City charges, new faces – next season will be NOT be boring
No sooner had Manchester City’s name been etched on the Premier League trophy for a fourth successive season than the backlash began.
YouTube channels filled with rants and raves. Radio phone-ins were flooded with angry callers. Social media was alive with posts of disgruntlement and disgust. The notion that winning the Premier League title four years in a row – a record unmatched by anyone, not even Sir Alex Ferguson – was a feat of brilliance was quickly transformed into an indication of how boring English football’s top division has become.
It is a reaction that has been simmering for some time – the idea permeating City’s inner sanctum to the extent that, in the week building up to the final day, Pep Guardiola addressed it by saying, “It’s boring? It’s not.” And Phil Foden (right) said after securing the title that they will “never get bored” of winning.
The critics say that
City have spent more on players than anyone else, that they pay higher wages, that the title race was nothing more than a myth this season, a mirage, even though Arsenal led the table for 10 of the season’s 38 weeks, including three of the last five, and it went down to the final day.
That City’s financial muscle is irrevocably dismantling the integrity of Premier League. They have not only won four titles in a row, but six in seven years, and seven in 11. It has all become too predictable, too inevitable, a bit… meh.
Has anyone taken a moment to consider the mouth-watering prospect of next season yet?
Sometime in autumn City will face a hearing into the 115 financial charges laid against them by the Premier League. There will be courtroom drama as lawyers on both sides state their case to an independent panel and though the cameras won’t be allowed inside (if someone at Sky hasn’t asked the question, they really should do) all will be revealed in a lengthy document when the conclusion is announced, at some as yet unknown point in the season.
Will it mean points deductions? Fines? Titles stripped? Expulsion from the league? Will it mean exoneration? Nobody has a clue, but everyone is fascinated to find out if City are as innocent as they have always maintained or if the Premier League’s 379-page rulebook, in which no sanction measures are written, is about to be thrown at them.
The manager behind this unrivalled modern success, Pep Guardiola, may well not be in charge next season, judging by recent comments.
Liverpool, one of City’s closest challengers in the Guardiola era and the only club to pinch a title from them, have lost their own messiah and into the breach will step Arne Slot (below), an entirely unproven coach outside the Netherlands. Nobody has a clue how it will play out, but either way it will be fun to watch.
Arsenal are suddenly really good again, and are a strong summer away from seriously challenging City regardless of the considerable uncertainty that lies ahead. Tottenham Hotspur are an absolutely wild ride under Ange Postecoglou – equal parts combustible and unpredictable, at any given time unequal parts goals scored and goals conceded, but mostly lots of them.
Manchester United are on fire – as in ablaze, rather than in great form.
And Sir Jim Ratcliffe has swooped in to put it out, a man who may have billions of pounds but has run two other football clubs not particularly well.
Chelsea have been on fire, too, and the flames appear to be dying down, but people are still staring at the wreckage through their fingers wondering if it will ignite again at any moment.
Boring? The Premier League is going to be box-office next season.
And this does not even include Aston Villa, who started and ended the season conceding five goals and still qualified for the Champions League.
And Newcastle United, who have more money than anyone else in the world, so much that rivals are desperately coming up with new rules to stop them spending it. There’s a discussion topic on Reddit that asks if the Chicago Bulls were hated in the Nineties.
I was intrigued to find out because the Bulls are one of the most famous dynasties in sport history, inspired by Michael Jordan, who as a result become one of the most famous athletes ever.
They won six NBA titles from 1991 to 1998 – including two threepeats, winning three in a row. Six out of seven titles, sound familiar?
The general conclusion to the Reddit chat is that the Bulls had plenty of haters in their day – particularly fans of teams they denied titles – but that they were the most famous team in the world and largely loved by neutrals. The same could definitely not be said of City.
Still, when Netflix made a documentary about their story two decades later, it made for compelling, awe-inspiring viewing. The Last Dance certainly wasn’t about how boring everyone found it.
The manager behind this unrivalled success, Pep Guardiola, may well not be in charge next season