Newcastle’s summer pursuit of Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi stated Palace’s resolve on refuting the toon. Palace are stuck in the middle of the arrow, on the precipice, which way will they go? Manager Oliver Glasner link to article April 4 2024 ‘Premiership Clubs Oliver Glasner’ needs to utilise his first season Premiership knowledge to sustain the club’s continuation in the Prem. The arrival of Dominic Solanke who failed to reach the heights at Liverpool, and has returned to a big club at Tottenham, respect afforded to Bournemouth. It has to be said that Spurs paid an inflated price for the striker at 65 million pounds. The tag attached to the club as being flaky is still very apparent with Postecoglou’s style of management, a top four finish will confirm Postecoglou’s right to remain and bust that mould, shatter those flakes.

At the Aston Villa, the villains have turned into the hoarders of all that’s good. Unai Emery has been given free reign alongside the backroom staff. A strengthening to bolster the depth of the squad at the summer’s core, with Champions League Football to be played out, can Villa maintain last season’s top four position with the extra loading of European matches, that’s open to question. A four pronged notch from the Villa are Fulham with eleven incoming players, of note, Emile Smith Rowe from Arsenal, Joachim Anderson and Sander Berge from Crystal Palace and Burnley respectively, all for a combined fee of 84.85 million pounds. The new signings send a progressive message, we want to develop more, we will endeavour not to sit still, one indifferent season and we could relinquish Prem status, we must build, we must challenge. Manager Marco Silva has developed his managerial skills to a higher level, Silva previously has been on the Manero doubt fire, it’s good to be proven wrong on occasions, nothing wrong with that, take it on the chin, onwards and forwards, that’s the message, the Fulham message.

Plenty of Magpies over the Thames but as Newcastle United it’s all badged up, salute the Magpie and it will fend off bad luck. At the toon army, there seems to be an underlying turbulence with the club looking to offload their best assets to PSR comply indicates the club’s inadequacies at sporting director level. It has to be said that the PSR ruling has impacted on Newcastle to be loaded up with the Saudi cash but unable to roam free, pinned to the PSR handcuffs, time for a Newcastle Brown Ale, progress being hindered. Newcastle are not expected to hit the top four anytime soon, and the club’s brief dalliance with the Champions League seem a distant memory, to suggest that a conference European slot could be a stretch too far. The impact on manager Eddie Howe is evident with less traction, the England hummingbird is hovering on Howe becoming the England manager, time to squat that hum you Magpies, the jury’s out on the season’s path for the toon.

At Westham United the departure of David Moyes came of no surprise with the Hammers faithful demanding more expansive football. The arrival of new manager Julien Lopetegui’s handbag came with a heavy load to outlay a staggering 144.4 million pounds on incoming players, ten at the last count. Comparisons to be made on Moyes counter attacking football to Lopetegui who prefers the 4-3-3 system to be the base to evolve around possession football with controlled attacking phases. The importance for the Lopetegui is to hit the ground running to keep those flying hammers at bay, the supporters critical.

At the crazed tunes of Nottingham Forest, who under their previous manager Steve Cooper would bus loads of players in at an alarming rate of knots, new manager Nuno Espirito Santo has lessened the load to twelve incomers during the summer fruits, seventeen players hit the exit door to lessen the load further. Nuno places more faith in his coaching methods to build a strong defensive unit with the guidelines to harness the attacking phases, Nuno has been known to use four systems on occasions. Forest is expected to be one of the clubs with the relegation spectre hanging over, but Nuno’s managerial acumen could put those concerns to bed, Forest to sleep easy?

The major talking points at Brentford during the summer salad days was the future of manager Thomas Frank and Ivan Toney, Frank stays, Toney hit the mercenary route to Saudi Arabia signal tunes the end of Toney’s international career. Igor Thiago arrived in July in anticipation of Tony leaving as the forwards replacement at 33 million pounds, a further five signing to have come in with ten players exiting.

Franks favours the three centre-backs and can number out to having five attacking players in attacking phases, a team that feeds off winning the second balls and likes to go direct from free kicks inside the opposition’s half, a coach who believes in continued evolution with the Bees continuing to punch above their weight, a mid-table finish will suffice. At Arsenal the Arteta mystery to set up without a recognised centre-forward, mystic Arteta the Riddler, goalkeeper Ramsey replaced by David Raya, the two riddles of no match up. The arrival of Raheem Stirling is a welcome addition, perhaps the Gunners can prove the sceptics wrong, a number of five players in with a figure to blow Nottingham Forest out of the gunnery with 34 players exiting. The quick transitional match play of Arsenal would surely be better served with a pivotal number 9 come the season’s end May 2025, will it be a repeat of 2024? At Bournemouth, manager Andoni Iraola has taken the Cherries up another level with the emphasis on staying in the opposition’s half for as long as possible with an aggressive press, which was highlighted in the Toffee cake, Cherries on top when Everton alarmingly fell foul of the tactic at the August end, in the infamous defeat 3 to 2 with the Cherries netting 3 goals from the 87^th minute to the 95^th minute, the Iraola’s late substitutions ensured fresher legs to strangle the press onto the opposition. January’s acquisition of the Turkish international Enes Unal will be hoping to bear fruit to replace the departed Dominic Solank. Unal has previously played in the Eredivisie (top Dutch League) with NAC Breda and Twente scoring 26 goals in 43 appearances combined that rich vein of form needs to be rekindled. The Premiership mid-term fast approaching, the early sightings of the Premiership.