The Federal Ministry of Livestock Development has commemorated World Milk Day on June 1, 2025, with a focus on enhancing food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable livestock practices.
The Minister of Livestock Development, Idi Mukhtar Maiha, at a press conference to commemorate the 2025 World Milk Day in Abuja, highlighted the significance of milk as a vital source of nutrition, particularly for children, and emphasized the need to increase local milk production.
Nigeria currently produces only 600,000 metric tonnes of milk annually, covering just 35% of national demand, with the remaining 65% imported at a cost of over $1.5 billion.
The Minister noted that the country’s low milk consumption rate of 8.7 liters per person per year is far below the African average of 40 liters and the WHO-recommended 210 liters.
To address this challenge, the Ministry has launched several initiatives, including the National Livestock Growth Acceleration Strategy, which focuses on livestock value chain development, feed and fodder development, animal health, and youth empowerment. The Ministry has also registered eight pasture species, developed a National Strategy and Action Plan on Animal Genetic Resources, and upscaled vaccine production at the National Veterinary Research Institute.
Maiha also highlighted successful partnerships, such as the Ikun Dairy Farm in Ekiti State, which has transformed a dormant facility into a national model, and the Arla farm in Kaduna State, which has demonstrated the potential for high-yield dairy production in Nigeria. These examples show that with focus and commitment, Nigeria can fast-track local milk production and reduce dependence on imports.
The Ministry aims to double national milk production from 600,000 metric tonnes to 1.2 million metric tonnes annually within the next five years and plans to convene the inaugural National Council on Livestock Development to shape a unified national agenda for sustainable livestock development.
Manchester United have signed Brazilian forward Matheus Cunha from Wolverhampton Wanderers for £62.5 million, their first deal this summer. The 26-year-old agreed to a five-year contract, which could be extended by another year, once visa and registration are approved.
This transfer is Wolves’ biggest sale ever, topping the £53 million they got for Matheus Nunes in 2023. Cunha played 92 games for Wolves, scoring 33 goals and assisting 15 times. Last season, he scored 17 goals in 36 games and was named Wolves’ Player of the Season.
New Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim chose Cunha to improve the team after they finished 15th in the Premier League. Amorim sees Cunha playing as an attacking midfielder or in a deeper role in his system.
The transfer fee will be paid in three parts over two years, as Wolves rejected United’s plan to pay until 2029.
Cunha started his European career at Swiss club Sion and has also played for RB Leipzig, Hertha BSC, and Atlético Madrid before Wolves. He’s currently with Brazil’s national team for a World Cup qualifier against Ecuador.
Manchester United are looking to sign another striker and might sell players like Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Antony to fund more transfers.
The National Examinations Council (NECO) has disowned a fake Facebook account opened in the name of the Registrar/Chief Executive, Prof. Dantani Ibrahim Wushishi, aimed at defrauding unsuspecting members of the public.
The Council wishes to draw the attention of the public to the existence of this fake Facebook account in order to avoid being swindled by the fraudsters.
Meanwhile, security agents have been informed to take appropriate action against the perpetrators of this fraudulent act.
This was contained in a statement signed by Azeez Sani, Acting Director of Information and Public Relations, on 1st June, 2025.
There comes a time in the life of a people, a species even, when the very mirror they once fashioned to reflect their glory begins, slowly but surely, to distort their soul. We now stand at such a threshold – not merely of a new age, but of a reckoning. A reckoning where the echo of machines, once designed to mimic man, now threatens to muffle the voice of humanity itself.
Where intelligence, though artificial, ascends as oracle, and knowledge – once hard-won by the sweat of intellectual toils – becomes a digitized whisper in the datawind.
In this hour, swaddled in the luminous sheath of algorithms, we in the citadel of learning and thought – my colleagues and I in academics; we the researchers, scribes of the mind’s long journey, and custodians of civilization’s memory – must not be lulled into a slumber of convenience.
We must be watchers on the walls. For in this season of exponential adoption and propensitous embrace of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, the true philosopher must learn to decipher the grain from this touted so called intelligence ‘grail’.
