Top Ten Players We're Genuinely Excited About

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10) Jonathan Woodgate
At several points last season, Harry Redknapp sounded rather pessimistic about the prospect of Woodgate having any career at all, never mind at Tottenham. Of course, when in the right mood, Harry Redknapp could sound pessimistic about the prospect of the sun rising in the morning, but in this case he had good reason to be downbeat. He only played 30 minutes of football last season, and a little under 200 the season before. It was a promising sign that he managed to stay upright for the entirety of Stoke's Europa League qualifier in Split last week, but Woodgate's career has been full of promising signs. This season will be sh*t or bust for Woodgate.


9) Jon Arne-Riise
It's rare for a player at a big club to be widely liked by neutrals. There are usually too many vested interests and personal prejudices involved, but when Riise was bombing down Liverpool's flank and unleashing howitzers from his left boot, a smile was an almost involuntary reaction. It was a shame to see him go, but it's a pleasure to see him back.


8) Tom Cleverley
As I write this the news that Cleverley has been called up by England is scrolling across the bottom of the Sky Sports News screen. We're sure his mother will be very proud. However, Cleverley should also keep in mind that David Nugent, Michael Ricketts and Francis Jeffers also have a piece of blue tassly headgear at home. If we are to take Sir Alex Ferguson's word as his bond and Manchester United really won't sign anyone else this summer, Cleverley has a season to convince his boss that they really don't need to spend enormous amounts of cash on a creative midfielder next summer either. Cleverley is the most naturally creative central midfielder Ferguson currently has at his disposal, and if his development continues then England have another playmaker waiting in the wings.


7) Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba
Perhaps it's not the performance of each player that will be notably interesting or exciting, but more how Andre Villas-Boas uses them both. Villas-Boas will have four - possibly five, assuming Romelu Lukaku's move goes through - strikers whose favoured position is as a centre-forward. Given that his preferred system utilises only one centre-forward, that means a lot of time on the bench or out of position for some very high-profile footballers. Danny Sturridge and Nic Anelka can fit in out wide, but Torres and Drogba cannot. An interesting juggling act awaits.


6) Mario Balotelli
Balotelli was born on August 12, 1990. He was fostered by an Italian couple after his Ghanaian parents admitted they needed help caring for him. He is a black Italian footballer who grew up in a country where racism is still very much present in the stands. He moved to a strange land when he was 19. You know all this, but it's worth mentioning again because a lot of people seem to have written him off as a liability already, convinced that whatever is currently going on in his head will preclude him from making a success of his career. This is becoming a minor pet project of mine, but in both his performance in, and interview after the FA Cup final, Balotelli displayed a good degree of maturity and self-awareness - two qualities he will need in order to thrive. But if Balotelli continues behaving as he has been for another season, it will be significantly more difficult for me to continue arguing as I have been. Finding out whether he is capable of mending his ways is certainly going to be interesting.


5) Adel Taarabt
Many Spurs fans lament 'Disco' Adel Taarabt as the great lost talent of White Hart Lane. On the evidence available to us so far, that is wistful nonsense. When Taarabt was good, he was almost unplayable in the Championship last season, but when he was bad, he was horrid. If he couldn't break down a defence, or misplaced a pass, or simply wasn't quite in the mood, then the bottom lip began trembling, the shoulders shrugged and interest in the task at hand was lost. In one game against Hull, Taarabt decided after around 20 minutes that this wasn't going to be his day and asked to be taken off. If he is to reproduce anything like the form that QPR need from him this season, he will have to mature pretty quickly. One suspects that with Neil Warnock managing a talent the word 'mercurial' was invented for, life at Loftus Road will rarely be dull.


4) Luis Suarez
Big purchases from Holland are quite rightly treated with a decent dollop of scepticism in England. There are enough expensive mistakes to suggest that throwing lots of cash across the channel should be avoided, but at present Suarez looks like more of a Van Nistelrooy than an Afonso Alves. Of course, this is based on a bit more than three months of leg-twisting trickery and blistering bursts of pace, but Suarez's excellence at the Copa America will only encourage the Liverpool fans who spent the back end of last season getting terribly excited about their new number seven. Many of his Anfield teammates - particularly the new signings - look like functional, efficient footballers, designed to do a specific job and with a plan in mind. Suarez offers some flair, some excitement and some unpredictability. It'll keep us neutrals interested at least.


3) Gabriel Obertan
"I said I wanted to bring pace into the team," said Alan Pardew of his new signing. "It was lacking last year and Gabriel will definitely bring that to the team." Sir Alex Ferguson surprised many when he plucked Obertan from relative obscurity at Bordeaux (including then Bordeaux boss Laurent Blanc), and the early signs weren't great, as Obertan stumbled down the Old Trafford touchline, apparently without much concept of what to do with the round thing bobbling at his feet. Of course, we might be judging Obertan too early, because at United he didn't have anything close to a decent run in the first team. At an increasingly stretched Newcastle, he will certainly have that, and it'll be fascinating to see if our snap conclusions were right.


2) Aaron Ramsey
Any number of people go to bed at night praying that, when they wake up, Cesc Fabregas will finally have moved to Barcelona. Pep Guardiola, Cesc himself, anyone who spends any time reading the sports pages or F365, and perhaps Ramsey. Those expecting Wenger to spend oodles of cash on a direct replacement may well be rather disappointed, because Wenger probably believes he already has the man to fill Fabregas's boots. Ramsey was beginning to show his chops just before his injury in February 2010, making the lost eight months even more of a crying shame and while upon his return he was noticeably and understandably tentative, towards the end of the season little hints of his talent poked through. In some ways the emergence of Jack Wilshere may help Ramsey if he is to replace Fabregas, because less of the creative burden