Even when Arsenal and Chelsea claimed the title, the suspicion always remained that it was merely on loan and that Alex Ferguson’s crown was merely tilted on edge, not totally removed. Even when Manchester United went three seasons without a title between 2003 and 2006, his aura loomed large – there was a sense of disbelief that his era of rule could be over, that his time on the throne could possibly end before he decided it was going to end.

There were moments when it seemed the Scot would be thrust from his chair, but each claimant was hugely flawed.

Though Jose Mourinho won back to back titles in dominant style, there remains a suspicion that Chelsea’s flatness in Mourinho’s third season and the start of his fourth was a result of mental exhaustion after the intensity of his two title winning seasons, and that his demanded standards aren’t sustainable over the longer term.

Similarly, Arsene Wenger reinvigorated the league with his ideas, particularly in 03-04 when Arsenal dominated with a style of play that was swashbuckling and tough. But the collapse the following season, brought about by their own frailties more than outside pressure, was so complete that it deeply undermined his reputation.  Sadly, the man who at one point brought an intellectual edge to the country has since become a bit of a figure of fun.
Right until the end, Ferguson remained the man who defined and dominated football in England.

But now, his rule has come to a close. And if Game of Thrones has taught us anything (besides the fact that incest is sexy), it’s that the fall of a strong king will lead to a complicated battle to replace him. Predictability is the death of entertainment. Part of what’s promising about next season is that so many are either under a new boss, or in the follow-up to a difficult but intriguing first season. Next year will be a season of change, to an extent that’s unprecedented in England in recent decades.

A man with a tough role to fill. Courtesy of BohemianFC

Despite Manchester United winning two titles from three, all is not rosy at Old Trafford.

If you were to list central midfielders capable of dominating against any opponent in the world, since Roy Keane was released in 2005, it’d be a very short list. Paul Scholes, depending on when you consider him to have passed his peak, and possibly Michael Carrick. That’s it – an incredible run for such a key area in such a consistently successful side. Although it was more of a one-off, the wingers were also relatively weak last season, with Valencia being notably poor and Ashley Young still hasn’t really settled at Old Trafford. Defence and attack have remained strong areas, but Evra, Ferdinand and Vidic are getting older, and Wayne Rooney continues to be disruptive. There remains a suspicion that in recent years, Ferguson’s drive and stubbornness have powered Manchester United, pushing his side to pick up points they never should have collected.

Will Moyes be able to make the changes required without ripping out the iron-willed sense of self-belief?

Will he be able to cope with the pressure of managing at a club where a trophy is a necessity, not a bonus?

Despite an impressive record at Everton, will he be able to command the respect of players who’ve won much more than he has?

And how will he cope with the pressure Mourinho is sure to exert through the media?

While I’m intrigued to see how the calm Moyes reacts to pressure from Stamford Bridge, I’m not looking forward to seeing that behaviour. We can probably expect more behaviour in the pattern of making up lies about Reading paramedics and poking opposing coaches in the eye, or more examples of his melodramatic, so-called wit. He claims not to have heard of Roma manager Zdenek Zeman or Catania Director of Football Pietro Lo Monaco! Lo Monaco sounds like Monaco! Arsene Wenger is a pervert! Given the understated nature of his press conference, Mourinho may actually decide to act like a decent human being this time around, though I wouldn’t bet on it.

What I am interested in is seeing how a team built around Mata and Hazard performs, and whether Romeleu Lukaku can be transformed into the world-class centre forward he has the potential to be. While his teams have always had an underlying physicality, Mourinho can be relied on to build an incredible desire to win, with their physicality and skill intertwined. Despite my dislike of their manager, I’ve actually found myself hoping that the ludicrously counter-productive rumours that Mata will be sold and Wesley Sneijder signed are untrue. With so much talent united, Chelsea should be great to watch if they put together a squad that matches the number of games they’re required to play.

Mata attacks Jerome Boateng in the 2012 Champions League Final. Courtesy of rayand

Manuel Pellegrini is charged with reinvigorating Manchester City, and the signings of Jesus Navas and Fernandinho look an impressive start.

