Big summer needed after non-vintage season

AND we thought the story would be Hull and Newcastle. But you just can't keep Liverpool out of the headlines and their annihilation at Stoke (Stoke!) stole the doomsday thunder from the two relegation rivals.
A rather anti-climactic Survival Sunday was enlivened by the most abject and shameful implosion of any major team in recent memory.
Failure is the predominant storyline of what was a distinctly non-vintage Premier League season. With respect to worthy winners Chelsea, the struggles of Liverpool, Manchester City and United have provided most of the talking points in a campaign in which all claims to being the best league in the world were brusquely refuted.
Most entertaining? Certainly, but if the business end of the Champions League is the litmus test of true quality, the collective failure of England's four representatives to get there was telling. And, yes, there have been some great goals, some great goalkeeping and thrilling attacking, but defending seems to have become a lost art – they park the bus but forget the handbrake.
From Arsenal's slip-up against modest Monaco to Chelsea's failure to keep out a 10-man PSG, the old resolution at the back disappeared. Even worse were City whose rearguard bordered on the comical at times.
At £42million (RM234.73m), Eliaquim Mangala ran David Luiz close as the world's most outrageously priced defender and even undermined the confidence of the previously rock-like Vincent Kompany.
At United, Louis van Gaal's weird decision not to buy a central defender was exposed by various makeshift combos that are clearly not up to it and that gaping hole remains.
But nothing came close to Liverpool's suicidal 23 minutes at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday.
This surely was a sign of a more serious malaise – a lost dressing room perhaps – and a club in disarray.
Koppites will never be allowed to forget the Steven Gerrard slip that cost them the title, but if the owners are not careful, it could become better known as the season of the Suarez blip – a rare near-triumph amid a worrying decline.
Yet Brendan Rodgers' is "safe" according to distant and dithering owners who will not review a calamitous season until next month. That may still be too soon to replace him with Jurgen Klopp as the German takes a sabbatical to recharge his run-down batteries after Sunday's Cup final joust with Wolfsburg.
But how Liverpool respond will be just one of many fascinating tales that will unfold in the coming weeks.
One consolation for a mediocre season is that the transfer window that follows has to be commensurately more interesting – and will hopefully sustain us fans during this rare fallow summer.
And nor will it just be about players. The sacking season is already under way although Manchester City, like Liverpool, may stick rather than twist.
Word from the Etihad is that Manuel Pellegrini will stay which looks a mistake from this vantage point and could condemn City to a season of treading water and waiting for Pep. It might turn out to be like waiting for Godot.
City need to ship out a few passengers and may well get Raheem Sterling although £50m (RM279.44m) and an agent from hell would seem a steep price to pay. But only under a more dynamic coach and with hungrier recruits will they be a serious force next season.
Chelsea will be favourites but much will depend on John Terry, 35 in December, and comfortably the best defender in the league.
Will he be as good next season? And can Jose Mourinho do what he's never done before and blend in promising kids?
His next recruits will be come under rare scrutiny – shunting out Andre Schurrle for Juan Cuadrado shows even the Special One is not infallible.
Louis van Gaal will have the most to spend but last season he got precious little out of his two biggest names. You feel Angel di Maria will soon join Radamel Falcao in the exit lounge which will leave the squad looking decidedly ordinary.
Despite finishing high enough for a Champions League qualifier, they have played well in only a handful of games – and those were when Michael Carrick was in the side.
Wayne Rooney may as well not have been on the field at Hull, Robin van Persie looks finished, Adnan Januzaj has gone backwards, Marouane Fellaini cannot conceal his thuggishness and, if David de Gea leaves, unless Mourinho can be persuaded to let Petr Cech go to another Premier League club, they will be struggling.
At Hull, Victor Valdes managed to pull off two world-class saves but on crosses he makes Dracula look like a safe pair of hands.
Major rebuilding is needed and the way they ended the season and played during most of it, Devils fans shouldn't be surprised if they don't even get into the Champions League proper.
After Chelsea, Arsenal are the closest to troubling Europe's elite. But Arsene Wenger will have to buy more than just the customary lone marquee name this summer if the Gunners are to make the most of their midfield riches.
So, as we say farewell to Burnley, Hull and QPR and welcome Norwich, there should be no shortage of drama off the field.
As Liverpool fans will tell you, it really does come down to the signings which is why serious doubts have to be raised about Rodgers and his five fellow transfer committee members, City's director of football Txiki Begiristain and, yes, despite the high opinion he has of himself, Louis van Gaal.
At this point, the title race looks between old foes Mourinho and Wenger but with FFP rules being relaxed, that could change. We could well be in for an exciting summer.