The 2016/17 Premier League Season Promises to Be the Greatest Ever
If the 2016/17 Premier League season was a Hollywood blockbuster, they would have started teasing it months ago. Probably around the time of Manchester City’s announcement that Pep Guardiola would be taking charge at the club this summer. Or maybe even earlier, with the arrival of Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool last October.
This season doesn’t require manufactured anticipation, though. The excitement, for fans of all teams, concerning the new campaign is utterly authentic.
Never before have the days been counted down to a Premier League season with so much vigour. Leicester City hadn’t even tied the ribbons on their trophy when talk already turned to what England’s top flight would have in store for us all after the summer.
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Well, summer is now over, and it’s time to find out.
While last season saw the big boys humbled as the little team that could, Leicester, ran all the way to an astonishing title triumph, the stakes have been raised. Now the Premier League elite have renewed ambition, and they have renewed squads as well.
Hundreds of millions have been spent as English football’s arms race became something of a sporting space race—the space they’re racing for being the one at the top of the league table.
Focus has been drawn to Manchester, where Guardiola and Jose Mourinho have resumed their personal duel as the new managers of City and United, respectively.
The temperature of the city’s derby has been cranked up in recent years, fuelled by the pipeline of Arabian-oil billions flowing straight to the Etihad Stadium, but boiling point will be reached this season. The risk of explosion is high, and the threat of intrigue is guaranteed.
Will Guardiola be able to translate his unparalleled winning in Spain and Germany into success in the English game? How will he fare in imposing his trademark tiki-taka ideology on a mishmash of a City squad? How many different sweater-shirt combos will he wear on the touchline over the course of the season? The Catalan has plenty of questions held against him ahead of the big kick-off on Saturday.
Mourinho, too, is under pressure to deliver following a catastrophe of a season last term. Sacked as Chelsea manager before the turn of the year, the Portuguese coach now finds himself at Old Trafford with a point to prove—and a club to restore to its previous glory. The Special One must show once more that he is deserving of his moniker.
He now has the world’s most expensive player in history, Paul Pogba, to help him do that, along with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly. United have spent big this summer, but they have also spent well. Well enough, in fact, that many now have them installed as title favourites. Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has finally cut himself some slack.
But while English football knows Mourinho well, there is more of a sense of the unknown at Chelsea this season. Antonio Conte has won countless titles in Italy and led the country’s national team at Euro 2016, but he has yet to test himself outside his homeland. He arrives at Stamford Bridge with a lofty reputation, but will that match what he produces on the pitch?
Many view him as an Italian Mourinho of sorts, forming an emotional bond with his players in order to get the best from them. As he demonstrated at the European Championship this summer, his teams are well organised and tough to beat. They’re streetwise and shrewd, and most importantly, they win.
With all this competition at the top of the table, what about last season’s title challengers—Leicester and Tottenham Hotspur? It’s true that both teams benefited from a weak Premier League field, but nonetheless, they provided a compelling title race. But can they, the champions in particular, repeat the feat?
The Foxes are relying on once again being more cunning than their rivals, using the transfer market to give themselves some strength in depth ahead of a taxing UEFA Champions League campaign.
No big names have been signed yet, but the club have followed the same approach that delivered them so much success last season, using the market to make shrewd, smart signings like Ahmed Musa from CSKA Moscow and Nampalys Mendy from Nice. But the loss of N'Golo Kante to Chelsea will be keenly felt at the King Power Stadium.
Spurs, on the other hand, are largely depending on continuity to secure their place as a bona fide member of the Premier League elite. However, that might not have been through choice, with the club’s head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell, set to leave White Hart Lane following a quiet summer in the transfer market.
Have Spurs missed the chance to use Champions League football as a platform for bigger and better things?
Liverpool will be another team hoping to leap onto that platform this season. Klopp could have accelerated his progress at Anfield by winning last season’s UEFA Europa League final, subsequently qualifying for the Champions League. Nonetheless, the German is steadily developing his Reds side.
There are signs that the Liverpool squad are now adopting Klopp’s coaching philosophy, with new signings Sadio Mane and Georginio Wijnaldum buying into the German’s ideas and practices quickly. They might not have broken the bank like many of their rivals this summer, but Liverpool have made more progress than most.
West Ham United have already played a friendly and a Europa League qualifier at their new London Stadium, but it’s domestically that the new venue will prove its credentials.
Its 60,000 capacity will massively increase the club’s ticket revenue and could raise West Ham’s status in the long term. It might not be long before they are making the biggest waves in the transfer-market pool.
Everton are similarly at an existential juncture this season, with the Goodison Park outfit now flush with cash following Iranian businessman Farhad Moshiri's takeover of the club.
The Toffees have often found themselves on the periphery of the big time in recent years, but that could now change. It might not happen immediately, but Everton have their sights set on joining the Premier League elite.
With the kick-off looming, the 2016/17 campaign already boasts narrative in abundance. From the foot of the table to the top, there are compelling plotlines and stories throughout.
From Hull City’s current struggle without a manager and without so much as a single summer signing to Sunderland’s welcoming of David Moyes following Sam Allardyce's exit, there is intrigue everywhere.
This promises to be the greatest Premier League season ever.