During Pellegrini’s sole season in charge of Real Madrid, his side picked up 95 points, at the time a club record, and he seemed unruffled by the media speculation that he’d be replaced with Mourinho. At both Villareal and Malaga, he led mid-sized clubs into the Champions League quarter finals for the first time – while Malaga spent big at first, key players were sold from under him as Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani withdrew most of his backing, but Pellegrini kept his cool the whole time and kept his squad performing as they were slowly picked apart. His record in itself is impressive, but it was all achieved while playing an attractive style. It should be fun to see if Pellegrini can translate his record to England. Though he’s a bit of an outside bet, I can imagine Pellegrini, with his calm approach and oil billions at his disposal, being the man to come out on top.

After a long time when Arsenal have hovered around fourth and sold their stand out player, this summer looks set to break the pattern. The rumoured loss of Podolski looks to be the closest this summer, but he’s more of a squad player rather than a vital player, and some fans seem to believe they could do more with his wages. There’s the possibility that Cazorla and Podolski could step up their game in their second season at Arsenal, Jack Wilshere should play more often, and Aaron Ramsey looked to be finally getting back to his best at the end of the season. There are also the rumoured arrivals of Fabregas and Fellaini. Admittedly, I’m more jaded about Arsenal’s possibilities than any of the other clubs, and I don’t believe that they will do anything special next year. The possibility remains though, as always, that next year will be the year when everything comes together.

Is Cesc coming back? Courtesy of Ronnie MacDonald.

TalkSport presenter Adrian Durham, in an impressive combination of stupidity, stubbornness and jingoism, has been sticking to his argument that Vilas-Boas has failed compared to Harry Redknapp. While I’d agree that Redknapp did a good job at White Hart Lane, his success was largely a result of clearing his players’ heads of doubts, filling them with self-confidence and sending them out to play in a more or less freeform way. Vilas-Boas has worked out a more sophisticated way of attacking, with Gareth Bale being moved around the forward line to the point designed to hurt the opposition most, whereas he was more or less left to run wherever he felt like under Redknapp. It’s a style of football Scott Parker’s looked out of place in, and the absence of Sandro through injury had a major impact on the team. The loss of Luka Modric, too late in pre-season to replace him with a player of equivalent ability, also hit Spurs hard. The abysmal form of Emmanuel Adebayor, one of only two senior strikers and their only real option as a focal point, was also a major problem. The fact that Spurs did so well with so many weaknesses is pretty impressive, and bodes well for what they can do if those weaknesses are fixed. The addition of a deeper playmaker, defensive midfielder and a decent forward or two, should give a massive lift to Spurs given the ludicrous weaknesses in those areas, probably pushing them back into the competition for Champions’ League places.

Brendan Rodgers is an easy man to mock. He has a painting of himself on his wall at home, and his management includes trying to scare his players with the threat of having their names written inside an envelope. But despite his David Brent/Nev from the Call Centre style, he’s a talented coach with an entertaining and free-flowing style of play. Last season, Liverpool were massively inconsistent. They tore apart Newcastle, Fulham, Wigan, Swansea, and Norwich twice, but lost to Aston Villa, Stoke, Southampton, and West Brom twice. A forward line that includes Dan Sturridge, Philippe Coutinho and possibly Luis Suarez will be more suited to Rodgers’ fluid style of play than the squad he inherited and many players, most notably Jordan Henderson, will feel more comfortable with the demanded style than last year. And a deeper squad should allow Liverpool to utilise Raheem Sterling without burning him out.

Raheem Sterling can do better than last season, and should be hungry to feed his families. Courtesy of md.faisalzaman

Roberto Martinez has earned plaudits for years for playing an attractive style of football with one of the league’s lesser teams, showing that it isn’t necessary to squeeze out every ounce of joy from the game to avoid a financially crippling relegation. He’ll probably want to switch Everton’s approach to a slightly more open style, and has spoken about aiming for the Champions League. But can he successfully do so without disrupting what made the side work for years? In many ways, Martinez faces a tougher task than Moyes does at Man Utd, as he’s also replacing a man who set the standards high, but he’ll probably want to change the style. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the Merseyside derby should be an attractive match next season.

