Richest show in football returns

After a brief stop, the Premier League gravy train leaves the station again tonight.

Liverpool will begin the defence of their title at home to Bournemouth (8pm, live updates on RTÉ Sport Online), just 82 days after collecting the trophy for the 2024/25 season at Anfield.

Professional football follows a different track to the GAA. Even more games, but dragged out over almost the entire year. And yes, it's the English league, and we have our own, thriving, League of Ireland, but the interest here, and around the world, in the football across the water is enduring. Even if there are less and less Irishmen involved.

The champions were actually back in action last weekend when they twice surrendered leads to FA Cup winners and (reluctant) Conference League qualifiers Crystal Palace, who eventually claimed the Community Shield on penalties. But Arne Slot won’t mind too much. Only one of the previous 14 winners of the traditional season curtain-raiser had gone on to win the title.

The Dutchman has the chance to emulate Jose Mourinho by winning the league in his first two campaigns and his team are the pre-kick-off favourites, having uncharacteristically spent big this summer. An estimated €324m has been forked out on attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz, forward Hugo Ekitike, full-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, and 18-year-old centre-back Giovanni Leoni. The successful conclusion of their pursuit of Newcastle striker Alexander Isak could add another 50% or so to that total. Though the departures of Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez have contributed to sales of around €196m.

Ekitike and Frimpong, the successor to Real Madrid’s latest big-name 'free' transfer Trent Alexander-Arnold, both scored against Palace, but veterans Virgil Van Dijk (34) and Mo Salah (33) both had games to forget, having signed on for two more years each after their contracts were allowed to run within two months of expiry last season. Slot will hope the loss sharpens focus as Liverpool look to go back-to-back for the first time since 1984.

Arsenal, runners-up for the last three campaigns, are again expected to be among their closest challengers. It must have been particularly galling for Mikel Arteta to push Manchester City closest from 2022-24, then watch Liverpool steal a march on the Gunners last season. Part of the reason for that was the lack of a forward threat after Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus both suffered serious injuries after Christmas.

Can Viktor Gyokeres supply the goals to win Arsenal's first title since 2004?

Accordingly, Swedish striker Victor Gyokeres (€66m) has been signed from Sporting Lisbon, where he scored almost a goal per game (97 in 102 appearances) over his two championship-winning seasons with the Portuguese club.

Midfielder Martin Zubimendi (€70m from Real Sociedad) and winger Noni Madueke (€56m from Chelsea) are the other big-money investments but bargains like Christian Norgaard (€12m) might prove just as important in sustaining a longer title challenge this time around.

Chelsea have continued their apparent mission to do more deals than the Trotter brothers (ask your parents) and amass an NFL-sized squad (currently 36 players). This summer, eight more have been signed, at a cost of €280m, but 10 have departed (for €231m) as the Blues attempt to avoid further punishment from UEFA for breaching rules limiting player costs to 80% of revenue. They need to make a profit on last year’s squad to register their new signings, which include Joao Pedro (€64m), Liam Delap (€35.5m) and Jamie Gittens (€56m), for the Champions League.

Chelsea’s net spending on players over the last four years has been calculated at €795m, second only to the slow-motion car crash that is Manchester United, and they have managed to abide by the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules by signing their young stars to contracts as long as 10 years but on (relatively) lower wages. The PSR rules divide the amount spent by the length of a transfer deal, so Pedro’s eight-year agreement only contributes €8m to the annual bill. The fees received for 'home-grown’ players like Madueke count as pure profit, as does the €100m odd prize for winning the Club World Cup.

Chelsea are the new owners of the awkwardly shaped orb of world dominance

The problem is when you end up with players like Mykhailo Mudryk, who was signed for over €100m on an eight-year contract, but had been out of form until failing a drugs test in December, which ironically might allow the club to sack him.

