Manchester City's success

Manchester City's success

5 points clear at the top of the Premiership. Scoring goals for fun. Assembling a squad full of stars from all over the world. Bringing trophies to the blue half of Manchester for the first time in decades. Add these things up and you have a fairly succulent recipe for success. But there is one crucial ingredient we forgot. Money.



In late August 2008, Manchester City Football Club won the Arab lottery. In doing so they instantly became one of the richest clubs overnight. Since then they have spent like no other (well, no other since Chelsea anyway), in an attempt to eat at European football's top table. But at the end of the day, where will they be placed among the truly great sides, and how will they be remembered, when these trophies arrive at Eastlands?



If I were to take the starting 11 + subs to any of the 19 other Premiership clubs, success would arrive in a heartbeat. It really isn't that hard when you are able to outbid any other club in the world. Gaming cheats have used this method in Football Manager and FIFA games for years. Mancini has been gifted enough to be given the chance to use this cheat code in real life. No wonder he is enjoying life so much.



But what of Manchester City? Are they in any way different to the Blackburn Rovers side of 1995? Only in name. Jack Warner fell ill, withdrew his support, and four years later Blackburn fans were booking trips to dilapidated grounds in the lower tier once more. If the Sheikh falls ill, a similar fate could easily consume City. And who would care? Or to put it another way, why should we care? They are hardly one of England's staple big clubs. In fact 13 clubs have won more league titles than them, and 9 clubs have won more trophies in general than them.



So then. Manchester City. Deserved success that requires a lot of credit and praise for the dedication and hard work of its players? Or a middle of the road club that won the lottery and are a glorified fantasy football side? Either way they may well be set to dominate English football for a few years yet.

They have Balotelli.

They'll do what chelsea did when they had a similar squad - crash and burn in January.

This.

This again.

I hated Chelsea when they bought the way to the title, but that was because I hated Chelsea before then.

jesus, I forgot Aguerio as well.

Awful excuse for a human being.

I still don't understand how that second one wasn't a red.

I have no problem with either of that challenges.

The only player I don't like there is Na$ri (unfortunately I still have a shirt with his name on it, purchased the day we signed him from the Emirates ).

De Jong is overly aggressive in the tackle for sure though.

I know i will probably get some stick for this but it annoys me when people claim Chelsea and Manchester City are the same thing, in terms of buying success. To me it felt different in that we were already an established top 6 side when we were bought. We had finished in the top 6 for the 7 previous seasons including a 3rd and 4th. Add to that we were in the Champions League.

Whereas in the years leading up to Manchester Citys takeover they were a mediocre mid table team. As Buff said it almost is like a real life football manager game.

Having said that they are playing some outstanding football this season and will certainly take some beating.

Chelsea's first division league titles pre-Abramovich: 1 (1954-55)
Man City's first division league titles pre-Abu Dhabi: 2 (1936�37, 1967�68)

I agree with Frankie - the whole "City have more money than all the other clubs combined" thing is hilarious. I don't want to see the other BIG MONEY CLUBS United/Chelsea/Arsenal win the f**king trophy again. It's good for the competition if someone else wins for a change, and if a club has to spend f**kloads to do it, it's not exactly their fault, is it?

Hopefully after City dominate for a while (assuming they do), someone else can have some glory. But it'll take a lot of money to do it.
Cosimo2011-11-11 07:44:53

 
well on that logic maybe someone should spend billions making sunderland, wolves or sheffield wednesday premier league champions.

my point was that we were, in my opinion anyway, on the way up with our league positions and having made 3 fa cup finals in 6 years whilst man city were just sort of sitting around mid table not doing an awful lot. it was almost as if the owners just picked a team out of hat to buy.

One difference for Man City is that they are splashing a lot of cash on getting a proper academy and youth setup established.

I don't know, as an outsider to the English game, I always thought that City has historically been a bigger club than Chelsea all things considered.

Good luck to them!They've had 30 odd years in the wilderness and now a benefactor has elevated them to the top rank,enabling them to elbow in on the private boys club of Man utd,Chelsea,Arsenal and I suppose,Liverpool.Sure I'd prefer them to succeed with local talent,but as an Everton supporter I won't condemn them for what's happened:I wish we had the same opportunity!!Man City have a great set of fans;extremely loyal through bad times and...worse,so for them alone I don't mind their success.Great to see "siralex" with a face like a smacked arse...

Well, I don't think you can compare Man City and Chelsea to Man Utd, sure Man Utd have undertaken certain business decisions that has increased their revenue and even with the debt leveraged buyout from the Glazers they are still currently able to service their debts and maintain the club.

