The Premier League 2024/25, Part Two: Chelsea to Ipswich Town
From Stamford Bridge to Portman Road, it's part two of my brief assembled thoughts on the forthcoming to the Premier League season.
So here we go, then, part two of a guide to the new Premier League season for those amongst us who just want the bare necessary to get by without making fools of themselves in pub conversations. And this morning we start with the absolutely unfathomable…
Chelsea
If one of the mottos of the disruptor economy is to ‘move fast and break things’, then the new owners at Chelsea have certainly succeeded in their disruption. It’s now been two full seasons of relatively untamed chaos at Stamford Bridge, with only the relative heft of the club preventing it from a considerably greater fall than that which it has already experienced.
Finally, finally, towards the end of last season it looked as though Mauricio Pochettino was making progress with the lopsided pile of talented but largely unproven parts that was the squad that he’d been handed. They won their last five straight games of the season and secured Europa Conference League football for this season in 6th place in the table. It wasn’t much progress for the money spent, but it was at least some progress.
So obviously, within three nanoseconds of the end of the season, Pochettino had gone ‘by mutual consent’, and subsequent reports have indicated that this was at least as much his doing as it was Chelsea’s. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more. It was time to go Chelsea manager hunting yet again.
Enter stage left, Enzo Maresca, winner of the EFL Championship with Leicester City last season and a former assistant of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. Is he the right man for the job? Mmmmaybe? Who really knows? What does the ‘right’ Chelsea manager even look like? You’re thinking about Jose Mourinho, aren’t you? Stop thinking about Jose Mourinho.
The pre-season wasn’t very encouraging. With all standard caveats about not placing too much faith in pre-season tour results, there wasn’t much positive that could be taken from conceding four goals to both Manchester City and Celtic, losing to Real Madrid, drawing with Wrexham, and beating Club America. Perhaps it will all click into place with the start of the new season.
But Chelsea remain a pile of questions. How are the books to be balanced after further spending this summer, and what happens to Trevoh Chabolah and Conor Gallagher now? Can Reece James stay fit this time around? How close can Cole Palmer come to replicating his extraordinary form from last season? How patient will anybody be with Maresca, should there be a couple of patchy results? Is this squad of players any better balanced than, say, this time last year? Has the Enzo Fernandez racist song business really been cleared up to everybody’s satisfaction?
With substantially more questions than answers, as ever, Chelsea really could with a break from all this ‘disruption’.
Important line for pub conversations: You don’t really need one. Just throw your arms in the air in some form of exhausted exasperation. If they start slowly and Brighton start well, jokes about how Chelsea should just buy all Brighton’s best players always go down well with Brighton fans.
Crystal Palace
Throughout the closing weeks of last season, Crystal Palace were the Premier League’s outstanding team. They won six and drew one of their final seven matches, including beating Manchester United 4-0, Aston Villa 5-0 and West Ham United 5-2, as well as further wins against Newcastle United, Liverpool and Wolves. It was by any measure a sensational end of the season, leaving them in 10th place and supplying several players to the England squad for Euro 2024.
The appointment of Oliver Glasner has clearly been a breath of fresh air through Selhurst Park. Work has already started on a new stand there, too. This could be what the future looks like. The way in which Roy Hodgson was treated at the very end of his career left something of an unpleasant taste in the mouth, but there can be little question that if the way in which the new manager is doing his job is a ‘project’, then it seems reasonable to say that all concerned have bought into it.
But Palace’s success towards the end of last season comes at an extremely obvious cost; the prying eyes of wealthier clubs. Marc Guehi seems destined to go to Newcastle United, almost whether he wants to or not. Eberechi Eze has attracted cooing sounds from Manchester City and Spurs. Michael Olise has already left for Bayern Munich. Only one has gone so far, but the end of the month and the closure of the summer transfer must feel like a thousand years away to Crystal Palace supporters at the moment.
And new players have arrived. Ismaila Sarr was a potential next big thing for a while and has an opportunity to prove himself in the Premier League again, while Chadi Riad and Daichi Kamada add strength in depth. Added to their excellent transfer business in the January window, it’s a robust, well-balanced squad.
But this one big question mark does remain, and the answers to the questions concerning the future directions of Eze and Guehi may add a degree of uncertainty to the start of their season. Should they stay, Palace’s form throughout the closing stages of last season demonstrated their capability under Oliver Glasner. Momentum is important, and what might happen should one or both of these highly talented players leaves the question of Palace’s season slightly ajar. But the top half of the table beckons.
Important line for pub conversations: “Glasnerball. It’s the future”
*knowing wink*
Everton
A Grand Old Lady will pass at the end of this season. On the 2nd September 1892, Everton played their first match at Goodison Park, a 4-2 win in an exhibition match against Bolton Wanderers. At the end of this season, after 133 years, they will play their last.
And while I do understand that Goodison has become cramped and outdated in recent years and that this needed to happen, it’s difficult not to mourn the passing of such an idiosyncratic home of English football. The Grand Old Lady was the first purpose-built football stadium in the world. Truly, we will not see her like again.
What sort of send-off will she get? Farhad Moshiri remains the owner of the club, with the sale to the Friedkin Group having terminally stalled during the summer over vast amounts put into the club by now collapsing previous suitors 777 Partners.
