Intro:

Former Manchester United and Manchester City goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel looks forward to the new English Premier League season.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Peter Schmeichel

(on Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea):

"David De Gea has done fantastically well since he came to the club. He was heavily criticised for not being good enough in the first, sort of six months of his time at Old Trafford. But within that very same season, he put himself in the frame as a fantastic goalkeeper and by the end of that season no-one thought he wasn't good enough and he's developed fantastically."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Peter Schmeichel

(on Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal):

"What we needed in the first season was for him to stop the rot, for him to produce some kind of result that showed everyone, all the fans, that we are back on track, that we're now starting chasing trophies again. And he did that by, obviously with the qualification to the Champions League. Well now it's a new season. Now we're thinking about championships again, we're thinking about winning the Champions League and that's what Manchester United is - that's the football club. Everyone who supports Manchester United - they want that and they want to be entertained at the same time. So it's a big task and, you know, he's had a year to get used to the idea of what the club is and now he has to go and prove that he can do the job."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Peter Schmeichel

(on Manchester City's prospects for the new season):

"I think Manchester City is probably the biggest interesting question mark for this coming season. For all the money they have in the world, it hasn't seemed, they haven't seemed to get enough back from that. The Premier League is very, very important of course to them as well but I think it's the whole Champions League thing that confuses them. Why are they not successful in the Champions League? I think all the big clubs want to win that. And I think they've made one good decision and that's to stay with (manager) (Manuel) Pellegrini. This changing managers all the time, it's not going to help anyone."