P – Pep Guardiola
Looking to move away to find a new challenge, Pep Guardiola announced his decision to join Manchester City as early as February this year. City’s season soon became a countdown to the end of Manuel Pellegrini’s era and despite reaching the Champions League semi-final for the first time, fans were not impressed. Guardiola’s arrival heralds a new era for the club and he is looked at as the messiah to change the club’s ethos from top to bottom.
Trending
Q – Queues for away tickets
With the meteoric rise in the popularity of the Premier League, so did the ticket prices and it was the fans who felt the brunt of it. Protests in the form of marches, banners, and even walkouts made the clubs sit up and take notice. As a result, the first step sees ticket prices frozen by most clubs while away fans will pay no more than £30.
R – Riyad Mahrez to stay
Ranieri is pretty confident Mahrez will stay with the Foxes this season despite perennial interest in the PFA Player of the Year from various clubs in the EPL and Europe. The Algerian winger scored 17 goals and provided 11 assists in the league last season and one can only hope he doesn’t suffer the same fate as Eden Hazard after winning the award. Ranieri and Leicester fans will hope Mahrez can reproduce those magical performances on European nights as well.
S – Sam Allardyce to stay or move on?
Sunderland’s philosophy of hiring managers to survive relegation and then fire them may come to an end after they hired Big Sam. Allardyce is not a manager to be trifled with and his approach ensures “weaker” clubs get results and survive in the top flight. But with the England job calling, the Black Cats may be sweating for the first time with the Three Lions circling.
T – Television deal
£5.136bn. That’s the value of the television deal that the Premier League signed – a massive 71% increase over their existing deal. Set to run for three years starting from this season, it sees the average cost of each game for broadcasters rise to £10.19m. Some of the money will go to developing grassroots football while the 20 clubs will also get an equal share ensuring a fair market when it comes to player transfers.
