All summer, two English Premiership clubs consistently hogged the news headlines and both co-exist acrimoniously in the same area - Manchester.
First, defending three-titles-in-a-row champions Manchester United sold their most flamboyant player Cristiano Ronaldo to Spain for a world record fee, and then they parted ways with the tigerish striker Carlos Tevez before securing the services of England's forgotten son Michael Owen for free.
Not to be outdone, United's less preponderant neighbors Manchester City, backed by petrodollars from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, splurged over £100m in a single summer for soccer talents. In their effort to break the stranglehold held by the Big Four in England, City started this soccer season with an startling nine senior strikers on their roster.
Despite being the richest club in the world, I think Manchester City would probably end up with not much more than they had wished for. After all, a great team takes time to build up and gel together. Also, even when they are chasing games, at most three to four strikers can take to the field, leaving the rest sulking on the cold subs bench, that if they even make it there.
What about the rest of the Premiership? If anything, I can't see them being unhappy because each club stands to receive £32m for plainly playing in the elite soccer division. It will be tidy earnings, especially for the smaller clubs. And talking about them, this season will herald a bumper bunch of such 'lesser clubs', such as Wolves, Burnley, Wigan, Birmingham, Hull City, Sunderland, and so on.
The truth is sometimes I wonder if soccer fans are witnessing less interesting Championship-level soccer rather than Premiership soccer. Not only that, with raising players salaries, I shudder to think if fans are in fact overpaying for football that in fact could turn out to be less interesting than anticipated.
Now into the 17th edition since the formation of the English Premiership in 1992, this season could see three major events taking place: first, the rise of Manchester City interesting for top honors, second, the scramble to avoid the relegation trap door becoming more nerve-wrecking than ever and third, Manchester United retaining their crown for a historic four-in-a-row for a recording-breaking 19 English titles.
Why the English Premiership Just Got Crazier