Fantasy Football has come to life
Mega-spending raises title stakes even higher
TWENTY-fivE years ago we awaited the start of the first Premier League season and transfer records were broken as clubs jostled for position on the start line.
Blackburn Rovers, newly promoted, broke the record for a fee paid by a British club with their £ 3.4million purchase of Alan Shearer, while several players were transferred for roughly £2m.
How quaint that all seems today. it is the same sport played by the same clubs but in some ways it is barely recognisable.
The new season that kicks off tonight will be brought to us on the back of an unprecedented level of spending.
This is a Premier League where full backs can cost more than £50m, goalkeepers £30m and the really rare stones, prolific goal scorers, upwards of £70m. This is a Premier League where the manager of the champions can spend £140m on players and think it not enough.
This is fantasy football made real. it is not a new concept but the acceleration of the numbers this summer has been startling and the great unanswered question is where exactly it leaves us.
Nobody is really surprised that Manchester City have led the way in terms of outlay. Last season was disappointing and Pep Guardiola and his ageing squad finished it with serious ground to make up. Logically, we should be looking at this season’s champions. A look through the players reveals an array of attacking options not previously available to a manager in this country. Players such as Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling can no longer assume first-choice status.
But uncertainty still swirls around Guardiola’s team. The Spaniard struggled at times to understand the demands of English football last season and seemed no closer to comprehension at the end.
His team will have new defenders and another new goalkeeper. if they don’t come together to form a protective barrier then all that beauty at the other end will only decorate another nine months of relative failure. So we cannot rely on City’s whole to equal the sum of its parts and that is something that also characterises other top clubs.
Despite all that has been spent, it is hard to choose a favourite for the title. Chelsea coach Antonio Conte feels that the champions’ rivals will present a greater threat than last time and this underpins his dissatisfaction with the club’s transfer business. Key to Chelsea’s pros- pects will be Alvaro Morata’s efforts at replacing Diego Costa and whether Conte’s team can remain as injury-free as they did last season. Conte has alluded to both issues recently.
Arsenal have not improved enough to challenge but back in Manchester, former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho will be one of those hoping to stalk his old club.
United are coming from some way back but have invested in key positions. Great United teams always built from the spine outwards and it is no coincidence that football’s great pragmatist has bought a central defender, holding midfielder and striker. for all the doubts about parts of his game, it is hard to believe Romelu Lukaku will not score goals. He scored heavily for Everton so why not for United? Mourinho’s team have neither City’s quality in depth nor the benefit of Tottenham’s familiarity, but United will be built not to concede and if key players stay fit they will at least have a voice in the argument.
Tottenham’s stasis in the transfer market may harm them but probably not as much as their move to Wembley. This will be Mauricio Pochettino’s toughest season at Spurs while Jurgen Klopp faces a huge challenge to juggle domestic and European football at Liverpool. if Klopp does lose Philippe Coutinho he must make sure it is soon, as that money will need to be reinvested very promptly.
As always, there will be subplots. Money has been spent at Everton but, with Lukaku gone, who scores their goals? it would be a surprise if it were Wayne Rooney on a regular basis.
it is hard to form a convincing argument that the gap in quality that saw 15 points separate Everton in seventh and Southampton in eighth has been bridged. if anything, we may see that chasm widen. We have interesting new faces in charge at Crystal Palace and Southampton.
At West Ham, Slaven Bilic must start well and he has staked much on the pairing of Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic. There will not be many shades of grey in that attacking partnership. Mark Hughes at Stoke may also find himself under pressure if they do not start positively, while at Bournemouth Eddie Howe’s challenge is to improve on last term’s remarkable ninth place.
Life will be tough in the Premier League for Brighton and Huddersfield but it is good to have them. Newcastle have not strengthened in the manner Rafael Benitez expected and that saga rumbles on. Expect an explosion any time soon at St James’ Park but if Benitez does stick around Newcastle are likely to prosper in a way the two other promoted clubs may not.