Whether Chelsea become the new Peter Risdale-era Leeds or have found a novel way to game the system will largely depend on whether Enzo Maresca can make them genuine title contenders. They started last season brightly, before a dip, and then finished fourth. The lack of rest (they were in action in the US until 13 July) and transfer policy-driven youth of the squad (a Premier League record 24 years and 36 days in one game in 2024/25) might militate against a sustained challenge.

The other English club that spent the summer chasing dollars in FIFA’s latest self-indulgence were Manchester City, though they made an earlier exit - a shock defeat to Nunez’s new club Al-Hilal on 1 July.

Pep Guardiola probably could have done without the footballing J1 as he grapples with the task of restoring the noisy neighbours to the perch they had occupied for the previous three seasons. Last season’s decline from their previous dominance was stunning, with one league win in nine games over November-December and a 5-1 thumping from Arsenal in February, though they did finish with 10 games unbeaten to take third place.

Some doubts were expressed over whether Rodri deserved the Ballon d’Or last October – particularly by petulant boycotters Real – but the ten extra goals conceded and 24 less scored while he missed the season with a cruciate ligament injury suggest his importance to City cannot be overstated. He came on as a substitute against Al-Hilal but picked up a groin injury and, worryingly, Guardiola has said it might be September before the Spain midfielder is fully fit.

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City need Rodri to stay fit this season

The Citizens’ departures - Kevin de Bruyne, Kyle Walker (both released) and Jack Grealish (loan to Everton) – have been more high-profile than their incomings, which include Dutch midfielder Tijjani Reijnders (€55m), full-back Rayan Ait-Nouri (€37m) and winger Rayan Cherki (€36m), but then the rebuild had already started in January when the previously unthinkable threat of missing out on the Champions League was looming.

The final qualifiers for UEFA’s flagship competition were Newcastle, squeezing in in fifth due to the Premier League’s improved co-efficient. It has been a grim summer for the Toon though, as they have watched forward targets like Ekitike and Benjamin Sesko choose to move to English rivals instead, while their star striker Isak apparently agitates for a move to join the former at Liverpool. Chelsea’s inconsistent frontman Nicolas Jackson would undoubtedly be a consolation prize. However, Germany defender Malick Thiaw (€40m from AC Milan) and, potentially, Yoane Wissa would be useful additions.

Last year’s big-spending flops Spurs, who won the Europa League final but finished 17th in the league, and Manchester United, who lost it and were 15th, seek to regroup with a new manager and lots of expensive new players respectively.

Tottenham have prised highly-regarded boss Thomas Frank from Brentford after deciding European silverware wasn’t enough to retain ‘Big’ Ange Postecoglou. Forward Mohammed Kudus (€64m from West Ham) is their most significant signing after club legend Heung-Min Son departed for the MLS.

Can Ruben Amorim turn Manchester United get back on track?

Probably the sole reason Ruben Amorim is still in charge at United after presiding over their worst Premier League finish is that he was only appointed in November. The Portuguese was at times scathingly honest/hyperbolic about the quality of the squad he had inherited, calling them "maybe the worst" in the club’s history after a 3-1 defeat to Brighton in January but it’s all on him this time around, especially as the club has again splashed the cash.

United have more or less tried to buy success but with ever-dwindling returns in the 12 years since Alex Ferguson’s retirement and that seems to be the policy again this year, despite new minority shareholder/majority cost-coverer Jim Ratcliffe warning the club could have gone bankrupt by the end of this year if they hadn’t made swingeing cuts (450 staff laid off, staff canteen closed).

The big-money signings of Sesko (€77m), Bryan Mbeumo (€75m) and Matheus Cunha (€74m) have been possible due to staggered transfer payments and making the likes of Marcus Rashford and his €375,000 a week wages Barcelona’s problem. They also hope to move on wingers Jadon Sancho (€290k per week) and Alejandro Garnacho (valued around €40-50m), the latter an outcast after reacting badly to being dropped for the Europa League decider.

United don’t have European football to worry about this term but need to qualify for it next year to keep the lights on at the soon-to-be renovated Old Trafford. That will depend on how the new faces settle in and whether the players can better adapt to Amorim’s preferred 3-4-3 formation. The lack of defensive signings is concerning in that regard.

