I want to talk about that big sky blue elephant in the room.
There is no doubt that Manchester City, over the past two or three years, have become a massive talking point in English football. Their spending power has overshadowed everybody else in the league, including previous holders of the title "Moneybags FC", Chelsea. They almost overshadow every club in Europe. If it weren't for Real Madrid spending £140m on two players, they probably would have.
Whether you think such spending power is "good for the game" or whether you believe that the Citizens are trying to "buy success" is, by and large, irrelevant. The only question that needs answering is this: will they do it?
The Liverpool sides of the 70's & 80's and the Manchester United sides of the 90's & 00's achieved success through creating a dynasty. It starts with a league title or two, and then being able to use your success to create pulling power which enables you to buy top players. Manchester City, and Chelsea before them, did and do not have this luxury. They have therefore taken another approach.
Clearly Manchester City are also building something - but they have had to do it, more or less, without trophy success. A domestic cup win is all well and good, but consider that Portsmouth won that trophy recently and you realise that this alone will not attract the best players.
Last season, their aim was clear for all to see. Achieve a top 4 finish at all costs. A place in Europe's elite competition, the Champions League, was the next step in building the Manchester City dynasty. Narrowly missing out to Tottenham the season before, this time around they finished 3rd, only behind second-placed Chelsea on goal difference.
And, perhaps tellingly, that goal difference says a lot about how they went about things. Mancini employed a very cautious approach to a lot of games last season. None were more evident than their trip to the Emirates Stadium. This was an Arsenal side that was there for the taking, and there is no doubt that City could have beaten them if they'd tried. But they didn't. It seemed that Mancini was happy with a 0-0 result even before kick-off. If they nicked a goal on the break, great, but otherwise a point was the "safe" result.
Their midfield trio in many games consisted of Gareth Barry, Nigel De Jong and Yaya Toure. Whilst Barry & Toure are both capable of getting forward, all three are primarily defensive-minded players. And this set-up made City extremely difficult to beat. They ground their way to a 3rd-place finish, that probably would have been 4th but for the inexplicable, yet predictable, late-season collapse of Arsenal.
Make no mistake - this year should be different. If Mancini has designs on kicking on further in the league there is only one place to go: a title challenge. To do this, he must forsake his cautious approach.
No doubt Manchester City have the players. Any team that can boast the names of David Silva, Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli, Sergio Aguero, Adam Johnson and possibly Carlos Tevez must surely have the capability to go out and outscore any other team in the league.
But will they? Is Mancini capable of altering his mindset to the point that Manchester City are taken as seriously as their squad list suggests they should be? If he does, then the Premier League should consider itself put on warning - Manchester City mean business.
And if he doesn't I'm sure the men at the top will not hesitate to find a man who will.
My personal opinion is that the title will be one step too far this season. Another top 3 finish beckons, I think. Whether that is sufficient for the owners remains to be seen, but I feel that would depend on the manner of their season. If they grind their way to a Champions League place like last season they may lose patience. If they make a serious title bid but just fall short, then perhaps Mancini will be given another year.
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