There are a few teams in the league this past season who can be put in a similar bracket of having a half decent season or a season where they are very close to achieving something fantastic. I think this will mean we are going to see a much more competitive league. If we look at the top five leagues in Europe there are definitely some that are not competitive. Inter Milan near enough walked their Serie A victory. Bayern Munich are almost a forgone conclusion for the Bundesliga and I’m sure PSG will bounce back strong and win Ligue 1 once again. The only one that is a bit of an outlier is La Liga which is in a bit of its own mess because of the respective rebuilding that needs to occur at both Real Madrid and Barcelona. For a while we’ve seen English football not necessarily be at the top of the pile across Europe. But we could potentially be returning to an era of English football being at that top. We only have to look at the finals of the Champions League this season and two seasons ago as evidence of this. What’s more is there are a handful of teams in England who are on the rise up, as I’m going to explain now, which could make English football even stronger and more competitive.
Manchester United
The first of those teams is Manchester United. There are signs of genuine improvement here with back to back top four finishes and obviously going from third to second. Clearly this is not where we want to be at, but it is a sign that things are heading in the right direction. They way that the season ended however made a lot of people realise exactly where this squad is at. Ultimately, United have a strong XI when everyone is fully fit and well rested, but the chances of that ever happening are slim at best. This means we end up with situations like the Europa League final. Where we had Marcus Rashford putting in one of the worst performances, I’ve seen from him in a while. But, ultimately, there was no one who Solskjaer could bring on and trust to win that game. Whereas with someone like Jadon Sancho on the bench then that change could’ve been made and perhaps the final doesn’t finish the way it did.
Hopefully, there can be a progression from this position and United can actually go on and do something worthwhile in the league. This would require a serious boost in the transfer window with some top signing needed. Unfortunately, I don’t really have the confidence in the owners to make that happen, but it is a fan’s right to be optimistic. United need to sort the team out, we have some players who are good squad players, the likes of McTominay or Lindelöf spring to mind. Realistically they should not be starting every match and if United ever reach the point where those kinds of players are rotational then they will be in a much better place.
Chelsea
Another team in this similar situation is Chelsea. After a pretty poor start to the season and realising that Frank Lampard wasn’t the right man to take them forward, they brought in Tuchel and have looked really strong. He has gotten a tune out of a lot of those players that Chelsea went big on in the summer and didn’t initially work out. Ziyech and Havertz have looked a lot better and Mason Mount has continued his rise to be a top player. They have also sorted out their defence and are now a solid unit. With Thiago Silva coming in centrally and Ben Chilwell and Reece James out wide they are really strong. Of course, the whole situation is helped a lot by having N’Golo Kanté in midfield who is just a rock for both club and country.
Reaching the finals of both the FA Cup and Champions League is a sign of massive improvement for them. Missing out on the FA Cup they will not want a repeat of that and off the back of a Champions League win they are going to come into next season with a massive amount of confidence.
They could of course go big again in the transfer window, Chelsea don’t exactly hold back their cash when it comes to transfers and with this being Tuchel’s first season in charge they will surely want to go strong. On that, Tuchel will have a pre-season with this squad and will obviously be in charge for a full season which cannot be underestimated. Combine that with all of the other factors mentioned and Chelsea could be a very serious contender for next season.
Manchester City
Manchester City have unfortunately been the team to beat for years. They had a blip when Liverpool won the league and they were struggling defensively for that season. Since Dias has been brought in, they have looked really solid at the back and do not look like dropping down a level any time soon. The blessing from a United standpoint is them losing the Champions League final. This was probably one of the better chances they will get, given the run they had and the form they had going into the final.
Again, they will be looking to build from this and add that missing trophy to their cabinet, as unlikely as that may seem. The fact that they have not had a recognised striker on the pitch for most of their games and they have still looked solid. It is more than likely that they will sign someone in the summer, if this is someone like Harry Kane, they could be genuinely unstoppable. Barring a major injury crisis, they will most likely be the team to beat for yet another season.
Liverpool
Liverpool are obviously another one who will be likely to bounce back quite strong. They managed to string together a decent end to the season culminating in a third-place finish. As long as they’re not flooded with injuries again, they could be serious challengers. They didn’t really spend that big in the previous summer window, their biggest spends were on Jota and Thiago at around £65 million all together. If they went big this summer, then they could be a big threat. They have already done a really good bit of business in addressing the centre back issue with the signing of Ibrahima Konaté and if they continue to do good business they could seriously challenge.
Leicester
Leicester are a team that will inevitably be in and around the fight for top four. Having just missed out on Champions League football for next season, fans will no doubt be disappointed given how well they played. And how for two seasons in a row they have been almost nailed on for top four and then both times at the end of the season they have missed out. It is huge for them to get the FA Cup win and I think if you asked Leicester fans which they’d rather get top four or the FA Cup I imagine most would say they would rather the FA Cup win.
This situation might be a bit of a blessing in disguise for Leicester, their squad probably wasn’t completely ready for competing in Champions League football whilst also maintaining a strong league position. This season has also shown how a few injuries can massively affect this Leicester team and with that in mind they might not have been ready to compete with that many high-level matches. Maybe with a season in the Europa League they could build a stronger squad and then go stronger from there. Leicester are a club that always do good business and recruit really well and I’m sure that they will continue that through the summer.
West Ham
Rounding out the top six, West Ham could be quite an interesting proposition going into next season. They could go on and build from what has been a really strong season from them in finishing sixth with a spot in the Europa League is pretty big for West Ham. If they went on and got some more good recruitment, then they could potentially do something next season. But, if some of their key players got taken off their hands then they could fall off a bit of a cliff. If they lose Declan Rice for example their midfield situation would hardly be strong. The situation with Jesse Lingard is up in the air, it is doubtful that he will end up staying at West Ham. If he does, then they could build their team around him and that would help the team continue their good form. But if they lost both of those players and someone else without properly replacing them then they would be in some serious trouble.
Ultimately, all of this means that by all rights we should hopefully be looking at a much more strongly contested race for the title and by extension the top four. Hopefully we won’t have too many more seasons like 19/20 where Liverpool ran away with it or like 17/18 when Man City finished on 100 points. Again, this should mean that English football could be very strong and highly competitive.