Earlier this week an article was published on this site that caused quite a stir and a fair amount of anger on behalf of Manchester City fans. The gist was as follows: Manchester City have bought their way into the Champions League, rather than earned their position and as such that they weren’t worthy of taking part in European football’s most exciting venture. What follows is not an attempt to stoke the fire anymore, after all I’d estimate that around 90% of what is written about City is negative and I have no intention of falling in line in that respect.
The truth however, is that Manchester City’s spending is a contentious issue. It’s been frustrating as a football fan to see the game warp into something that is a business first and sport second. In a way football stopped being about the ‘game’ and started being about the money when the Premier League began in earnest and Sky started to get behind it. This permitted clubs to start paying bigger and bigger wages and began the age of exorbitant transfer fees.
In essence, to blame Manchester City for football’s current state of play is madness. Football was a commodity long before Sheikh Mansour began to pump his money into the club.
So should fans care if success is engineered only through the backing of a billionaire? Most fans, if asked, would probably confess that success and trophies no matter how this success is brought about is preferable to a lack of success. Having said this however, there are certain cases throughout footballing history where overspending has backfired in a big way.
Nobody attacked Portsmouth for winning the FA Cup in the 2007/8 season after Harry Redknapp spent big, but perhaps questions should have been asked as to how the club could afford to pay the wages of likes of Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe and Lassana Diarra. In the end the club went into administration in 2010 and are currently rebuilding having finished 16th in the Championship last season.
Then there’s Leeds financial implosion back in 2004, the result of a lot of a bad decisions. It’s clear that when handled badly an economical cavalier attitude can have disastrous consequences. To that extent the club in question has to be certain that their owner has only the best interests of the club in mind and won’t leave when the going gets tough. Clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City seem to have found owners that are committed to their cause and as such I’m sure that there are many opposition fans looking on with a certain degree of envy.
As for City’s spending, well they’re playing catch-up, so why shouldn’t they get the chance to splash some cash? The old top four (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool) did their spending over the course of numerous years and were able to do so on the back of their privileged position in the Premier League.
The payout for Premier League positions goes a long way towards facilitating big transfer fees and when you consider that Europe’s elite earned an average of 38.45m euros for reaching the knockout stages of the Champion’s League in previous seasons, it’s little wonder that the clubs in question where in a better position than City to build towards success.
Without this major cash injection how on earth were City supposed to come along and shake up the top four? City’s expenditure is not ‘cheating’ or ‘gluttonous’ or any other such term, it’s simply necessary to put them on an even keel with clubs like United and Chelsea.
Since not all clubs have as solid a base as a club like Arsenal, they have to appeal to big money moves, rather than relying on youth to find success. In many ways Sheikh Mansour is Manchester City’s winning lottery ticket. City fans won’t care that they’re ‘buying’ success, because at the moment, they’re too busy enjoying the ride.
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The jibe about City buying entrance to the CL….pathetic, as money is what got other clubs there too….City aren’t the first!
And as for the spending…we City supporters effin’ LOVE IT!! As would supporters of ANY other club would if in our position….and those that say they don’t are simply lying….
CTID
As you say football has been this way for years.
the top 4 have been monopolising the top of the league for years and the way i see it is man city have made everyone realise that you can no longer win the league without spending stupid money.
But ill tell you one thing and that is most city fans would welcome a wages and tranfer cap that was the same for every club right across the board so that every club had a fair crack of the whip.
Man city never ruined the league were just the first outsiders with the backing to compete.
Change the record, your boring.Not even an ounce of originality in the crap you have written. EVERYONE BUYS SUCCESS – END OFF. A MAN U, CHELSEA, EVERYONE. So if you don’t mind just fooking off please. Ta Ta
How do i feel about it?I LOVE it 😉
CTID
Thanks for trying to be objective, it makes a refreshing change rather than the usual bitter jealous bile we get.
How do i feel? I AM LOVING IT! Currently Manu and Liverpool have spend more this summer, we need to buy top players for the champions league, let the spending begin Mancini! Spend spend spendddddd
I love it. That said, there has been too much money in football for years, long before City’s owners appeared on the scene, but I’m not allowing City’s new found wealth to bother me. City have just taken it to a different level, and disrupted the cosy cartel that existed before. We have had to put up with a lot of jealous bile from other clubs and fans, but we’ll live with that. I believe we can go on from strength strength, although the EUFA Stop Manchester City AT All Costs Rules could prove problematic.
