Updated: January 2019

Will Man City win the English Premier League next season?

3 January 2019

The summer transfer window has been littered with pounds. Clubs came into the transfer window with drums of dollars ready to bring in more canons to their team. The Premiership title is now more coveted than the White House. Money has been splashed and splattered. There has been heavy inflation in the transfer window as well, and clubs may have to mortgage their stadium subsequently to afford players in transfers windows to come. No top player comes below 20 million pounds in the Premier League. That is almost as undisputed as the fact that murder is a criminal offence.

Well, the likes of Man City zipped down the money bags in the transfer window. Pep Guardola extensively revamped his defence and he didn’t do it with shillings. Big money acquisitions of Mendy from Monaco, Ederson from Benefica, Danilo from Real Madrid, Kyle Walker from Tottenham – has shown a deep craving for defensive restructuring from Guardiola.

Guardiola’s teams are always greedy with the ball with Guardiola being one of the famous inventors of tiki-taka philosophy at Barcelona. Guardiola thus demands his team play from the back, and as shown with the ousting of Joe Hart, Guardiola’s love for a ball playing goalkeeper may see him one day have a midfielder in gloves between the posts. Such philosophy comes with its risk and at intervals last season, Man City were ripped apart by teams that made great gains from City’s capitulation in defence. The likes of Sagna, Clichy and Kolarov were miles back technically and biologically (age and pace) from what Guardiola demanded from his backline. Thus this transfer window gave the reputable coach the ample opportunity to dust the cobwebs off the team and extensively mop his squad.

His mopstick worked well in the transfer window and now he has a shiny squad boasting a fiery backline that is capable of running from London to Beijing on foot, very pacy fullbacks. With Bernardo Silva coming in from Monaco as well, a forward line already congested with talents gets more poisonous.

Spending over 200 million pounds this summer window wasn’t to qualify for the Europa. Guardiola is spoilt for choice and has a big plate of options on his table. Competition is flaming in the Man City at the moment. Complacency is a capital offence as everyone knows he can be relegated to the bench if he mistakes the pitch for Ibiza (that is a holiday). Guardiola has already shown he has little patience for reputation and big names. Sergio Aguero ( an Argentine deity at the Etihad) enjoyed some time on the bench for the seeming crown prince Jesus Gabriel. Guardiola has rightly shown that no one is indispensable.

It is almost as right as expecting the Pope to have an estate in heaven when you expect Man City to win the Premier League. They undoubtedly have one of the strongest squads in the league at the moment. Yes, Man United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal; all the traditional giants have added to their teams. But with the volume of individual talents at the disposal of Guardiola, we don’t really see many teams holding Man City by the neck in any competitive match. The 4-1 dismantling of Real Madrid in the ICC is an aroma of what Guardiola is cooking for next season.

It is said money doesn’t buy the league title, but with Man City this season, it looks very likely. The big question however is: Will Man City with this big-money squad win the Premier League Title next season?

Man City are 15|8 to win the Premier League Title next season with PaddyPower