Football Season Guide

Monaco come into this Ligue 1 campaign as the defending champions, having surprisingly stormed to the title last season amid a flurry of goals and breath-taking attacking football. Their model of buying players for low prices and selling them on for considerable profit reaped rewards and their transfer strategy this summer has replicated that. So far, they have lost only three of their regular starters, with Tiemoue Bakayoko moving to Chelsea while Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy have both gone to Manchester City. Meanwhile, they have been replaced with a number of younger players, with Soualiho Meite arriving from Belgian football. Youri Tielemans is the only big-name addition they have made so far, although they remain a side with plenty of talent in their ranks. Radamel Falcao has committed his future to the club but Kylian Mbappe's future is unclear, with a good deal of speculation linking him with a world-record transfer. Given Monaco have also offloaded the very capable Valere Germain to Marseille, it would be a big shock if he were to be allowed to depart. The squad, otherwise, remains along similar lines, though the midfield has been boosted by the summer arrival of Barcelona prospect Jordi Mboula. Fabinho will continue to be the leader in there. At the back, Terance Kongolo’s arrival from Feyenoord represents a decent coup, although Kamil Glik and Jemerson should be the starting players there, while Mendy’s place may be taken by Djibril Sidibe in the short term. Meanwhile, Jorge may be the long-term solution at left-back. Almamy Toure, however, deserves his chance after waiting so patiently, despite performing well when called upon. This promises to be an even harder campaign for Monaco, not least because their squad has been plundered over the summer months. They are not, however, far from the team that won the title....yet.