🔮 OneFootball predicts the 2024/25 Premier League season

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OneFootball·16 August 2024

🔮 OneFootball predicts the 2024/25 Premier League season

After a busy summer of international football, the new domestic season returns to our lives this weekend, with the 2024/25 Premier League campaign kicking off on Friday night.

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It’s time for our writers to gaze into their crystal balls and make some predictions about what the next nine months might have in store.

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Let’s kick-off with something bold: Give us your hottest take ahead of 2024/25..

Adam Booker: Liverpool will not qualify for Europe.

Ben Browning: Adam Wharton’s performances for Crystal Palace make him one of the first names on the England team-sheet, and spark a major scrap for his signature in 12 months time.

Dan Burke: Julen Lopetegui won’t see out the season as West Ham manager.

Richard Buxton: Darwin Núñez will finally thrive in Liverpool’s new 4-2-3-1 system under Arne Slot.

Peter Fitzpatrick: Gareth Southgate will manage a Premier League game for the first time since relegation with Middlesbrough in May 2009.

Alex Mott: Pep Guardiola will leave Manchester City at the end of the season and take over as England coach.

Pádraig Whelan: After some superb transfer business and an excellent coaching appointment, this year it will be the turn of West Ham to replace Aston Villa in breaking the traditional top four.

If you were going to bet your life savings on something happening in the 2024/25 season, what would it be?

AB: John Stones playing fewer than 20 Premier League games.

BB: VAR having at least one astronomical error and every club’s fanbase certain that the referees are against them on a weekly basis.

DB: Chelsea to sign between three and five players in the January transfer window.

RB: Chelsea starting off steadily before descending into the chaos once more with Enzo Maresca culled sometime before the end of the season.

PF: Enzo Maresca not seeing the season out. He has zero top level experience, a bloated squad full of new signings and very few senior players, and a board with a two-year track record of chaos.

AM: Manchester United performing in fits and starts throughout the campaign but still finishing outside the Champions League places come the end of the season.

PW: Erling Haaland winning the Golden Boot. The man is utterly inevitable. Even when injuries threaten him, he finds a way to outscore everyone.

Which team or player will be the most exciting to watch in 2024/25?

AB: Chelsea will be pure box office. Not because they will be any good, but with three full XIs, you never know what you’re going to get from week to week.

BB: With the signings that they have made this summer and the attacking talent now at their disposal, it’s hard to look past West Ham in their post-David Moyes era. Whether their heavy spending will end in trophies or tears is unclear, but it’ll certainly be entertaining.

DB: Sod it, I’m gonna say Manchester City. At the time of writing they haven’t really refreshed the squad very much, which might mean Pep Guardiola has another one of his tactical evolutions up his sleeve and we’ll see a few of their promising young players coming to the fore this season.

RB: Crystal Palace might not be fighting it out at the business end of the table but they’ve made some really smart additions this summer and the work Oliver Glasner did in the second half of last season has provided them with a solid foundation on which to build.

PF: A perfect replacement for Luton, Ipswich will hopefully stick to their principles (within reason) and provide us all with some pure “Barclays” moments this season after a 22-year absence from the top flight.

AM: They may not have made any signings at the time of writing but I still think Liverpool are going to be a fascinating watch this season in a Jürgen Klopp-less world.

PW: It is impossible not to be completely fascinated by how Brighton will fare with the youngest manager in Premier League history at the helm. Fabian Hürzeler just turned 31 earlier this year and has an exciting, youthful squad at his disposal. They’ll be captivating viewing.

What will be the first managerial change?

AB: This may be a hot take, but Thomas Frank’s time at Brentford may come to an end this season. While he has been great for the Bees, that well will eventually run dry.

BB: Steve Cooper already cuts a pretty bleak figure just weeks into his Leicester City tenure and with a poor pre-season campaign, not even late signings are likely to save the Foxes and their boss from a messy divorce.

DB: I feel like the writing is on the wall for Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca already. Managing that big squad is going to be so difficult for a relatively inexperienced manager, and I can see patience wearing thin very quickly if results don’t go the Italian’s way.

