Premiership Preview--14. Newcastle

14. I was tempted to slot Newcastle a bit higher than this. Sam Allardyce is an extremely capable manager who coaxed successful results out of a Bolton team that wasn't stacked with individual talent, and Newcastle have, on paper, a better team than 14th place. However they had a team that should've finished higher than 13th last season and a couple of the teams that finished below them (Fulham and West Ham) are markedly improved and will end up leaping above Newcastle in this year's table. You also can't forget about the curse hanging over the Tyneside club; Neil Armstrong walked on the moon more recently than the last time Newcastle won a major trophy.

Sam Allardyce wasted no time in putting his mark on the club since he was hired as manager. He released Craig Moore and didn't retain Oguchi Onyewu. Titus Bramble and Antoine Sibierski were told their contracts wouldn't be renewed and both went to Wigan. Letting Scott Parker go to West Ham may prove to be a big, big mistake if Parker stays healthy and performs at the level he's capable of for the Hammers this season as Nicky Butt isn't getting any younger. Kieron Dyer may also leave the club as well, but at the time of writing this, he was still a Newcastle player. The players Allardyce brought in all have a chance to be successful at Newcastle. However, Joey Barton will already miss the start of the season with a broken bone in his foot. Mark Viduka hasn't had any time to rest this summer as he played in the Asian Cup for Australia. Geremi has played in only 72 Premiership games since 2003. Signing David Rozehnal should turn out to be a great move for Newcastle, as Allardyce has proven that he can take low-profile, middle-aged defenders (Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye, Abdoulaye Méïté) and stick them in the back and be successful.

The winter holidays won't be happy for Newcastle this season. October-November (Halloween and Thanksgiving here in America) brings four home games, but difficult ones in Everton, Tottenham, Portsmouth, and Liverpool. Trips to Reading and Sunderland won't be easy, nor will a game at Blackburn on December 1. With the new year comes an even more difficult stretch of games, one that lasts into the beginning of March and will be what condemns Newcastle to the middle of the bottom half of the table. Ready for this? Road games at (in order) Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Aston Villa, and Liverpool, mixed in with home games against Bolton, Middlesbrough, Manchester United, and Blackburn. If Newcastle can survive that and come out of it with good results, they can think about a top half finish..oh wait, they won't survive it.

Bottom Line-After four consecutive years of top-eight finishes for Sam Allardyce, the run will end. Managing Newcastle is considerably more difficult than managing Bolton because of the increased stress and pressure that comes with it. Newcastle has a roster built around experienced, veteran players which are mixed in with some very talented, promising youngsters who will be the future of the club. Look for them to be better in the 2008-2009 season, but for this year, it's another bottom half, disappointing, trophy-less year for Newcastle.

Great Day for Blackburn; Rovers Enter UEFA Cup, Sign Santa Cruz

A 4-0 win today over Lithuanian side FC Vetra in the third round of the Intertoto Cup advanced Blackburn Rovers to the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup as they won the tie 6-0 on aggregate. Morten Gamst Pedersen scored twice and Jason Roberts and Benni McCarthy each talled a goal. Blackburn now face the challenge of playing in a major European competition.

They'll enter the Premier League season and the UEFA Cup with Paraguyan international striker Roque Santa Cruz, who signed a four-year deal to come over from Bayern Munich. Santa Cruz's fate with the German club was sealed when they brought in Miroslav Klose from Werder Bremen, and now he joins a club that's loaded with strikers. McCarthy, Roberts, Matt Derbyshire, and new acquistion Maceo Rigters are all very talented, productive players. I'm not sure if this logjam will benefit anyone, but we'll wait and see. Blackburn scored 52 goals in the league last year; I think they would have been better served to go out and spend money on a defender or two as Blackburn gave up 54 goals. Hopefully this move pays off for Blackburn, a club expected to challenge for a European spot once again this season.

Premiership Preview--15. Manchester City

15. Despite finishing in 14th place last season, Manchester City was tied for the fewest goals scored in the Premiership with 29. They set a Premiership record for fewest goals scored at home with 10, and even with a new, wealthy owner (Thaksin Shinawatra) and a high-profile manager (Sven-Goran Eriksson), Manchester City has done very little to address their goalscoring needs or to improve the club. With that being said, it's still only July, and the transfer window is open through August so the possibility of acquiring new players is still there, but at this point Manchester City seemed destined for another disappointing season.

When a team is arguably making more news for the players that are leaving then the players they're bringing in, that's not a good sign. Already this summer stalwart defender Sylvain Distin departed for Portsmouth after being a fixture in the center of defense for City since 2002-2003 (when he was voted their Player of the Year), Hatem Trabelsi, a Tunisian defender/midfielder who made 20 league appearances for City, most of them on the right side, was released, and most notably, Joey Barton left for Newcastle. Barton came up through the youth ranks at Manchester City and earned more and more playing team as he got older. He was the team's best midfielder and most talented player, but numerous off-field and on-field controversies led him and the club to move on. Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov has been brought in from Atletico Madrid after scoring just 3 goals in 45 league games for them, but the key signing was striker Rolando Bianchi from Reggina. Bianchi will have to prove that he can score goals in the Premiership after having an impressive season in Serie A, but as Andriy Shevchenko showed last year, coming over from Italy doesn't necessarily equate to great results in England. Bianchi will now have to adjust to the much faster pace of the game and deal with teams who have much better defenders than teams in the Serie A.

The schedule doesn't look to be too difficult for Manchester City. They've got only one real long, tough stretch of games, but unfortunately it comes towards the end of the season when it could be make-or-break time for the Blues. February 2-April 8 brings 9 league games, including trips to Manchester United, Bolton, Reading, and Birmingham (who by that time may be desperate) and home games against Arsenal, Everton, Wigan, Tottenham, and Chelsea. Manchester City shouldn't be anywhere near the relegation zone, but they don't want to leave anything to chance. That run of games will be very difficult, particularly for a team that doesn't score many goals and will probably give up their fair share of goals this season with a young defense. City is away to Liverpool and Middlesbrough to finish the year, but I expect they'll be in decent shape by then.

Bottom Line-Manchester City won't be relegated unless disaster strikes during the beginning-middle of the season when they're playing games they should take points from. As I said before, the defense is extraordinarily young with the departures of Stephen Jordan, Hatem Trabelsi, and Sylvain Distin. Micah Richards and Nedum Onouha (both possible starters; Richards is for certain) are 19 and 20 years of age respectively. If Bianchi can score 12-15 league goals, that would be a huge boost for a club that probably will struggle to score again this season. Look for Manchester City to make some noise in the 2008-2009 season and beyond, but they're too young to challenge for any European spot this year.