Prem chief wants more challengers in title race
MORE City dominance will not go down well with the people who run the Premier League.
Pep Guardiola’s side outclassed every team they came up against last season in the division to win the title by an astonishing 19 points.
A number of records were broken on the way to City securing 100 points for the campaign and they also scored more goals than have ever been seen in the top flight.
The challenge is now for them to become the first team since 2009 to defend the crown.
But while Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore isn’t against them reaching that achievement, he doesn’t want them to remain that much better than everyone else.
“It doesn’t take away from City’s excellence, but we want the season to go to the last,” Scudamore said.
“I’d like multiple trophies needed in various locations on the last day because we don’t know how it will end.
“I’d like someone to get a little bit closer to Manchester City. Clearly, given the way they played last season, they look like the team to beat.”
Guardiola has already admitted that his team will struggle to match the achievements of last season in terms of points and is gearing up for a much tighter title race.
“I’ll be happy if we arrive at the end game being there.” he said.
“We cannot deny there are more contenders. Chelsea, United, Tottenham have excellent players and that’s why no team has back-to-back [titles] in 10 years.” WITH Thibaut Courtois heading for Real Madrid, Chelsea are expected to break the world record for a goalkeeper to bring in Kepa Arrizabalaga for £71.6m today.
It can’t really count as a SMASH given Liverpool paid £67m for Alisson less than a month ago, but it does represent a remarkable doubling of the fee paid for Gianluigi Buffon back in 2001 – the most expensive until this summer.
Reaction to Chelsea and Liverpool appears to have been as animated as a collective shrug of the shoulders. Both clubs need quality goalkeepers and they don’t come cheap in today’s transfer market.
Which would be fine, except for the hysteria around City doing exactly the same thing – but spending far less money – just 12 months ago.
Remember the glee that people took in scrambling to fiddle with exchange rates to make out that Ederson, an uncapped Brazilian from the Portuguese league, was the most expensive goalkeeper ever?
Or the way he was bundled into City’s total spend that included a ‘game-ruining’ signing of Kyle Walker?
City can hardly be blamed for inflating the market when every one of the players has added to their value in the last 12 months. Bernardo Silva, Ederson, Walker and Danilo have all more than justified their fee, while Benjamin Mendy has not depreciated in spite of his injury.
And if teams have been forced to follow the strategy of paying big money for very good players to compete with the Blues, nobody forced their rivals to pay twice as much for a goalkeeper as City spent on Ederson a year ago.
Txiki Begiristain has dropped some clangers during his time in charge of transfers, but his record since 2015 has been excellent. It was that summer when Liverpool were gladly telling all that they were getting a king’s ransom for an ordinary player, but City’s top brass were convinced that £44m would prove a bargain for Raheem Sterling. Paying £8m for Fabian Delph and £55m for Kevin de Bruyne hasn’t worked out badly, either. It would be nice if all those that hit out at City last year accepted they had wrongly or prematurely judged the situation and gave them due credit now. That isn’t likely in an age where false news can spread like wildfire to reinforce extreme political views and belated corrections make no headway in undoing all the damage already done. But perhaps the Pep team can take satisfaction from the fact so many of their rivals are imitating their strategy as they put all their might into stopping a second successive Premier League title at the Etihad. Simon Bajkowski