Absolutely fantastic and I fully support it, Manchester United and Real Madrid have been doing it for decades.
We will be spending less in the future because we intended to do so in the first place, not because of the FFP rules or because of Uefa.
WE ARE CITY, SUPER CITY FROM MANCHESTER
Fair play to you Harry. This is a much better balanced look at what`s going on with City in my opinion. As for how do I feel as a City supporter about our exhorbitant spending? Sorry mate, but top class players sell for anywhere from £20/25million upwards. We just pay the going rate created by others before us.
As you rightly allude to, these “elite” clubs set their own agenda and prices to keep the little man in his place whilst they all traded with each other, and looked to bully smaller clubs when a gem was unearthed. They simply don`t like it up em that now City have arrived with no respect for reputation, and can go toe to toe on every level.
Maybe all this bitterness directed towards City is as a result of City saying screw you lot and your games. We have our own agenda and it includes none of you. Start looking into that possibility, and I believe the truth will become more apparent…
Love it – we were the team who had our best players poached for so long. Wright-Phillips became a star for us and in came Chelsea, buying him for 21m, and we had to deal with it. Now we have money and are doing no different than dozens of teams before us have and are treated like we’re ruining the world.
After 35 years in the wilderness it’s absolutely fantastic! You and every other jealous supporter of every other club would love for your club to be linked the type of quality player that City are every day! Get over it. All the clubs at the top have bought their way there over the years. City have just done it in record time!
Love it Love it Love it! Long may it continue!
The author states he isn’t going to be negative then proceeds to be Negative.
First of all the spending is NOT Exorbitant. Compare with Real Madrid’s over the last two years (for example). City have had to play catch up with the old elite who got UEFA to bring in rules that prevent any team competing with them that doesn’t have Champions League money to back them up.
adly football has all been about money since the mid 80s. Money doesn’t guarantee success for sure but without it you don’t have a chance at competing. Sad – but very true. So I’m loving the spending. Sheikh Mansour is a star and I’d like to thank him for the Golden Ticket that gives us a chance to compete.
Easy answer to this i am loving it. We have barely won anything in my living memory so i am over the blue moon about it.
On a separate note it would be nice to have done it one home grown talent but that doesn’t happen. Once the League went into the Premier model it was inevitable that money was the driver and Blackburn went and won it and i don’t hear anyone moaning about that and i was quite impressed at the time. I feel that if we were owned by English people then there might be a different spin on this.
Having said this i am well impressed with the owners and their grasp on getting things in the community going i know there is a cynical motive behind this, but you don’t get a new academy and regenerated area for nothing.
Football is business, always has been, always will.
Every professional football club has an owner(s), how they finance their business is no different to any other sector of the capitalist economy.
Some owners are good business people (City), some are bad (Leeds and Portsmouth at time of freefall).
How you finance your business, and the risks you put on your business, is up to you as a business person, and should be nothing to do with the Footballl authorities.
If a business goes to the wall, too bad – same as a football club – there’s always someone will come in and buy up the failed business from the administrators – show me a club that has disappeared entirely this past fifty years.
We don’t need Fifa and uefa interference, indeed their FFP rules are designed to keep the European Elite in place as is, exactly the opposite of the stated aim of equality for all.
We’re not Communists, and football will never fall into that mindset – this is a doomed philosophy from the start.
As an aside, City are in the Champions League now, and the odds are that we will not be dislodged from the top table – thanks to Platini’s FFP rules applying too late to keep us out – own goal, City go through and stay through,
Cheers you crooked twats.
Arsenal’s success built on youth – what success? If they’d spent a bit on established players with a bit of steel to supplement the youth, they would have won a lot more. And let’s not pretend all these players were born in the shadow ofthe Emirates. Arsenal have plundered others’ youth teams for many years, using financial power and the fact that they can sign them younger than other clubs in Europe are allowed to.
As for FFP, it’ll now be in our favour as we made it in before the door shut, hence why we had to spend so much, so quickly. It’s still a disgraceful rule though, as it’s removed the dreams of many fans. If you don’t support one of Europe’s established big clubs, forget it, you’re not coming in. Not even if a lifelong season ticket holder discovers oil in his back garden, as UEFA doesn’t think it’s fair for them to spend every penny they earn on their club. It is fair, however, for clubs to charge £1000+ for a season ticket. Cheapest at Arsenal is now more than the most expensive (non-corporate) seat at United. That’s what’s not fair, pricing many fans out of the game, but UEFA seem oblivious to it.
Good article.