It’s amazing how time flies and while it seems like just yesterday that Chelsea was crowned as Premier League champions, the new season is already right around the corner. The top teams in England have turned up the urgency in terms of transfers as they try to close the gap on Chelsea. Manchester United in particular has been loading up over the past couple of weeks but there are a number of teams that – at least on paper – don’t appear to have done enough. Here is a look at four Premier League teams that have fallen behind in the summer transfer market.
Chelsea
There wasn’t another Premier League team that came close to the efficiency in which Chelsea attacked last year’s summer transfer market as they brought in Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, Filipe Luis and Didier Drogba. Jose Mourinho deserves all of the credit in the world for identifying and addressing his team’s biggest needs back then as the moves paid off with one of the most dominant Premier League seasons in recent history.
Skip to this summer transfer window, though, and the Blues haven’t been nearly as aggressive. They settled for the addition of Radamel Falcao up front and back up goalkeeper Asmir Begovic. The majority of Chelsea supporters will give Mourinho the benefit of the doubt after the club’s success last season but at the same time, he will likely have to make at least one or two key moves in order to both stay ahead of United, Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the Premier League. Also remember that while Chelsea won at home, they didn’t succeed in Europe, so a number of fans are wondering why their team didn’t do more.
Arsenal
Arsenal wasted little time acquiring Petr Cech from Chelsea in a move that could end up coming back to haunt the Blues. However, if the Gunners are going to be considered legitimate Premier League contenders this season, they will have to do more. United and City have both been more active than Arsenal this summer and while it’s not a requirement that Arsene Wenger loads up on transfer acquisitions, there should be a sense of urgency when it comes to attempting to land one or two key talents that can help put the Gunners over the top. This is a team that fell short of their goals last season and needs more pieces if they’re to improve. Arsenal has the money and the talent in place to be a very good team but it will be on Wenger to identify the key players that will put his team over the top the same way that Mourinho did with Chelsea last season.
Newcastle United
The arrival of Steve McClaren alone won’t be enough to avoid another relegation scare next season and considering how indecisive they have been this summer, there should be some concern for Magpies fans. Georginio Wijnaldum is a quality addition as a talented 24-year-old that can make an instant impact but considering the highs and lows of last season, it’s clear that McClaren and his staff has to do more in order to be a more consistent team next season.
West Bromwich Albion
The talk about Tony Pulis guiding West Brom to a 13th place finish despite the potential for things to go much worse for the club last season hasn’t faded yet. Still, the fans are going to switch to “what have you done for me lately” mode and will shift their attention to the current state of affairs unless they start making moves.
Several teams around them have made moves to improve next season but West Brom has only brought in James McClean from Wigan Athletic. Pulis was unfortunate at times last season but he could really help his own cause by adding some talent in the summer transfer market in order to avoid a similar predicament for next season.