Given that so many things are in flux at the top end of the table, it’s not impossible for a surprise team to break up the status quo.

As I’ve written previously, I find di Canio a fascinating figure. Not in the sense that he gives melodramatic quotes, but I’m genuinely fascinated by the way he goes about managing his sides. When Titus Bramble announced he’d been fined for not showing up for training, most took the manager’s side. But last summer, di Canio decided to freeze out his title winning captain Paul Caddis, named in the League Two team of the year, because he felt he’d lost his intensity in pre-season. This happened shortly after Caddis became a father, and he wasn’t even given a chance to prove di Canio wrong.

With actions like that and the unusual step of substituting a goalkeeper for performance reasons, di Canio the manager seems to be the physical embodiment of the concept of intensity. With Mourinho, di Canio and Holloway in the Premier League, the amount of time Sky Sports and the like refer to ‘great characters’ will be unbearable. But the management and football philosophies of each are interesting and it should be intriguing to see di Canio tested at a higher level.

di Canio, pictured waving, not saluting. Courtesy of Hilton Teper

With a series of January signings settled, will Newcastle return to their impressive form of 11-12, perhaps taking advantage of one of the top clubs under-performing, or will Pardew’s seven-year contract come under threat? Aston Villa looked more cohesive and threatening in the latter stages of the season, with Matt Lowton and Ashley Westwood particularly impressive. If they can build in the next season, they could be the best team with a core of English youngsters since David O’Leary’s Leeds.

There is an unusual sense of uncertainty ahead of next season. This time last year, despite City’s late surge for the title, I strongly suspected that Manchester United would hit back harder and seal the title easily, and I wasn’t the only one. Next season looks harder to predict.

In other countries, the dominant managerial figure changes on a regular basis. In Spain, Guardiola was for three years the figure who loomed large over every other club. Mourinho’s title-winning season was so impressive, breaking Guardiola’s La Liga points record and Pellegrini’s points record at Real, exhausting Guardiola in the process, that he caused doubt about the viability of the Catalan philosophy. Real’s deeply disappointing performance this season and Barcelona breaking the La Liga points record despite the disruption of having the manager away for long stretches has thrust Tito Vilanova (or at least an abstract representation of the Barca ideal) to the position of dominant figure.

The King of the Premier League is gone. Who will be next to claim the throne?

The Sun

A quick reminder from last week’s edition for those who missed it. Cristiano Ronaldo signs for Manchester United on 8th August, so feel free to juggle your diary accordingly. Credit to the paper for calling Dejan Lovren to Southampton correctly last week, although this time around they resort to a wonderful lesson in stating the bleeding obvious. Carlos Tevez being linked to AC Milan and Juventus, and Luis Suarez with Real Madrid or Barcelona are hardly the ground-breaking scoops we have come to expect. The news that a homesick Alex Buttner was tempted to leave Old Trafford concerns no-one in particular. Neither does the news that Torres wishes to stay at Chelsea. Some additional tittle tattle involves Allan McGregor signing for Hull, Yohan Cabaye staying at Newcastle and Villa and Fulham needing a ‘ridiculous amount of money’ for Dwight Gayle…or so says Barry Fry. And it’s not like relegated Peterborough will be hard up for cash will they Baz? Oh no siree…

Dejan Lovren tackles Celtic’s James Forrest in a pre-season friendly for old club Lyon in July 2010. Courtesy of Ronnie Macdonald

The People

For once, a non transfer story stands out this week. The news that Manchester City’s hi-tech scouting database has been hacked causes great consternation at the paper. Indeed, they have chosen to illustrate the sordid affair, complete with a man in a balaclava sat in front of a monitor covered by the City badge. This apparent security breach is apparently the reason why the transfers of Jesus Navas and Fernandinho were rushed through before the dastardly hackers got wind of City’s interest and hijacked the moves themselves – no doubt whilst wearing aforementioned balaclavas. The common sense counter argument that City want to complete their business early this time around after last year’s fiasco is conveniently ignored. True reporting quality by the heavy hitters of tabloid journalism. Even the hyperbole of the famed ‘Hotline’ pales into significance to this genius and as such does not deserved to be mentioned in the same breath as the ‘ballied up’ cyber terrorists…

