The new season is just around the corner and the usual trepidation will be felt, by fans, the length and breadth of the nation, but I suspect there will be more than the usual amount of concern at three Premier League clubs in particular, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. The reason: a new manager.
Usually a new man at the helm means a testing time all round, but for those three clubs the situation is magnified by the fact that all three newcomers are foreign and, looking at it from the perspective of fans of those three clubs, we don't really know a great deal about the new coaches.
I use that word, coaches, because it seems to be the trend that if they are British we call them managers, if from overseas we refer to them as coaches, maybe there's something Freudian in there.
Jose Mourinho, the new man at Stamford Bridge, is probably the most well known of the trio of new Premiership coaches because of his track record with Porto over the past two seasons.
What intrigues me, personally, about Jose is the fact that he has only been a coach for about ten years after being Bobby Robson's interpreter at Sporting Lisbon and the fact that he never played professional football, despite being the son of a famous Portuguese international, Felix Mourinho.
Like other Premier League coaches from overseas, as well as Sven-Goran Eriksson, Arsene Wenger and Gerard Houllier, not having been a professional footballer doesn't seem to have hampered Jose's progress as a coach. Managers, sorry, coaches, are judged by results and winning the UEFA Cup and the Champions League, in successive seasons is as good as entries on a CV get.
Although we all have to learn what makes the man tick, Mourinho has already made an impact at Stamford Bridge in the way he has slotted in to his new job, with his man-management. It's obvious that the man doesn't suffer fools gladly, not a bad character trait, and in just two little episodes he has shown that he is not given to knee-jerk reactions.
When he decided to bring a new full back to Chelsea, Ferreira, he spoke to Glen Johnson about his future and, basically, gave the young English defender the option of staying to fight for a place, or leaving. And when Hernan Crespo failed to turn up for a pre-season meeting he didn't immediately show him the door and, as we are led to believe, told the Argentine striker that he could still do a job for Chelsea.
Less well known, despite his track record as coach of the French national team, is Tottenham's new man, Jacques Santini. After France's dismal failure to defend their World Cup, in 2002, Santini took over and won 15 out of his first 17 games as France swept through the qualifiers to reach the finals of Euro 2004, where they failed, again, to defend a trophy they held.
The news that Santini had been appointed by Spurs broke during Euro 2004 and may, or may not, have had an adverse effect on France, who went out of the tournament to Greece.
Although, like Rafael Benitez and Mourinho, Santini is starting in this country with a clean slate, observers will have noted that despite having some of the cream of Europe's players in Portugal, Santini's team didn't really perform to its previous high standards and, with the best will in the world, the Spurs squad isn't anywhere near as good as the French national squad.
What is also confusing about Tottenham's new man in charge is, is he in charge? That question needs to be asked because no less a figure at White Hart Lane than chairman Daniel Levy has said: "The most important appointment was Frank Arnesan (Spurs' Sporting Director ) because he will dictate our player policy with assistance from Jacques." We shall wait and see how the partnership works.
Benitez is probably the least well-known of the Premiership's new trio of foreign coaches. The new Liverpool coach was appointed shortly after the club parted company with Gerard Houllier and, like Mourinho, has an impressive CV. Under his guidance Valencia won the Primera Liga twice as well as the UEFA Cup. Benitez was actually a player with his home-town club, Real Madrid, but after seven seasons of failing to break into their first team he left to play Third Division football but injury curtailed his career and he went into coaching.
I must confess I have neither seen nor heard any television or radio interviews with Benitez so I don't know if newspaper reports, concerning his commend of the English language, are accurate or not. Some articles say he does not speak English, some say he does and others state that he is 'taking English lessons'. Just another little obstacle to overcome when taking over at a new club.
I think the most difficult task facing Benitez isn't so much taking Liverpool to the Premiership title as convincing the likes of Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen that they can make a serious bid for that crown. Gerrard has committed himself to the club, after summer speculation he was on his way to Chelsea, and Owen looks set to do likewise. But those two young players, Liverpool's most influential, are unlikely to hang around for long if the first campaign under Benitez doesn't offer far more than the previous regime under Gerard Houllier.
On the face of it Mourinho would seem to have more going for him because of his character and the budget at Chelsea but all three will have their work cut out if they are to manage in the Premiership.
