Man City Square
Fansided

Predictions for 2018/19 Season

By David Crook

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 06: The Manchester City squad celebrate with the Premier League trophy during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Huddersfield Town at Etihad Stadium on May 6, 2018 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 06: The Manchester City squad celebrate with the Premier League trophy during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Huddersfield Town at Etihad Stadium on May 6, 2018 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 8
Next

Expectations are funny things. We’ve all watched enough seasons of football to knows things don’t always go according to plan. As City fans, we know this more than most.

Typical City has bedraggled our side for as long as we can all remember. Whether its a gypsy curse or not and despite achieving 100 points and scoring 106 Premier League Goals in last seasons centurions celebration of football we all fully expect it all to come undone at some point. We may have got Guardiola but we’ve also got typical City. Remember we all rejoiced when we drew Wigan in the FA Cup Final.

2018/19 is Guardiola’s difficult 3rd season at Man City. Whilst the first season came undone and illustrated a need for an urgent overhaul of the first team squad, the following season saw a record spend as the club obtained the reinforcements and the Centurions were created. So what next?

More from Man City Square

We all recognise the remarkable season which has just passed is unlikely to be repeated. Other teams are reinforcing and there are some interesting developments as Guardiola style attacking systems seem to be overcoming the doubters in English football. Maurizio Sarri and Unai Emery, Marco Silva, Mauricio Pochetino and others will attempt to control possession, playing attacking football from the back.

The new season looks to be tightly contested. Will the title return to the Etihad? Will the manager achieve the seemingly impossible and retain the title? A feat not achieved in over 10 years and never accomplished by City in their long and illustrious history.

Whilst its risky to review the contenders when the transfer window is still open, its fair to say most of them have signalled their transfer intentions already. The complexity of a shorter transfer window and the Summer World Cup has served to reduce top level transfer activity so far. In all likelihood there may be few transfers this summer as time presses and the season hurtles towards its start.

Increased TV revenues across Europe have begun to permeate throughout the top leagues making most clubs in control of their own destiny. Sellers can largely resist buyers unless the silly money comes calling and City these days seem less inclined to deal with silly money buys. Of course thsi natural order is easily upskittled by agents and players looking for extra money.

So lets look at the title contenders.