Which teams will challenge last season's top four?"I think you can expect good improvement from Tottenham and Newcastle. Everton have done good business in the summer. David Moyes has lengthened a lot of the contracts at the club, without having to go outside - heÂ’s keeping his own group together. So I think heÂ’s done a good job there. Blackburn, Reading and Portsmouth, with the experience of Harry Redknapp, will be respectable."
Do you hope for a closer race?
"I donÂ’t think Liverpool and Arsenal will want to be 20 points behind us again this year. So, I think you can expect improvement there. Newcastle - Sam Allardyce will definitely improve them. His experience and organisational skills will make a difference there."What improvement do you expect to see in your team?"What you want to see in the team, having won the league, is more authority, consistency and continuity. We noticed that in training in the Far East. It is a far more stable situation. We expect the young players to improve a lot, like Rooney, Ronaldo, Anderson and Nani. We expect a great deal more authority for players like Fletcher, OÂ’Shea, Vidic and Evra. But we also have the right people to call on in terms of experience, like Neville, Giggs, Scholes, Ferdinand and van der Sar."
You say Rooney and Ronaldo can improve. TheyÂ’re already being touted as among the best in the world. How good can they be?
"At 21 and 22, thatÂ’s three or four years before you reach full maturity. Getting to that stage gives you authority, timing, control of your game. When I was a player, I felt at my strongest when I was 25 or 26. At 21 you do daft things on the pitch, inconsistent things. You have moments where you show your ability, you score a goal then you miss a chance. IÂ’m confident they'll get better."Is it more difficult to retain the title than to win it initially?"When we won the league three times in a row, the next season after that was very difficult because we felt there was an edge to teams that played us where they were trying to stop us. But, I think the league has changed. Clubs are far more focused on personal interests now than stopping other teams playing. The seven or
eight teams I mentioned earlier are all interested in themselves. I think the Premier League is becoming more competitive. ItÂ’s more of an international league, but itÂ’s not got the same focus of trying to stop United, or Chelsea or Arsenal. That doesnÂ’t come into it as much as it once did."
Sven-Goran Eriksson has bought a few players - how do you think Manchester City will do?
"Well, buying nine or ten players is difficult. You canÂ’t expect overnight success with that. ItÂ’s difficult to say how theyÂ’re going to do, but you wouldnÂ’t expect them to be consistently good. As I know myself, itÂ’s always difficult to build teams."With the additions you've made over the summer, is the squad good enough to win more than trophy this season?"If we get to the same position as last season, we will have a better chance. I honestly believe that the Champions League semi-final against AC Milan was just one too many for us at the time. Credit to AC Milan, their preparation for the second leg was much, much better than ours. They didnÂ’t have the responsibility of going for their league title. They rested nine players and we got caught on that one. The sudden loss of players we suffered from the middle of March was tough. We went into April missing seven or eight players. For the Everton game, I rested Ronaldo because his ankle was giving him bother. But at 2-1 down I needed to bring him on and he never got over that. His ankle gave him problems all summer."
In past seasons, you've been trying to match Chelsea. Do you think the tables have turned?
"ItÂ’s possible. You have to do that when one of your rivals wins the league. You have to ask what youÂ’re up against. When Arsenal went through the season undefeated, we felt then that the bar had been raised to the 90-point level. ThatÂ’s what weÂ’re looking at now, the 90-point mark, to be in contention to win the league."What would a tenth Premier League title mean?"It would be fantastic. ThatÂ’s a great challenge for someone like Ryan Giggs. ItÂ’s a wonderful opportunity for someone like him because it's hard to imagine how it would be done again."
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