Why Salah is somehow UNDERRATED, Pep's No 1 priority this summer

So, that's that. Another season is in the books.

Sunday pulled the curtain down on the 2024-25 campaign, and team are already looking ahead to next season - though will still be reflecting on the year just passed.

Nottingham Forest got into Europe; Liverpool won a league title in Arne Slot's first season in England; Tottenham lost 22 league games and still had one of their best seasons in years; all three promoted sides went straight back down.

There was an emotional return to Everton for David Moyes and their exit from Goodison Park was confirmed ahead of a move.

Crystal Palace won the FA Cup, while Arsenal and Manchester United fluffed their lines to go trophyless in the end.

Mail Sport picks out 10 things we learned across the 2024-25 season…

Amorim will be under pressure from day one next season

Ruben Amorim has the backing of the Manchester United hierarchy and that was underlined after a swift visit to sit down with the powers that be in Monaco on Friday.

He will be backed with new players this summer that suit his 3-4-2-1 system and with no European football he will be down to one game a week, finally getting that time on the training ground he has craved since he arrived back in November.

But what he also has going into next season is very little time to show signs of progress.

Amorim is fiercely loyal to his principles and while that is admirable, he is under no illusion that a bad start to next season will see the knives out for him, just as they were at the start of this season for Erik ten Hag.

'That is normal, that is a risk when I started six months ago and if you start now you can have a pre-season and that season will be the first season,' Amorim conceded after a 2-0 win over Aston Villa.

'I have to deliver next year. I am really confident we are going to play better and get more results. It will take time. We will suffer again but we need to have better results, that's for sure.'

The rhetoric around Carrington is that this bumpy six months has allowed Amorim and his staff to identify the exact areas of improvement - there are many - and that will give them a better foothold going into next season.

Matheus Cunha and Liam Delap are expected to be imminent arrivals, while a move for a midfielder and a goalkeeper is among the positions they are pushing to strengthen.

But ultimately, patience only lasts so long at a club like Manchester United, and Amorim knows it.

Arteta has no wiggle room left without trophies

Speaking of managers that go into 2025-26 under even more pressure than before, I present Mikel Arteta.

It is undeniable that Arsenal took steps forward this campaign as they knocked out Real Madrid and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

But they also went without a trophy - again. All while bitter rivals Tottenham won a trophy, Liverpool won a league title, and Chelsea stand on the cusp of winning a European title.

Arsenal bowed out of the FA Cup to Manchester United and got knocked out of the Carabao Cup in the semi-finals against Newcastle.

As former Arsenal striker Ian Wright put it, the women's team winning the Women's Champions League has 'saved' the club's season.

'The embarrassment of not winning anything this season when we've played so well with the men,' Wright said on TNT Sports. 'The ladies have saved the club. We've got something to celebrate.'

Many want to show grace to Arteta, who spent north of £650million in the job, but there is only so long you can gloss over the fact you don't win trophies.

There will be no excuses left - or a job to hold on to - if we are having this same discussion in a year's time. It's now or never for Arteta.

Midfield must be priority No 1 for Guardiola this summer

A summer refresh for Manchester City is essential after a third-placed finish which, by their standards, is particularly underwhelming.

Midfield should be priority No 1 for Guardiola with Kevin De Bruyne leaving for Napoli, question marks over the long-term future of youngster James McAtee, and the topsy-turvy form of ageing stars like Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva.

There has been too many games over the course of the season where teams have ran over Manchester City in the middle of the park.

The return of Ballon d'Or winner Rodri will invariably help stabilise, while Nico Gonzalez looks a clever piece of recruitment.

Sales are needed, too. City's squad of 26 is bloated to the max and Guardiola knows it.

'The last three weeks or a month, [leaving] four, five, six players at home,' he said.

'That is not healthy; for any of us, for them especially, for the club, me, anyone. The club knows it and the club completely agrees with me, so we're going to find the best way for all of us.'

So, yes, sales are imperative. But so is finding a box-to-box type player who is a willing runner to inject some much needed energy into a group that looked to be sapped of it when the lights were brightest in 2024-25.

That revolving door at the Etihad Stadium should be kept busy this summer…

Everton badly need a reliable goal scorer

The fact that only the trio of relegated sides scored fewer goals than Everton's 42 this season further underlines just how vital it is that David Moyes lands himself a reliable scorer this summer.

The Toffees have held talks with Liam Delap but are likely to miss out in those stakes. There will be other targets they face stiff competition for.

Everton have failed to score or score just once in a game on 24 occasions this season and 27 of their 42 goals (64 per cent) have arrived since Moyes returned to the club in mid-January.

He has reinvigorated Everton but rather than rest on laurels that has to be rewarded with a reliable scorer to go into next season with.

Being one of the lowest scorers in the league is always a recipe for disaster so it's time for the powers that be at Everton to put their money where their mouth is and go and get a striker.

Bournemouth must beware of rebuild

Andoni Iraola's Bournemouth finished the season with a top-five defence in the league but with Dean Huijsen going to Real Madrid and Milos Kerkez widely expected to go to Liverpool, there should be an air of trepidation on the south coast.