The Sunday Mirror

Regular readers (Hi Mum!) will know of my disappointment of the Mirror’s offering thus far. This week, although they take some finding, there is a definite improvement in the offering provided. Scott Parker is a target for Sunderland, who in turn are ready to sell Simon Mignolet to Liverpool. Where that leaves Jose Reina, no-one deems fit to mention. Tottenham appear to be busy, keeping tabs on Aubameyang, David Villa, Paulinho and Bernard, whilst gently nudging Jermain Defoe in the direction of Fulham. It will surprise no-one that Man City intend to be active this summer, with the likes of Stephan El Shaarawy, Jovetic, Cavani and Isco all mentioned as possible signings to replace the outgoing Tevez, Barry and Lescott. A significant improvement this week from The Mirror. The next aim must be to not hide the stories pages deep in between minority sports such as egg chasing and golf.

Stephan El Shaarawy sleepwalks away from Robinho on his way to Manchester…maybe. Courtesy of goatling

The Daily Star on Sunday

Strangely, The Star appear to believe that either no-one remembers what they printed last week, or no-one actually cares, as they manage to replicate their two lead transfer stories. The back page splash that Arsene Wenger wants to sign Marouane Fellaini was actually featured in last week’s edition. As was the other back page story linking Marco van Ginkel to Chelsea, although Man United are conveniently shoehorned into this week’s version to give it a twist. The news that Dr.Emmett Brown is now seemingly writing for the paper is not celebrated anywhere near as much as it should be in my humble opinion. Further throwing of the transfer mud sees Nani, Melgarejo, Ahmedov and Gilbert Imbula off to Arsenal, Ibrahim Afellay to Spurs, Victor Moses to Everton and Nicklas Bendtner to half of Europe. Many of which we should expect to see repeated next week as well, unless the Libyans get to “Dr.Brown” first.

A relatively quiet week this week noteworthy mainly for the return to some type of form for The Mirror and a slight decline of the other three. Let us not forget though that computer hackers wear balaclavas when going about their business. Elite tabloid journalism – The People style!!

The Sun

A mediocre week last week, but The Sun have stepped up to the plate in response to their trouncing by The People and The Star. Leading the way, they give a date for Cristiano Ronaldo to be unveiled at Old Trafford – 8th August – which I’ve already taken the precaution of booking off from work to frantically F5 manutd.com all day.

Editor’s note – F5 a website? Seems a bit like overkill to me… Courtesy of the U.S. federal government.

Nani is linked with a move to Monaco or Galatasaray, although this story is neither new or particularly interesting. Dejan Lovren is linked with Southampton, Milan and Liverpool and the barrel is scraped slightly with reports of moves for Dexter Blackstock, Kyle Lafferty and Kevin Davies. Interestingly, an apology appears to none other than John Terry for suggesting he recently asked for a three year contract when he clearly hasn’t. The Sun and untruths, who’d have thought it?

The People

Under normal circumstances, a story of Angel Di Maria moving to Man City would be treated with a mixture of disdain, contempt and pity. However, after the Navas story I half think that Nixon, Bates and co have got a direct line to Sheik Mansour, so I will let this story go without passing judgement. On Chelsea’s radar are Eliaquim Mangala and Marco van Ginkel, who is also fortunate to see himself linked to Norwich as well. Jermain Defoe is unhappy with Andre Villas-Boas using the old Football Manager trick of offering him out to clubs left, right, centre and Fulham. As was the case last week, ‘Hotline’ does not let us down. We begin with news that Victor Moses will lead a posse of ex-Wiganers to Goodison Park, along with the likes of McManaman, McArthur, McCarthy, Ramis, Kone and Dave Whelan’s dog. Stephane Sessegnon to Marseille, Ola Toivonen to Fulham, Arouna Kone to West Ham, Thomas Vermaelen to Napoli or Barcelona and Gareth McCleary to Palace all feature in a typically breathless piece. More of the same from The People.

