Jul 18 2009
Manchester City…..The Spoilt Little Rich Kid of Football.
Just what the hell is going on in the blue half of Manchester? Trying to analyze their transfer policies is becoming increasingly pointless as there doesn’t seem to be an obvious strategy. One also has to wonder who is behind all the dealings. The manager? The chief-executive? The Abu-Dhabi family? Or a confusing combination of them?
Their latest capture is the £25million signing of Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal. Taken by itself it is probably a good signing. In the current financial climate for a striker capable of scoring 20-plus goals a season, the price is about right. However, when the signing follows those of Robinho, Bellamy, Tevez, and Santa-Cruz in the last 12 months adding to a squad already featuring Evans, Caicedo, Benjani and Bojinov…….then it seems a little unnecessary.
Clearly he is a good player, but he is a player with well documented attiude problems. Adding him to a squad with the powder-keg Bellamy, and the dummy-spitting Robinho and Mark Hughes would appear to be simply asking for trouble. How he expects to keep all the players happy is a big question.
The signing of Gareth Barry was a good one, and alongside Ireland, Wright-Phillips, De-Jong, Kompany, Petrov, Elano and Johnson there is plenty of options. However none of the players are at the level that City will be happy with for long. Having already bid for Kaka and Ronaldo in January, it is clear where their ambitions for their midfield lie. So how long before they are joined by another 5 or 6 world-class players all expecting to be in the starting line-up?
As an aquaintance of mine said, this is what would happen if someone who knows nothing about football was playing a management video game with the Infinite Money cheat. Simply buying the best player available and then the next and the next. While this will eventually work in a game, in reality people will soon start to get upset. Indeed if I were the likes of Bellamy, Santa-Cruz or Benjani, I’d be feeling a bit uneasy around now.
As I said in my title, City are starting to look like the rich kid who gets the latest toy, only to forget about it in a few months after a better and newer version comes out. They also have another trait found in the child who can get whatever they want. They can also get what other people want, just because then can.
Way back in August of last year, with Robinho signed and sealed on his way to Chelsea and Berbatov likewise to United. In swooped City and with just hours left before the transfer deadline, Robinho was a City player and Berbatov, clearly swayed by the money was still locked in talks till the 11th hour. Though Berbatov chose United, the intent was clear to see. City then spent the months leading up to the January transfer window attempting to unsettle player after player….Ronaldo, Gerrard, Torres, Drogba. This summer they picked up where they left off, Gazumping Liverpool bound Barry, poaching Tevez from rivals United, bidding again for Torres, relentlessly pursing Terry. Nearly every player approached by the big four so far has reportedly also been inquired about by City.
Their strategy appears to be to throw money at every big name available while simultaneously disrupting the summer spending plans of the Premiership top four.
To an extent this will work, but for how long? How long does Mark Hughes realistically have before he to will be replaced by bigger and better?
This frustrating thing is that if this season ends in failure for City, another £100million will be thrown at the project next season, and no lessons will be learned.
