Very good chance we’re projecting a little bit here, but if there were a theme to this summer’s Premier League transfer business thus far it would be Okay, You’ve Had Your Fun.
Everyone enjoyed themselves, didn’t they, watching unlikely and less familiar teams compete for European spots? And everyone really enjoyed watching Tottenham and Manchester United be astonishing levels of sh*t for astonishing periods of time, right up until Spurs somehow unSpursed themselves at the best/worst possible moment.
But we get the impression now that it’s not just Spurs and United themselves spooked by last season’s ineptitude. Some of the other big clubs might have been hit by the realisation that this could happen to them if the Premier League’s middle-class weren’t brought to heel.
Let’s not pretend that the biggest clubs buying the best players from the other clubs in the league is a brand new phenomenon, but we’re not even at the middle of July yet and the heart has been ripped out of several of the upstarts who made last season so different.
And it’s the big clubs doing that ripping. Four of the traditional Big Six are currently Europe’s four biggest spenders this summer, and all of them have moved to take some of the best players from elsewhere.
Liverpool have Milos Kerkez. Chelsea have Joao Pedro. Tottenham have Mohammed Kudus, even if they have managed to Spurs their pursuit of Morgan Gibbs-White up. Man City have got themselves a Rayat Ait-Nouri.
Arsenal will be very much in the top five once they and Sporting stop their absurd game of chicken and just get a deal done for Viktor Gyokeres as we all know they eventually will once everyone can agree a way to proceed that allows everyone to feel like they’ve won. They’ve also got themselves a Christian Norgaard to continue the theme anyway.
Man United sneak into the top 10 as well after signing Wolves lunatic Matheus Cunha, and again the only reason they’re not higher is because Sir Jim Ratcliffe hasn’t yet decided precisely which and how many unimportant disposable meatbags he needs to sack to scrape together enough coppers to get himself a Bryan Mbeumo.
Is it too early to officially Fear for Brentford? We really think it might not be. They must have known the day would come that Thomas Frank tried his luck at somewhere bigger and also probably stupider, and he will certainly be doing those things.
One of the most interesting things we thought we might learn next season was just how good Frank is, and that this would involve not just what he did at Spurs but what Brentford did in his absence. How much of Brentford’s success has been down to him personally? How able is he to replicate that in a very, very different environment?
But Brentford appear to be about to take on that challenge in even more extreme circumstances than anyone could have imagined. They approach the dizzying uncertainty of life without their inspirational manager – and several members of his backroom staff – also without Norgaard, who did so much to make them tick, as well as almost certainly Mbeumo and quite possibly Yoane Wissa.
And promoting a manager from within represents an admirable but enormous gamble. The desire for some continuity may be understandable, but when you don’t have continuity of players we do wonder how prudent a move that actually is.
The good news for Brentford is that they are far from alone. Wolves have lost Cunha and Ait-Nouri. Brighton have lost Pedro. Forest are about to lose Anthony Elanga and Gibbs-White. Bournemouth have lost Kerkez and Dean Huijsen – even Real Madrid are helping out their big-club mates – while Palace will surely be stripped of some combination of Marc Guehi, Eberechi Eze, Adam Wharton and very likely the Europa League.
West Ham’s situation is slightly different, with the sanctioning of Kudus’ sale even to the worst possible place very likely a pretty smart, hard-headed decision to generate significant funds for their squad rebuild by offloading a player who doesn’t quite fit with the new manager’s plans. But it’s still another chastening reminder of how the land lies.
These clubs have all trod this path before and at least some of them will be absolutely fine and possibly even improve for smartly reinvesting that cash in new, cheaper players who go on to become the next big-money signings for the larger beasts.
Last season’s upsetting of the Premier League applecart came about in large part because the money sloshing around the Premier League is such that even the division’s proletariat now find themselves with spending power to outgun pretty much anyone outside the superclubs anywhere else.
But right now it’s an uncomfortable time for a lot of the Premier League’s middle-class as the old order seeks to re-establish itself at their enormous expense.