Are Manchester City set to follow in the footsteps of Leicester City?
It’s always instructive to look back on what you dared to hope for 12 months before.
This time last year, coming off the back of a far from vintage 2014/2015 Premier League season, I concluded my preview of the campaign ahead as follows: “So my single biggest wish for the season ahead is that, whichever side comes out on top in May, we are not short-changed on the entertainment front. Because while no-one with any understanding of the game seriously buys into the hype about ‘the greatest league in the world’, the Premier League can legitimately claim to be, at least in dramatic spasms, the most exciting – a very different thing, as even England’s biggest clubs tend to discover when they step outside their comfort zone for a little misadventure in the Eurozone.”
If ever wishful thinking was seen to pay dividends, it was over the course of the season which followed, the Premier League of 2015/16 unfolding as quite the most sensational campaign in the history of top-flight football in England, with pre-kick-off relegation favourites Leicester City defying logic, economics and odds of 5,000-1 to deliver the most sustained giant-killing achievement in all of sport.
Short-changed on the entertainment front? I think not.
Note, of course, the cuteness of me, choosing to recall how spectacularly a wish had come true as a transparent diversion from having to remind myself, and my long-suffering readers, of what I’d actually predicted would happen: which, for the record, was Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea would retain their title – when, as it turned out, they didn’t even succeed in retaining their manager. As for Leicester, the only reason I didn’t predict they’d finish propping up the table is because I simply neglected to mention them at all.
The consolation, I suppose, is I was not alone in getting it completely, hopelessly and, in the end, gleefully wrong. Leicester’s stunning success also means every prediction made this time ‘round will come with a significant health warning, carefully hedged with ifs, buts and maybes. Even the bookies have learned their lesson: the longest odds before the big kick-off tomorrow are on promoted Hull City winning the title at 1,500-1. (Don’t all rush).
Leicester, for their part, can be had at 28-1, a significant shortening on 12 months ago, to be sure, but hardly the ringing endorsement you might expect of the team which, as defending champions, are technically the ones to beat at start of play. But there are certainly plausible reasons for believing that lightning won’t strike twice at the King Power, not least the tantalising but potentially draining distraction of Champions League football. And while Claudio Ranieri will be relieved to have retained the services of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, the loss of the third corner of Leicester’s holy trinity, N’golo Kante – the player who sniffed out and snuffed out danger better than anyone else in the league last season – can’t be dressed up as anything other than a wounding blow.
The response of the big guys to last year’s lesson from the minnows – which, in large measure, was that success can be delivered by surrounding a sprinkling of quality players with an honest, well organised and hard-working supporting cast, on and off the pitch – has been to splash the cash and send for the even bigger guys.
The message seems to be that the indies have had their day in the sun: now it’s time for the Hollywood blockbuster to regain full control of the box office. Manchester United, still trying to resurrect that long lost Fergie feeling, have set the bar almost absurdly high, finally biting the bullet of hiring Jose Mourinho, signing the only slightly less self-regarding Zlatan Ibrahimovic and breaking the world transfer record with Paul Pogba.
Considering what all three have achieved in the game, it seems counter-intuitive to harbour doubts, but doubts there are and, more worrying still for United, they all have their roots in the very recent past. Until last season, having Mourinho as manager was about as close as you could get to a guarantee of success in football, but the comprehensive manner in which he lost the plot, the dressing room and finally his job at Stamford Bridge sees him arrive at Old Trafford with, for the first time in his career, a massive question mark accompanying the usual surfeit of self-belief and the equally familiar whiff of cordite.
And both Zlatan and Pogba also have questions to answer, their respective underwhelming showings at Euro 2016 suggesting that, albeit at opposite ends of the age spectrum, reputation may count for more than reality with both. If it all clicks, of course, the results could be spectacular but my own hunch is the new United acquisition who could end up attracting the most favourable reviews is gifted attacking midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Mourinho’s arrival at Old Trafford also reignites his rivalry with Pep Guardiola, now that Manchester City have finally got the man they had long targeted as their own special one, a manager they believe is capable of turning would-be galacticos into masters of Europe.
The consensus is that the task will represent much more of a challenge than did taking over at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, where superstars and serial success were already taken for granted, but pound for pound I’d regard City as having the most formidable creative and attacking clout in the Premier League and, with the likes of Leroy Sane, Nolito and, in due course, Ilkay Gundogan newly in the mix alongside such potent talents as Aguero, De Bruyne and Silva, they should be capable of outgunning the rest.
Instilling the kind of team spirit which breeds a consistent level of performance will be a key ingredient but whether the Pep effect extends to solidifying the defence is another matter. However, even with that significant caveat, I’d have City as favourites to lift the title, before they can begin properly training their sights on conquering Europe.
The soap opera aspect of Guardiola having Mourinho as his noisy neighbour will keep the headline writers happy while quickly wearing thin for everyone else, but it’s not only in Manchester that this Premier League will often seem like a competition more about managers than teams – whether that’s Antonio Conte bringing his raging will to win to Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp looking to turn feelgood into feel better at Anfield or Wenger confounding his critics with what might be a glorious last hurrah or, more likely, at least bowing out with some dignity at Arsenal.
After seeing his team play so well and win so many plaudits only to collapse in the final stretch last season, the admirable Mauricio Pochettino will be keen to show his young and exciting Spurs side have learned from their mistakes, while Everton could hardly have done better in a bid to right the wrongs in their side than by hiring the no-nonsense Ronald Koeman.
We shall see. The underdog had its day last season but now, we’re all agreed, with the Premier League under new management, it’s time for the top dogs to bite back. So, obviously, that’s perennial relegation scrappers Sunderland for the title, then.
Who will be Premier League Champions 2016/17?
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