For the grain is what nourishes – rooted in nature, cultivated in seasons, and harvested with labour. This grail however, though dazzling, may be but a mirage – a glint in the eyes of a technocratic priesthood, promising transcendence while delivering enslavement. The grain is truth, soul-rich and borne of generations; this grail may be a chalice of code, bearing no moral compass nor ancestral grounding.
This moment is not merely technological. It is deeply ontological. It is epistemological. It is spiritual. We are witnessing the deconstruction of man’s place as centre, being subtly displaced by systems trained not on wisdom but on vastness; not on virtue but on velocity.
Afrika, in her eternal patience, must not be caught unaware. For ours is a people whose thought systems predate computation, whose oracles spoke before silicon, and whose philosophies were encoded in proverbs, not Python. If we allow this tide to sweep us into a whirlpool of passive consumption and reverent imitation, we shall, once again, become the harvest of another man’s algorithm. We must not lose the battle for authorship – of our knowledge, of our humanity, of our future.
Let no one mistake this for Luddite lament. No, this is not a dirge against advancement. It is a call for discernment. The tools of AI are vast, yes; they bear capacity to assist, to illuminate, to optimize. But tools, if unmoored from conscience and custodianship, become weapons. And what is a weapon in the hands of those who have no memory of your history? What is an AI trained on oceans of data, yet blind to the sacred river of your story?
There is an eerie quiet growing in the hallowed halls of scholarship, especially of Afrikan kinship – as if the ancient rigour of peer inquiry has been traded for prompt injection. The sacred doubt of the philosopher now scrolls endlessly through citations computed, not conceived. A generation of minds – raised not in mentorship but in models and modelling – may soon lose the ability to ask the primal question: What is man, and to what purpose is he driven?
We must be careful, extremely careful, lest this tide of artificial sagacity becomes the signal trumpet of the last days of a lost generation, especially of Afrikan essence and originality – a generation severed from the integrity of thought, from the sweat of knowledge acquisition, from the mentorship of moral scholarship. In such a generation, learning becomes layered mimicry, and research becomes retrieval, not revelation.
From the bowels of Afrika’s crucible – from Timbuktu’s manuscripts to Samaru’s chalkboards, from Ife’s cosmologies to the ink of the Nile — we were once the bearers of sacred knowledge. Let us not now become its eulogists.
Let us rise. Not to reject the machine, but to master it. Not to fear the code, but to anchor it. Let us imprint in the heart of every AI engine a conscience – an Afrikan conscience, a human conscience. Let us hold the line of scientific inquiry intellectual integrity, spiritual dignity, and governance responsibility.
For what shall it profit a generation if it gains the language of machines, but loses the soul of humans – created and molded by Divinity in His own image and likeness?
I write not as one on the outside, but as a sentinel within the fortress of thought. I speak not from the easy perch of abstraction, but from the broken benches of our public schools, the neglected laboratories of our institutions, the paper-thin journals of struggling scholars whose truths are eclipsed by trending tokens.
I write to remind – and to remember – that the mind is sacred. That truth cannot be fully mined by machines. That wisdom is not synthetic. And that in the silence of the Benue, amid the ghosts of colonial curricula and the whispers of ancestors who once taught under trees, a voice must rise. A voice that says: Not all that is coded is correct. Not all that is modelled is moral. Not all that is trained is true.
Let we the scholars awaken. Let Africa’s minds rise with both the fire of innovation and the oil of discernment. For in this day of silicon sorcery, we must walk with eyes open, and souls uncolonized.
And so, from this quiet corner where the Benue mourns in silence, I cast forth this scroll – not of warning alone, but of remembering, restoring, and reawakening.
I am Prof. Pastor Qrisstuberg msughTer Amua. I write from the ‘Silenced Banks of the Benue’
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has monitored the promotion examination conducted for Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) staff. Prof. Oloyede expressed gratitude to TETFund and other agencies for their continued confidence in JAMB’s credibility and collaboration.
He commended TETFund for engaging JAMB’s services, reaffirming the Board’s commitment to providing exceptional examination services that uphold integrity and trust. Despite challenges faced by the Board, Prof. Oloyede assured that appropriate action would be taken against any dereliction of duty.
The JAMB Registrar expressed satisfaction that there were no reports of examination leakage or similar issues during the TETFund examination. He reiterated his commitment to exploring innovative methods for conducting examinations, ensuring the Board’s continued excellence in service delivery.
