It shooked the footballing world and set the internet on fire. On of the biggest transfer stories of the generation. On deadline day of the summer of 2008, Manchester City secured the services of Robinho from Real Madrid, at the time a British transfer record. £32.5 Million. There was new boys on the block.
We all know what happened next, The Abu Dhabi United group threw millions of pounds into the bag and soon all the top players in the world were linked with an entry to the blue side of Manchester. Over £300 million has been spent bringing top name stars like Aguero, David Silva, Vincent Kompany and Carlos Tevez into the side and it led to the clubs first major trophy in 35 years. This year they top the Premier League table and look unstoppable, dismantling Manchester United and Tottenham away, currently at the time of writing unbeaten.
This begs the question, is a influx of cash the easiest way to guarentee success? Will all this money bring a bright future or is it the luck of the draw?
Many teams suggest so. Manchester City for one, but we’ll take a look at Crawley Town. The side secured promotion to league football for the first time in their history last year, winning the league by 15 points and only losing 3 games out of 46. A spectacular record. The reason they did this is quite simple, they were taken over by a group that promised to pump in £2 million to he club during the next 3 years. Now this may not sound like to lot considering the sums of money that rotate around football, but they spent wisely.
Securing the leagues top players as well as players from clubs in higher divisions and bringing them together to make a Blue Sqaure ‘super-team’. During th first season in control the new owner’s bought in 20 players. For this year in League 2 they offloaded 8 players and bought in 13, enough to create a whole new starting line up.
Their plan is working, they currently sit 2nd in the table and look on course to secure consecutive promotions. The money certainly is bringing success.
However, the biggest counter argument to this statement lies simply in 2 words. Real Madrid. The richest club in the world in terms of revenue, arguably the most famous club in the world. Looking back at previous record transfer and the club appears alot, while also currently being part of the biggest transfer in football history which is £80 million for Christiano Ronaldo.