Illya Zabaryni is attracting interest from Premier League rivals, along with Paris Saint-Germain, too and Iraola risks having his extremely talented young back line torn apart.

Sides like Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton are routinely expected to not miss a beat, all while selling their best players each summer.

But it is far easier said than done and while crucial transfer windows lay in wait for teams like Manchester United and Manchester City for different reasons, there is an argument to be made that Bournemouth can ill-afford to make too many wrong moves.

Recruitment has been a strong point for Bournemouth of late with the likes of Antoine Semenyo, Justin Kluivert, Huijsen, Kerkez and Zabaryni huge success stories.

Even so, when the big clubs come knocking and the money rolls in, you have to try and pull another rabbit out of the hat.

Bournemouth beware.

Rogers should be in England's 2026 World Cup squad

It won't be long until attention turns to 'who will make the plane' for England's 2026 World Cup squad and based on what I saw this season, Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers must be included.

This was a real breakout year for Rogers who proved he could thrive at Premier League and Champions League level.

Rogers' 14 goals and 15 assists in all competitions this season won't have been lost on England boss Thomas Tuchel and the 22-year-old is ascending at just the right time a year out from the biggest tournament in world football.

He has four senior caps, all arriving this season, and while the challenge now will be for Rogers to elevate again, or at least maintain his output from this season, he has put himself into a driving seat to be on the plane for 2026.

No nonsense Glasner needs backing to take Palace to the next level

Crystal Palace got a guard of honour at Anfield and many felt it was a party atmosphere regardless of how the 90 minutes panned out.

Many didn't include Palace boss Oliver Glasner, however. He made his annoyance plain post match but rather than be perturbed by it, it was a sign of strength that bosses at Palace should look at with fondness as they head into next season with a European campaign to juggle.

'I have two feelings today, I'm not really pleased with our performance, not in general but a few players didn't play 100 per cent for the team and how we want to play,' Glasner said bluntly.

'I didn't like to see this. There was a little bit of ego in some situations. That's why we drew, because there were so many situations to win this game.

'I don't forget our start to the season, where it was a little bit similar and we missed our chances and opportunities because of a lack of determination.

'I felt this today, which is why I am not pleased with the performance. We can always find excuses. It's easy to find excuses. If we always find excuses, we'd be at the bottom end of the table and relegated.

'There's always a reason for something, there's always a reason for missing chances, always a reason for whatever.'

His post-match rant continued: 'We are talking about raising our standards and a few things that I saw today, I don't accept. It's just my feeling today.

'Maybe it's a little unfair when you see the big picture over the season. But if we have the mindset from today, next season we will struggle again and I don't want to experience that again.'

If Palace are to do what Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest have done in recent times and present a legitimate threat, they need to drive the highest standards and for that Glasner was spot on in not allowing poor areas of their performance at Anfield to be normalised.

With Europa League football a real test of their squad next season, Glasner needs backing if he is to take Palace to even greater heights. Your move, Steve Parish…

Is Salah still somehow underrated?

This may seem an asinine question given he is rightly lauded and showered with all the individual accolades you could think of.

But speaking to a friend recently it was put to me that Salah may well be the greatest Premier League player ever. No 1. Top of the tree.

By that suggestion, perhaps normalising Salah's extraordinary output each season is underrating his legend.

On Sunday, Salah became the first player in Premier League history to finish a season with the most goals and assists and win the Player of the Season award.

He has also equalled Thierry Henry's record of four Golden Boots and has now topped the charts for goals and assists in a single season twice, also doing so in 2021-22, when he scored 23 goals and assisted 13.

Add in that with his goal against Crystal Palace, Salah also matched the single-season record for most combined goals and assists by a player with 47.

Legend usually marinates long after retirement and that may be the case with Salah when all is said and done.

But for a player of his greatness, it still somehow feels like we will look back and ask ourselves how we normalised such wonder with every passing week.

The gap from Championship to Premier League has never felt bigger

My first reaction when Sunderland defeated Sheffield United in the play-off final over the weekend was that, most likely, all three promoted sides will come straight back down.

That seems a negative lens to view Premier League football but the harsh reality is that the gulf between the top flight and the second tier has never felt as vast as it did in 2024-25.

Tottenham Hotspur lost 22 league games this season and never once looked in real danger of going down. In the end they finished 13 points ahead of third-bottom Leicester City.

Leicester conceded 80 goals. Ipswich Town conceded 82 goals. Southampton conceded 86 goals. They combined to win 12 games total.

So, if I'm downbeat on the prospects of Leeds United, Burnley and Sunderland, forgive me.

Two successive seasons of all three that came up going straight back down has destroyed my hope that teams can come up and realistically compete.

If 2025-26 is another repeat, drastic action will be needed to prevent this being a closed shop once and for all.

AND FINALLY…

On the final episode of the 'It's All Kicking Off' podcast I graded each Premier League team's season across all competitions.

My colleague Ian Ladyman does not believe a 10/10 mark exists - I disagree and gave Liverpool and Slot that exact grade.

Shoutout to Newcastle United and Crystal Palace… but Southampton, hang heads in shame.