Manchester City's Spanish head coach Pep Guardiola enters the pitch prior to the friendly football match between Arsenal and Manchester City at the Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg on August 7, 2016.JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP / Getty Images
When the English Premier League season starts on Saturday there will be as many stars off the field as on it.
Three high-profile managers will make their debuts this weekend, a sign of the league's growing financial heft and its ability to attract elite managers from around the world.
Former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola takes over as manager of Manchester City, long-time Juventus boss Antonio Conte heads Chelsea and Jose Mourinho moves to Manchester United from Chelsea.
Throw in Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, Arsenal's Arsene Wenger, Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino and Claudio Ranieri at reigning champions Leicester City and the Premier League can boast one of the best collections of managers anywhere.
"It's a world championship of managers," Wenger said this week.
Much of the reason is money. Thanks to a new three-year television deal, which begins this season, the league's 20 teams will be sharing £8.3-billion ($13.9-billion Canadian) from domestic and global broadcast rights. That's a 50-per-cent increase from the last three-year deal and many teams have already put that money to work.
Clubs are expected to spend more than £1-billion buying players by the time the transfer window closes on Aug. 31 – a record amount. This week, Manchester United paid £89-million for France's Paul Pogba, the highest amount ever paid for a player, and the club has also signed Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Manchester City spent £47.5-million on John Stones, the second-highest for a defender. Those two clubs alone have dished out £322-million on players this summer, far more than any other team.
"The prospect of increased revenue from the new broadcast deals next season has encouraged Premier League clubs to invest in this window in order to be as competitive as possible, said Alex Thorpe, senior manager in the sports business group at Deloitte in London. "With a month of the window still to go, some significant deals in the pipeline and a number of clubs yet to enter the market, we may see another summer of record Premier League spending."
And things could get even better for the EPL.
By any measure it is becoming the dominant soccer league in the world and several teams are close to overtaking the super clubs of Europe – Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. The league's international reach is unrivalled and this year it will receive £1.1-billion from non-U.K. broadcast rights. That's double what Spain's La Liga earns and far more than any North American professional sports league.
The league's revenues have soared from £170-million when it launched in 1992 to £3.3-billion last year, and that figure is expected to jump beyond £4-billion this season. And all but three of the 20 teams posted an operating profit in 2015-16. All of which has attracted a host of new buyers and pushed up team values.
Chinese investors in particular have been drawn to the league, after President Xi Jinping declared that he wanted China to become a "world football superpower" by 2050.
Last year, China Media Capital paid $400-million (U.S.) for a 13-per-cent stake in Manchester City, putting the value of that club at $3-billion. Groups from China have also bought Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion.
Part of the attraction for foreign buyers is the competitiveness of the EPL, which is unmatched by the other big European leagues. That was evident last season when Leicester City overcame 5,000-1 odds to win the title, with a vastly smaller salary budget.
As for this season, most experts say Leicester City will be hard-pressed to repeat as champions. The club did manage to hang on to most of its players, including top scorer Jamie Vardy, who turned down an offer from Arsenal. But the team lost key midfielder N'Golo Kante to Chelsea for £30-million.
"I think now we have less pressure than last season," manager Ranieri said this week. "Everything is different. We have to be clever to repeat it. It's 6000-1."
Not quite, but the club is 28-1, well behind Manchester City at 9-4 and Manchester United at 3-1.
Paul Waldie