RB: Newly-promoted sides tend to blink first after a few bad results so Steve Cooper seems the most likely candidate for the chop.

PF: Nuno Espírito Santo will likely be the next victim of a very trigger happy Nottingham Forest owner.

AM: Erik ten Hag seems to be hanging on by a thread at Manchester United and just a few bad results at the start of the season could seen INEOS pull the trigger.

PW: It doesn’t feel that there’s an obvious contender for once but if England come calling, Newcastle’s Eddie Howe may find it too hard to turn down.

Who will turn out to be the signing of the summer?

AB: If Dominic Solanke can replicate his 23/24 form for Spurs this season, he could lead them to new heights.

BB: Yankuba Minteh was excellent for Feyenoord last season and is the latest young jewel Brighton have been able to snap up. He could end up being one of their best bits of business in a long time.

DB: Riccardo Califiori will be the player that helps Arsenal make that tiny jump to the next level, and they’ll win the title. We’re gonna be hearing a lot more about “aura” this season.

RB: Technically a January window signing but Lucas Bergvall will be key to Tottenham putting themselves back in Champions League contention again.

PF: One of the keepers Chelsea have bought, of course! Jokes aside, I think Ismaïla Sarr is a very shrewd pick up by Crystal Palace, and he could fulfil his potential in Oliver Glasner’s hugely exciting side.

AM: Perhaps not the most exciting of transfers but Amadou Onana‘s switch to Aston Villa is the one I think will work out best. A genuinely world class player who really should have had his pick of clubs this summer.

PW: It has to be the return of a proper, big man centre forward to the top table in Niclas Füllkrug. This man was born for the Barclays.

Which young player will have emerged and become a household name by the end of the season?

AB: Adam Wharton is already becoming a name, but this could be the season where he emerges as a star. Look for him to move to a big club next summer, or even in January.

BB: With Arsenal having failed to add significantly to their midfield ranks so far, it is almost a perfect scenario for Ethan Nwaneri to break through and begin to deliver on his massive promise.

DB: Nico O’Reilly looked excellent for Manchester City in pre-season and has been earmarked as a potential stand-in for Rodri. The Spaniard will need rest this season, and his 19-year-old deputy should get a few chances to show what he can do.

RB: Tim Iroegbunam has been earning rave reviews during Everton’s pre-season and looks to be a real prospect in midfield.

PF: It’s a hard sell with a £30m price tag, but if every single Leeds fan alive is to be believed, Archie Gray is set for the very top.

AM: Omari Hutchinson was a genuine revelation in the Championship last season for Ipswich and now, having signed permanently from Chelsea this summer, will do it all over again in the top tier.

PW: Mikey Moore became Spurs’ youngest ever Premier League player when he appeared off the bench in May and has since gone on to impress in pre-season. The attacker, who just turned 17 last week, will get chances to dazzle further under Ange Postecoglou.

Who will finish as Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season?

AB: Erling Haaland will hit the heights of his first season and collect the award, Cole Palmer will sweep up YPOTY.

BB: The Player of the Season is almost always from the title winners, so following that logic I think Phil Foden will be the most likely candidate. As for young player, Alejandro Garnacho appears to be going from strength to strength and is clearly a future superstar.

DB: Martin Ødegaard will be Player of the Season, and agree with Ben’s shout for Garnacho as YPOTY.

RB: Depending on who finishes top of the pile, it’ll boil down to Rodri and Declan Rice. Technically Cole Palmer stills qualifies for the Young Player award so an obvious choice.

PF: Given you can win the Young Player of the Year award at 23, it could be an established player, but in terms of actual young players, I’ll plump for Kobbie Mainoo in his first full season. As for Player of the Year, surely Rodri deserves to win one at long last.

AM: This is the season that Declan Rice comes of age at Arsenal and will win Player of the Season for the title winners. Oscar Bobb meanwhile will be the breakout young player in 2024/25.

PW: Not only will there be no second season slump, Cole Palmer will build upon his outstanding Chelsea debut campaign and continue to prove a positive amid the chaos. And given current holder Bukayo Saka is still eligible for Young Player and is easily good enough to win the top award, that makes him an easy pick.