Best storyline — big or underreported — of the season
Napoli, hands down. To lose your three biggest players, cut your wage bill by 30% and still win the league by a huge margin while reaching the Champions League quarterfinals… yeah, Diego Maradona would have been proud.
Which team did you wish you’d seen more of?
Paris Saint-Germain. On the one hand, you get to see some of the greatest players in the world. On the other, there’s the entertainment value of chaos, horrible management, bad stewardship and the biggest spenders not getting their way.
What will you remember most about the 2022-23 campaign?
Chelsea’s stream of horrendous decisions ever since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital Group took over the club. From sidelining all of the Roman Abramovich era executives, to not hiring a sporting director until after a horribly wasteful summer transfer session, to firing Thomas Tuchel a few days after you brought in the players he wanted, to talking smack about how the Premier League was “20 years behind baseball” (gee, that sport must be doing great if it put in a pitch clock because fans complain games are too long and boring), to the absurd January spending spree, to firing Graham Potter (after spending god-knows-how-much to get him) to Boehly saying they’d beat Real Madrid 3-0 … wow!
It’s a steep learning curve, and they made it far steeper by seemingly not taking any advice (or taking advice from the wrong people).
James Olley
Best game you attended
The FIFA men’s World Cup final (Dec. 18, 2022). It was difficult to separate football from politics given the various controversies surrounding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but in isolation, the final between France and Argentina is the best game I’ve ever seen live.
Matches of this magnitude are so often stifled under the weight of their own importance, yet this surpassed all expectations and delivered one of the best endings of all: Lionel Messi lifted the game’s biggest prize to cement his status as the greatest player of all time.
Best goal you saw live
Michael Olise, Crystal Palace vs. Man United (Jan. 18, 2023). Olise’s 91st minute freekick to force a draw against Manchester United was a remarkable goal. It was to the right of the United goal, about 30 or so yards out, and he managed to find the top corner of David de Gea‘s net. A truly outstanding strike.
Best storyline — big or underreported — of the season
David Brooks‘ return to the pitch for Bournemouth. On March 18, after 536 days out after fighting cancer, Brooks got back on the pitch for the Cherries, capping a remarkable journey. It came against Aston Villa as he was subbed on after 79 minutes and greeted with applause from both sets of supporters. It was a season where we also saw Sebastian Haller make his debut for Dortmund in January after taking time out to undergo chemotherapy.
Which team did you wish you’d seen more of?
Brighton. I wish I’d seen more of the Seagulls’ evolution under Roberto de Zerbi and witnessing every step of their journey first-hand. It would’ve also been great to have seen some of Napoli’s run to the Serie A title, and also to witness the brilliance of Barcelona women’s dominance in Spain.
What will you remember most about the 2022-23 campaign?
Apart from the season where Erling Haaland was unleashed in the Premier League, it was the season where droughts were broken by Napoli and Feyenoord, but sheer inevitability took over the Bundesliga, Premier League and Women’s Super League narratives. All three leagues toyed with having new names on the trophies, but instead it was the reliable candidates who came through in the end.
This was all countered by Leo Messi finally lifting the World Cup with Argentina, but football has only so much capacity for romantic endings.