The finances remain lousy, with more than £130m having been lost over the last two seasons. Their best striker, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, is entering the final year of his contract with his future unclear. As ever with this club, there are a lot of moving parts to have to take into consideration.
But, and it’s A BIG BUT, last season on the pitch wasn’t really so terrible for Everton. They may only have mathematically confirmed their safety from relegation with three games to play, but this was inclusive of points deductions.
Had they not been deducted eight points over–and I believe this to be the correct legal nomenclature–being an absolute financial shambles, they’d have finished in 12th place, separated only from the Premier League’s Model Club du Jour Brighton by goal difference only.
Much as Sean Dyche will continue to be derided, it’s difficult not to conclude that he has been a success as the club’s manager so far. There will always be criticism of his style of play but if he’s delivering results, well, that will trump anything else. And on the playing side, they have (for now) retained the services of Jarrad Branthwaite, despite Manchester United’s lowballing attempts to unsettle all concerned and prise him away.
There haven’t been sufficient improvements to the Everton squad to be able to suggest that they will improve this season, and questions about PSR may well end up clouding their season again. But if they can swerve further points deductions, steady themselves in mid-table, and get new owners in and the club stabilised, that will be considered a reasonable final year for the Grand Old Lady.
Important line for pub conversations: “At least if we do get relegated for the first time in more than 70 years in our last game at Goodison Park, we’ll save the club a few bob on demolition costs.”
Fulham
This time last year it was Mitro to Saudi Arabia for a lot of money. This summer it’s already been Joao Palhinha to Bayern Munich. For the second successive season, Fulham are having to adapt to the loss of a talisman of a player, and not for the first time.
The good news in this respect is the potential for a new one to develop. Emile Smith Rowe never quite came as good as Arsenal hoped he might, but his transfer to Craven Cottage for a record transfer fee gives him the chance to get regular first team football in an environment in which there is a need for someone to build around.
Because Palhinha hasn’t been the only departure from the club this summer. Tim Ream had spent almost a decade with Fulham, but with his 37th birthday approaching in October he opted for a return home to play for Charlotte FC in Major League Soccer. Tosin Adarabioyo voluntarily threw himself onto the pile at Stamford Bridge when he jumped ship at the start of July. These have been key players for Fulham; they’ll look quite different next season.
There’s further reason for trepidation when it comes to relations between the club itself and its supporters at the moment. The construction of the Riverside Stand at Craven Cottage is now complete but price increases have angered supporters, with growing resentment at the belief that the club’s luxuriantly-moustached owner Farhad Khan is now prioritising fleecing tourists over the actual fan base.
This sort of gentrification has, of course, been going on for more than three decades, but at least in previous decades clubs were pricing out poorer fans in favour of richer fans of the same club. Now the fans are being priced out in favour of people for whom taking in a Premier League may sit alongside taking in a West End Show in a packed schedule.
Fulham are probably too strong to be relegated, but that doesn’t matter that this can be completely ruled out. The fans aren’t happy and key players have left. But then there is always Emile. Already capped three times by England, he’s still only 24 years old and still has an awful lot to prove. If he can come good, then Fulham should be secure in mid-table. But should he struggle, well, Fulham were a yo-yo club before and they can become one again.
Important line for pub conversations: No conversation needed. Let’s not completely rule out the possibility of a Barcelona-esque anti-tourist protest at some point this season.
Ipswich Town
In terms of football club ownership, few other takeovers have matched the purchase of Ipswich Town by the American group Gamechanger 20 on the 7th April 2021 in terms of speed of progress. But even this took a while to get moving. On that particular date, Ipswich were in 8th place in League One. They finished the season one place lower. The following season, they finished 11th.
But then it all went off. For the last two seasons, Ipswich have played as though powered by turbo chargers, flying up to second place in League One and then upsetting just about every applecart going by repeating the trick to get promotion back into the Premier League for the first time in 22 years, last season. The club had been moribund for such a long time that it was almost easy to forget that they even existed. But we all know they’re back now.
The architect of all this, manager Kieran McKenna, came in for predictable scrutiny from bigger clubs as a result of all this, but his reaction, to sign a contract extension at Portman Road at the start of the summer, made for the best signing they could realistically have made all summer.
The effects of this cannot be understated. A club in Ipswich’s position with a manager just thrust into the position could have the potential to implode. With McKenna running the show, there will be a clear sense of continuity. Everybody will be on this adventure together. If football club’s can have a collective degree of mental health, his early decision to make that commitment will definitely have been good for it.
Of course, it’s going to be difficult. That’s just the reality of professional football in a highly financially stratified age. But there is promise. Omari Hutchinson’s loan from Chelsea has become permanent at a club record cost of £20m, and he certainly has potential. Defender Leif Davis had played in the Championship before with both Leeds and on loan at Bournemouth, and following accomplished performances last season now has the opportunity to test himself at a higher level.
Two successive promotions is an extraordinary performance, and there is little question that Ipswich Town deserve their shot at the top level. And if the feelgood factor is worth anything, they might not even find it all as daunting as it looks right now. 17th place or higher, though, has to remain their first and most important aim.