Must hurt then to see them bringing through world class superstars and United bring through Cleverley and Evans Its not 1993 anymore!!
Aye, but the stadium they are expanding and the new training facility is only going to put them on a par, facilities wise, with Arsenal. They aren't building a new facility which will surpass all others, all they are doing is what Utd did ten years ago with Carrington, and other clubs have done too. All their owners are doing is closing the gap in facilities and sustainable revenues with the big four, not putting City ahead at all. Do you not get the same feeling with FSG, Abramovich and the Glazers? The Glazers in particular could have tripled their initial investment and walked away when those Red Knights were involved, but stayed in and have pushed revenues higher and higher. City's owners may well want to build a super club, then then so did Malaga and Monaco's owners - didn't necessarily help them to succeed. It's hard to say any one club will definitely be up there in 20 years time, but I think Utd are in the strongest position. Success in football is all about the money, and particularly the revenue now FFP is here. Utd have a £100m revenue advantage over the others, which is likely to prove the decisive factor over the long term. Not necessarily in meaning we dominate, but in helping us to avoid prolonged periods of underperformance, like Liverpool since 2010, which will in turn help us avoid falling away too badly. As for Barca being the biggest club side, I think that is largely a result of two factors. The first is their success over the past decade or so. Which is a fair differentiator imo, after all Utd only became recognised as being decisively bigger than Liverpool after our twenty years of dominance. The other is the political nature of the club. They're almost the national side of Catalonia, which means more fans, bigger attendances, and generally a higher profile. Whether that makes them 'bigger' than Utd, Bayern or Milan is all a matter of opinion - people's view of the biggest club is invariably skewed by the position and record of their own club imo.
France may be but Scotland have really fallen behind. The national team and their clubs are really minnows now.
How are you defining biggest club? For worldwide fanbase the top five clubs are utd, barca, Madrid, Chelsea and arsenal. With Milan, Liverpool, bayern, inter and juventus rounding off the rest of the top ten. If we go by the value of the clubs then it's Madrid, barca, utd, bayern and arsenal in the top five. If we look at stadiums then barca and Madrid dwarf the others for capacity, with a few large Italian stadiums and several 60k+ German stadiums. With only utd, arsenal and Celtic in that bracket in the uk. Though to decide which is most modern, with the best facilities etc I expect would require a little more research! If your looking at recent trophy hauls then it'd got to be barca and bayern leading the way. If you look at which clubs have had an effect on the way football is played or dealt with in there countries you might look at teams like Ajax, barca (international team) arsenal (wengers new methods in the prem). If you look at historically which teams have won the most trophies then Madrid, barca, utd, Liverpool, bayern, Milan are all likely to be right up near the top. If you just go based on who is likely to get current success then you might have to consider psg and city in there somewhere. There are sooooo many different factors that could be used to determine which is the biggest club. I'm not sure you can pinpoint it down to just the one club as different clubs come out on top in different categories. It's obvious which the big teams are though.
They have had the Elite Developement Squad for 6 years now, have you seen any of their youth come through? Facilities do not make players, scouts, coaches and faith (giving them game time) do.
Probably 22 leagues (you have 20), 26 Cups (you have 11) and 15 European trophies (you have 5, Madrid 13, total includes 4 ECs while you have 3), has something to do with it. Even when they weren't dominating European football, they had Cruyff and were known around the world in the 70s. When United weren't dominating European football, they had Albiston and Remi Moses If Real had not hogged the best players and dominated Spanish football they would have won a European cups before 92 too.
All good points Swarbs and I agree that they are looking for parity at the moment, after reaching that point in a short period of time will they then take the next steps and push ahead? Only time will tell. It is all point of view and favouritism some will go Real, some you lot and maybe even Bayern. I imagine most Utd fans will choose their own club and so on with all the fans of Real, Bayern etc the neutrals will vary.
Of course but City have only been one of the top clubs for a short period of time and I wouldn't be so quick to dissmiss or let your rivalry cloud your judgement who knows they may start producing players in the years to come. I'm not saying they will but it's certainly a possibility.
The only way they can really take that next step and push ahead is to actually win major European trophies, and get to the final stages of the CL on a more regular basis. That's what's pushed Utd so far ahead, and pushed Chelsea ahead of Arsenal and Liverpool in recent years. City don't have the history, so they need the success, but with FFP restricting their spending it is going to be hard for them to push ahead of any of the other four. Personally I'd say Real are the biggest in the world, as they have the financial power, the fans, the success and the top players. After than, Barca, Bayern and Utd are the next three biggest, with the order up for (pointless) debate, after that take your pick from around five or ten other big and successful clubs from around Europe.
Ifs and buts. If not for 58 we might just be the 10 times european champions. I would also say 20 english league titles is a much better achievement than 30/40/50 la liga titles. They compare with spl titles as its almost always going to be real or barcelona.
On bigger stadiums, only dortmund get more fans in than us around europe. Bigger stadiums mean **** all if its half empty like the san siro.
Again I agree, this is an important period for City they have to keep winning and start to do well in Europe, FFP is a lot easier to stick with if there is income from winning the PL and doing well in the CL. This season will be a big test as you lot will no doubt improve and that just makes the top end all that more competitive.
Not really. United were dominating in the 90's by being the biggest fish and it's only really Chelsea and City's money that has levelled the field. United had it pretty easy until Roman came along and were guaranteed top 2 just like Real and Barca mostly are. For how big United say they are (especially the fans), they have very rarely attracted the best players in the world where as Barca have always done so. Why?
We dont lie to players and rely on our weather for players. Also latin players are pathetic in many cases. Rain ffs. Embarrassing stuff tbh. Theres also the small matter that we dont often go for superstars, or commit fraud to land incredibly **** brazilians (we just buy them legally). Man city and Chelsea sign better players than us. Hows that worked out for both clubs? Compare that with united...
Real and barceloma have been top 2 since la liga began. Which other league has a similar story? United have been on top since the early 90s. Before that liverpool but the title has gone to many many clubs. Doubt too many spanish sides have won it that are not called real or barcelona. If they have it wipl be a sole entry 90 years ago.
You maybe would have won one more, but Real, Barca and Benfica were good 58-mid 60s. Anyway, like you say, ifs and buts. Barcelona have three times the amount of European trophies that United have. And 26 Spanish Cups compared to United's 11 cups. And have been averaging 70k+ for several decades now, whereas United averaged 50k+ in the 60s/70s and 40k+ in the 80s and 90s until expansion. barca have 200,000 socios currently and had around 100k for decades
The spanish giants benefit from being the only 2 teams anyone in spain cares about. Again, its just the spl on steds. The spanish cup isnt a patch on the fa cup. Players move to england so they can play in the fa cup.
Well in the last 3 years, City have won 2 of the 3 titles and Chelsea have won the C.L, fa cup and Europa. Both have also qualified for the C.L every year.....so not bad at all thanks
