David Hytner How do you think the Premier League will be different this season? Where do you see the fresh dynamic coming from?
Alan Curbishley When you consider the summer months, there's no doubt the big story has been Manchester City. The so-called Big Four have been in a comfort zone. Every year they get into the Champions League, which provides them with revenue streams that no one else gets; they get more prize money and they also get more money from the TV than anyone else. But now someone has come along to upset them. Everyone is going to be looking at Man City. Can they break into the top four?
Joe Kinnear There's going to be a lot of pressure on Mark Hughes. You find that when the rest of the Premier League play the top four, they always raise their game and they'll do the same now against City. With all the players that City have, they will be a big scalp to get.
DH Does Hughes have the dream job?
JK I think he does. It's better to be in a position where you can get who you want. You've obviously got to back yourself and your own judgement.
AC Mark will be feeling that he's earned the right to be in this position after doing four seasons at Blackburn Rovers, when his team punched massively above their weight. A lot of managers are a little bit envious of Mark.
Gordon Strachan Mark will be relaxed as well because the new signings look as though they are his signings. That makes a heck of a difference. He can go in with a clear conscience when he starts the season.
AC Mark has settled on established Premier League players. Even if they are foreign, they have already been here, they are acclimatised. It's nice to go for the likes of Kaká but until City are in the Champions League, I don't think you can get those sort of players. This season, when Mark goes to Bolton and Blackburn, he's going to need players that know what is going to go on.
GS I remember back in 1997, Chelsea had made some glamorous signings and they turned up at Coventry City for the first game of the season, not knowing the league, and we beat them. Dion Dublin scored a hat-trick for us. I just told the players to be physical, no kicking anybody but be a physical presence all day. Any chance we had to make them defend physically, take it. The difference between that team and Manchester City is that everyone has played in this league. Even Robinho has had a shot at it now for a year.
JK For Man City to prove themselves, they have to break into the Champions League. If they don't do that, then they're not successful. That is the minimum requirement, for sure.
AC I agree.
GS Me too, because a Europa League spot is not a return for the kind of investment we have seen.
DH City do seem to have got under Sir Alex Ferguson's skin.
GS I heard about his reaction to the Carlos Tevez 'Welcome to Manchester' poster. Fergie was on tour in Asia at the time, wasn't he? It depends on what day you get a manager. Most days, you feel diplomatic but some days you go 'Right, let's go. I'll have a bit of this. Here you go'.
DH What did you make of Martin O'Neill's comment that Manchester City ought to be considered as title favourites?
GS Managers are all playing games just now. They are playing games.
JK He said that to put them under pressure.
GS Just games. It's good fun. At this level, managers are going to divert anything away from themselves. That's what we do. Everybody understands. Nobody takes offence about it. If you said to Martin, if you're that confident about Manchester City, stick your year's wages on them … I don't think he would.
DH Alan, you know Ferguson well, what's his thinking about the season?
AC He obviously knew Cristiano Ronaldo was going and that there was the possibility Tevez might go, too. It wouldn't have been a surprise that he has lost those two but what he has done is put faith in another bunch of players coming through. He has a great opinion of Danny Welbeck, he fancies him to come through this year, and there is Federico Macheda, who came on last season. He's going to have Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney; he's going to have Antonio Valencia, who is a good signing, Real Madrid wanted him; he's still got Ryan Giggs, Anderson and Nani. They are not that much weaker.
GS The champions are the team to beat because they are the champions. They have lost the best player in the world but they still have the best manager in the world so if you've got that, you've got a chance. He's proved time and time again that he can reshape a team. He'll have to reshape it because Ronaldo is a special player and they gave him special dispensation to wander. There may be a more rigid shape to them this season.
JK Man United are in a privileged position as well. There is no other club in that league for whom every great player wants to play. They don't have to bust their bollocks to go and beg someone to go there. If Man United do fall on hard times, I'm sure that Alex has got a hit list who are just a phone call away.
DH Joe, you worked with Michael Owen at Newcastle last season. Is he a good signing for Ferguson and United?