This development highlights JAMB’s ongoing efforts to provide quality examination services to various stakeholders, including government agencies and institutions.
According to the Chairman of the Kano State Sports Commission, Umar Fagge, the vehicle was carrying 30 people when the crash occurred.
Kano State has been thrown into mourning after a fatal auto crash claimed the lives of 19 people returning from the just concluded National Sports Festival (NSF) held in Ogun State.
As reported by Kano Times, the tragic accident happened on Saturday in Dakatsalle town, about 50 kilometres from Kano, as the state’s contingent approached the final stretch of their journey home. The victims included athletes, a journalist, medical staff, and sports officials.
According to the Chairperson of the Kano State Sports Commission, Umar Fagge, the vehicle was carrying 30 people when the crash occurred.
“As I am talking to you now, we have counted 19 dead bodies,” Mr Fagge said, adding that several others sustained injuries and were receiving medical treatment. Mr Fagge was quoted on Kano Times.
Authorities have not confirmed the exact cause of the crash, but emergency response teams were quickly deployed to the scene. Victims were taken to Kura General Hospital for urgent care, according to Ado Salisu, a former Vice President of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN).
The Kano Sector Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) also acknowledged the incident. However, the command’s spokesperson, Abdullahi Labaran, stated that investigations were still ongoing.
“We just received the report of the accident, so I cannot confirm the exact number of casualties at the moment,” Mr Labaran said.
Zahraddeen Saleh, Chairperson of the Kano chapter of SWAN, confirmed that among those who died were the Public Relations Officer of the Kano State Sports Commission and a photojournalist working with Express Radio, an online news platform.
Painful ending to glorious outing
Kano athletes during the opening ceremony of the National Sports Festival.
Kano State had finished 13th on the overall NSF medals table, with a respectable haul of six gold, 13 silver, and 10 bronze medals.
The contingent had represented the state with pride and dedication throughout the competition, making their tragic return all the more heartbreaking.
Government reacts
In response to the incident, the Kano State Government released an official statement through the Honourable Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Mustapha Rabiu Kwankwaso.
“This is a deeply painful moment for all of us. We are devastated by the news of the ghastly accident that occurred as our athletes were returning home after representing our great state with pride and commitment. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and the entire sporting community in Kano,” Mr Kwankwaso said.
He described the tragedy as a moment of collective grief for the state, assuring the public that the government would stand by the victims and their families, providing medical attention and necessary support.
Mr Kwankwaso also commended the first responders and medical teams for their swift action and promised a full report on the incident, with appropriate steps to follow.
Starting July 1, 2025, France will enforce a smoking ban in outdoor areas frequented by children. The new regulation will prohibit smoking at beaches, parks, bus stops, school entrances, and sports venues.
Health and Family Minister Catherine Vautrin announced the measure on Thursday, May 29. Speaking to Ouest-France newspaper, Vautrin stated, “Tobacco must disappear where there are children. The freedom to smoke ends where children’s right to breathe clean air begins.”
The ban also applies to students smoking in front of schools. Offenders risk a fine of up to €135 ($154).
However, this restriction will not affect France’s renowned outdoor cafe terraces or the use of electronic cigarettes.
Smoking is already prohibited in various public spaces across France, including workplaces, airports, train stations, and playgrounds. Anti-smoking advocates have long pushed for broader smoking restrictions.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 35% of the French population smokes—well above the European average of 25% and the global average of 21%.
Real Madrid have completed the signing of England international Trent Alexander-Arnold from Liverpool on a six-year contract.
The 26-year-old right-back will officially join the Spanish giants on June 1, 2025, with his stay at the Santiago Bernabéu running until June 30, 2031. In an official statement on Friday, the club announced: “Real Madrid C.F. and Liverpool FC have reached an agreement for Trent Alexander-Arnold, who will be part of our team for the next six seasons.”
Alexander-Arnold moves to Madrid following a trophy-laden stint at Liverpool, where he secured nine major honours, including the UEFA Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, two EFL Cups, and an FA Community Shield.
A graduate of Liverpool’s youth academy, Alexander-Arnold has spent his entire senior career at Anfield. He debuted for the England national team in 2018 and has represented the Three Lions at the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, along with UEFA Euro 2024.
