Manchester City banned from the Champions League for two years and fined 30 million, the team will appeal.
Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 – 0 Leicester City – Hamza Choudhury red card.
Valencia 2 – 2 Atletico Madrid – Fight for top four places ends in draw.
Borussia Dortmund 4 – 0 Eintracht Frankfurt – Erling Haaland keeps scoring.
The summer 2019 transfer window is now closed in England. Though in many other European countries the older timeline of letting it run until the end of August or beginning of September is still on. The decision to close the window before week 1 matches is a very sensible idea. The coaches and mangers know what they have on hand before the season is on and any disruptions, even if only for the first two or three match days, is gone.
The multi-billion dollar television deals that have enriched English team to the point of bizarre and expensive transfers and wages continues unabated. So called smaller teams like Watford and Leicester outspend most European teams and attract players easily. Manchester United have of course always been one of the biggest teams and under the ownership of the Glazers have never stopped spending. Notwithstanding the lack of recent – post Alex Ferguson era – success the team keeps drawing from the debts, financing and riches of the American ownership and TV deals to add and spend.
Hiring Jose Mourinho was a mistake and titles have eluded the team, the Portuguese’s firing and eventual replacement with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a success at first but United faded and finished 2018-2019 in sixth place. The new coach was given a permanent job during his early and brief success and was set to embark on a rebuild. Now that summer 2019 window is nearing an end it is arguable that the first phase of (any) rebuild has been mishandled or at best wasted. Fans rightly criticize the Americans and vice chairman Ed Woodward and the player movement this summer shows why. The team does not have a director of football but that in itself is not very unusual but this summer’s transfer have left the team bare up front.
The team did sign young winger Daniel James, the very good Aaron Wan-Bissaka (right back from Crystal Palace) and of course the expensive and excellent defender in Harry Maguire – for €87 million. However, after a protracted saga Romelu Lukaku was sold to Inter on deadline day for an initial €65. A look at the screenshot above (thanks transfermarkt.com) shows that virtually all of the team’s choices up front are either aging, ineffective or have long been off form. United do have the means and needed to replace Lukaku, the team was long aware he wanted to leave. He was even reportedly training separately in the past few days.
Time will tell if United have done enough to leap above Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea. At least two of the teams immediately above them last season have strengthened more significantly.
With August approaching the long European seasons that start in August are about to begin. The 2019-2020 season will end with the scattered and complex Euro 2020 in June of next year. For now however the major European leagues and their immense wealth will start the season, some teams with many changes and more to come by the time the transfer window closes.
The 2019-2020 English Premier League will kick off on August 9th with the three promoted teams, Norwich City, Sheffield United and Aston Villa, seemingly taking different approaches to life back in the top league. Aston Villa, notably, are on a spending spree and unlike the other two teams are very busy in the transfer window. Reigning champions and runners up, Manchester City and Liverpool are likely to challenge for the title again. Arsenal and Manchester United may not be challengers, they are both still a step or two behind. Chelsea with new coach in former player Frank Lampard look to be starting a new cycle. However, Tottenham, with the arrival of highly rated midfielder Tanguy Ndombele ,will push the top two once again.
The Spanish La Liga will start on August 17th with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid providing the inevitable rivalry. Both Madrid teams have been busy spenders and Griezmann’s move from Atletico to Barcelona will mean all three teams have made big splashes. Osasuna, Granada and Mallorca are the promoted teams.
Serie A’s three promoted teams are Lecce, Brescia and Verona. The top teams’ headlines have been of the coaching variety with Max Allegri leaving Juventus and Luciano Spalletti leaving Inter. They were replaced with Maurizio Sarri and Antonio Conte respectively. The new season starts on August 24th and will likely be dominated by Juventus once again. Napoli and Inter can be considered close rivals but will they last the season or collapse sometime in the middle again?
Bundesliga starts on August 16th with a busy Borussia Dortmund making another attempt at dethroning Bayern. The reigning champions are a younger team with Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben gone. FC Koln, Paderborn and for the first time in their history Union Berlin are in the Bundesliga.
Holland’s Eredivisie will feature a weakened Ajax. The champions sold two of their Champions League semi final team stars. With Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong leaving for big money the team will have new restart to tackle. PSV are likely the only challengers but Ajax will not have fallen much behind their 2018-2019 form. Twente, RKC Waalwijk and Sparta Rotterdam rejoin the top league which starts early on August second.
The 2019-2020 Primeira Liga features a team promoted via a court decision. Gil Vicente won the right to return to top league and are joined by Famalicao and Pacos de Ferreira. Benfica stormed to the top after January and have sold Joao Felix, their super star to be teenager, for over €120 million to Atletico Madrid. The Porto challenge will be as fierce as ever and Sporting will be in the mix but likely to be weakened because of the departure of the soon to be sold Bruno Fernandes. The new season will start on August 9th.