This week has seen the majority of all 92 football league clubs return to pre-season training in preparation of what is set to be another pulsating 9 months of football starting in just over four weeks time.
Where better than to start my pre-season predictions than the Premier League. Don't panic though if your side are not in the glamorous Premiership, as in the next few days I will be sharing my predictions with you all on the Championship and Leagues One and Two.
But first, the 2010/2011 season saw Manchester United secure a record breaking 19th League Title, overtaking Liverpool as the most successful club in England, meanwhile Liverpool saw the return of King Kenny (Dalglish) to their hot-seat, 21 years after vacating it originally, Arsenal's season collapsed quicker than a Jenga tower, while Birmingham, Blackpool and West Ham all slipped through the trapdoor and were relegated to the second tier of English football.
So what can we expect from the 2011-2012 season? Well pretty much the same, pulsating football, a close title race and an even more exciting relegation dog fight.
I will start at the top of the Premier League, and in particular the 'Top Four', or should that be five? Firstly, I feel that could be the most exciting title race ever as Manchester City, fresh from their first trophy (FA Cup) in decades will be looking to hunt down their near neighbors, United.
We will also see the resurgent Liverpool try to KOP their own 19th league title under the resurgent guidance of Kenny Dalglish, assited by their lethal strike force of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez (below).
Of course we also have another new man in charge at Chelsea who knows that league success will be vital to him keeping his job beyond the current season. At just 33 years of age, Andres Villas-Boas will be the youngest 'Gaffer' on the sidelines this season after Chelsea paid a staggering £13 Million for his services after a clean sweep of trophies while in charge at Porto last season.
As for Arsenal after six long years of no trophies, Arsene Wenger knows that a repeat of last seasons collapse could see the end of his magnificent tenure at the club.
The possibility though of the North London club going another season trophy-less is highly likely, and the imminent departure of talisman Cesc Fabregas, as well as the likely departure of Samir Nasri alongside the already gone Gael Clichy will go no further to offer any hope to the long suffering Gunners supporters.
As for the bottom half of the table and the race to avoid the dreaded abyss of relegation, I think we could just see as an exciting race as the top, though not one that any side will be keen to win.
For me, the three sides that join the Premier League from the Championship, Swansea, Norwich and QPR are the likely contenders for a swift return to the second tier, although this seems foolish to say after only one promoted side from last season fell straight back through the trapdoor (Blackpool, below)
There are going to be a few other contenders for the drop and it certainly will not be a three horse race as we can expect to see the likes of Blackburn, Wolves and West Brom all fight against the drop despite the latter avoiding it last season quite easily, finishing a respectable 10th.
As for the likes of Aston Villa, Newcastle, Bolton and Sunderland it could be a season of either great fortune or misfortune as despite looking like having decent squads on paper, they all flirted with great success and relegation at one point last season and we can expect the same this time around.
My predictions for the Premiership season 2011/2012:
Champions: Manchester United (closely followed by Chelsea and Liverpool with Man City fourth)
Relegated: QPR, Swansea and Norwich
What do you think? Do you agree? Are you happy with your sides transfer targets/buys and moving on's so far this summer?
As always let me know.
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