Paris Saint-Germain, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, the World Cup its ownself - Qatar is using its oil riches to buy up the soccer world. Soccer needs to decide whether that cash is worth it.

The Champions League started this week, and Real Madrid has to be the favorite for the third straight year. We cannot talk about the Champions League without talking about Real; Soccer Insider is a recap of where they, and Europe, are at right now.

Soccer Insider today is about Atlanta United, yes, but also about what the future of MLS might look like. It’s going to involve more money and bigger stadiums and ambitious clubs - precisely what Atlanta looks like, and Seattle, and Orlando City and New York City and Toronto and Los Angeles FC and so on and so forth.

If you are a fan of a European soccer team, you’ve just survived Transfer Madness 2017, in which every player on every team could move to another team (Paris Saint-Germain or Manchester City, usually) for an impossible sum of money. It’s exhausting.

National teams don’t have that problem, which is why the USMNT - in some ways - is the best possible team to follow.

Soccer Insider this week is a history lesson - well, more of a DYK? kind of column. Did You Know, soccer fans, that MLS was just one of three leagues that might have been sanctioned as America’s first-division league?

Back when I started watching soccer, Serie A was pretty much THE thing. The idea of another team going to Italy and winning a game seemed ludicrous; Real Madrid might do it, or Bayern Munich, but certainly no one else.

Now, though, Italy - Juventus aside - is a league full of also-rans. The Rome and Milan clubs are all struggling, as is the rest of the league. Which leads directly to the question: What happened to Serie A?

The headline on my 2017-18 Premier League Preview at the Star Tribune was Last Manchester Standing, which I don’t think can be improved upon.

Short version of my predictions, for future reference.

At The Top

1. Manchester United
2. Manchester City
3. Chelsea
4. Tottenham Hotspur
5. Arsenal
6. Liverpool
7. Everton

Bottom Three

1. Brighton and Hove Albion
2. Huddersfield Town
3. Swansea City

Right now the Premier League has three uber-rich teams - Manchester United, Chelsea, and Manchester City - and four merely very rich teams, in Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, and Tottenham. In some ways, the latter four are all trying to make the same leap that Manchester United made (oil wealth, the basis for Chelsea and Manchester City’s riches, being less replicable). Soccer Insider this week looks at how United got where they are, and how the other four are trying to make it happen for themselves too.

Every year, summer in the soccer world is proof that the world’s gone mad, thanks to ridiculous transfer fees. This has been happening every summer for as long as I can remember; I recognize that writing a column complaining about the soccer market is veering towards hackiness.

BUT. I still can’t believe what’s happening this year, highlighted by what’s going on at AS Monaco. This is a club with a very rich owner, that made the Champions League semifinals and won the Ligue 1 title, that is seeing most of its squad depart this summer for even richer clubs. How can this be good for the game? How can this be sustainable?

Liga MX, the most-watched soccer league in America, kicks off its season this weekend. At Soccer Insider, I tried to explain the league, as it tries to make inroads in the English-speaking American market as well.