Blimey, another Premier League season has dawned on us. A tournament summer split the break between seasons but it still feels like the new season has approached almost out of nowhere. A new phenomenon of a June deadline day for those up against PSR restrictions was a fun little addition to the “off-season” but there’s nothing like the full flow of the football season. For Fulham, it’s been a quiet window, something I do not mind as we further settle as a Premier League squad, focus on younger players and start to go quality over quantity but it has to be said that we’re still after at least 3 big players (for me, a centre half to replace Tosin, a 6 and an 8) and I could make good arguments for a further winger, a striker and raise the question of should anything happen to Bernd Leno, are we comfortable with Steven Benda playing significant game time?
Looking at the wider Premier League picture, I am edging towards Arsenal to go one further than last season and finally break their Premier League drought, they’re so impressive off the ball, suffocating on it and the settling down of Kai Havertz in the strikers role towards the end of the season is a big, big development; that on top of Declan Rice’s move out of the 6 and into a less shackled role levelled up Arsenal’s performances but they just couldn’t go far enough. I struggle to doubt Pep Guardiola’s City but they feel in between another squad phase and may require more out of their younger players that they may be ready for.
As for the Champions League places, our opening day opponents Manchester United have made a few interesting signings and surely their injury woes won’t be as bad as last season, right? They’ll be in the mix with Tottenham looking to take a further step up Ange Postecoglu and the signing of Dominic Solanke providing better quality up front and adding much needed depth to their front line. Newcastle United, without the “burden” of European football, should be able to squeeze more out of their squad and build upon their 60 points from last season. Liverpool, minus Jurgen Klopp, still have some excellent players for new manager Arne Slot to work with but the recruitment hasn’t been what is required and they feel at a bit of a tipping point given we’ve seen the best of some of their star players and their success probably relies too much on them and the development of some very unseasoned footballers.
That’s seven clubs and I’ve not even got into the next tier of clubs I see, which highlights how impressive it will be for a top 10 finish for a club like Fulham (or others) dreaming of that push for a European campaign. In the tier 3 of clubs, I’m putting Chelsea and their questionable transfer strategy and even more questionable head coach. From the Pep Guardiola ‘coaching tree’ I’d be most concerned by how Leicester were found out after a dominant start and really stumbled which allowed all three of Ipswich, Leeds and Southampton an opportunity to get into the title mix; they eventually got it over the line but 11 losses is not impressive. You’ll struggle to find a manager backed more than Julen Lopetegui has by the West Ham board this summer, an £80m centre back partnership in Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo has arrived (though Todibo’s fee has been pushed back to next summer with an initial loan this season). £30m on Niclas Fullkrug as well as the arrivals of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Guido Rodriguez and Championship Player of the Season Crysencio Summerville. Alternatively, like Newcastle, I see Villa struggling a little bit managing Champions League football with the Premier League and you have to focus on Champions League competition as you don’t know when you’ll be back. The Villa squad is packed with big cash and should be comfortable. Top 8 and Champions League knockouts would be another very good season for Aston Villa. Lastly in this third tier for me is Brighton. Another side not managing European football this season, new Head Coach Fabian Hurzeler had an excellent squad to work with an been backed excellently with two of my favourites at Feyenoord recruited for a sum £60m (though half of which to Newcastle – owners of Yankuba Minteh) whilst Brajan Gruda is another eye catching recruit to accompany Mats Wieffer and there’s talk of a pending move for Giorgino Rutter from Leeds. Brighton’s reputation as a developing club over the past decade plus is known, that’ll continue under the impressive young German coach.
How I see tier 4 is that selection of clubs that could break into the top 8 but more likely sit in that 9th-14th type range – clear of the drop, some good spells, some good results but the general average of the Premier League. We’ll start with our Fulham, excellent work has been done by Marco Silva to see the club into their 3rd Premier League season and the previous two comfortably away from a relegation battle. Managing the loss of Joao Palhinha will be tough but the core squad is proven Premier League quality and the addition of three promising young players, two of which “wonder kids” to be nourished back to their potential will be exciting to watch. Bournemouth’s recruitment under Andoni Iraola has been a great display of their owners intentions for the south coast club. Adjusting from losing Dominic Solanke will be tough but Iraola, like Marco Silva, will be able to find a way around with strength of squad and system. Despite losing 8 points over the course of the season, Everton finished 14 points clear of the relegation places with Sean Dyche a great leveller to keep them afloat amongst woeful off-pitch investment. Further squad questions may come with Everton as we keep an eye on the futures of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Jarrad Branthwaite but they still have a solid enough squad to retain their Premier League status.
