Ten Euro 2024-based Premier League predictions for the 2024/25 season
Less than a week from now the withdrawal symptoms will start, but the end of Euro 2024 means the countdown to the new Premier League season begins and this tournament in Germany has offered hints as to what we should expect in The Best League In The World in 2024/25.
We’ve made ten predictions…
Cody Gakpo starts and stars on the left for Liverpool
Gakpo now has a very good chance of winning the Golden Boot as the other players to have scored three goals at Euro 2024 – Georges Mikautadze, Jamal Musiala and Ivan Schranz – have now all gone home, and Harry Kane offers no threat.
Gakpo has looked far more dangerous for the Netherlands than he ever has for Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp largely played him in a central role in the hope he could be turned into a Roberto Firmino-like figure, but this tournament has shown he’s far more suited to running at players from the left.
We know why Klopp tried. He’s got good feet, can link the play, has decent awareness and with Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez also preferring the left flank someone was going to be a square peg in a round hole. But Diaz may well be on his way and although we’re huge fans of the chaos Nunez brings, a consistent place in the starting XI for Gakpo may well reap more rewards. Having a compatriot as a manager won’t hurt his chances.
Chelsea won’t sign a left-back
Ian Maatsen’s gone to Aston Villa and Lewis Hall’s move to Newcastle is now permanent. Strange though it feels to be praising anyone with their hand on the Chelsea transfer tiller, £65m for those two feels like pretty good business, particularly as it’s delicious ‘pure profit’, and also because Chelsea may not actually need to sign a left-back to replace them thanks to the return to form of arguably the most widely deplored signing of the Todd Boehly era.
Marc Cucurella looked pretty good at the end of the season for Chelsea but not so good that many fans will have seen him as a long-term solution to the left side of the defence, which has been a problem in the main because of to Ben Chilwell’s everlasting injury issues. Cucurella was a surprise starter for Spain at Euro 2024 and far from looking out of place in the standout team in Germany, he’s been among their top performers, with his display against Italy particularly impressive both when defending and attacking.
With Cucurella as first choice, Chilwell as a backup and Levi Colwill able to slot in if and when required, Chelsea can focus their recruitment resources on other areas of their ailing squad.
Rasmus Hojlund on the bench for Manchester United
Manchester United fans were at pains to point out last season, having taken Hojlund into their bossoms from day dot, that it wasn’t his fault but everyone else’s that he was failing to score goals or contribute anything of note for the majority of the campaign. He wasn’t getting the service.
But it could also be argued – and we did – that a £64m striker should be doing more for himself rather than wholly relying on others. Both things can be true.
Hojlund played 290 minutes for Denmark, scored no goals and had just six shots. His stans will again blame others, and we will again suggest that a young striker with Hojlund’s attributes should be taking games by the scruff of the neck.
His non-performances at Euro 2024 have also coincided with United closing in on signing Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna. We very much doubt Erik ten Hag is going to be playing two strikers next season, so it’s going to be one or the other, and while we’re not particularly convinced by Zirkzee either, he’s more of a creator than Hojlund, dropping deep and providing for others. Zirkzee’s game isn’t all about goals, while that’s all Hojlund seems to offer, just not frequently enough.
Gareth Southgate not on the bench for Manchester United
Presumably no longer Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s top choice when Erik ten Hag is sacked at Christmas.
Marc Guehi in the Champions League
Sorry Palace fans, the gutting of your club that began with Michael Olise’s move to Bayern Munich is far from over we feel. Guehi’s injury at the end of the season may have led big club attentions to be drawn elsewhere but his displays this summer will have caught the eye once again. He’s arguably been England’s best player en route to the semi-final.
Pep Guardiola bloody loves a centre-back, but Manchester City are ludicrously well stocked. It would be very tough to break into the Arsenal first team so we would ward Guehi against them. Aston Villa are a possibility. But it’s Liverpool that feels like the right fit. Arne Slot will need to sign one or two this summer and Guehi could be first choice alongside Virgil van Dijk, or instead of him when the time comes.
Kyle Walker leaves Manchester City
Was heavily linked with a move away last summer, though that was probably a play from his agent to get a new contract, which duly arrived. But on the basis of this tournament, in which he’s been a point of weakness in defence and a hindrance for Bukayo Saka in attack, we can’t see Walker lasting until the end of his contract in two years’ time.
All of England’s Manchester City players have looked well short of their club form in fairness, but it’s suddenly not at all difficult to imagine Guardiola signing someone in that position who would significantly improve them. Harrowing thought though that is.
Radu Dragusin starts for Tottenham
Tottenham have three very fun centre-backs. Micky van der Ven does his fast running bit, to the point where he occasionally loses control of his legs. It’s Cristian Romero’s mind that lacks the requisite control, which can lead to studs in opponent shins but it makes him the sort of flawed genius we can’t help but be drawn to.
And Radu Dragusin is a lovely mix of the centre-back bruisers of old and the new technically gifted wannabe midfielders. It could be argued that he’s part Van der Ven and part Romero, and though it’s hard to see either of the current starting pair being handed a watching brief by Ange Postecoglou – unless Van der Ven starts at left-back, which is unlikely given Destiny Udogie’s importance to the system – one of the trio has to miss out.
It was increasingly difficult watching Romania this summer to imagine Dragusin not being a key part of that team.
Brighton sell Bart Verbruggen for £50m+
He made a brilliant save in stoppage time against Turkey to ensure the Netherlands got through to face England, and that was one moment of many this tournament that’s made Roberto De Zerbi’s decision to swap Verbruggen in and out of the Brighton team with Jason Steele seem even more strange than it did already, and leaves us in no doubt that a) new Seagulls boss Fabian Hurzeler will make the Dutchman his undisputed No.1, and b) Brighton will be receiving significant offers for Verbruggen from bigger clubs this time next year.
Kobbie Mainoo named Young Player of the Season
One of few positives for England despite what the stats may say. We weren’t convinced he should have been nominated for the gong last season but on his current trajectory Mainoo will be a shoo-in next term.
Virgil van Dijk dropped by Arne Slot
He’s King Van Dijk to us but the Dutch are less convinced. Plenty of fans and pundits reckon he should be dropped in favour of one of Ronald Koeman’s many and excellent alternative options at centre-back, and Slot will presumably be tuned into the sentiments of his compatriots as he prepares for his debut season at Liverpool.
It would be an incredibly bold move not to start the season with Van Dijk – Slot would be at risk of alienating himself from the fanbase almost immediately. But if he has Guehi or other quality centre-backs in reserve and Van Dijk looks as leggy and get-at-able as he has done this summer, the fans may be convinced of a change. Then again, we’ve been here before. This could be another slump rather than the end.