The Sunday Mirror

While last week’s edition was so poor it appeared to have been put together by the work experience kid, this week’s attempt appears to be edited by someone who has misread their instructions. Instead of telling us who may be going where, which let’s face it, is all we buy the bloody paper for, we are instead given a list of players who will all be staying at their current clubs. It will warm the hearts of many that Edin Dzeko and Carlos Tevez are looking to stay at Man City, presumably due to their love of the club rather than failing to find someone else who will match their wages. Equally exciting is the news that Christian Benetke is discussing a new contract and Marouane Fellaini is expected to stay at Everton by Roberto Martinez. Belatedly, we are told that Chelsea like the look of Rooney, Cavani, Jovetic and Hulk, while not being so keen on Torres and Demba Ba. Whilst Bernard is the subject of a tug of war between Dortmund and Spurs. Lets face it, a real life tug of war between Jurgen Klopp and AVB with the winner getting Bernard would be far, far more entertaining than The Mirror could ever dream of being. Must do better – again.

NOT pictured: Jurgen Klopp and AVB. Courtesy of RonAlmog

The Daily Star on Sunday

Running the Mangala and van Ginkel to Chelsea story shows that an agent somewhere has been busy and doing his job well. The Star follow this in their usual pragmatic style by claiming that Peterborough are asking £10m for Dwight Gayle. Who says there is no value in the English market? Tears will be shed in North London with both Łukasz Fabiański and Gervinho linked overseas, with the proceeds and then some being spent on Stevan Jovetić and Yohan Gourcuff.

It wouldn’t be a transfer window without a Patrice Evra rumour, and this time it is a return to Monaco that the paper ‘understands’ will take place. Failing that, Gael Clichy could be off to the principality as the Monaco Football Manager 2014 project continues at pace. The titling of Tiago Ilori to Liverpool as an exclusive seems slightly bizarre, considering the story has been in pretty much every national publication over the last fortnight. Expect an Isco to Man City ‘Exclusive’ next week. Steve McClaren is apparently the new manager Dave Whelan wants to install at Wigan, while far from being content at Everton, The Star foresee Fellaini going to either Chelsea, Arsenal, Man United or Napoli.

Another busy week for The Star, although I’d say The People just edges it out for overall gossip. However, with The Sun starting to drop its transfer ‘truth bombs’, they make it the one to watch over the forthcoming weeks. As for The Mirror? It can’t get any worse, surely…

Filmed in the 1994-95 season following the fortunes of Leyton Orient under the joint management of Sitton and Chris Turner, the documentary soon gained cult status. (Writer’s note – I actually uploaded it to YouTube and all parts combined currently have over 100,000 views). The unwitting ‘star’ of the show was Sitton, who became notorious for expressions such as “Bring yer fucking dinner” amongst many others. The culmination of the documentary showed the dismissal of Sitton and Turner and the appointment of their replacement, Pat Holland. Sitton has not managed in the professional game since then.

The media swiftly took Sitton to task, portraying him as an individual incapable of controlling a seemingly volcanic temper. Even now, nearly 20 years after the event, he is still mentioned in columns and articles regarding ‘volatile’ characters in football. But was Sitton’s behaviour really any different from others in the game? Sir Alex Ferguson confessed in his own autobiography to having physical dressing room clashes with Peter Schmeichel and Paul Ince. And yet ‘the hairdryer’ is spoken of almost affectionately, but how different is this to the way that Sitton behaved? Brian Laws broke Ivano Bonetti’s jaw when he was managing Grimsby, but has gone on to have a long career in football management. Stan Ternent wrote an autobiography boasting about his clashes with various players and went on to have a long career within the game. The list could go on and on. Not to forget that Sitton was never physically threatening to his players either, despite the verbal tirades.

