United have spent about £1BN in the same period and look at them.....they’ve got 2 academy players as their current first choice strikers ffs. I went to watch my shower at Lincoln recently and we had 8 players in the starting XI that cost £25m or more. It’s all mental, but I think from a business and football perspective, what City have done is just ****ing smart tbh.
As for Utd And yes the money is crazy, all round. I'm all for players getting a fair slice of the pie and Wenger was a big advocate of players getting better wages, but seriously when you have players on £500k per week, it's all gone ****ing nuts. City, have matched that investment with on field success and they've ploughed money into their training and academy too, so it's ensured some longevity for them as a club. But you can't escape the fact that they were a yo-yo club before the Sheikh came along and their success hasn't been earned so much as bought.
Sure, they bought their seat at the top table, but don’t forget that until Chelsea crashed the party, the ‘Sky 4’ had years of a virtual closed shop due to their CL revenue which was much more meaningful in those days, and ensured the rest couldn’t compete on an equal footing. City were an established PL club for 6 years before Mansour arrived btw mate.
It’s easy to say they’ve done well in the transfer market when they have Pep as a manager on the crest of a wave. Bravo £27m Mendy £50m Otamendi £30m Stones £50m Mangala £30m Danilo £36m Fernando £? Bony £30m R Santa Cruz Tevez (In the end) Javi Garcia Jack Rodwell The Sheikhs have overseen some appalling football business with and before Pep.
I had to look it up, but it was apparently David Mills, who moved a month or so before Francis for £500k. So they doubled it.
I’m no fan of City and their approach. Like Chelsea before them, they simply bought up young talent and let them sit on the bench or loaned them out. Same with their academy players. Chelsea at least have now been forced to play their youngsters due to the transfer ban
A few of those are subjective. Mendy has had terrible luck with injuries, Otamendi and Stones are still first teamers. Mangala was mince I’ll give you that one.
You can argue that the CL money was reward for on field success though. Those clubs got their place in the CL by virtue of finishing in the top 4. As for City, yes they were a PL club before the Sheikh rocked up, but where were they finishing before the ££££ got pumped in ?
I sat with a City fan watching their match yesterday and most of those names come out of his mouth. Otamendi is dirt to City fans.
It was a reward for having more dosh than the rest of the league and being able to spend accordingly, dosh that came from the CL. Which is why the CL was seen as the zenith for years, as it ensured Sky 4 remained in situ year after year. The domestic TV deal rocketing saw it become less important, but it was crucial back then.
Shinawatra was semi-doping them before The Sheikh arrived. Players like Kompany, Elano, SWP... some good some ****e. Without 3rd party investment they’d be the same small turd they always were. There’s no chance the Sheikh would have even looked at them if it wasn’t for us being in the same city.
Arsenal spent £4m on Vieira, £3m on Ljungberg, £5m on Overmars and £500k on Anelka. We didn't establish ourselves at CL regulars because of having more dosh than other clubs. We did it down to the brilliance of Wenger. So any revenue gained from our CL participation was very much earned.
Luis Figo 40m could be deemed as the start of inflated prices but two years after his we had Rio Ferdinand for an Incredible 30m fee. Bryan Robson, West Brom too Utd was a record fee at the time and Trevor Francis has Already been mentioned. The start was a progression of the game,, players had started to be paid more agents started demanding more which then leads to the money being pumped into the game, I fully agree that the players are paid far to much and this should be capped, another poster has banged on about having locals in the team, years ago when the working mans game was just that the players had to work in the area of the team which they played for and couldn't earn much more than the lads they worked with. Jimmy Greeves didn't wish to be the first 100,000 player so had a penny knocked off. So who and where did the inflation start? a long time before Chelsea And City went knocking on the door i'd suggest. Sorry for the scatter gun approach
