It’s only weeks until the season starts and clubs’ pre-season matches are well underway, some more successfully than others, and the excitement is already beginning to build.
But while these matches against unknown Swedish sides, MLS all-star teams and other terrible clubs are generally used to get players fit they can also be a chance for supporters to get a preview of who will be the coming season’s surprise stars.
Last season, Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas and Tottenham’s Aaron Lennon burst onto the scene with vigor, but such emergence is not limited to untried teenagers. Pascal Chimbonda came from nowhere to make the Premiership team of the season and could yet find himself at a bigger club if Wigan would let him go for under 4.5bn. New signings are just as good a way to turn rival chants of “Who are ya?” into humble silence.
So let us know which player(s) from your club you reckon could be one of the surprises of 2006/07 (and a little detail as to why).
It’ll be a long wait, but we’ll come back to this one at the end of the season and see who can claim bragging rights for life. It’s difficult to explain the smug satisfaction you will enjoy when you can prove to your mates that you knew about Ross Warden before anyone else.