The big day has arrived and we kick off a new season which promises to be one of the best in recent years.
The Chelsea merry-go-round
There is an inside joke at Chelsea that so many players have been arriving and leaving Stamford Bridge that the club have had to install an extra revolving door to cope.
Chelsea are still looking to retrieve some of the £200million spent following their now all-familiar big summer spend. Newcastle have contacted Chelsea about taking winger Noni Madueke and Crystal Palace are looking at Carney Chukwuemeka. Leicester City are interested in David Fofana.
Pedro Neto was Chelsea’s 11th signing following Kieran Dewsbury-Hall, Tosin Adarabioyo, Renato Veiga, Caleb Wiley, Estevao Willian, Filip Jorgensen, Aaron Anselmino and Mike Penders. Neto will take the number 19 shirt which currently belongs to Amando Broja who is not in coach Enzo Maresca’s plans and has been listed for sale. Neto usually wears the number seven shirt but this belongs to Raheem Sterling.
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The club is still interested in old friend Joao Felix who spent 6 months with the Blues last season however talks are continuing with Napoli for Nigerian superstar striker Victor Osimhen which could include Romelu Lukaku moving permanently to Italy.
The Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital Group have now spent £1.5billion and under previous manager Graham Potter the squad was so big that several players had to change in a corridor! Enzo Maresca however likes to work with a group of 25.
Conor Gallagher’s £35 million move to Atletico Madrid is now on hold because the Spanish giants have to first sell a player despite the two clubs agreeing terms.
Clearwater are working to stay inside the FA profitability rules. When they took over at Stamford Bridge the average salary approached £200k a week. This season the figure has dropped to £70k a week which is below the Premier League average.
Training tragedy for Oscar Bobb
Manchester City winger Oscar Bobb was the pre-season stand out player and he was looking forward to a starting place in Pep Guardiola’s team. Tragically he fractured a bone in his leg during training this week which was an accident not connected to any physical contact. City’s medical staff are deciding if Oscar should be sent to Barcelona for an operation performed by renown trauma surgeon Dr Ramon Cugat. At the moment the club are unable to assess how long the injury will take to heal and this will be done over the coming days.
The tragedy has placed City in a difficult position because they are already one player short after selling Julian Alvarez and Sergio Gomez. City did approach Newcastle about Bruno Guimaraes but are not willing to pay the £100m asking price.
New signing Savinho and Jeremy Doku can play on either wing and Bernado Silva finished last season as Guardiola’s first choice on the right side.
United much stronger this time around
Bayern Munich fans protested about centre back Matthijs De Ligt’s move to Manchester United and were dismayed when they discovered that he spent his 25th birthday on Monday travelling to Old Trafford for a medical. They were even more dismayed when one of Europe’s best midfielders finally moved to Old Trafford later in the week.
Reuniting with Matthijs has been coach Erik Ten Hag’s dream along with Bayern’s full back Noussair Mazraouli after their time together at Ajax. Together the two cost £50 million. Selling Aaron Wan-Bissaka to West Ham for a bargain £17 million has helped towards balancing the books.
I have also received reports from inside the ground that a £50 million offer for Brighton’s striker Evan Ferguson is being discussed. United are concerned that Chelsea are also interested. Ten Hag having a third centre-forward option is a luxury but also a necessity he says. At 19 years-of-age Ferguson would be one for the future and the coach says he has all the qualities to be a big star at Old Trafford. He is preferred to Brentford’s Ivan Toney who has seen several interested clubs fall by the wayside and could leave for Saudi Arabia.
As for shirt numbers, De Ligt usually wears the number 4 shirt and this is available and Mazraouli wears number 40 which is also free but he could take the No3 shirt which he wore for the Morocco national team. At the moment numbers 13, 19, 26, and 27 are up for grabs.
The ultimate VAR works in seconds
The Premier League will introduce the most sophisticated and state-of-the-art semi- automatic offside technology to provide the best officiating service in the world. The AI powered system will place 28 computer vision cameras at every Premier League ground. The system will provide officials with VAR decisions within seconds of an incident occurring. The 3D player graphics will also be immediately available to TV audiences and eventually to fans inside the stadium.
Shortlist for Player of the Year
Premier League Player of the Year nominations feature Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, Rodri, Martin Odegaard, Cole Palmer and Ollie Watkins. The winner will be announced next Tuesday.
Villa might not be able to repeat last season’s success
Aston Villa have set their standards high after qualifying for the Champions League with a top four finish. However, after spending time in Birmingham where Villa play, I detected worried directors and club staff.
Pre-season has not gone according to plan, losing four of seven games. Villa have been forced to offload some of their star quality players because of the profit and sustainability rules. After failing to sign Conor Gallagher from Chelsea they turned to Ross Barkely who has done well in pre-season. Everton midfielder Amadou Onana also arrived along with Chelsea left back Ian Maatsen. Crucially, losing Douglas Luiz will be a big blow because he could start and finish an attack all on his own, scoring 10 goals last season and making 10 assists and Villa have not replaced that position. Moussa Diaby, Tim Iroegbunam, Morgan Sanson, Viljami Sinisalo and Calum Chambers have all departed with Lewis Dobbin, Nicolo Zaniolo and Clement Lenglet no longer available.
Aston Villa coach Unai Emery is delighted that the club paid Everton £50 million for Belgian midfielder Amadou Onana on a five-year-deal. He said this week, “He is a player who is demanding of himself, he is always trying to understand quickly what we are doing in every session and every meeting. He is only 22 and his progress with us is going well.
Unai Emery is probably the strongest coach in the PL when it comes to club control. He can more or less do what he likes with the directors’ approval however a sticky start to the season will not improve their nerves and many, even inside the club, suspect Villa cannot do again what they achieved last season.
Resilience, bravery and spirit
Ipswich Town haven’t gone big in the transfer market with coach Kieran McKenna preferring to stick with some of his trusted players, many of whom played in League One and the Championship. One very good signing is Ben Johnson at right back who is both confident, commanding and able to accelerate along the wings providing balls into the centre for Connor Chaplin and Town’s new striker Liam Delap. I watched the latest pre-season training match and Delap showed some strong skilful touches but he lacks experience. Securing Omari Hutchinson from Chelsea was a superb piece of business and he will torment many top level defences this season and I am surprised Chelsea let him go. Ipswich have some tall players with several over 6ft giving them a strong backline to defend and the new goalkeeper Arijanet Muric has shown already that he is confident and can play with his feet. Kieran McKenna is favouring a five defensive line because he knows that strong strikers such as Erling Haaland will bully defences and this Saturday’s home game against Liverpool will mean coming up against Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz and Mo Salah.
Most critics and commentators believe Ipswich will struggle because no big signings have arrived. Most players have no Premier League experience.
O’Neill admits Neto is irreplaceable
Wolves have admitted that replacing the “irreplaceable” Pedro Neto is proving difficult. The Portugal international moved to Chelsea on Sunday and said an emotional farewell.
Coach Gary O’Neill says the club is working on bringing in Ajax winger Carlos Forbs.
Cooper warns Leicester to step up
Newly promoted Leicester coach Steve Cooper has warned his team that they must be ready for a “massive step up” in the top league and not repeat what happened to Burnley last season. Burnley won promotion in 21/22 only to be dumped back into the Championship league 12 months later. The Foxes won promotion under Enzo Maresca, now at Chelsea and Cooper has experience of fighting to keep his club in the Premier League which he achieved with Nottingham Forest in 22/23.
Leicester kick-off their season at home against Tottenham on Sunday after being beaten in a pre-season friendly by Bundesliga club Augsburg.
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