By Brad Hubbard | @bradhubbard
The Premier League kicked off today with a bang. The surprise champions of last season, Leicester City, lost their opening game to a team, Hull City, that wasn’t even in the Premier League last season. Leicester City’s odds of repeating are not even the biggest story of this new season, which new manager will be successful is the biggest question out there.
Out of the five major clubs (Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea) all but one have a manager who didn’t start last season on the bench (Arsenal). Jose Mourinho takes over Manchester United while cross town rivals City have arguably the best manager in the world in Pep Guardiola.
Mourinho’s hire wasn’t without controversy. Manchester United essentially ran previous manager Luis Van Gaal out of town despite an FA Cup trophy because they were allegedly in talks with Mourinho since he parted ways with Chelsea.
Despite Mourinho’s success (2 Champions League cups and 3 Premier League titles just to name a few) some Manchester United supporters were not happy with his hire not the least of which is former United great Eric Cantona.
Regardless, Mourinho, Guardiola, Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Chelsea’s Antonio Conte were not with their current clubs when they started the 2015/2016 season. So in a very short amount of time they have to instill their philosophy and win hardware. Not an easy task no matter how much money your being paid.
Sideline Signals 