The return of the Premier League this weekend cannot come quickly enough for English fans still lamenting their national team’s worst-ever World Cup finals showing.
With the league’s riches, global reach and non-stop drama, it remains England’s projection of soccer power, but as the waning impact of English sides in Europe last season demonstrated, the Premier League’s allure remains under threat from Spain.
Gareth Bale left Tottenham Hotspur for Real Madrid last year and the new season begins with Luis Suarez at Barcelona rather than Liverpool.
Photo: Reuters
Liverpool cashed in about US$130 million for the Uruguay striker, who is banned from soccer until the end of October for biting an opponent at the World Cup finals in Brazil, but Liverpool are now without the player who led the club to a rapid return to the elite and the Premier League marketing machine is without one of its most recognizable names.
Replenishing the Liverpool squad with a trio of players from eighth-placed Southampton at a cost of US$80 million does not seem the obvious way of turning last season’s second-placed finish behind Manchester City into a first championship since 1989-1990.
Suarez, 27, whose 31 goals earned him the player of the year titles, has been replaced by 32-year-old Southampton striker Rickie Lambert, who played just three minutes for England at the World Cup.
Photo: AFP
“[Suarez] left Liverpool after his time as a world-class talent, but we will move forward,” Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said.
Manchester United seem more likely to make a big jump forward than Liverpool.
Louis van Gaal has replaced David Moyes, who took over from Sir Alex Ferguson as manager last season, but wilted in the Old Trafford spotlight as the team fell from champions to seventh place.
Moyes arrived a year ago without a trophy to his name, but Van Gaal already has an aura of authority gained from years at Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. He also led the Netherlands to a third-placed finish at the World Cup last month.
With United out of the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 1995 — and out of Europe completely — the 63-year-old Dutchman can focus on returning United to the top four.
“He’ll find the competition in this league will be different to any other league that he’s worked in,” Rodgers said. “This is a league where the top team plays the bottom team and on any given day you can lose.”
Van Gaal has set about repairing a squad he described as imbalanced and “broken” in a summer that has seen veteran defenders Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic leave, and Ryan Giggs retire.
United spent about US$90 million on signing Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera from Athletic Bilbao and teenage defender Luke Shaw from Southampton, who have seen an exodus of players to rival clubs and manager Mauricio Pochettino leave to take over at Tottenham Hotspur.
Dithering in last summer’s transfer window contributed to United’s unexpected fall.
The unwillingness of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger to spend early in previous off-seasons has contributed to title challenges collapsing since 2003-2004.
Jolted by the failure to claim the trophy last season — finishing fourth after spending more time at the top than any of their rivals — Wenger seized the chance last month to take Chile striker Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona for US$60 million.
Wenger opens the season without the burden of failure, having ended a nine-year trophy drought in May by winning the FA Cup. Mesut Ozil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski went on to become World Cup winners with Germany, but must now swiftly return to the Arsenal fold.
“It always makes it difficult mentally to be sharp and hungry straightaway again,” Wenger said.
It is a challenge Manchester City must also confront in trying to defend their second Premier League title in three seasons.
By winning the Premier League and the League Cup, City enjoyed their most successful season since 1969-1970, but only sustained success will confirm the Abu Dhabi-bankrolled team as England’s new force.
While City have not made any headline-grabbing additions, goalkeeper Willy Caballero, midfielder Fernando and defender Bacary Sagna should add depth to make a greater impact in the UEFA Champions League.
Few managers have been as shrewd as Jose Mourinho over the summer.
He has generated US$115 million for Chelsea by offloading out-of-favor defender David Luiz to Paris Saint-Germain and striker Romelu Lukaku to Everton.
Raising cash to reinvest in the squad was vital after Mourinho ended his first season back at Stamford Bridge empty-handed, unable to replicate the glory years of 2004 to 2007.
Midfielder Cesc Fabregas was enticed to join Chelsea from Barcelona rather than returning to Arsenal, striker Diego Costa and defender Filipe Luis were bought from Atletico Madrid, and 36-year-old Champions League winner Didier Drogba is making a crowd-pleasing return to the Blues.
“Why I like the Premier League so much is that at this moment nobody knows who is going to win the title,” Mourinho said.
The favorites to be relegated are the newly promoted trio.
Leicester City are back after a decade away, Burnley return after a five-year absence and Queens Park Rangers won promotion after one season out of the top flight.
The three will earn US$100 million-plus from the league even for finishing at the bottom, a windfall that highlights the Premier League’s status as the world’s richest soccer competition.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite