01 PEP’S QUEST FOR SEVEN TROPHIES
In the 135-year history of league football in England, no team has won four top-flight titles in a row. In 2023-24, Manchester City are overwhelming favourites to do that.
True, City are unlikely to achieve universal popularity any time soon, but Pep Guardiola’s side confirmed themselves as one of Britain’s finest teams ever with last season’s stunning treble. Such dominance had been coming. They now top the UEFA rankings for results over the past five years, overtaking Bayern Munich at the European summit, thanks to that first Champions League trophy, secured courtesy of Rodri’s goal against Inter in June.
Their toughest test came against Arsenal in the Premier League – in the table at least, before they swatted the Gunners aside at the Etihad in late April, illustrating the gulf that still existed between the two sides. Perhaps nothing summed that up better than that game’s final minutes – 3-1 up, City were in such control that Erling Haaland literally let his hair down, removing his hair bobble to show off his long mane, then scoring mere seconds later. It was quite the flex. Against City’s nearest challengers, the goal bot could still score when barely trying.
Haaland’s 52 goals in 53 games have taken City to the next level and it’s hard to see anyone stopping them. The Norwegian insists he’s still got room for improvement, too: after all, there were 22 matches he didn’t score in, perish the thought.
Only five times before had a team won three straight English titles. Huddersfield were champions between 1924 and 1926, while Arsenal clinched the First Division from 1933 to 1935, each largely thanks to Herbert Chapman. Liverpool won three in a row from 1982 to 1984, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United doing it twice in the Premier League era (1999-2001 and 2007-09. Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea beat Wigan 8-0 on the final day in 2010, to pip United to a fourth. No one has got closer.
City are huge bookmakers’ favourites to break the record and win a sixth top flight in seven seasons. The Bundesliga have their ‘farmer’s league’ jibes saved in their drafts after Bayern Munich’s 11 consecutive titles.
Of course, the Mancunians still have an FFP case hanging over them. In February, the club were charged with 115 alleged breaches dating back to 2009-10 and intend to defend themselves robustly.
On the field, Guardiola has been writing history at the Etihad, with updated chapters to come. He won six trophies in a calendar year at Barcelona – following up the treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League in 2009 with the Supercopa de Espana, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
This year could feature a repeat. City face Arsenal in the Community Shield on August 6, Sevilla in the Super Cup 10 days later and then head to Saudi Arabia for the Club World Cup in December. With the Carabao Cup also up for grabs next February, it’s possible he could hold seven trophies at the same time.
This side will be remembered for decades. Whether you like City or not, Pep’s quest will be one of the stories of the season. Win the title again, and he’ll have his own unique place in English football history.
02 ROB AND RYAN IN THE EFL
Are Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney football’s highest profile owners ever?
Maybe not – Watford’s old chairman did just headline Glastonbury at 76 – but Hollywood’s golden duo have done wonders for Wrexham. Now they’ve reached the promised land of the Football League. Barrow! Sutton!! Accrington Stanley!!! Exactly!!!!
On the face of it, the Racecourse Ground’s new normal should continue, with Phil Parkinson’s side big favourites again. They’re still the stand-out name on the fixture list – let’s face it, Disney’s cameras aren’t going to Swindon and Grimsby otherwise – and the ambitious pair will be affably expectant.
Wrexham were well prepped for League Two, even before promotion. Theirs is a squad dripping not only in fourth-tier experience, but even Premier League and England caps, now last season’s guest star Ben Foster has joined the regular cast. At 40, his penalty save against Notts County in April did much to secure the National League title.
They needed a ludicrous 111 points to do so. Notts missed out on automatic promotion with 107, even though no club in National League history had surpassed Crawley’s 105 in 2010-11. The Magpies made it to the EFL, anyway - although only after 97th- and 87th-minute equalisers in their two play-off games, then victory in a penalty shootout.
