I cannot wait for this season to begin

As I type this blog on my laptop at home, there are people frantically preparing for the start of the new npower Football League season to start tomorrow and tonight. The friendlies are over, the trialists have been unsuccessful in the most part and the audition stages are over, and at tomorrow at 3PM the curtain will rise on another season for Crystal Palace, another season which at one point two months ago was not looking possible.

Many people believed, back on the 31st May, that with a day for a deal to be agreed there would be no football at Selhurst Park on the 7th of August, after probably the most traumatic, dramatic, nerve-wracking and action-packed seasons and summers in Crystal Palace's 105 year history.

And the Palace fans will need to keep in mind the trials and tribulations of being a Palace fan in May and June during the build-up to tomorrows game, and it probably during the majority of the season too.

This past year has been a hectic one for Palace, and everyday something has happened, so it wouldn't surprise me if George Burley and the co-chairmen Martin Long and Steve Parish didn't want a particularly spectacular season, and would rather build for the season after.

Yes, we have a good, shrewd manager, and seemingly sensible finance-conscious owners, but this doesn't mean we will be challenging the top dogs for the league title this season. It will take time for Burley to get in the players he wants, and to get those and the current players to gel and start playing his style of football, and get to know the new faces and new formations.

But Burley won't find it easy erasing Warnock's hoofball tactic from the players memories, and while it wasn't pretty, it worked. Warnock's tactic of not playing the ball on the ground also leaves another problem to be solved.

Palace haven't had a goalscoring striker since Andy Johnson left us for £8.6million in 2006, and Burley will need to be quick if he is to get a good one in either on loan, for a fee or for free. 

Because of the new players signing all the time, and the complete change in tactics, we had been outplayed in several friendlies against much, much lower opposition, and I am sure this will continue into the beginning of the season.

But despite all of the new surroundings for the new Palace manager, I fully believe Palace can and will finish in a solid mid-table position, not because of Burley alone, but because he has managed to convince Darren Ambrose to sign a new three year contract, and has signed promising young midfielder Owen Garvan from Ipswich for a fee thought to be around £225k, which could prove to be the deal of the Championship this season, as less than a quarter of a million for a player of Garvan's quality is, quite frankly, daylight robbery.

Not only that, the new crop of youth players seem to be ready to make the step up to the first team, too. As I mentioned in a blog post at the end of last month, the Palace Academy is one of the best in the country, and Wilfred Zaha and Kieron Cadogan both have been exceptional in pre-season. In Cadogan we have a good young winger who made his debut two years ago but was frozen out by Neil Warnock last year, and Zaha is possibly the best young striker at the club.

Burley clearly rates these two and sees their potential, and has a good history of working with youth players, and they look set to play a big role in our early games, without an out-and-out striker and with Danns suspended and Garvan unable to play until the league share goes to CPFC2010, they could be key.

Leicester will be a tough first game tomorrow for Burley, and it the beginning of the season may have come a few weeks to early for Palace, but this season and more importantly tomorrow is not about winning the league or getting promotion, it is about enjoying football.

Not to mention enjoying supporting a football club.

Gibbo

Is Milner to City really a good move?

So today, yet again, Sky Sports News has been dominated by repeat updates on James Milner's future. As I am sure you are aware, the Aston Villa midfielder has been subject to two bids from Manchester City, both rejected by Villa, of £20million and £25million, taking into account add ons. It would appear that Milner wants to leave Villa in what I personally see as a downwards move for the World Cup star, and here is why.

Manchester City has, for the past three summers now, been a regular in the BBC gossip column, and has been linked with more or less every player who is worth more than £10million. In their first season as "the richest club in the world", they signed Brazilian forward Robinho from Real Madrid for around £32.5million on transfer deadline day, and this was just the start for them. Last sseason they signed Joleon Lescott for £23million, Emmanuel Adebayor for £25million, and Gareth Barry for £12million to name but a few. This summer they have continued spending, with new £20million signing Yaya Toure on £220,000 per week.

It appears Milner has his heart set on a move to Eastlands, but I cannot see how this move would help him develop as a player. Yes his bank balance will shoot up, but his game time and player progression will come to a halt. Roberto Mancini has a wealth of midfielders at his disposal, but has to pick 25 players over the age of 21 for the coming season to represent City in the Premier League. He already has Patrick Viera, Stephen Ireland, Vincent Kompany, Gareth Barry, Nigel De Jong, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Adam Johnson, Michael Johnson, David Silva, and Yaya Toure. He may well make it into the 25, but breaking into a probable midfield 4 containing these players will be a tall order.

And that shouldn't be his only worry. He may play a bit, but playing with wingers such as Adam Johnson, David Silva, Shaun Wright-Phillips and the returning Robinho will be tough, and it isn't like at Villa where he is a top player and can move about, because in the centre of the field are De Jong, Viera, Barry, Kompany and Ireland, so it will be tough breaking into the team their. In fact, I would go as far as saying that the only place I can ever see him playing is as an attacking midfielder, either at the top of a diamond, or in the middle of a 4-4-2, attacking while Barry, De Jong or Viera hold the fort.

But on top of that, will he fit in. Yes they are all professional footballers, but they clearly aren't gelling as Roberto Mancini and Mark Hughes had wished when they signed these players, as again they failed to finish in the top four and thus seal Champions League qualification, so there is room for improvement in that position.

So what could Villa offer him? In terms of money and a new contract, they have no hope of matching City, but what they do offer is good football, a good manager, and he is surrounded by players of equal ability who know how to play well together and a manager who knows how to get the best out of them. They are slowly building, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they made it into the top 4 this season, but they need to keep their best players.

It will be interesting to see which option Milner chooses. He comes across as a football loving player, but he may have had head turned already. If he does go to City, I would hope he does well, but I just have a feeling he may come to regret the move in a similar way Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips have begun too.

Gibbo