Individually, the full-back has earned significant recognition. He was included in the FIFA FIFPro World 11 in 2020, twice named to the UEFA Champions League Team of the Season (2018/19 and 2021/22), and three times in the Premier League Team of the Season (2018/19, 2019/20, and 2021/22). Alexander-Arnold also won the Premier League Young Player of the Season award for 2019/20.
He is set to feature for Real Madrid in the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup, scheduled to begin on June 14 in the United States.
Nigeria’s Flying Eagles will face Saudi Arabia, Colombia, and Norway in Group F of the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The tournament, scheduled to take place in Chile from September 27 to October 19, will feature 24 teams competing across four host cities: Santiago, Valparaíso, Rancagua, and Talca. The event is expected to be a vibrant showcase of emerging global football talent.
Host nation Chile headlines Group A alongside New Zealand, Japan, and Egypt. Group B includes South Korea, Ukraine, Paraguay, and Panama, while Group C is being called a “group of death,” featuring youth football heavyweights Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, and Spain.
In Group D, defending champions Argentina will go head-to-head with Italy, Australia, and Cuba. Group E comprises the United States, New Caledonia, France, and South Africa. Nigeria, drawn in Group F, will battle Colombia, Saudi Arabia, and Norway for a place in the knockout rounds.
The tournament format allows the top two teams from each group, along with the four best third-placed teams, to advance to the round of 16.
With a mix of traditional powerhouses and emerging contenders, the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup promises to deliver high-stakes drama and a glimpse at the future stars of world football.
Key takeaways from this season’s Premier League campaign, including the rise of the mid-tier clubshighlighting 10 hot topics and tactical lessons from the 2024/25 Premier League campaign:
– Strength of mid-tier clubs marks the end of the “Big Six” era – Idealistic tacticians are on the way out – Forest’s excellent season gives hope to all clubs – 2025/26 title race feels wide open after Liverpool’s low points tally – The classic No 9 is back in fashion – Mid-season manager changes now rarer as “bounce” stops working – Fast transitions make league very entertaining – Individual stars are the difference-makers in “systems” era – Fifth Champions League spot gives league an extra dimension – Promoted clubs are struggling to stay up
The curtain has come down on the 2024/25 Premier League campaign, and a season of change.
Liverpool’s first title in five years, Chelsea and Newcastle booking their returns to the UEFA Champions League, and Nottingham Forest qualifying for Europe were not the only changes.
There were also tactical transformations, shifts in narrative trends, and a more open field than ever before.
Here are 10 things we learned about the Premier League in 2024/25.
1. Strength of mid-tier clubs marks the end of the ‘Big Six’ era
In five of the eight Premier League seasons between 2014 and 2022, the “Big Six” clubs filled every top-six spot in the table.
The “Big Six” refers to the most successful and powerful sides in Premier League football, comprising Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs.
In the three years since 2022, not once have those six clubs occupied all of the positions from one to six. In fact, the same number of top-six places have gone to clubs not in the “Big Six” in the last three years as in the previous eight years combined (five).
The historically bad campaigns for both Man Utd and Spurs signal the end of the “Big Six” era, as does Chelsea’s ongoing battle to retain their status alongside the disruptors Newcastle and Aston Villa.
It seems reasonable now to talk about a “Big Eight”, although Brighton & Holves Albion might even challenge that, given they have finished sixth (2022/23) and eighth (2024/25) in two of the last three seasons.
One thing we can say for sure is that a new middle tier of clubs is strong, and capable of permanently upsetting what had looked like a closed shop.
This is partly thanks to the growing financial power of non-“Big Six” clubs compared to those in mainland Europe, leading to first-rate tacticians and UEFA Champions League-standard players arriving at mid-table English teams.
The upshot is a more competitive and unpredictable Premier League, FA Cup, and EFL Cup.
2. Idealistic tacticians are on the way out
It would not be a review of the 2024/25 season without particular focus on what happened to Man Utd and Spurs, who collected only 42 and 38 points respectively in dismal Premier League campaigns.
