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John Dykes

By John Dykes

Nine months ago, Liverpool lost 3-0 to Espanyol in a pre-season friendly. Spurs, meanwhile, lost 2-0 at the hands of Hong Kong's South China. In August, I made mention of both results in an article previewing the new Barclays Premier League season.

It was one of those occasions when those of us who watch the game for a living feel confident enough to make some sweeping predictions for the months to come. As usual, it makes for slightly embarrassing reading now that we are arriving at the end of Season 2009/2010.

Not that I got everything wrong. The Spurs result in that friendly, I said, was irrelevant as they fielded a young side and had just come from Beijing where they looked "a genuinely classy outfit". They, along with Manchester City, I predicted, would be the teams to watch if the Big Four dominance was to loosen.

So far so good. I even pointed out that "Liverpool look fairly ordinary if Gerrard and Torres aren't playing". That, though, is where the self-congratulatory back-slapping has to end.

Unfortunately, I also suggested that "Arsene Wenger's youngsters may just be worth a look, especially if the manager does decide to spend some of the money raised by the sale of Adebayor and Toure.

Furthermore, I chose to pick a quartet of Players to Watch. Of them, two did okay at best: Sebastien Bassong was involved in 31 games for Spurs, scored against Liverpool right at the start of the campaign and only picked up two yellow cards.

Hardly a replacement for Ronaldo, I hear you say. Similarly, the fact that Lorik Cana, Sunderland's combative skipper, picked up 10 yellows and a red in 32 appearances didn't exactly make him a PFA Team of the Season automatic pick.

Now to the other two. I referred to Wolves' Serbian midfielder Nenad Milijas as "one of the buys of the year" and even declared, "If he is not in your Fantasy Football team then you're missing a trick". Right. He made only 19 starts, appeared as a substitute seven times and score two goals. I sold him from my Fantasy Team in the first Transfer Window.

Then there was Wigan's Jordi Gomez ("likely to become a pin-up boy to rival Ronaldo and Torres"), a player I described as "a proper footballer in every sense of the word." I stand by that last description but he had to be content with only 23 starts and was used as a substitute 12 times, scoring only one goal in the process.

Oh well, some you win, some you lose. One thing I would say in my defence is that I picked the players listed above in the hope that we would find some new stars to talk about and in the belief that this would be a transitional season for the BPL. In that sense, my broader prediction was correct.

Although I have the greatest respect for the pundits who follow the BPL, I must admit to being somewhat disappointed that most have labelled Season 2009/2010 as a disappointment, lacking in star quality and weakened by a lack of the traditional dominance shown by the Big Four.

I would argue exactly the opposite. That we were able to experience an occasion as dramatic as that which played out at Eastlands on Wednesday night is a tribute to the competitiveness of the league. The title race too has gone down to the final weekend, and that is extraordinary really over a 38-game season.

On a personal level, the season has seen some remarkable renaissances, from "Golden Oldies" like Giggs and Scholes, to rehabilitated players like Stephen Carr and Bobby Zamora. The race for the Golden Boot has been a genuine highlight: as many as seven players could better last season's winning total of 19 goals. That is an amazing statistic.

Two other words that describe the strength of the league: Frank Lampard. More than 20 goals, yet again. Perhaps the broad football-watching public will only truly appreciate this man's achievements when he is gone.

Adam Johnson, Gareth Bale, Florent Malouda, James Milner, Antonio Valencia, Carlos Tevez, Luka Modric, Gabby Agbonlahor... these are the stars who will sustain us next season. Chelsea will bring in a glamour signing (Fernando Torres perhaps?), Manchester City will bring in several (Kaka to finally come to England?) and Sir Alex Ferguson is promising to freshen things up.

If Arsene Wenger finally does what I hoped he would this season, perhaps his club will also be able to add to the BPL's wow factor once more.

I will not be writing a season preview for you, at least not here, this August, By then, I will have relocated to England to work on the Premier League's new global TV channel. So, let's sign off with a long-range forecast if you like. It's going to be a great season. Trust me. I'm almost always right about these things.