Real spent over €250 million last season but to no avail and Mourinho has been brought in to break Barca’s grip on the league and win in Europe.
“The word fear is not in my football dictionary and I don’t want it to be in the player’s dictionary,” said Mourinho.
Barcelona could not persuade Arsenal to part with Cesc Fabregas but have quality in the team with eight of Spain’s World Cup winners (Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Pedro, Villa and Victor Valdes) as well as Lionel Messi and Ibrahimovic.
Valencia would probably settle for third again this season having sold Spanish World Cup heroes David Villa and David Silva for €70 million. Forward Roberto Soldado has come in from Getafe for 10 million euros and will try to fill the shoes of the departed Villa.
Inter once again the team to beat in Italy
Inter Milan have dominated Italian football for the last five seasons and ahead of the kick-off to the new season there is little to suggest that will change any time soon.
Last season the championship race proved close-run as an Inter blip in February allowed AS Roma to close in and take the title race down to the wire. But Inter won, beat Roma in the Italian Cup final and already this season they started out last week by beating Roma 3-1 in the Italian Supercup to suggest that they are not going to give up their mantle easily.
But now Rafael Benitez is at the helm, meaning a change in system, emphasis and maybe even personnel.
Roma should be there or thereabouts again but questions will always remain over their mental capacity to turn a chance into tangible success. They led Serie A with four games to play last season but a home defeat to Sampdoria, in a match they totally dominated for the first 45 minutes, scuppered their hopes.
Many eyes will be on AC Milan to see if they can muster a sustained title challenge with young coach Massimiliano Allegri.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2010.
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