Wrexham are expected to entice talents from above and beyond again, as plumping for North Wales can really bright-light your career. Lower-league odd-jobber Paul Mullin is now arguably one of the best-known strikers in the UK, maybe even the world, due to the Welcome to Wrexham doc (plus some government-bashing footwear), and their promotion season hasn’t even aired yet.
That show’s ‘plucky underdog’ arc will leave a funny aftertaste for fans of lesser-funded clubs, but there’s an undeniable positivity around the place. The unsung hero is executive director Humphrey Ker. Previously of sketch trio the Penny Dreadfuls, the Etone-ducated comic headed to America, wrote for Rob, then planted the seed about football club ownership and became a non-league football admin. He has a whiff of old-school diplomat, too: that bond between California and Cymru would be clunkier without him.
Longer-suffering Racecourse dwellers may worry that R&R’s passion will cool this year, as they’ve recently invested in the Alpine Formula One team. Reynolds already had more business interests than your average wheeler-dealer football chairman. Wrexham could end up with a pit crew for the team bus.
Could they do an Elton-at-Watford, push all the way to the top tier, and a cup final? The Sacrifice (ahem) would be worth it.
03 NO WORLD CUP BREAK
A winter World Cup worked out pretty well for Lionel Messi, but it rather played havoc with the domestic fixture list. No such concerns in 2023-24 – no (lengthy) break in the middle of the Premier League season, no Champions League group stage crammed into a couple of months, while lower-league fans won’t have to choose between Tonbridge Angels vs Weymouth and Portugal vs Morocco on the same mid-December afternoon. Given that the previous three seasons were all affected by COVID in some way or other, this will be a pleasing return to normality.
04 PETER DRURY GOING OTT AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY
Sky’s summer outgoings included Soccer AM, Jeff Stelling, Graeme Souness and lead commentator Martin Tyler. In place of the 77-year-old, step forward Peter Drury, enemy of understatement, poet of all poets, who never knowingly undersells any goal. If he isn’t screaming “GOAL FOR ALL BEDFORDSHIRE!” after Luton score against Burnley this season, there will be murders.
05 MORE MAD TITLE RACES
The Bundesliga had a dramatic end last term as Jamal Musiala’s 89th-minute goal won the title for Bayern Munich to deny Borussia Dortmund once more, but Belgium’s Pro League offered up a madcap final day when the title flipped between three clubs in five mad minutes. Union Saint-Gilloise were set to become champs, only to concede in the 89th minute to put Genk top, until Toby Alderweireld struck a 94th-minute leveller from 20 yards for their last-day opponents Antwerp. It was their first title in 66 years. More drama like that, please.
06 MITROVIC NOT DOING SOMETHING STUPID
Aleksandar Mitrovic started last term by finally proving he has what it takes to score regularly in the Premier League, with nine in his first 11 league games of the season. Unfortunately, the 28-year-old soon overshadowed all of that by shoving a referee and earning an eight-match ban. It’s not exactly the first time the hot-headed Serbian striker has lost it and done something he’d later regret – hopefully this term, he just sticks to scoring loads of goals, and doesn’t headbutt Roy Hodgson or something.
07 POSTECOGLOU AT SPURS
It’s the most anticipated Ange storyline since Dirty Den divorced Angie Watts on EastEnders in the 1980s, when cup finals were the only live football on TV and Spurs were often in them. Those were the days.
As the Premier League’s first Australian manager, Postecoglou (right) is now the inspirational poster boy for ambitious gaffers Down Under, but the avuncular 57-year-old hasn’t set pulses racing in Tottenham – apart from those of irate phone-in callers, anyway.
Anger is mostly aimed at chairman Daniel Levy after the strategy-shedding three-boss debacle of 2022-23, followed by humiliating flirtations with several sexy young coaches this summer. Ange can’t be blamed for that, but as the fallback rebound option, he will be well aware that this honeymoon could turn into a soap opera. The four-month reign of Nuno Espirito Santo, hired as Levy’s fourth or fifth choice, still looms