The hairdryer is turned off here. Courtesy of Ottobdn

The difference in these cases and where Sitton has suffered has been the fact that his actions were televised. Whereas the behaviour of Laws was far worse, the fact that we, the footballing public, did not actually see it, has watered down its impact upon us. Sitton’s outbursts are there for all to see and act as a constant reminder of how he behaved and it became an easy stick for the media to beat him with. This is grossly unfortunate for Sitton and clouds the picture of someone who is an astute thinker on the game. Sitton gives several interviews on YouTube to the wordofsporttv channel and is a coherent and thoughtful commentator on the modern game. These obviously are never mentioned by a national media that has stereotyped the man in a particular way and are loathe to allow anything to challenge the stereotype that they perpetuate.

Although not managing since his time at Orient, Sitton remained in the game as a coach and as an analyst. He attained his UEFA ‘B’ level coaching qualification and was respected as being both intelligent and innovative in his methods. Chris Turner meanwhile has managed consistently at Hartlepool, Sheffield Wednesday and Stockport, further emphasising how negatively the stereotype of the documentary affected Sitton and his career. Lets pause for a second. Two men who are joint managers and equally responsible for the success or failure of the venture they were involved in. Whatever the arguments against joint managers and there are many, you would expect both men to have an equal opportunity to continue to forge a career in the game. I have no doubts that were it not for the negative and derogatory media coverage of this documentary; Sitton would have gone on to have had the same if not more opportunities than Turner.

Currently working as a taxi driver in London, Sitton is writing a book out later this year about his whole career (he had a 15 year playing career with Chelsea, Millwall, Gillingham and Orient as well), which promises to be a ‘warts and all’ look on his time in the game. Judging by some of his frankly hilarious destructions of football personnel on Twitter (the ones of Alan Pardew, David Moyes and journalist Neil Ashton spring immediately to mind), it should prove to be a very interesting read.

What I find disappointing, although unsurprising, is how easy it is for the media to label people and for stereotypes to be created. Had a chairman been brave enough to have see through the way that Sitton had been portrayed, he could have hired a manager who could have had a real impact upon a club. Innovative, creative, but with a take no prisoners’ attitude, John Sitton deserved another chance but was all too easily cast aside.

As it is, Sitton remains an outsider looking in, although as his regular comments on Twitter prove (@therealSitts for those interested in seeing), the passion undoubtedly remains. Too often in this and other countries, we allow the mainstream media to generalise and stereotype and the public at large eat it all up. In this case, football as a whole bought into the stereotype and football as a whole was the loser.

EDITOR’S NOTE 9/6/2013 – John has confirmed his qualification details are incorrect in the fifth paragraph. The following comes directly from John’s Twitter feed.

I held a full coaching licence from 1990 & was in the first ever group in summer 1997 that went to Lilleshall Hall to convert to the U.E.F.A. “A” licence. U.E.F.A. “B” level are the courses I staffed as part of the F.A.’s coach education system. From 87-88 I held the old Preliminary coaching badge 88-90, I went on 5 weekend “prep” courses per year for two years. I attended six Goalkeeping coaching seminars. I attended two L.F.A staff & 2 F.A. staff course structure seminars, I attended a 2 week full coaching badge course at Lilleshall in 1990 & continued staffing courses for the F.A via the L.F.A. I converted to the U.E.F.A “A” licence in the 1st group to do so in 1997. I would not want anyone to think I got a job in Orient’s centre of excellence, a job as youth team manager or 10 months with the first team with the equivalent of a prelim. coach award!

John did not ask us to change this, but we want to apologise to John for the error and would like to set the record straight. Thanks John!

This time, it’s courtesy of our friends over at Alium Partners, a leading provider of interim managers. They’ve conducted some research into interim managers in the Premier League era, and the results are frankly surprising. Especially if you’re a Chelsea fan! Hope you enjoy it.

So, dear reader, in the name of research and truth, I am going to document and dissect the transfer stories from the Sunday ‘Big 4′ – The Sun, The Sunday Mirror, The People and The Daily Star on Sunday every week. At the end of August, I will have a look back over the whole summer and see if I am doing the journalistic skills of these four papers a disservice. I think I know the answer to that already…

Sunday 2nd June

The Sun

Kicking things off in style, The Sun report that Lukas Podolski has been targeted by Borussia Dortmund. Supporting evidence such as quotes are notable in their absence and the final line of the piece declares that “(Wenger) is looking to build on his squad rather than sell” – conclusive stuff then.

