The world catches up with Daily Trust on Bale

You were first in the world to learn last week that Gareth Bale might not remain at Real Madrid because I received a phone call to tell me that manager Zinedine Zidan and Bale himself had hinted that it might happen. That news was confirmed this week by much of the world’s media catching up with The Daily Trust. However, at Tuesday evening’s Uefa Super Cup match United manager Jose Mourhino spoke to Zidane and said he is watching the situation carefully and although Bale started the match instead of Cristiano Renaldo, which shows he is still in Zidan’s plans, if at some point Bale leaves Real there is a home for him at Old Trafford. Much depends on whether Real can sign Mbappe from Monaco.

Arsene Wenger was understandably much happier after last Sunday’s Charity Shield match as the Gunners won their first silverware of the season. Wenger is a clever operator and he never joined in the summer spending frenzy of Manchester City and United but his two new recruits performed very well indeed. Lacazette showed that he is a good buy and can perform well in the Premier League and he said after the match that he feels comfortable playing in the UK. Following Per Mertesecker’s nasty injury sustaining a cut above his eye (Wenger said he should be fit for the Gunner’s opening game against Leicester at the Emirates) his replacement Sead Kolasinac came on to control the right area of the pitch and score Arsenal’s equaliser. Kolasinac cost nothing as he came on a free transfer from German club Schalke. Danny Welbeck was excellent for Arsenal and showed why Chelsea still need defender Virgil van Dijk from Southampton. The Blues Nemanja Matic - a stronghold in defence - has gone and Chelsea looked lightweight around the centre of the field. Hazard is still injured and Diego Costa is totally out of favour. New Chelsea signing Antonio Rudiger looked out of his depth. Conte is now on the Cobham training field and I can tell you that he has the first team practicing defending set pieces over and over again using what he learned from the Charity Shield match. In attack Chelsea also looked weak. New £60million signing Alvaro Morata needs a lot of match games to be able to cope with the Premier League. Time for Roman Abramovich to open his cheque book again although I read that he is separating from his wife so that might be rather costly! Time for 2017/18 kick off !

The big kick off to the new season is here! So let us take a quick look around the Premier League clubs.

Arsenal: They still have Alexis Sanchez. Lacazette looks promising. Mesut Ozil needs to regain his masterful touches. Bournemouth: Have kept all their best players and should cope. Brighton: Survival will be a success with Chelsea’s loan signing Izzy Brown looking to make headlines.Burnley: A thin squad and best player Michael Keane has gone. Chelsea: Manager wants new blood to repeat last season’s title win. Crystal Palace: Still have Wilfired Zaha and Christian Benteke so they can compete. Everton: Rooney, Klaassen and Keane will make them formidable under highly motivated manager Ronald Koeman. Huddersfield Town: Their spirit is high, the fans are fanatic but they have few Premier League players and I fear for them. Leicester City: Iheanacho will score goals and Harry Maguire will strengthen defence but I still worry about their survival prospects. Jamie Vardy needs to recover his scoring talent. Liverpool: Klopp worrying about Barcelona taking Coutinho. Emre Can needs to improve and is crucial to a good season. Manchester City: Spend, spend, spend sees City with a super strong squad including Kyle Walker and goalkeeper Ederson but need Raheem Sterling to raise to his undoubted potential. Manchester United: Rooney has gone and Lukaku has arrived. Could be their season under Mourhino. Newcastle United: Relegation shouldn’t be a problem but they need to have Aleksandar Mitrovic scoring. Manager Benetez desperate for more Premier League quality in there.Southampton: Breaking up the team hasn’t happened but they need Charlie Austin to be fit. Sofiane Boufal scored only twice and he only looked fast in pre season when he was booked for speeding in his car! Stoke City: Have resigned Jack Butland and have Darren Fletcher from West Brom and Kurt Zouma from Chelsea. Marko Arnautovic sale is a mistake but Saido Berahino must start scoring goals. Swansea City: Manager Michael Laudrop might lose best player Gylfi Sigurdsson to Everton. Need Ghanaian Jordan Ayew to start playing well. Tottenham: Still have Harry Kane and Dele Alli and will be a match for any team. Moussa Sissoko looks ridiculous at £30million and he needs to get his act together. Watford: A very quiet summer. Best chance of goals is Troy Deeney and they need to stop in fighting within the club and also tighten up their defence. West Bromwich Albion: Clever experienced manager Tony Pullis will see them okay. Relies too heavily on older players but they get results. Salamon Rondon will score if given good service but Nacer Chadli needs to improve. West Ham: Good off season business done. Need a long run of games from Andy Carroll’s knees. Signing of Javier Hernadez a good move. Happy Gunners Rafa in panic Things are not going well for Newcastle even before Saturday’s kick off to the new season. Manager Rafa Benitez has said publicly that “This is not what I signed up for.” He is complaining that only £31million has been spent on new players and says that this is not enough to survive let alone succeed in the Premier League. Now his main striker Dwight Gale is injured and Rafa is in panic mode. He said, “When I decided to stay I was expecting another thing. Now I find that after my board failed to move for Crystal Palace winger Andros Townsend in January our latest bid has also failed. I need more Premier League quality players.” Conte also in panic! Antonio Conte is already fighting with his board over the lack of incoming players and said this week that if he doesn’t get his way this season could be like the season when Mourhino was sacked after winning the League and suffered a dismal run of results at the beginning of the following season. Under Mourhino Champions Chelsea had a quiet summer without making significant signings and lost the Charity Shield to Arsenal. That resulted in the Blues starting the following season in the wrong half of the table. Let us hope history does not repeat itself.