Tier 4 being the most clustered, it needed another paragraph. Crystal Palace ended 23/24 phenomenally as Oliver Glasner brought levels out of the squad we hadn’t seen previously though being able to get Michael Olise and Ebere Eze fit at the same time was huge. Olise is gone, vultures swarm for Eze and Marc Guehi and Fulham look to reunite with Joachim Andersen are all tough hurdles for Crystal Palace to overcome though Jean-Phillipe Mateta’s purple patch appears to continue after an impressive Olympics run. Wolves are yet to majorly drop off despite cost cutting and the appointment of Gary O’Neil has created an underdog mentality with Mario Lemina and Joao Gomes one of the more underrated centre midfield duos in the league. I do expect Wolves to have a pretty similar season to last in the lower end of this pack which would still be impressive given they’ve lost Max Kilman and Pedro Neto. I’m elevating Nottingham Forest from relegation contenders to this upper mix this season, I like Nuno as a coach, they’ve retained Morgan Gibbs-White, added Jota Silva to oppose Callum Hudson-Odoi whilst Anthony Elanga gives them some lovely attacking depth behind Taiwo Awoniyi and Chris Wood. They do look a fine team with some gaps – avoiding being in the mix in the bottom would be progress for Forest.
Now who I see as the bottom dwellers, those whose entire season will either be one eye over their shoulders or scrapping to get away from the bottom 3. Brentford had a pretty rotten 23/24 in the face of Ivan Toney’s gambling ban and a couple of injuries. They’re an ugly team who don’t give away many quality chances and rely on converting them. Adding Fabio Carvalho gives them a quality footballer to join Bryan Mbeumo amongst a squad of ‘triers’ and workers. Frank should do enough to keep them up but not sure we’ll see much progress on last year with Toney’s future still undecided. Moving to Southampton, I’ve been impressed with their window. I’m a massive fan of right-wingback Yukinari Sugawara but it’s still so tough to survive that jump. The play off final showed Russell Martin can coach up a one-off result when perhaps the odds aren’t in their favour which will be needed a multitude of times in the Premier League but I worry about them in both boxes to maintain a consistent enough point collection. Moving to Steve Cooper’s Leicester, they’ve not really added much. Bobby Decordova-Reid was a solid player for us but I just don’t see near enough quality in their squad to put together a survival plan. Ipswich is a mix of the two! I like some of the signings, a few I’d have taken at Fulham as development-fringe type signings (Omari Hutchinson, Jacob Greaves) but the overall quality is underwhelming. They’ll give it a go as the “Luton” of the league this season under the impressive Kieran McKenna.
Tier 1:
Arsenal and Manchester City
Tier 2:
Manchester United, Tottenham, Newcastle, Liverpool
Tier 3:
Chelsea, West Ham United, Aston Villa, Brighton
Tier 4:
Fulham, Bournemouth, Everton, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Nottingham Forest
Tier 5:
Brentford, Southampton, Leicester, Ipswich
My Premier League table prediction:
- Arsenal
- Manchester City
- Tottenham
- Liverpool
- Newcastle
- Manchester United
- Chelsea
- West Ham
- Brighton
- Villa
- Fulham
- Bournemouth
- Everton
- Crystal Palace
- Nottingham Forest
- Wolves
- Brentford
- Ipswich
- Southampton
- Leicester
Premier League top scorer:
Erling Haaland – robotic freak, his ability to score 2s and 3s regularly has diluted the applause a 20 goal a season forward gets.
Signing of the season:
Dominic Solanke – honestly, the signing of the season may be to come in the remainder of the window but if Tottenham finish 3rd like in my table, he’ll be a massive part of scoring them there. Emile Smith Rowe has a shout, and the below may be why.
Fulham top scorer, player of the season and signing of the season:
Emile Smith Rowe – Marco Silva has often gotten goal production out the attacking midfield position (10 goals, 8 assists from Fabio Carvalho in the Championship and 13 goals, 6 assists from Gylfi Sigurdsson at Everton) but now Emile Smith Rowe with 2 goals in 2 in pre-season and a strong box-presence in his career at Arsenal, I’m expecting big things from the ‘Croydon de Bruyne’ and for a Fulham club-record signing to pay off.
Cottage POV 
Leave a comment