Friday, August 11, 2017

2017-2018 EPL Preview

Glad to say yet another English Premiere League season is about to begin this weekend.This brings an end to the 2 most boring months of sports. This will be my fourth season I will follow from the start, and can say I have grown quite familiar with the league's format, teams, and players.

Of course I will be cheering my chosen team of Manchester United, once again. However similarly to the NFL, I am a fan of the league in the general, and can be satisfied watching any EPL game. I recently purchased a Sling TV subscription with a Roku stick to begin streaming all the games.

Over the past few years, waking up on Saturdays and Sundays to watch English futbol games has become one of my new great joys. I also enjoy watching midweeks games at work and listening to the podcasts.   Although the EPL clubs have struggled in the European Champions Tournaments, I'm still convinced it is the most exciting league in the world. This is due to it's balance, players, fanbase, and immense history. So without further ado I'm going to give a preview on the upcoming 2017-2018 season.

Teams and Transfers

Arsenal FC.svg
Arsenal (Finished 5th place last season)

Ins: Sead Kolasinac (free) Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon, Undisclosed)
Outs: Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus, £10.4m) Yaya Sanogo (Free), Stefan O'Connor (Free), Kristopher da Graca (Free), Kostas Pileas (Free) Chris Willock (Benfica, Undisclosed) Glen Kamara (Dundee, Free)

AFC Bournemouth (Finished 9th place last season)

Ins: Asmir Begovic (£10m), Jermain Defoe (Sunderland, Free), Nathan Ake (Chelsea, £20m), Connor Mahoney (Blackburn, Undisclosed)

Outs: Callum Buckley (Free), Jake McCarthy (Free), Alexander Neale (Free)

Brighton & Hove Albion logo.svgBrighton (Promoted from Championship League)

Ins: Pascal Gross (Ingolstadt, Undisclosed), Josh Kerr (Celtic, Undisclosed) Mathew Ryan (Valencia, Undisclosed) Marcus Suttner (FC Ingolstadt 04, Undisclosed)

Outs: Elvis Mau (Genclerbirligi, Free) David Stockdale (Birmingham, Free) Vegard Forren (Free) Sébastien Pocognoli (Free), Chris O'Grady (Chesterfield, Free)

Burnley (Finished 16th place last season)

Ins: Jack Cork (Swansea, £10m) Jon Walters (Stoke City, £3M), Charlie Taylor (Leeds)

Outs: Michael Kightly (Free),  Joey Barton (Free),  George Green (Free),  RJ Pingling (Free), Christian Hill (Free), Taofiq Olmowewe (Free), Michael Keane (Everton,£30m) George Boyd (Sheffield Wednesday, Free)

Chelsea (Finished 1st last season)

Ins: Tiemoue Bakayoko (Monaco, Undisclosed) Antonio Rudiger (Roma, Undisclosed) Willy Caballero (Manchester City, Free) Ethan Ampadu (Exeter, Undisclosed)

Outs: John Terry (Free) Juan Cuadrado (Juventus, £17m) Christian Atsu (Newcastle, £6.4m), Asmir Begovic (Bournemouth, £10m), Dominic Solanke (Liverpool, Undisclosed), Alwx Kiwomya (Doncaster, Free) , Nathan Ake (Bournemouth, £20m), Bertrand Traore (Lyon, £8.8m), Fankaty Dabo (Vitesse, loan)

Crystal Palace FC logo.svgCrystal Palace (Finished 14th place last season)
Ins:

Outs:  Ezekial Fryers (Free), Steve Mandanda (Marseille, Undisclosed) Joe Ledley (Free) Corie Andrews (Free), Kwesi Appiah (Free), Jonathan Benteke (Free) Fraizer Cambell (Free), Luke Croll (Free), Mathieu Falmini (Free), Ryan King- Elliott (Free), Ranell Williams (Free), Ben Wynter (Free)

Everton (Finished 7th last season)

Ins: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, Undisclosed) Davy Klaassen (Ajax, £23.6M), Jordan Pickford (Sunderland, £25m rising to £30m), Henry Onyekuru (Eupen, £7m) Nathangelo Markelo (FC Volendam, Undisclosed), Michael Keane (Burnley, £30m), Sandro Ramirez (Malaga, Undisclosed)

Outs: Tom Cleverley (Watford, £8m) Arouna Kone (Free), Delial Brewster ( Chesterfield, Free)Micheal Donohue (Free), Tyrone Duffus (Free), Russell Griffiths (Free), Connor Hunt (Free), Josef Yarney (Free), James Yates (Free), Gerard Deulofeau (Barcelona, return from loan) Henry Onyekuru (Anderlecht, Loan), Enner Valencia (West Ham, loan expired), Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United, £75m) Aiden McGeady (Sunderland, Undisclosed)

Huddersfield (Promoted from Championship League)

Huddersfield Town A.F.C. logo.svgIns: Scott Malone (Fulham £3.3m) Aaron Mooy (Manchester City, £8m), Jonas Lossl (FSV Mainz 05, Loan) Laurent Depoitre (Porto, Undisclosed), Mathias Jorgensen (FC Copenhagen ,Undisclosed), Steve Mounie (Montpellier, Undisclosed), Kasey Palmer (Chelsea, Loan) Tom Ince (Derby, Undisclosed)

Outs: Joe Murphy (Bury,Undisclosed), Flo Bojaj (released), Ronan Coughlan (released), Kyle Dempsey (Fleetwood Town, Free)

Leicester (Finished 12th place last season)

Ins: Harry Maguire (Hull, £17m) Vincent Iborra (Sevilla, Undisclosed) Eldin Jakupovic (Hull City, Undisclosed)

