Local fans warm-up to the start of Premier League season

As the new English Premier League season gets underway this weekend, many football fans have turned sports betting places into their daily meeting points and some of them use these places as their ‘sitting rooms’! Others always have radios close to their ears so that they don’t miss news about which player their club have signed before the transfer window closes as they count-down to the Big Kickoff today. Top Premier League clubs like Manchester United, Liver pool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and the rest are very busy on the market looking for new players they think will help either side take the Premier League title or secure themselves higher positions at end of the season. Chelsea, after taking last season’s title, come into the new season determined to try to be the first team to successfully defend the Premier League title since Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in the 2008-09 season. While Manchester United, who have been the busier in the transfer market after spending approximately 80m Pounds trying to sign key players in key positions as manager Louis Van Gal bid to secure the EPL title in his second season at Old Trafford. It’s now two seasons without a trophy for Manchester United following the retirement of Ferguson and coming from a stressful season under David Moyes, who was Fergie’s replacement. As is with the start of every new Premier League season, many a football enthusiasts spend so much of their time arguing on who will win the league, who will finish in the now famed Big Four, who will play on Europe, who will avoid relegation and who will drop down into the Championship. Ahead of the Big Kickoff for the 2015/16 campaign, Saturday Sport talked to different Premier League followers about their predictions and what they are excited about going into the new season. Olivier Ndoli a Kimironko resident says, “I think Arsenal will take this season’s league title. The fact that we have won the FA Cup twice in a row is an indication that we can challenge for the Premier League.” “However, the manager (Arsene Wenger) needs to sign a top class striker like Karim Benzema from Real Madrid, add one good central defender and then I believe we shall have the best side in the league,” he noted, adding that he can’t wait for the season to begin. The Gunners start their campaign for a first Premier League title since 2004 at home to West Ham United on Sunday, kickoff at 2:45pm (live on Supersport 3). Sandrine Uwimana, also a resident of Kimironko and a Man United supporter says, “We have gone two seasons without any trophy and that’s not good for the big club like Manchester United; we are used to winning trophies and I think this is going to be our season to turn things around because we have the right tools to be a top contender.” “Our striking force, led by captain Wayne Rooney is good enough for any defence, the midfield is our strongest part, but I think we should improve a bit in defense and I also pray that (goalkeeper David) De Gea doesn’t leave,” she explains. Arsenal will be England champions this season, according to Mworozi. According to Herbert Mworozi another Arsenal fan and a resident of Kicukiro, “We have got a very talented and skilful squad, which has matured for quite some time; we now have the right experience to be genuine contenders.” “We have been yawning for trophies since 2004 and it’s now that we should prove to the world that we can be a top force in the Premier League, we still have weaknesses in the midfield but I think before the window closes, Wenger would have at least bought in another player and I pray hard that its Karim Benzema.” “I am also happy that we sorted the goalkeeping problem after we landed Peter Cech from our London rival Chelsea, that was a surprise to see Mourinho (Chelsea manager) allow such an experienced player to join Arsenal,” wondered Mworozi, to his excitement that Arsenal can actually end their EPL title drought. Turikubwimana is a Chelsea fan. As for the Chelsea fan, Savior Turikubwimana, who we found at one Africabet outlets Kicukiro, he is confident Jose Mourinho’s men remain his best bet to win a second successive EPL title. “We shall defend our title; I have no doubt about that. It will be hard but we have the best manager in the world and we have just signed a very good striker (Radamel Falcao) to add to Diego Costa, Loic Remy and I think he will improve our team,” noted Turikubwimana, an ardent betting fanatic. Another Chelsea supporter, Erick Mutimura, chipped in with his view about the Special One being the best at getting the best out of ageing players, saying, “Mourinho likes using such kind of players (Falcao) and he gets what he exactly wants out of them, we still have the players we had last season and we just need to do what we did last season.” He went further, “Chelsea will win this season’s title because we did not bring in many new players and as a matter of fact, our players are used to each other. Unlike other teams like United and Liverpool that are signing many new players, who always need time to settle in their new environment.” And at another betting place in Remera, we met, Samuel Ndikumana, a Manchester City supporter and he believes the Citizens have a lot to prove this season following what he described as a “disappointing second-place finish to Chelsea last season.” Ndikumana supports Manchester City. “Last season, we had a good team to win the league but we paid the price for being inconsistent, which allowed Chelsea to seize the opportunity, but this season is going to be different,” he stated. However, Ndikumana is of the view that City need to change the manager, probably to replace Manuel Pelegrini with the current Bayern Munich coach, Pep Guardiola. He says, “I think to become a consistently successful team, we need to have a new manager Guardiola, who can bring us beautiful football as he has done at Bayern and Barcelona. We need a more count-attacking team that also plays good passing football for the fans to enjoy.” editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Local fans warm-up to the start of Premier League season