The Season Ahead - Manchester United

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According to Blue Square, Manchester United will start the season favourites to reclaim their Premiership crown. Last year's double winners were heralded by most as the best team in the league by some distance, and with no major signings being made by the teams that will compete against them for the title, if you're into football betting there's no reason to suggest United won't finish the season at the top of the pile.

Alex Ferguson pointed out recently that the vast majority of United's side is very young. The likes of Anderson, Nani, and even Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo are still the younger side of twenty-five and have a lot of developing to do. Anderson in particular showed flashes of becoming a fantastic player in only his first season in the Premiership. Over the coming years, one feels, he will slowly replace Scholes at the heart of the United midfield.

Hargreaves' injuries held him back last season, but fully fit the England midfielder is a quality player. He has the kind of versatility that makes him vital to any time, and though he has spent most of his career at defensive midfielder, he played many matches at right-back for United last season and there cannot be many better players in the Premiership at that position.

His England colleague, Carrick, doesn't seem to be quite developing in the way that everyone had planned. He is a fine player with an excellent range of passing, but very rarely stamps his mark on the game. Generally speaking when United are playing well and winning; Carrick seems to be playing well, but when United are off colour, Carrick is still doing the same things.

The one dark cloud for United comes in the shape of the best player in the world. Christiano Ronaldo did not have a particularly good European Championships, despite the hype, and may well have been affected by Scolari's move to Chelsea and the rumours surrounding his apparent move to Real Madrid. Ronaldo hasn't said much so far, and there has been a lot of supposition in the press, but the point remains that if he did not want to go to Real Madrid he should have come out and said so by now.

United are not a selling club though, and it's difficult to see Alex Ferguson letting Ronaldo have a negative impact on his preparations for the season. The manager has stated that there is one player that he wishes to sign in advance of the season and most would suggest that the one player is Berbatov. United could do with another forward, perhaps offering something different and Berbatov is that kind of player, whether Spurs will be willing to sell, however, is a entirely different matter.

United are a young team, growing in experience, quality and togetherness. Their main rivals, Chelsea, seem to be a team in something of a transitional phase, and Arsenal and Liverpool are too far back in terms of quality to really compete. As far as the coming season is concerned, I think the bookies are right, it's difficult to look beyond Manchester United as far as the title is concerned.