Not sure on how Man City are financed, but Abramovich has loaned Chelsea all that money and I think they still operate at a loss and need Abramovich's money to maintain the club. Not sure if Abramovich ever expects to get his money back but it is possible he could pull out and start asking for Chelsea to repay the millions in loans.

The long term success of any club would be to operate within ones means, Man City's current expenditure is to increase the value of the brand so it can set its self up long term.

I certaily don't hate Man City. A lot of comments reveal the green-eyed monster called jealousy. Remarks re Chelsea, United, Arsenal etc. The fact is that these clubs have done well, for whatever reason, and some supporters of other clubs resent that success.Snide remarks about AF etc.
I sure hope Utd do has some success this year, but if they don't-tough. If City with all their spending don't win a few more trophies, then perhaps their manager will suffer the consequences.
All true football supporters should still admire the talents of a lot of the City players.
I just wish that Utd had the same amount of money to spend.Probably just as well, cause if they did they would win the league at a walk, which is something I would not like.

"Snide remarks about AF etc"

How snidey was the comment about "noisy neighbours"?I chuckle at any manager who puts down another team and then gets hammered by them...it's a two way street.I certainly don't resent the "big four" teams success either(except maybe Liverpool...),but like a lot of fans,I'm concerned that the financial clout of a few has reduced the EPL to a 4 horse race:If the top 4 were Fulham,Bolton,West Brom and Norwich due to finances,I'd still have the same concerns...

It was not your comment-sorry- an earlier one about the look on his face- can't be bothered looking for it.
I certainly agree about the 4 horse race, that why I said that I would not want to win the league by a huge margin. Too predicitable and not very interesting.

I just resent them full stop (regardless of success).

So because you made a few FA cup finals in the immediate years that makes you a bigger club? Sorry, but I don't buy that. Arsenal2011-11-11 20:54:32

Maybe I will learn to resent them- perhaps it is just the f**k-wick supports I resent.

And how, exactly, does this make Chelsea a bigger club?

By your twisted logic, someone that bought Newcastle tomorrow would be investing in a bigger club than Liverpool.

We both know that is a load of rubbish. Arsenal2011-11-12 22:59:47

Logic isn't your strong suit.

I've said that, comparing the time at which each was bought by a wealthy patron, Chelsea was a bigger club than Manchester City, due to the character of the last few seasons. So, by that logic: Newcastle's last few seasons of 18th, promotion, 12th, compared to Liverpool's 2nd, 7th, 6th, suggest that Liverpool is the bigger club.

For now.

I recommend sticking to ad hominem in the future. Just suggest that I'm something you're afraid of, like a homosexual, rather than fumbling around with an attempt at argument.

Keep the twisted logic coming.

I hope you paid Tegal for using his "by that logic" trope. If you ever get cut off from spamming other people's ideas, there won't be much to fall back on.

At risk of soliciting another ridiculous response, I really have no idea what you are talking about.

yea i didnt mean to imply that we were a bigger club overall, just that at the time of our respective takeovers i felt we were a better team than manchester city when taking into account previous years league finishes and general performance in other competitions.

City is a huge club - they have a real soul adn real fans who have lived in the shadow of very very rich neighbours for too long - in 99 we were 2 mins away from staying in the wilderness forever - and our New owners are happy to acknowledge the history of the club our past players and legends from every decade. The investment is huge - they are building a massive campus around the stadium and looking at building further capacity on the stadium - why wasn't it Liverpool, Everton or Blackpool ? who knows KARMA probably - but all City fans are happy to enjoy any success that our new owners bring - thank you for buying petrol and contributing to our funding!!! We've got a great manager a great team and play great football - whats not to enjoy? Joe Hart and Micah Richards cost GBP 600,000 between them  and most of our players have not won a lot of trophies so are hungry for success - like I said - enjoy

Playing sublime football. Making other teams look like division 2 !!!

I'm a neutral fan of the EPL - I watch it because its entertaining and exciting but I feel no emotional attachment to any particular team because I'm not from England, I have never been there, and I didn't get indoctrinated into supporting a team when I was a kid. I want to see teams shake things up a bit, and for that reason I like Man City until they become an established force. It's good to see a season that's not just a Man U-Arsenal-Chelsea 3way for once. In some ways its comparable to what Malaga are trying to do in Spain, although obviously La Liga is far more uneven. Still, the more potential title winning teams, the better the viewing for the neutral. Thats why the Bundesliga should be shown on Sky... wait, I'm drifting off topic here...

Plus Balotelli brings the LOLZ and Silva and Aguero have been racking up the points for my fantasy team. Man City FTW! And Spurs and Newcastle for CL places! And Swansea for the Europa League so England are represented in Europe by a Welsh team! Hold on, what was this post about again?