The league is now our only chance of Europe
Waterford's Padraig Amond with his son Eoghan at the end of the game. Photo: INPHO.
I’m delighted to be able to join the Waterford News & Star as a football columnist, which is something that I’ve been doing for the Carlow Nationalist since my days of playing across the water.
I would have liked to be starting my first week on a positive note by talking about progressing into the next round of the Sports Direct Men’s FAI Cup against Athlone Town, but it wasn’t to be on Friday last. The less said about some of the incidents the better.
The column will dip into a bit of everything – the highs and lows of the Blues, the Republic of Ireland scene, the Premier League and whatever else pops up along the way in the coming months.
The new Premier League season is upon us and with just one game left to be played in the opening series of games at the time of writing (Leicester City vs Tottenham Hotspur) so far it has followed a similar trend to last season. you could have almost predicted every result over the weekends fixtures with the favourites winning in all bar one game and that game was the drawn game between Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth.
It looks like it going to be again a straight fight out between Manchester City and Arsenal this season. For me I think that Manchester City will win more games and gain more points than anyone else in the league this season, but I just wonder with the looming hearing over the 115 charges they have on their backs will a points deduction be what really decides the Premier League title race this season. The charges are going to be heard soon and when a verdict is reached is anyone’s guess, but it could have a huge bearing on the title race this year.
Just working with the on the pitch stuff Man City have the best squad in the league even if they have just lost Julián Álvarez to Atletico Madrid for €95 million. That figure might look like a fantastic fee for a player who was backup to Erling Haaland but in reality Álvarez was a much different player than that. No Manchester City player featured in more games than Álvarez last season and he contributed so much with his 19 goals too which for a ‘backup’ isn’t too shabby. Their only signing so far has been Savinho from Girona and he is going to be a work in progress for this Man City side and a project player. I fully expect them to spend some more money before the transfer window closes even though they have the possibility of a points deduction in front of them. They will want to win the Champions League once again this year and guarantee their passage to the following season’s competition regardless of what happens domestically.
Arsenal are similar to Man City where they haven’t spent an awful lot so far, but they have strengthened their squad nonetheless with the signing of Riccardo Calafiori from Bologna. The Italian defender had a very good season last year in Serie A and played well in the Euros to so he will be a great addition to Mikel Arteta’s side. They will be Man City’s closest challengers, and they are building year on year, but it might be another year playing second fiddle, but they are knocking on the door.
Liverpool under Arne Slot will be a very interesting watch this year. They haven’t spent any money so far this summer and based on last year's performances the need to before the transfer window closes but I think they will sign a couple and be one of the contenders this year. They had a good start to the season on Saturday beating newly promoted Ipswich Town away from home and it was very important that they done that. Going to a side who are used to winning with a new manager is a tough think to do but they came away with all three points and never really looked in too much trouble either. Slot has a big job on his hands being the one to replace Jurgen Klopp and it will be interesting to see how it plays out for him at Liverpool. I think they will finish as the top 3 this year with Manchester United, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Newcastle and Chelsea fighting it out for the final Champions League spot which I will go more in depth on next week.
In previous years I wouldn’t have been too worried about Liverpool results (being a Manchester United supporter) but this year is different. My son Eóghan turned 4 during the week and he my wife and I to get him a Liverpool jersey (because his cousin is a Liverpool supporter) and as a good parent I duly obliged although through gritted teeth. He had the pleasure of telling me ‘Mo Salah just scored daddy’ over the weekend and I somehow don’t think it will be the last time I hear that this season. In all honesty though I am delighted that he is loving soccer and taking a big interest in it. Not a day goes by where he doesn’t speak about my teammates at Waterford FC (who have been very nice to him when he has come into the dressing room) and asks so many questions about them. He has taken a shine to Ben McCormack, Darragh Power (he’s the smallest) Darragh Leahy and Kacper Radkowski (he’s the tallest and Eóghan is obsessed with heights for some reason) although he keeps calling Kacper Jasper, so we are working on that one for the time being. We have a great game to look forward to on Friday night as 2nd place visit 3rd place down in Waterford and Derry City are our opponents. We want to keep ourselves in 3rd place in the table and keep that fight for European football alive for us so hopefully we can get the right result.
The league is our only chance of European football after the disappointment of losing 3-2 after extra time in the FAI Cup on Friday night at home to Athlone Town. There are probably a lot of things that I would like to speak about (and lots more people too) from the game, but I am sure a lot would have seen the stuff on social media over the weekend so the less said the better. We need to bounce back this week and we will give everything we have to try and right those wrongs from last week.
