"20 Teams in 10 Days" Premiership Preview

As hinted to in earlier posts, it's almost time for my second annual Premiership preview.

Beginning this Friday, August 1, I'll be covering two teams a day for 10 days, starting with the club I believe will finish dead last this year and working my way up in order to the eventual league champion. Believe me, these are remarkably thorough looks at each team, something that you won't find at many other blogs out there.

I'll start with a quick recap of a team's 2007-2008 season, then move on to player movement this summer, both coming and going. I'll combine that with analysis of the holdovers and give you a full starting lineup that, barring injuries or transfers that take place after I put out a team's preview, should take the field for that team's first game. I'll examine the team's schedule, highlighting their difficult stretches and stretches where points need to be picked up. At the end of each capsule, you'll see a "Bottom Line", where I'll briefly summarize (in a couple of sentences or so) what a team's chances are based on their roster and manager.

Remember, because the transfer window will still be open well after I publish these previews, they have to be taken with a grain of salt. For example, I picked Manchester City to finish 15th last season before Sven brought in Elano, Martin Petrov, and a few other pieces of his international puzzle. I can only base my previews on the players that are there at the time of writing, not on transfer speculation or gossip that I see or hear in the media. I also obviously can’t predict injuries; certain players are more prone to them than others, but I can’t account for things that haven’t happened when I’m composing a team’s outlook.

I look forward to doing this, and I hope you'll check back daily as we get closer to the start of the '08-'09 Premiership season.