- Manchester United to beat Liverpool to the title by three or four points. The decision to drop Berbatov and re-unite Rooney and Tevez up front is seen as the catalyst. Michael Carrick to win Writers’ Player of the Year. PFA Player of the Year for a heart broken Steven Gerrard. PFA Young Player to Ashley Young, who guides Aston Villa to fourth place.
- Barcelona to sweep all before them. Narrowly miss out on 100 La Liga points (96? 98?), but to breeze past 100 league goals. Eto’o will score more than 30 of them, Henry and Messi roughly 20 each. Will win the Champions League in Rome, and maybe the Copa del Rey as well. Leo Messi to win the 2009 Ballon d’Or.
- Mike Ashley sees that Barca’s great success is built on the appointment of a recently retired playing legend as manager. He appoints Alan Shearer in the summer, calling him ‘the Geordie Guardiola’. Shearer is sacked before Christmas, with four points from his first fifteen games. Big Al’s assisstant, Rob Lee, takes over as caretaker. Who’d have thought that Ameobi and Rob Hulse wouldn’t work up front?
- The Republic, inspired by the return of Stevie Ireland to international football, to beat Bulgaria, Georgia and Montenegro to seal second place in Group 8 and go through to the play offs for World Cup qualification. Scotland lose in Holland and in Norway and only finish third in Group 9. England finish with 28 points from a possible 30.
- Man City buy Kaka, David Villa and Sergio Ramos in the summer, at a combined cost of over £120million. New manager Frank Rijkaard still finds a way to fit Michael Ball and Darius Vassell into the side.
