probably need one of the other big clubs to under-perform significantly for it to happen.