News Thread

The Premier League is considered the most competitive league in all of European football, with some of the continent’s biggest and richest clubs spending untold fortunes on players that can confidently stick the ball in the back of the net. But when the star strikers aren’t available on the transfer market, the next best option is to pick up one of the leading stars of tomorrow, in the hope that they’ll develop into a talisman good enough for the English top-flight. 

On Monday Tottenham Hotspur welcome Chelsea to a London derby that will feel slightly peculiar to fans of the club. Although the Spurs faithful always go into every clash with cross-city rivals hoping to take something from the game, the remarkable start to the new Premier League season under Ange Postecoglou has pushed expectations sky high. And against a Chelsea side that are languishing in mid-table, anything but all three points may be seen as a bit of a disappointment. 

There’s little doubt which player rose above all others to steal the headlines in Bayern Munich’s dominating 4-0 win over Borussia Dortmund on Saturday. Although Leroy Sané excelled on the wing and Leon Goretzka put on a heroic performance in the middle of the park, it was hat-trick hero Harry Kane that stole the show with three goals at the Westfalenstadion. Which now puts the England international on no less than 15 goals from his first 10 Bundesliga games of the season. 

The Premier League is widely considered as the biggest and best league in the world, with young talents from all four corners of the world flocking to England for the rags and riches that come with the English top-flight. One of the more recent evolutions in the Premier League and world football, has been the inverting of the full-back, with many teams now adopting the Pep Guardiola driven tactic, to create overloads in midfield and stop counter attacks at the source. Lots of teams now tend to go for an inverted full-back on one side and a more traditional full-back on the other. 

Kanji Okunuki is being monitored by Celtic as interest grows in the Nürnberg winger ahead of the January transfer window. Transfermarkt understands that the Scottish Champions have sent scouts to observe the 24-year-old in action for the 2.Bundesliga side on several occasions this season. Okunuki only joined Nürnberg this summer from Omiya Ardija for €300,000 but his recent impressive performances have generated attention from a number of clubs.

Thirteen British clubs feature in the top 50 highest attendances in the world during the 2023/24 season, with Manchester United remaining the best supported club in the United Kingdom. West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur join the Manchester club in the top ten with two German clubs leading the way this season. Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena and Borussia Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park have both been at full capacity, with Dortmund claiming top spot with 81,365 fans.

Manchester United have been engulfed by problems this season but they return to English Premier League action this weekend against Everton as the in-form team across the last five games. Erik ten Hag has been heavily scrutinised this season but United are just five points off the top four and seven points from leaders Manchester City. Context, however, is important as the Old Trafford side faced three of the league’s bottom six sides - Fulham, Luton Town and Sheffield United - as they racked up four wins from their last five to head into the international break. An ominous fixture list awaits United in December in the league and they also risk being knocked out of the Champions League, but an easing of their injury crisis in defence should provide slight optimism.

Ange Postecoglou has been a revelation since taking charge at Tottenham Hotspur but his managerial credentials will come under scrutiny across the next few weeks. The Australian accrued the most points of any manager in their first 10 games in the history of the English Premier League. Tottenham went undefeated, collecting 26 points as Postecoglou received two manager of the month awards. It was the club’s best-ever start in the Premier League era and their second best-ever in English football, behind the title winning side of 1960-01.

The Scottish Premiership has been an attractive market for top European clubs to find bargain transfers across the last decade. Virgil van Djik epitomises this pathway with Southampton acquiring the Netherlands international for €15.7 million from Celtic in 2015 before selling him to Liverpool for €84.65m just 30 months later. Van Djik developed into one of the best defenders in the world while John McGinn, Andy Robertson and Odsonne Eduoard have all been successful signings for English clubs. Talented Scottish youngsters have also become more desirable for English Premier League sides due to restrictions imposed by Brexit, preventing the signings of under-18 year olds from overseas.  

The Premier League is the next of the top five leagues to get new market values before Christmas, and the world’s most expensive football market has two midfielders, who already broke the €100 million mark in the last update, making further progress – worldwide, there are now only six players with a higher market value than the pair. While the biggest losers of the update, Manchester United, drop clearly behind Liverpool, while rivals Manchester City boast the biggest plus of the update and reach their highest squad value since April 2020. With only a marginal loss, the most valuable league continues to maintain a total value of €11 billion.