JK Michael will be a much better player alongside the type of players Man United have got. He struggled in our team because we didn't create enough opportunities. I spoke to Alex about Michael prior to him going there and I think the move will inspire him.
GS The opinions of the press about Owen don't count. Do you go with Joe and Alex Ferguson or somebody with a keyboard writing something down, a 23-year-old who has just come into the press saying that Owen is finished? It depends on who you are being written off by.
JK Michael is only 29, people forget that. And he looks after himself. He is the first one in for training, he always comes in an hour before anyone else and he works extremely hard for that hour. He brings his own private fitness coach and then he comes into the squad training.
DH Ferguson was quoted as saying that the title race was between United and Chelsea, that Liverpool would not be in the reckoning.
JK I wouldn't forget Liverpool, no way at all. They're in with a decent shout but, at the same time, Alex is not far wrong. Those would be the three. I think fourth spot would be the best for Arsenal.
AC Liverpool had their best start for years and years last season and then Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard got injured and it all fell apart. Liverpool need those two to stay fit if they are going to mount a challenge.
JK Torres and Gerrard are the best two players in the league.
AC I can't dismiss Chelsea. They played last season without Michael Essien, Ricardo Carvalho and Joe Cole, three big hits, and [Luiz Felipe] Scolari had a problem with how to play Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka together. I think that Carlo Ancelotti will have the same problem but if he gets the other three back in, Chelsea could be the team that challenges.
GS Chelsea's is a real man's team. They look after themselves, more than anything else. There's not much you can teach guys who are over 30. Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard, John Terry, they know the game. As for Ancelotti, I think it's more the Champions League that they're thinking about with him. With most managers, Chelsea have a chance of the Premier League but the Champions League is what they want and Ancelotti's record in it as both a player and a manager is first class.
DH It doesn't get any easier for Arsenal.
AC Their problem is that they haven't won anything for four years and I really feel that Arsène Wenger may have to abandon the way he attacks the cups. When Fergie hadn't won anything for a couple of years, he went and won the League Cup; José Mourinho came in at Chelsea and the first thing he did was to win the League Cup. It's there to be won by the top four if you attack it properly. It may not be the title but if Arsène can put some silverware on the table, it would ease a little bit of pressure.
GS He's a fantastic manager and it's a great way to run a club but I'm afraid, no matter what you say about any fans in the world, they won't say, 'Just give me some good football to watch'. That's cobblers. They want to win. Trust me. What they want to see is winning football.
JK Wenger is a very patient man. He'll think, 'If I finish in the top four this year, I'll have qualified for the Champions League, is it good enough?' And as that team progresses, they have a lot of fantastic young players … but nobody knows what's going to happen in two or three years, whether they really do develop or not.
GS All top players want to win trophies and they always want to be competing. As long as Arsenal are competing, they will keep players. The moment they don't look like they're doing that, the good players will want to move on.
DH Which club might surprise us this season?
AC Tottenham have got the squad. They've got goals, with Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Aaron Lennon and Luka Modric and if they can keep their centre-halves fit, then they could be the team that does it.
JK I'd go along with that, or possibly Everton. Spurs have got a good enough squad to do well.
AC We're talking a lot about Man City; then there's Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton, so we're talking about eight teams, a top eight, so I think just getting into the top 10 for the 12 other teams is going to be a feat. It's going to be a really tough season for a lot of clubs.
JK The newly promoted teams will struggle. They say they're going to enjoy it but let's have a look after half a dozen games. It's not easy for those teams to come up and travel to Anfield, Stamford Bridge and so on. You predict that they're going to get stuffed immediately. How many games would you say that those teams will actually win?
AC History suggests one or two will go straight back down but I worry about Portsmouth. The three of us here know how difficult it is to get players in, they are letting players go and they've not got long before that transfer window closes. If they don't sort themselves out, they could be in trouble, and I think Hull City as well. You can go 10-12 games without winning in the Premier League and they found that out last season. It's going to be fascinating to watch.
