Views from the terrace

AP: What’s your biggest fear for the forthcoming season for your club?

Steven Kelly (Liverpool): All this talk about ‘the final push.’ We’re not an 82 point team. 75-80 points would be good. Shankly and Paisley never got to 80.

And for somebody other than Gerrard to step up. It just can’t be about Gerrard. United in the 90s had Schmeichel, Beckham, Keane, Giggs as well as Cantona.

Sissoko looks like a natural successor to Hamman. Bellamy is a dark horse. I was generally pleased with his signing. But Van Kuyt would be a questionable one. We spent £10m on Heskey, £11m for Diouf, £15m for Cisse. All money down the drain.

Richard Kurt (Man United): My only hope, and it is not much to ask, is that the football is more entertaining than it has been for the last two or three years. My fear is that another English team wins the Champions League and, of course, the perennial nightmare that is a Manchester City derby victory.

Trizia Fiorellino (Chelsea): I want to win the league again and, if the FA Cup Final is moved back to Wembley, to be the first club to win it there. Winning back-to-back was hard last season, and I think that a treble will be even more difficult. But I am also desperate for Shevchenko to be a success. We have had such a rotten record of big money signings — Laudrup, Fleck, Sutton, Bogarde, Mutu. I want this one to work. My fear is that Mourinho will quit.

Bernard Azulay (Arsenal): A more competitive Premiership climate, in which the principal contenders aren’t saying their “das-vi-danyas” before Xmas. I fear that unless a few decorative touches are introduced at Ashburton Grove, to establish some sense of the Arsenal’s illustrious history, we Gooners will be watching our football in a wonderful, albeit sadly utterly soul-less, Yankee-style corporate cavern.

AP: Did we learn anything at all from the World Cup?

SK: Two things — don’t sack your manager before you go into the tournament. And that only teams that can pass the ball properly can win.

RK: That English footballers are disgracefully overrated, over-pampered and overpaid. I still think that most good European club sides would comfortably beat anybody in that tournament.

TF: We learned that you don’t win cups just by having the best technical attributes. Gattuso and Grosso weren’t the most gifted players . . . but you do need people like that in a successful team.

BA: We learned that a major domestic scandal immediately prior to the competition is most advantageous to one’s chances of winning. We learned that England’s performances (and their penalties!) were the absolute personification of their platitudinous and prosaic management. We learned that Martin O’Neill is by far and away the most entertaining and honest pundit.

David Shonfield (European soccer): The Italian view is that England should have been capable of winning the World Cup and they attribute the failure to the lack of tactical expertise from the manager. The other lesson from the World Cup is that the midfield diamond works if you have a creative player at the tip of it.

AP: Who will be the player to watch this season?

SK: Any of the new ones. Gonzalez and Bellamy.

RK: I hope this will be the season that Giuseppe Rossi (opposite top right) lives up to all his promise. After all, it’s meant to be Italy’s year isn’t it?

TF: Robben. It’s a really important season for him

BA: Midfielder Mark Randall caught my eye with some nifty footwork at the Arsenal’s Members Day shindig and Armand Traore made his presence known with a couple of bone crunching challenges during the Dennis Testimonial.

DS: Fabregas. The Italians are going really potty over him.

AP: Which players are past their sell-by date?

SK: I reckon we’ll get one more season out of Hyppia and Fowler.

RK: I don’t share the general euphoria about Ryan Giggs as a central midfield player and suspect this will be his last meaningful season — and much as it pains me to say it, I fear Scholes and Ole may be leaving Old Trafford as discards next summer. Several younger players probably need getting rid of too.

TF: No Chelsea players are past their sell-by date.

BA: With Sol sold and Dennis departed, the more pertinent question at the Arsenal these days is “who has yet to reach puberty?“!

AP: Which player are you most looking forward to seeing?

SK: It will be nice to see Shevchenko and Ballack at club level. And Rooney and Ronaldo — let’s see how that goes!

RK: Like most fans I will be intrigued by Schevchenko and Ballack. Obviously I hope they fall flat on their faces. But more likely they will be the key to a CL victory.

TF: Shevchenko, Rosicky . . . and Walcott.

BA: Rosicky, Steve Sidwell. Wishful thinking — Fernando Torres, Yaya Touré

DS: Berbatov

AP: Who are the best signings of the summer?

SK: Shevchenko, Duff and Bellamy.

RK: Sod’s law dictates that Ruud will probably be a massive hit in Madrid getting on the end of Beckham’s crosses and will be hailed as the bargain of the summer. The Forlan deal, with knobs on.

TF: Duff, because of the price.

BA: Duff, Carrick, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Zokora and Berbatov do the business for Spurs.

DS: Benny McCarthy for Blackburn.

AP: What’s the state of refereeing in the Premiership?

DS: Graham Poll and Gallagher are very good refs.

SK: They’re all shit. They all referee the games as though they are dealing with children. The worst thing that has happened recently is this “gentleman’s agreement” that they have to kick the ball out when players get injured, and it was seen at its most idiotic in the Arsenal v Spurs game. Players take advantage of it. The referee should decide.

RK: My beef was always with the terrible standard of linesmen and the institutional failure to make the best use of available technology, an attitude that is outright Luddism.

BA: By and large the mistakes made by officials in the Premiership are honest mistakes.

