The new Premier League season kicks off tonight, with champions Arsenal playing newly promoted Coventry City at the Emirates Stadium. The competition remains the commercial juggernaut of global football, broadcast in 189 countries with an estimated 1.9 billion followers. Projected revenues, according to the Deloitte Annual Football Finance Review, are expected to exceed £7 billion this season.
But scratch a little deeper, and there is an unmistakable sense of flux about the competition. Gone are the big beast managers with their all-consuming rivalries. Pep Guardiola of Manchester City, whose genius has transformed the fortunes of that club, is the latest to depart. Who will fill the void? Could it finally be the era of Mikel Arteta of Arsenal, now the longest-serving manager in the league? Xabi Alonso, newly installed at Chelsea? Michael Carrick at Old Trafford? Andoni Iraola at Liverpool?
It feels a bit, well, meh. Hardly the stuff of old, with the snarling face-offs between Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger or the mighty clash of footballing philosophies when Jurgen Klopp and Guardiola squared off. Is there a manager out there who rivals Jose Mourinho when it comes to the dark arts, happily pitting himself against, well, everyone else?