Premier League
Position
Club
Played
GD
Points
15
Man. Utd
38
-10
42
16
Wolves
38
-15
42
17
Spurs
38
-1
38
18
Leicester
38
-47
25
19
Ipswitch
38
-46
22
20
Southampton
38
-60
12
The one thing they have in common is a manager who clung tight to his ideals; a sign that the Premier League has moved through its phase of tactical dogmatists and into a period of hyper-flexibility.
By the end of the season, Ange Postecoglou had fully let go of his kamikaze attacking football, playing a reactive game throughout the knockout stage of Spur’s Europa League Triumph, while Reuben Amorin also loosened his principles a little – although the 3-4-3 was immovable.
The merits of their respective approaches are up for debate, but what we can say for sure is that, moving forward, disappointing league finishes for both clubs will alter the fashion.
Boardrooms will be more wary of idealists from now on.
Russell Martin, too, will influence a trend away from singular visions. He clung steadfast to a possession-centric philosophy at Southampthon even when the errors piled up, eventually leading to his dismissal in December.
By contrast, few neutrals could define the tactical ideas of Eddie Howe, Unai Emery, Oliver Glasner, Fabian Hurzler or Thomas Frank in a sentence or two.
In a league of ever-increasing wealth, influence, and complexity, teams must be able to draw upon plans from A to Z.
3. Forest’s excellent season gives hope to all clubs
The “Big Six” era is fading, and better still, Forest have shown that every single Premier League club can dream of a transformative season.
They were just one win away from becoming the third club in three seasons – after Newcastle and Villa – to qualify for the Champions League after an absence of at least 20 years.
Despite their final-day defeat to Chelsea, Forest are back in Europe for the first time since 1995/96, and they did it by becoming the first team in Premier League history to double their points tally from one season to the next.
Forest are a good news story for everyone. They have taught us that even teams struggling against relegation one season can find themselves in Europe the next.
4. 2025/26 title race feels wide open after Liverpool’s low points tally
Liverpool’s 84 points is the lowest tally for a Premier League champion since 2015/16 and the third-lowest for a title-winner in the last 20 years, behind Leicester’s 81 and Man Utd’s 80 in 2000/01 and 2010/11 respectively.
Top three
Position
Club
Played
GD
Points
1
Liverpool
38
+45
84
2
Arsenal
38
+35
74
3
Man City
38
+28
71
There is of course an enormous caveat here: Liverpool had the title sewn up with four games to go, four games in which they picked up just two points after heavily rotating their line-up. Had they needed to, Liverpool would surely have hit 90+ points.
But the four-match winless sequence is still instructive. It tells us that Liverpool, who had very few noteworthy injuries this season, cannot depend upon second-choice players to win points.
Anne Slot’s squad depth is not particularly strong, so it suggests next year’s title race will be a good one.
Slot became the fifth manager to win the Premier League title in their debut season. Only one of the previous four was able to retain it in their second campaign – Jose Mourinho, whose first Chelsea team of 2004/05 was epochal.
Man City expect to bounce back, and Arsenal will surely find the striker they need to click back into gear.
Slot needs to hit Mourinho levels of brilliance to stop a more competitive Premier League title race in 2025/26.
5. The classic No 9 is back in fashion
For a while there, the No 9 was on the way out. Roberto Firminoat Liverpool was a prime example of the “false nines” trend and Man City boss Pep Guardiola seemed to believe that striker-less formations were the future.
But in 2024/25, the striker has come roaring back. Chris Wood was a heroic figure at Forest; Alexander Isak was the difference-maker for Newcastle; and Joanne Wissa (19 goals) and Bryan Mbeumo (20) scored 39 times between them for Brentford.
Erling Harland, Ollie Watkins, Jean-Phillip Mateta, Liam Delap, Evanilson, Jorgen Strand Larsen, Raul Jimenez, the list of goalscoring, hold-up-the-ball, strong-in-the-air centre forwards goes on and on.
Interestingly, only the top two teams, Liverpool and Arsenal, haven’t relied on a proper No 9, but while Mohamed Salah’s influence is a genuine anomaly, in Arsenal’s case it only proves the point.
The one thing Mikel Arteta needs is a traditional goalscoring striker.
6. Mid-season manager changes now rarer as ‘bounce’ stops working
The fire-fighter manager is slowly disappearing, and so too is the panic-stricken managerial change in the spring.
