Manchester City challenges Premier League

(Baonghean.vn) - The 2017-2018 Premier League will officially kick off on August 12. However, with what is happening in the summer transfer market, the two Manchester teams are challenging the entire Premier League.

Chelsea's easygoing victory over the Premier League has hurt the owners and fans of both Man City and Man City. That's why both Manchester clubs are shopping more lavishly than ever.

The rich guy

As usual, the 46-year-old owner of Man City FC is still the biggest spender. Coming from the Abu Dhabi royal family, the most powerful family in the UAE, Mansour owns many investment funds and was famous for the rescue of Barclays Bank (UK).

Mansour has now expanded into the sports sector by founding the City Football Group, owner of Man City, New York City, and Melbourne City. Up to this point, the blue team of Manchester has spent nearly 250 million euros to strengthen its squad. The amount accounts for 1/4 of the total transfer fee of all 20 Premier League teams.

Surprisingly, four of the five new signings that Pep Guardiola has brought to the Etihal Stadium have been for defence, with Bernardo Silva the only addition to the attack. Last year, Pep Guardiola spent a fortune to turn 22-year-old John Stones into the most expensive defender in England, at £47.5 million, and this year he has done the same.

Kyle Walker. Photo: Internet

The Etihal team broke two records by making Kyle Walker (50 million euros) the most expensive English defender and Benjamin Mendy (60 million euros) the most expensive defender in the world. Owner Mansour spared no expense in giving coach Pep Guardiola a massive recruitment drive, with orders to overthrow Chelsea's dominance.

Although not as noisy as Man City, the team in the same city MU also managed to bring in two quality new players including striker Romelu Lukaku (85 million euros) and center back Victor Lindelof (35 million euros). Not to mention, Serbian player Nemanja Matic (40 million pounds) has arrived at Carrington center to complete health check procedures.

Of course, defending champions Chelsea cannot sit still and wait for their opponents to strengthen their squad, especially when The Blues will return to the harsh Champions League arena. The three new players that Chelsea coach Conte brought in, Alvaro Morata, Bakayoko and Antonio Rudiger, are all famous players, and they also cost more than 150 million euros.

Manchester derby

There is no doubt that, although the ball has not yet rolled, the Manchester derby is still the most anticipated match in the Premier League. Last year, the Manchester derby, just counting the 22 players on the field, was worth more than 600 million pounds and became the hottest match on English football. Of which, Mourinho's army was worth 328.1 million pounds and Man City's squad was worth about 289.25 million pounds.

The “Special One” still has the world’s most expensive player Paul Pogba with 89 million pounds, Eric Bailly with 31.5 million pounds, Luke Shaw also cost MU 30 million pounds. The attacking trio Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata and Anthony Martial lost more than 100 million pounds, only captain Rooney left. Pep’s old squad still has Raheem Sterling 44 million pounds, Kevin De Bruyne 54.8 million pounds, Fernandinho 30 million pounds and David Silva 25 million pounds…

Romelu Lukaku. Photo: Internet

With the current situation, the record of 600 million pounds last year is about to be broken when Lukaku and Benjamin Mendy will take the field. At that time, the Manchester derby will certainly attract more attention from fans than the London derby because of the presence of continental stars in the two blue and red teams.

The Premier League is still attracting many expensive players, but clearly, the rest are not "spending money" like the giants of Manchester. In the top 6, it is quite surprising that Liverpool have only bought two new players, Mohamed Salah (40 million euros) and Andrew Robertson (11 million euros), after previous seasons of shopping sprees.

Among the big clubs, Tottenham is the only one who has not spent any money on shopping, even though the team's goal is to compete for the title after a disappointing final season. Meanwhile, Arsenal, famous for being stingy, also broke the bank to spend 53 million euros to bring striker Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon to Anfield. This is also the most valuable contract in the history of the Gunners.

AT