It feels like it has been 5 minutes since Kingsley Coman headed home to give Bayern the Champions League crown against PSG to conclude a long-winded and crazy 2019/20 season, but the new season is well underway, with Ligue 1 and European qualification games underway. Predicting in football is generally ill advised, but nonetheless I am going to be making 5 predictions for the upcoming season, one for each top 5 league , only time will tell if I am a prophet, or just a fool.
Leicester City to miss out on Europe
With my team, Fulham, back in the premier league, I can’t wait for the start of the new season, and Leicester City will be slightly gutted that they will just be playing Europa, rather than Champions League football. And while I’m sure that their fans are buzzing to see their team in Europe next season, I don’t see them staying there. There are various factors that lead me to believe this. One of these is the sale of Ben Chilwell, and the fact that he has been replaced by Timothy Castagne. While I think that selling the former for around £60 million is good business on Leicester’s part, they should have looked elsewhere for a replacement. While Chilwell is hardly a defensive behemoth, he still comfortably betters Castagne’s defensive output, he also creates and dribbles more, so it is hard to see this as anything other than a serious downgrade. Leicester also suffer from a serious lack of squad depth, with a mere 13 players playing over 1000 minutes last season, this suggests that they do not have the legs to run an extensive Europa League campaign as well as push for Europe in the league, we have seen the kind of negative impact an injury to a key player like Ndidi or Vardy does to their form, with so many games to play, I see this season as possibly being a total failure for the Foxes, and I think that they will miss out on European football entirely in the league.
Schalke 04 be in the Relegation Playoff
Schalke are a total, utter disaster, while last season started well, after the winter break, their form was nothing short of a disaster, with a 3-0 loss to Augsburg and a 4-0 loss to Freiburg just a couple of results that saw them fail to win since the 17th of January. With there seemingly being minimal change at the club over the summer, with David Wagner still in charge and a 36 year old Vedad Ibisevic the only incoming of the summer so far, having lost Weston McKennie, I could see Schalke being in serious trouble this season. Their main concern is the fact that they do not have a player who can score goals at Bundesliga level, their player with the best xG last season was their new man, Ibisevic, and his 6.3 is hardly amazing and you can bet that he will have far less service at Schalke then he did at Hertha. Another key worry is their defence, with Nübel on form, and a good back line, Schalke were able to ride out their poor attack with a good defence at the start of last season, but after that it began to unravel, and with no goalkeeper signed, could they go into the new season with the calamitous and inexperienced Markus Schubert between the sticks? They have been linked with the likes of Zack Steffen and Tim Krul, but with little movement at this point in time, I predict that die Königsblauen will start the season with the error prone 22 year old in goal, and it to all go downhill from there. With all this put together, I see Schalke coming at the very highest, 16th in the BuLi this season, barring serious change among the squad and in the dressing room.
AS Monaco to get Champions League Football
To call Monaco’s last few seasons turbulent would be quite the understatement, in the last two seasons they have sacked Leonardo Jardim, hired Thierry Henry, sacked Henry, re-hired Jardim, sacked him again, and hired and sacked Robert Moreno. Now, however, they seem to have made an interesting and progressive appointment in Niko Kovac, and their transfer business makes me think that they will jump all the way from 9th to top 3 in Ligue 1 this season. Monaco have made two signings of real note this summer so far. The first of these is the signing of 28 year old German forward Kevin Volland from Bayer Leverkusen for a bargain £13.5 million, last season, Wissam Ben Yedder was the league’s top scorer with 18 goals in a strike partnership with Islam Slimani, Volland is a more creative player than Slimani, and is a better goalscorer, although does not quite provide the aerial presence. Nonetheless this is a huge upgrade on Slimani, and I think it is a safe bet that Volland and Ben Yedder will be a fantastic partnership for Monaco next season, especially with the creativity of Aleksandr Golovin behind them. Despite this being a great signing, it is their other big name signing, Axel Disasi that excites me more. The 22 year old Frenchman was part of Ligue 1’s best centre back partnership last season with Yunis Abdelhamid at Stade de Reims, and now that he has joined Monaco, they have hugely upgraded in their back line, with the departure of Kamil Glik, so Monaco have upgraded in possibly the two most key areas of the pitch, and have weakened a rival in Stade de Reims, this with the exciting appointment of Niko Kovac, who helped turn Seb Haller and Luka Jović into goal machines and win Bayern a domestic double, leads me to believe that AS Monaco will get top 3 in Ligue 1 this season. While this is a bold prediction with their recent struggles, and the strength of the likes of Marseille, Rennes, Lille and especially Nice, I think that we will see a really exciting and successful Monaco side once again this season.
Inter to Win Serie A
This is arguably the boldest prediction of the list, but at the same time I think it is probably quite hard to argue against it. Last season was one of serious progress for Inter, although it was one that did end in disappointment, finishing 1 point behind champions Juventus in Serie A, exiting at the semi-final stage of the Coppa Italia and a 3-2 loss to Sevilla in the Europa League final. While it looked that Antonio Conte may leave as manager, he eventually decided to stay as manager, and with their signings this summer, and the question marks hanging over Juventus, I think now is the year when another team can clinch the trophy. It is well versed that the wing backs are the key positions in Antonio Conte’s 3/5 at the back system, and this summer Inter have signed possibly the best possible player in that position in Achraf Hakimi from Real Madrid, this is a stunning signing and with him running the right flank, Inter look very strong and extremely deep, with the signings of Aleksandar Kolarov and the not yet announced Arturo Vidal, it seems that the Nerazzurri are committing everything to winning the title this season. The second key reason why I think this is Inter’s year is the question marks that hang over Juventus, in Arthur and Weston McKennie, they are clearly bringing down the age of their midfield, but I hesitate to say that they are upgrading it for the short term, as it is quite hard to see what these two really bring over the next season. They have also been heavily linked with Luis Suarez, which, for me would be a total disregard for the fact that their squad is already so old, and for me would be a poor signing. Despite all this the main factor here is Pirlo, nobody knows how good he will be, and one imagines that he will be given time, due to the respect the fanbase already has for him. For someone so inexperienced to have to deal with such superstars could we a recipe for an implosion in Turin, and I think there is a strong possibility that he struggles this season, opening the door for Don Antonio Conte to claim the Scudetto.
Barcelona to come 4th
I have done my best to be bold but reasonable with these predictions, but this may be the first that verges past that. It is no secret that Barcelona are a total shambles, with Messi unhappy, but staying, the team demoralised after a trophy-less season and the humiliating 8-2 champions league defeat to FC Bayern paired with the uninspiring appointment of Ronald Koeman, and the likely departure of Luis Suarez. There has been a clear lack of transfer movement so far this summer on Barcelona’s part, other than the ludicrous swap deal between Arthur and Pjanić they have not addressed the problem areas of the defence and the forward line, although it seems that Memphis Depay could be on his way to the Camp Nou. It is obvious that in their recent history Barcelona have never been closer to total collapse, and that is why I am predicting that it will finally all fall apart this season, with an ageing defence and a front line that is being dragged through every season by Messi I think that Barcelona will fall out of La Liga’s top 3 and come 4th next season without winning a trophy, and Messi will leave next summer. The obvious question is over who replaces them in the top 3. Real and Atléti have had their problems, but it is very hard to see them dropping out, I think that it will be either Sevilla or Villarreal to do it, with Real Sociedad also outside contenders. Nonetheless, Barcelona are a total disaster, and as bad as last season was, I could see this coming campaign being far worse.
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