Former Ireland midfielder and assistant manager Keith Andrews has succeeded Frank at Brentford. He is the first Premier League manager from the Republic since Chris Hughton left Brighton in 2019 but has his work cut out after losing Mbeumo and Norgaard, with Wissa also likely to depart. Irish keeper Caoimhin Kelleher, who grew tired of waiting for more regular first-team football at Liverpool, will likely be kept busy. So will his international team-mate and centre-back Nathan Collins, the only outfield player on the pitch for every league minute last season.

Caoimhin Kelleher (L) and Nathan Collins are now club and international team-mates

Last season, 15 Irish internationals played a combined 17,212 minutes in the Premier League, a 7.5% increase on 2023-24, after the nadir of 9,326 minutes in 2022-23. But it’s not looking as rosy for Heimir Hallgrímsson ahead of the quickfire Autumn World Cup qualifying campaign.

His captain Seamus Coleman remains at Everton - who look on the up with David Moyes back in charge and a new stadium - as does Jake O’Brien, and goalkeeper Mark Travers has joined them, albeit very much as No 12 behind Jordan Pickford. Matt Doherty is still at Wolves, where he made 30 league starts in a resurgent season.

However, the relegated contingents at Leicester City (Kasey McAteer), Ipswich Town (Chiedozie Ogbene, Dara O’Shea, Jack Taylor and Sammie Szmodics) and Southampton (Ryan Manning and Will Smallbone) have not quite been replaced by those of the newly promoted Burnley (Josh Cullen and a likely departing Michael Obafemi) and Sunderland (Alan Browne) as the financial gravity of the Premier League continues to pull in most of the world’s best players like a black hole. Post-Brexit rules preventing EU players moving to the UK until the age of 18 also mean Irish youngsters are now as likely to end up in Italy as the UK.

Evan Ferguson is hoping to find La Dolce Vita in Rome after a sour loan spell in East London while Ireland’s Under-21 Player of the Year Andrew Moran is back at Brighton after making 39 appearances on loan at Stoke. Moran has 11 Premier League minutes to his name, as does Newcastle centre-back Alex Murphy.

There are also a handful of younger Irish players like Brighton left-back Jacob Slater and Crystal Palace right-winger Franco Umeh, who were in squads last season and will hope to make the breakthrough of a Premier League appearance.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (L) has said goodbye to Seamus Coleman and Everton after nine years and joined Leeds

The newly promoted trio of Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland will be favourites to go down, though Burnley (2023-24) and Leeds (2020-23) have had recent top-flight experience. Leeds could do with new striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin proving more resilient than he did in recent years at Everton.

Last year’s over-achievers Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace could be tested by the novel burden of European football, though they have mostly managed to hang on to their best players so far, Forest spending a decent chunk of the €61m they got from Newcastle for winger Anthony Elanga on his replacement Dan Ndoye (€42m). Palace pair Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi are being eyed by Spurs and Liverpool respectively, however, and would be difficult to replace.

Bournemouth finished a record ninth last season under Andoni Iraola but the Basque might be wondering how he is expected to repeat that after the club sold three of his four starting defenders (Kerkez, Ilya Zabarnyi and Dean Huijsen), albeit for €172m in total. Wolves finished 16th last year and have lost two of their best players in Cunha and Ait-Nouri. Striker Jorgen Strand Larsen might join them in leaving. Fulham (11th) have barely changed their squad at all.

The big game of the weekend is Arsenal’s trip to Manchester on Sunday, where the visitors can get the ‘United in crisis’ headlines rolling early, or perhaps the hosts can show signs of revitalisation.

There will be drama, skill and controversy as the globe's elite footballers do their compelling thing from Mega Monday to Super Sunday. There won't be much time to rest between now and next May but at least almost everybody involved is getting rich. Except the supporters. All aboard the Premier League express.

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