Outs: Marcin Wasilewski (Free) , Michael Cain (Free), David Domej (Free), Brandon Fox (Free), Cedric Kipre (Free),  Matthew Miles (Free), Kairo Mitchell (Free) Ron-Robert Zieler (Stuttgart, Undisclosed)

Liverpool (Finished 4th place last season)

Ins: Dominic Solanke (Chelsea, Undisclosed) Mohamed Salah (Roma, £34m)

Outs: Lucas Leiva (Lazio £5m) Alex Manniger (retired) Tom Brewitt (Free), Jake Brimmer (Free), Jack Dunn  (Free), Toni Gomes (Free), Kane Lewis (Free), Adam Phillips (Free), Andre Wisdom (Derby County, Undisclosed)

A rounded badge depicting a shield containing a ship, the Lancashire Rose, and the three rivers of Manchester.Manchester City (Finished 3rd place last season)

Ins: Kyle Walker (Tottenham, £45m) Ederson Moraes (Benfica, £35m), Bernardo Silva (Monaco, £43m)

Outs: Pablo Zabaleta (West Ham, Free) Jesus Navas (Free) Gael Clichy (Free) Angus Gunn (Norwich, Loan) Willy Caballero (Free), Baccary Sagna (Free), Billy O'Brien (Free), Ellis Plummer (Free), Aaron Mooy (Huddersfield, £8m) Nolito (Sevilla, Undisclosed) Olivier Ntcham (Celtic, Undisclosed)

Manchester United (Finished 6th place last season)

Ins: Victor Lindelof (Benfica, £31m) Romelu Lukaku ( Everto,, £75m)

Outs: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Free), Josh Harrop (Preston North End, Free) Adnan Januzaj (Real Sociedad, £9.8m) Wayne Rooney (Everton, Undisclosed)

Newcastle (Promoted from Championships League)

Newcastle United Logo.svgIns: Christian Atsu (Chelsea, £6.4m), Florian Lejeune (Eibar, £8.7m) Stefan O'Connor (Arsenal, Free), Josef Yarney (Everton, Free), Florian Lejeune (Eibar, Undisclosed), Jacob Murphy (Norwich, Undisclosed)

Outs: Lubomir Satka (FC DAC 1904, Free), Haris Vuckic (FC Twente, Free), Matt Sels (Anderlecht, season-long loan) Kevin Mbabu (BSC Young Boys, Undisclosed)  Yoan Gouffran (Goztepe, Undisclosed)

Southampton (Finished 8th place last season)

Ins:  Jan Bednarek (Lech Poznan, £5.7m) Jan Bednarek (Lech Poznan, Undisclosed)

Outs: Jason McCarthy (Barnsley, Undislcosed) Cuco Martina (Free), Lyold Isgorve (Free), Harry Willard (Free), Martin Caceres (Free), Jay Rodriguez (West Brom, £12m)

Stoke (Finished 13th place last season)

Ins: Darren Fletcher (West Brom, Free), Josh Tymon (Hull, Undisclosed)

Outs:  Shay Given (Free), Daniel Bachmann (Free), Liam Edwards (Free), Harry Isted (Free), Joel Taylor (Free), George Waring (Free), Jon Walters (Burnley £3m) Glenn Whelan (Aston Villa Undisclosed)

Swansea City AFC logo.svgSwansea (Finished 15th place last season)

Ins: Roque Mesa (Las Palmas, £11m) Cian Harries (Coventry, Undisclosed)

Outs: Jack Cork (Burnley £10m) Marvin Emnes (Free) Gerhard Tremmel (Free), Liam Shephard (Free), Josh Vickers (Free), Owain Jones (Free), Tom Dyson (Free), Tom Halland (Free), Alex Samuel (Stevenage, Undisclosed) Bafetimbi Gomis (Galatasaray, Undisclosed)

Tottenham (Finished 2nd place last season)

Ins:

Outs: Kyle Walker (Manchester City, £45m) Nabil Bentaleb (Schalke, £16m) Federico Fazio (Roma, £2.7m) Filip Lesniak (Free)

Watford (Finished 17th place last season)

Ins: Tom Cleverley (Everton, £8m) Jorge Segura (Envigado, Undisc), Will Hughes (Derby County, £8m) Kiko Femenia (Alaves,undisclosed), Daniel Bachmann (Stoke, Free) Nathaniel Chalobah (Chelsea, Undisclosed)

Outs:  Rene Gilmartin (Free), Mathias Ranegie (Free), Ola Adeyemo (Free), Charlie Bannister (Free), Ogo Obi (Free), Rhyle Ovenden (Free), Josh Roe (Free), Treon Johnson (Free), Andrew Thomas (Free), Mario Suarez (Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng, Undisclosed)

West Bromwich Albion crestWest Brom (Finished 10th place last season)

Ins: Jay Rodriguez (Southampton, £12m) Zhang Yuning (Vitesse, Undisclosed) Will Hughes (Derby, Undisclosed)

Outs: Craig Gardner (Birmingham, £1.5m), Darren Fletcher (Stoke, Free),  Daniel Barbir (Free), Zachary Elbouzedi (Free), Callam Jones (Free), Sebastien Pocognoli (Free), Jack Rose (Free), Andre Wright (Free)

West Ham (Finished 11th place last season)

Ins: Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City, Free)

Outs: Havard Nordtveit (Hoffenheim, £8m), Reece Oxford (Borussia Monchengladbach, loan), Alvaro Arbeloa (Free), Sam Howes (Free), Sam Ford (Free), Kyle Knoyle (Free), Sam Westley (Free), Stephen Hendrie (Southend, Free) Enner Valencia (Tigres, Undisclosed)