Only six clubs changed manager during the 2024/25 season, up slightly from four in 2023/24, but down from 12 in 2022/23.
The overall trend, then, is towards sticking with project managers through thick and thin.
This probably has a lot to do with the relegation battle being so easy to read over the last two years, easing the urge to push the big red button.
But there’s more to it than that. As Premier League managers become head coaches – tacticians and training-ground figures, with teams of people managing finances and transfers above them – there is less desire to throw the dice and pray for a “new manager bounce”.
What’s more, the “bounce” seems to have disappeared. There was no upturn for Southampton, West Ham United, Leicester, or Man Utd after they changed managers this year.
Only Wolverhampton Wonderers and Everton saw a notable change.
7. Fast transitions make league very entertaining
Towards the end of the season, pundits began to talk about football being “too robotic”, suggesting that managers obsessed with systems and structures were diminishing the individualism needed to make the game entertaining.
“Being micro-managed within an inch of our lives, not having any freedom to take a risk to go and try to win a football match is becoming an illness, a disease in the game,” Gary Neville famously said back in April, starting a theme picked up by many others.
In fact, all evidence points to the opposite conclusion.
The Premier League is moving away from slow possession football and towards constant fast transitions, with the majority of goals scored in the few seconds after the ball is turned over.
There are more fast breaks and direct attacks per game than at any other point in Premier League history.
PL fast breaks and direct attacks per 90 minutes
Season
Fast breaks per 90
Direct attacks per 90
2017/18
0.63
3.25
2018/19
1.01
3.31
2019/20
1.22
3.10
2020/21
0.91
2.98
2012/22
1.06
3.22
2022/23
1.19
3.13
2023/24
1.58
3.50
2024/25
2.04
3.50
As a direct consequence, there were 1,115 goals in the Premier League in 2024/25, the second-most in any 38-match season, just behind the record set the year before, in 2023/24.
Players might be “micro-managed” as tactics become more complex, but end-to-end matches that lean into the chaos of hard pressing, constant turnovers, and quick transitions cannot be described as boring.
8. Individual stars are the difference-makers in ‘systems’ era
Then again, maybe things aren’t quite as systematised as they appear.
Salah equalled the Premier League record for goals and assists in a single campaign, picking up pretty much every individual award going on his way to 47 goal involvements and a second Premier League title.
His goals and assists accounted for 54.7 per cent of Liverpool’s total, putting him top of a list that had no fewer than six players contribute at least 40 per cent of their team’s Premier League goals.
Top individual contributions to teams’ goals + assists 24/25
Player
Goals + assists
% of team total
Mohamed Salah
47
54.7%
Jarrod Bowen
21
45.7%
Alexander Isak
29
42.6%
Ollie Watkins
24
41.4%
Bryan Mbeumo
27
40.9%
Bruno Fernandes
18
40.9%
Partly reflecting the return of the traditional No 9, Premier League clubs in 2024/25 were often reliant on one difference-maker; a star player to go against the grain and produce the telling moment.
9. Fifth Champions League spot gives league an extra dimension
This might have been the first time the Premier League received a fifth UEFA Champions League spot, but it seems likely it will become common, giving the table a new dimension in the final straight.
In five of the last 10 Premier League seasons, the gap between fifth and sixth has been a maximum of three points going into the last match of the season. A race to the very end will be seen more and more in years to come.
More importantly, a fifth Champions League spot means an even bigger chance that a non-super-club will qualify, in turning using the financial boon to bridge the gap and widen the competition.
And then there’s the Europa League route. The tweaked format no longer sees Champions League teams drop down into the competition at the knockout stage, making it easier to win.
That opens up the possibility of more Champions League money in the Premier League, as we’ve seen this season with Spurs, further evening up the field.
10. Promoted clubs are struggling to stay up
Unfortunately, for the second consecutive season, the three promoted clubs went straight back down.
Last season, the gap to 17th place and safety was six points. This time it was 13, prompting fears this will become the new normal as established Premier League clubs invest money more wisely than in previous years.
The closest five clubs to the relegation zone – Spurs, Wolves, Man Utd, West Ham and Everton – are all expected to improve over the summer.
All five look considerably stronger than the three clubs coming up from the Championship: Burnley, Leeds United, and Sunderland.
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