The dreaded International Break has come upon us once more and for all football fans, we lose the magic of Premier League and Champions League being on the telly most hours of the day in favour of having to watch England play Albania and f***ing San Marino AGAIN.
In light of this break and also due to the fact I couldn’t think of a topic from the last week or two that I desperately wanted to write about, I decided to get a bit creative and look into the future. So, indulge my wild imagination for a bit and let’s jump ahead to the year 2025 where the country and world are hopefully Covid-free and we are enjoying some kind of repeat of the roaring twenties of the previous century. The Premier League will, of course, still be as strong and entertaining as ever but let’s see how the league’s giants may shape up in a few years’ time.
Disclaimer: I am focusing on the traditional “Big 6” even if that has never looked less secure or set in stone. Leicester are most definitely in the best six sides in the country at the moment (they’re arguably in the best three or four) but unfortunately I don’t see them maintaining this right the way through to 2025.
Arsenal
Coach: Mikel Arteta
Key Player: Bukayo Saka
How are they doing: Outsiders for the Title
Arsenal are, spoiler alert, the only club that I think will have the same manager in 2025 as they currently do now. Quite frankly, if they were going to sack Arteta, it would have happened already and most likely during their awful first half to this season where they were closer to relegation battlers than the elite. However, there is no doubt Arteta is part of a project at the Gunners and that he is in it for the long-term. Add to that the fact that the club’s most promising and most influential players are the ones that have come through their academy, with the best of the bunch being the hugely impressive Bukayo Saka, and Arsenal’s future would seem to be brighter than their present. If Arteta can continue clearing out some of the dead wood and add some further talent to assist their young guns, I think that he can build an exciting Arsenal side that their disheartened fans can fall back in love with again.
Chelsea
Coach: Zinedine Zidane
Key Player: Kai Havertz
How are they doing: Defending Champions
On the opposite end of the scale to Arsenal’s attempts at continuity, the challenge is not necessarily predicting the next Chelsea manager but rather guessing how many managers they will have gone through by then! As a battle-hardened Chelsea fan who is used to the never-ending managerial carousel at Stamford Bridge, there are some patterns that have emerged over Roman Abramovich’s tenure at the top of the club. Namely, the new guy is usually a complete change from the man he replaces. See replacing grumpy, authoritarian Mourinho with lovely, trusting Hiddink or swapping lifeless, hated Sarri with club icon Lampard. Therefore, after a successful few years under Thomas Tuchel, the players and board eventually tire of his high-intensity approach and instead opt to bring in the superstar-whisperer Zidane, who seeks to prove his worth outside of Madrid. With Chelsea’s investment in promising young players, it’s not a bad bet to suggest they’ll be leading the pack come 2025.
Liverpool
Coach: Steven Gerrard
Key Player: Pedro Neto
How are they doing: Battling for Top Four
Liverpool are probably the easiest side to predict as it feels the next few years of the club have already been planned and set in motion. Jurgen Klopp lasts another year or so as his fantastic side slowly disintegrates and disbands. The job of rebuilding is handed to a club legend, Steven Gerrard, after his impressive first stint in management at Rangers. The classic front three is split up with Salah heading to Spain and Firmino and Mane going past their peak. The new instalment features Diogo Jota, Raphinha, who is snapped up from Leeds, and then the best of the three, Pedro Neto, who leaves Wolves to flourish at Anfield. Gerrard has a tough job emulating Klopp’s league and European champions but still keeps the Reds in European contention.
Manchester City
Coach: Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Key Player: Erling Haaland
How are they doing: In transition
After a golden era in Manchester City’s history under the peerless Pep Guardiola, it is a different City team in 2025 as they attempt to restructure after the departure of the brilliant Catalan. After failing to entice Arteta from Arsenal and with Julian Nagelsmann taking the reigns at Bayern, City go for a left-field option and appoint ex-Dutch legend Gio van Bronckhorst. Why him? Well because he coached under Guardiola at City and has called Pep his “main managerial influence.” City opt to continue following the style of football Guardiola has implemented rather than go for a big name. And with the likes of Phil Foden and the best player in the league, Erling Haaland, in the team, they stay a massive threat.
Manchester United
Coach: Mauricio Pochettino
Key Player: Jadon Sancho
How are they doing: Title contenders
Yes, it finally happens. Poch takes over the United job about six years later than when he was first linked to it. Solskjaer’s spell ends up being promising without ever proving wholly successful and so when he departs, the United board go back to their original Plan A. Pochettino inherits a talented squad that boasts the likes of Jules Kounde, Patson Daka and most importantly, Jadon Sancho, plus current players like Greenwood and Rashford. He makes United easier on the eye and better at breaking down the smaller sides in the division which makes them the biggest threat to Chelsea’s crown as 2025 comes around in my wonderful, predicted future.
Tottenham Hotspur
Manager: Brendan Rodgers
Key Player: Ebere Eze
How are they doing: Trailing the rest
Spurs haven’t progressed a whole lot in the years leading up to 2025 in my mind. Mourinho leaves them as he leaves all the clubs he departs, in some sort of crisis, and the job of turning the fortunes around is given to Brendan Rodgers after Ledley King does a good job as caretaker. After his fantastic work at Celtic and Leicester, Rodgers more than deserves another crack at a big club and I don’t see anyone other than Spurs or Arsenal giving it to him. Harry Kane breaks all the goalscoring records at the club and remains their central point but is now in his thirties and past his blistering best so Rodgers looks around the Premier League to bolster his squad and signs the promising Eze to try and help lead Spurs back towards the top.
The Rest of the League
Of course, it’s never just about the teams at the top of the league and so here are some random shots in the dark about how the rest of the table might look. As mentioned, Leicester don’t sustain their Champions League form but they and Everton remain the best of the rest. At the other end, Crystal Palace, Burnley and Southampton unfortunately succumb to the drop after their long stints in the Premier League and are replaced with new mid-table marvels like Norwich and Brentford. Other notable stories include Wayne Rooney leading Derby County back to the big time and after years of disaster, Sunderland finally return to where they feel they belong. Newcastle, meanwhile, are still waiting for that takeover…
So, that’s how I see the Premier League shaping up come 2025. The beauty of making such outlandish predictions is seeing how they will turn out and I am certain that I will end up with some that make me feel smug and some that will just seem so ridiculous, it’ll be funny. Here’s to football remaining as entertaining as ever and to hopefully less international breaks going forward!
George F Brown 