#4 Barcelona
It’s been all change at the Nou Camp this summer, as manager Luis Enrique is now gone and has been replaced by Ernesto Valverde, formerly of Athletic Bilbao. That move was confirmed on May 29th but since then it’s largely gone quiet at Barcelona. They’ve been heavily linked with a move for Paris St. Germain’s Italian star Marco Verratti, but the signing hasn’t been completed yet and outside of that, there have been no real links.
So why will Barca remain relevant throughout 2017/18? It’s pretty simple. After a relatively disappointing season for them in 2016/17 saw them finish second to arch-rivals Real Madrid in the La Liga and crash out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals against Juventus, they’ll be gunning to get back onto the perch that they occupied a handful of years ago, when they were indisputably the most dominant club in the world.
Can they do it? Valverde certainly has one of the best squads available to do so – they still have the most terrifying front line in football in Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, and that isn’t mentioning the likes of Gerard Pique, Ivan Rakitic and Andres Iniesta.
Granted, the spectre of Messi refusing to sign a new contract – as of writing, the whole issue is still up in the air although he’s expected to sign – still hangs over the Nou Camp, but that in itself will keep them in the news throughout the summer.
All in all, it should be an interesting – and newsworthy – season at Barcelona.
