MANCHESTER CITY
Budget: Unknown.
What's Being Said: N/A.
Nobody outside of Manchester City knows what is really occurring at Eastlands. And there are probably few people at Manchester City who know either. It is bewildering that a club which has just enjoyed its best-ever season in the Premier League could find itself enveloped in a crisis entirely of their own making so quickly.
Thaksin Shinawatra's complete disregard for the opinion of the City supporters protesting against his decision to oust Sven-Goran Eriksson is ironic given that it was the slight fall in the number of fans attending home matches this season that prompted the former Thai PM to demand high-profile arrivals this summer. This then led to Shinawatra being duped into believing that there was a realistic opportunity to sign Ronaldinho - a vivid illustration of his ignorance of football machinations and the seed of the rift with Eriksson that has since become an irreparable breach.
According to those familiar with Thai business practices, Shinawatra's casual attitude towards the dismissal of Eriksson - followed, reputedly, by a warning to the entire Citeh squad - is the norm in a country that does not regard worker loyalty as a virtue. He has personal form in this regard with Thailand's People Power Party, still loyal to the country's former leader, reportedly removing 'a raft of top police and military officers' since triumphing in December's election.
One noteworthy trait in the foreign ownership of Premiership clubs is that they have followed the stereotype of their benefactor's home nation - the Americans at Liverpool pursuing profit, the Thai at Citeh having no qualms with a personnel overhaul, and the Russian at Chelsea dictating the club's direction without ever making himself accountable to the little people - the fans - let alone addressing them.
The mess at City may soon become messier still with a host of disillusioned players, including Richard Dunne, Micah Richards, Michael Johnson and Joe Hart apparently heading for the exit door either with a push from their extraordinary owner or because of the extraordinariness of the owner.
Twelve months ago, Eriksson embarked on a near-total overhaul of the City squad, which may have persuaded Shinawatra to believe that it can be repeated again. However, thanks to his inexplicable meddling, City are not now the attractive and adventurous proposition they were last summer. The revolution has been corrupted and finding players and a manager willing to work for the unpredictable and unreasonable Thai owner will be a tough task regardless of how much money he provides as bait.
MIDDLESBROUGH
Budget: Unknown and, it could be said, irrelevant.
What's Being Said: 'In terms of there being spectacular signings, I am not sure that's what we need. That's what we have always tried to do as a club, but I am not sure that is what we should be trying to do. It's exciting for the supporters, at times, to see a name come in, but in the long-term, is it productive?" - Gareth Southgate.
Now the third team of the north-east, Middlesbrough no longer make a sizeable splash when they dip into the transfer market. This is perhaps as much deliberate as it is enforced; the club seems intent on adding as many homegrown players to their first-team squad as big-money signings.
Not that Boro have been particularly shy about spending in the last year having recruited Afonso Alves, Mido, Tuncay Sanli and Jeremie Aliadiere to replace Yakubu and Mark Viduka. Chairman Steve Gibson would probably sanction further investment but, tellingly, Southgate claims not to have even asked for an indication as to the funds available. The Boro manager is the second-youngest manager in the top flight and would seemingly have no qualms about managing the league's youngest team.
If and when Southgate does spend Gibson's money it will be on midfielders having removed Gaizka Mendieta and Fabio Rochemback from the wage bill. Already his priority, new midfielders will become essential if George Boateng decides to depart as well - an action that may prompt Southgate to make the role of club captain redundant.
NEWCASTLE UNITED
Budget: The issue doesn't matter according to Kevin Keegan, but a mere fraction of Mike Ashley's bank balance would make the Toon one of the summer's big spenders. If they can find players willing to be spent on..
What's Being Said: You really need to be talking to Chris Mort or Dennis Wise about the finances. My job is to ask Tony Jimenez to go and get players. I give them a player and they go and try and get him for us
"...We're a million miles away from challenging for the league but if my owner backs me we want to try and finish fifth and top the other mini-league" - Kevin Keegan.
It's never straightforward at Newcastle but it's always worth watching. And that is particularly the case this summer when there will be as much interest in who makes the signings as who actually signs.
Their managerial set-up is a peculiarity bordering on the bizarre. Kevin Keegan is an isolated figure, with Dennis Wise, the club's strangely-titled 'executive director (football)', based in London and in charge of transfers along with Tony Jimenez, he of the equally-nonsensical 'vice-president (player recruitment)' job title. Even after clear-the-air talks with owner Mike Ashley - also based in London - it remains unclear what input Keegan has on the composition of the Toon's transfer shopping list, if any.
It was not the fault of either Wise or Jiminez that the club was so publicly - and humiliatingly - snubbed by Luka Modric. Instead, the Croat's decision to join Tottenham even though the Londoners were offering less money (both in terms of transfer fee and wages) provides a gloomy insight into the difficulties they face in persuading in-demand players to move to the unfashionable north-east. Spurs' offer may have been inferior but it was still a king's ransom - and one that up to ten Premier League clubs were willing to pay. The type of multi-million-pound investment that bankrolled the first Newcastle revival under Keegan is now two-a-penny and Newcastle's Newcastle location is an unmoving obstacle that Ashley and Wise have inadvertently highlighted by refusing to leave the capital 400 miles south.
As such, imagination will be as critical to reviving the Toon. Wise and Jimenez's task is to identify players who are below the radar but still possess the capability of propelling the Toon towards the top tier. If they continue to chase players of Modric's ilk then they are bound to be out-bid by the small matter of location regardless of the size of their wallet.
In his first life as Newcastle's manager, Keegan's persona and powers of persuasion frequently trumped the inconvenience of the Toon's location, so it can be considered a flaw that in the Toon's current set-up he has been ostracised from the recruitment process. On the other hand, he himself has made the task of persuasion significantly harder by proclaiming that, even if Ashley bankrolled a £50m spending spree, it would still be impossible to catch the Big Four. What player with ambition would want to join Newcastle if that is the opinion of its manager? Tottenham may have made themselves a laughing stock in previous summers by promising to break the Big Four dominance and then falling flat on their faces, but upon hearing Keegan's surrender, Modric may have congratulated himself on a lucky escape.
There is a further reason for thinking that Keegan's distance from the recruitment process may be wise. In between leaving Manchester City and returning to St James' in January, Keegan preferred founding a football academy in Glasgow over attending a single game of football in person. While that confession was over-analysed - it was hardly as if he did not watch a game on the television, and when have you ever seen Arsene Wenger scouting in person? - it is a truism of football that football managers tend to recruit from the markets they know best (Rafa from Spain, Arsene from France, ManYoo's increasingly-influential Carlos Queiroz from Portugal and Spain etc). Lo and behold, Keegan revealed in March that there were "four or five" players in Scotland who he would like to buy. With the greatest of respects to our Scotch cousins, it is arguable that there isn't a single player north of the border who would make pulses race at St James'. Toon supporters must rue Keegan's decision to relocate to Glasgow rather than spend his second sabbatical from the game as he did his first - on a golf course in Spain.
Perhaps Keegan was just being glib more recently when he nominated Thierry Henry as the player he would most like to sign. Or it may have been an indication of just how extreme his disinterest in football became before Newcastle called again and its consequences. If there is to be a revival, the seeds of inspiration will have to be planted as much by Wise and Jiminez as Ashley and Keegan.
Pete Gill