Remarkably, this is the one big “scoop” that the paper runs, preferring to focus on England’s post-season friendly in Brazil. Hidden several pages inside are stories linking the likes of Barry Bannan, Kasper Schmiechel, Yossi Benayoun and Youssouf Mulumbu with summer moves that frankly are too boring to repeat. A disappointing performance and must do better.

The Sunday People

Need a proper dose of transfer fever? Look no further. Boasting (may not be the correct word, I agree) the talents of Alan Nixon and Steve Bates amongst others, The People can always be relied upon for well written, factual based football stories and today is no exception. In a matter of fact tone, they inform us that Nani is off to Monaco for £20m, said with the authority and confidence of the true transfer experts that they are. Never one to miss out on a scoop, Alan Nixon informs us that Jesus Nesus and Alvaro Negredo could be on their way to Manchester City. But it is in the glorious ‘Hotline’ column that The People is truly worth its weight in gold. Players linked here, there and everywhere with reckless abandon. Take £15m rated Bafetimbi Gomis on the move to Cardiff, James Tomkins to Newcastle, Charlie Austin, Allan McGregor and Kasper Schmeichel to Hull, the list goes on. The hallmark of a great transfer story is the one highlighting Simon Mignolet to Liverpool. Not only do The People link Mignolet, but also Begovic and Diego Lopez – a classic case of if in doubt, throw loads of mud and hope that some will stick. All in all a stellar display from The People – although are they setting the bar too high for themselves for the rest of the summer?

We’ll see the Belgian in Liverpool’s colours soon…right? Courtesy of Ronnie Macdonald.

The Sunday Mirror

A tame effort from The Mirror, lacking the volume of The People. The overall tone of the paper is that all the main journos are off on the piss in Brazil, leaving the work experience kid to fill the copy. The news that Manuel Pellegrini plans to have a meeting with his staff is the main story the paper leads with. Wait, the new manager wishing to meet staff and discuss plans for the future? A shock story indeed that we must all take time to digest. That NEVER happens in say…Football Manager.

Erick Pieters is rumoured to be Mark Hughes’ first signing at Stoke, a story which is mildly interesting, but is not going to win a circulation war amongst gossip hungry fans. Interestingly the stories about Heitinga to Fenerbahce and Mulumbu to Fiorentina are duplicated from The Sun. I would never for one minute suggest that this is the work of a desperate sub-editor trying to fill space by lifting stories from elsewhere. No siree. The Mirror needs to up its game big time to get back in transfer contention, lets hope the piss up in Brazil has inspired some creative juices.

The Daily Star on Sunday

The wild-card of the 4. Capable of linking Robin van Persie with a free transfer to St.Mirren one week, whilst nailing a hot scoop the next, no-one can be entirely sure of the accuracy of their content – even the writers themselves at times, but its always damn entertaining reading nonetheless. When The Star is good, it’s very good and today is that day. The back page itself comes with three scorchers – Luiz and Ivanovic off to Barcelona for £40m as revealed by the gloriously titled Harry Pratt (who for years I thought was some journo insider dig at Harry Harris). Then City spending £100m on Cavani, Isco, Fernandinho, Marquinhos and the aforementioned Navas and, finally, the fact that Arsenal are struggling to put together a contract to satisfy Wayne Rooney. Turn the page and the pace continues. Yohan Cabaye interests PSG, Spurs and Arsenal. Hulk could be off to Spurs and Clement Grenier and Julio Cesar are said to be off to Arsenal. Intriguingly, Harry Redknapp is linked with a move to Everton, a story that would have absolutely everything to do with ******CENSORED*******.

Allegedly.

The incessant transfer pace continues in the paper:- Steven Nzonzi to leave Stoke, Max Clayton to join Man United or Liverpool, Maarten Stekelenburg to Fulham and Arturo Vidal to Man City, strangely not mentioned in the back page story, but who’s looking for journalistic consistency in transfer stories?.
Blistering stuff from The Star who have set the pace for the others to match during the summer. Will they rise to the challenge next week? Time will tell……