The Times They Are a-Changin'

This Premier League season has felt like the end of one era and the start of another, with major shifts in Europe and a league in transition.

It’s been a strange Premier League season, hasn’t it? One that makes the first international break in four months less of an ordeal than usual.

I was going to argue this is the worst post-1992 season — at least in the ones I’ve consciously followed — but others beat me to it. That says it all.

It’s not because Liverpool are walking the league before anyone gets too paranoid, but the total absence of a title race is a definite factor. As is relegation being settled before the clocks even go back, with all three promoted sides going down for a second straight year — a hugely worrying trend given it happened just once in the previous 30 seasons.

There has been storylines like City’s major drop off, and United and Spurs fighting it out to be the most embarrassing team in the country, but the latter is nothing new, nor is Chelsea’s continued evolution from football club to asset management company.

The 115-130 elephants in the room finally being addressed will decide City’s true fate, but for now they are still in the fifth and final Champions League spot (a farcical set of words), and did spend £180m in January, so let’s not sympathise whatsoever.

Newcastle winning the Carabao Cup was a seminal and special moment for the club, the fanbase, and sadly their Saudi overlords, while Nottingham Forest potentially qualifying for the Champions League, hopefully alongside Fulham or Brighton, would be remarkable.

However, this season just feels like one big transition for the Premier League. It began before a ball was even kicked with Jurgen Klopp’s departure and has only been amplified by Pep Guardiola’s worst-ever campaign, the collapse of the ‘Big Six,’ and the uncertain futures of many players who have defined the last near-decade.

Of the players who mostly populated the PFA Team of the Year in that time, so many are either gone or possibly going.

From City, Kyle Walker swapped Manchester for Milan, and could be joined in exiting by Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Ederson, Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish and the perennially injured John Stones among others. How will Rodri fare on his comeback from his ACL injury?

From Liverpool, Trent Alexander-Arnold is almost certainly Madrid bound, while who knows what will happen with Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah. Might Alisson soon leave with Giorgi Mamardashvili arriving at Anfield this summer? Andy Robertson is certainly on the wind down even if he hangs around for another season or two.

Pep has been unable to cope, and Arne Slot has thrived, but he will know well that major surgery is required on the Reds squad over the next year or two, regardless of the contracts outcome.

Raheem Sterling and Christian Eriksen’s time in the league looks up, while Harry Kane, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Riyad Mahrez, Fernandinho and Jordan Henderson, among others, are all long departed.

It was elite talent in most part, and it is unclear if and when the next group will be able to hit those same heights. Cole Palmer, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden might not even be dining at Europe’s top table next season.

What further adds weight to this argument is the performance of the Premier League sides in the Champions League. Yes, Liverpool finished top in the “league phase”, and Arsenal and Aston Villa in the top eight, but PSG looked a class above the Reds, and the quarter final match ups are not favourable for Mikel Arteta or Unai Emery.

Does anyone truly expect either of their sides to topple Real Madrid or PSG and make the semi-final? Real also already dismantled City, with their new signings making little to no difference.

That anticipated scenario would mean no English representation for the second consecutive season in the European final four. Good for Brexiteers I suppose but no one else.

One season can be considered an anomaly, and City were the equal of Real last year, but two in a row is a pattern, especially when you consider the results over the last “era”, which I consider to be 2017/18 - 2022/2023 aka the Pep-Klopp prime years.

Each season had an English finalist – 2019 and 2021 had two with four different sides – bar 2020, which was a weird one with Covid, City’s off year and a far superior Liverpool being Atletico-ed by Diego Simeone.

In all those years, even when other sides (mostly Real Madrid) won the trophy, there was a near consensus view that the best team in Europe week to week was either City or Liverpool, with Pep’s men almost always being the bookies’ favourite to at the start of each season.

No one could say the same now wearing a straight face, with Real, PSG and Barcelona leading the pack, and Inter and Atletico having strong claims to be better all-round teams too.

More of the biggest stars and best players play for these sides than in England right now. Real’s new Galacticos, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha, as well as a reborn Ousmane Dembele will make up the Ballon d’Or leaderboard, with Salah being the only Premier League player with a chance, albeit a pretty good one.

The managerial balance has also somewhat shifted, with mainland Europe boasting a stacked lineup of Carlo Ancelotti, Hansi Flick, Luis Enrique, Simone Inzaghi, Simeone, as well as Xabi Alonso and others. How much longer will Pep be at City? How will Slot’s Liverpool take shape? Will Arteta make the final leap? What will become of Amorim?

There’s a lot of questions and right now, it feels like we’re approaching an era like that of the years before Pep and Klopp, before City and Liverpool’s elite sides, and when the English teams made no finals from 2012/13 to 2016/17, and had just two semi-finalists.

When will we next say an English side is the best in Europe - or see one lift the Champions League? Your guess is as good as mine.