AP: What’s the biggest issue for fans this year?

SK: Cost is the issue. The clubs have to give some money back to the fans.

RK: Same as it ever was: ticket prices, atmosphere and the way fans are treated at away matches by the authorities. Every year I hope that this will be the season when fans discover their testicles and stop behaving like serfs.

TF: Cost. People are being priced out. Chelsea are trying to charge £40 for a friendly against Celtic this week. It’s the second week of August and there’s an expensive season ahead. Compare that with the Zola testimonial which was £25 and £10 for kids.

BA: The corporate-ification of clubs.

AP: Could a scandal like the one which has taken place in Italy happen here?

TF: Yes, I think it’s already happened. What is interesting since we have become champions is the number of decisions we get in our favour at home. It’s very noticeable. I’m not saying that’s corrupt, but it is peculiar. We never used to get them.

SK: Anything that is so closely related to gambling — which the Premiership is — is going to be vulnerable.

RK: Having lived in Italy I can assure you that we will never be able to beat the Italians for endemic corruption! However, all elements of the Italian scandal are undoubtedly present in the English game too — but they happen at a much lower intensity.

DS: The role of the agents has got to be more closely scrutinised. The way that agents work with each other is questionable and it is one of the things that is going to be altered in Italy.

TF: One of the big questions for me is why on earth Theo Walcott got selected for England. Both Chelsea and Arsenal were in for him, but the suggestion is that he would find it easier to get into the England squad if he went to Arsenal. Yet Chelsea have more England players than Arsenal, and Arsenal may not have any this season if Ashley Cole makes the move that everyone expects. Yet Walcott gets picked. I think we need to know the truth about this decision. It stinks. And it leads back to Arsenal.

DS: Of course, Walcott has got the same agent as Steve McClaren. But another interesting area is the relationship between clubs. Why is it, for example, that Chelsea appear to have particularly close relationships with, say, Portsmouth and Birmingham.

BA: Nothing is impossible, since everyone has their price. Nevertheless, with the exception of Chelski, unlike in Italy, British football is not governed by an oligarchy of super powerful industrialists/politicians like Agnelli and Berlusconi.

AP: Should there be any technological change to help referees?

TF: I would be prepared to see the introduction of technology which can determine whether the ball is over the line or not

SK: That wouldn’t have anything to do with Garcia’s goal would it? If technology slows the game down and means I’m getting out of the ground at 5.20 instead of 5.00pm then forget it.

DS: The management of offside is a joke. There are too many good goals chalked off.

SK: Let’s go back to the original reason for the offside rule. It was introduced to prevent goal-hanging which was boring. It was not introduced to stop people like Samuel Eto’o scoring in a Champions League final because he has got one foot ahead of the last defender. It’s pathetic and it’s not football. When people talk about forwards interfering with play what it actually means is that they are interfering with the other team’s offside trap . . . and let’s face it — offside is a defender’s way of not defending properly.

BA: Inept officiating is part and parcel of what makes our game so beautiful. I could perhaps accept the limited use of goal line technology. Meanwhile I would be bang up for the introduction of any system which was designed to prevent Premiership officials becoming personalities in their own right

AP: Which away game are you most looking forward to this season?

SK: Arsenal at their new stadium

RK: Arsenal. I will bitch and moan that it is nowhere near as nice as Highbury but will doubtless be secretly impressed.

TF: Sheffield United.

BA: Fratton Park, despite if being a decrepit p***hole; Watford because of their sensible ticket pricing policy and Bramall Lane to hear the best terrace tune of them all:You fill up my senses,

Like a gallon of Magnet,

Like a packet of Woodbines,

Like a good pinch of snuff,

Like a night out in Sheffield,

Like a greasy chip butty,

Like Sheffield United,

Come thrill me again

DS: Roma

AP: Who will be the Premiership 1/2/3/4

SK: Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, United

RK: Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, United

TF: Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs

BA: Chelsea, Arsenal, United, Liverpool

DS: Chelsea, Liverpool, United, Spurs

AP: Which is the team most likely to break into the top four?

SK: Newcastle

RK: Tottenham

TF: Tottenham

BA: Tottenham

DS: Tottenham

AP: Who will be relegated?

SK: Reading, Watford, Sheffield United

RK: Reading, Watford and Sheffield United (but, of course, Manchester City)

TF: Watford, Fulham, Reading

BA: Watford, Fulham, Wigan

DS: Everton, Watford, Reading

AP: Who will win the FA Cup?

SK: Chelsea, Arsenal, United or Liverpool

RK: United

TF: Chelsea

BA: Arsenal

DS: Arsenal

AP: Who will win the Carling Cup?

SK: Whichever of the main teams goes out of the Champions League at the group stage

RK: Liverpool

TF: Tottenham

BA: West Ham

DS: United

AP: Who will win the Champions League?

SK: Barcelona

RK: Chelsea

TF: Inter Milan

BA: Real Madrid

DS: Real Madrid

AP: Who will be the first managerial sacking after the season’s start?

SK: Roeder

RK: I hope it is Moyes. I can’t stand him.

TF: Redknapp

BA: Chris Coleman

DS: Roeder

Terrace Talk with Steven Kelly, Richard Kurt, Trizia Fiorellino and Bernard Azulay returns on Wednesday, August 23, four days after the start of the new season.