Season preview

New seasons are always exciting. The thrill of the clean slate on opening day is central to the rhythm of football support. If we didn't believe that a summer's transfers and changes could lead to a fresh start, a new hope for our club, there wouldn't be much point in spending our summers glued to Sky Sports News.

So, whoever we'd signed this summer, I'd be excited tonight. But the fact is that we have just undergone a summer of spending unprecedented in our history, if not in the history of British football. Not that it needs repeating, City have spent £94m this summer on a host of players with experience at the top end of the Premier League: Carlos Tévez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz, Gareth Barry and Kolo Touré have all come in to supplement a squad which was already stronger than its tenth placed finish in 2008/09 would suggest.

And so expectations for 2009/10 are higher than they have been for any season during my life time. Our summer additions have imaged possibilities of football success unlike anything we've seen in years. We may not win anything this year. It is a truism that wealth is a necessary but not sufficient factor for success (if I hear the phrase Zidanes y Pavones again I'll scream) - but the clarity of purpose of Sheikh Mansour is such that if we stray from the path that he has set, we can be confident that necessary changes will mean our continuing to move in the right direction.

For this year, though, we have a clear target: sixth. And no one can seriously doubt that, even without Joleon Lescott, we have the necessary resources now to achieve that. Measured step by measured step, we're heading for the very top.