Clearly one rule for Manchester City and one for everyone else
It’s not quite that straight forward, as ownership of young players tends to last 5 years, after which they could become free agents and get signed by one of the big boys.
You can also factor in salary caps which exist in the NBA, NFL, NHL and decent collective bargaining agreements for merchandise and TV deals which prevent teams in large markets having a HUGE advantage in terms of getting money through local fan bases. I’m sure some Premiership teams (including City) would love their own TV deals like Barcelona and Madrid to stretch the gap between rich and poor.
So do City fans care about how we go about our business now? Well I can’t speak for all of them of course, but almost everyone I know seems pretty comfortable with it all. Served our dues and all that. Thirty years, and not a sniff of a trophy (the scars of that 1986 Full Members Cup defeat still run deep).
Ideally I’d like to see City successful and loved, but then I’d like world peace, the end of all disease, beer running out my taps at home and an endless supply of ice cream, but it’s not going to happen.
The whole scenario is ridiculous, no doubt, and some City fans have become greedy about big signings. I saw a link to an article online the other day that said “City to bid £70m for Torres”, and I couldn’t even be bothered opening it. In the old days I used to scan 289 pages of Ceefax or ring up premium hotline numbers to catch an update on the possible loan signing of Egil Ostenstad. Sorry about that phone bill mum, I’d heard we were after Rob Hulse.
Then of course there is the media coverage. The Sun talks of how Toure will pocket £56m in wages from City. Obviously all these mercenaries coming to City don’t have to pay this thing called TAX, which the British government have set at a very fair rate of 50%. Obviously The Sun are aware of this thing called TAX, so are claiming that Toure’s wages before tax are £112m, or the equivalent of around £430,000 per week. He must have one hell of an agent.
Duncan White in the Telegraph said that City’s splurge is money bleeding out of the English game – this is a continuation of the ridiculous ill-thought comments that began two years previously with Mark Lawrenson saying that the money could be used to build hospitals and schools. Of course it suited White’s agenda to ignore our pursuit of Milner, and our previous acquisitions of Johnson, Barry, and Lescott. And Bellamy, and Adebayor. And Given and Toure. But more pertinently, it is not English money anyway, so how could he have a problem? We weren’t spending anything when we were previously skint, so either way the English game is not going to be reliant on City is it? And if it is, that’s a sad day. And if we buy £6 billion pounds of players from abroad, we would presumably have to sell some players – probably some to other English teams. It’s not rocket science is it?
As one agent commented, other clubs are waiting for each City transfer to occur. They create a ripple effect, and their money feeds right through the football system.
And not just from transfer activities. Ask the school in New York transformed by the rooftop pitch, or Hyde United, whose future has been secured by City (though some Hyde fans are still not happy, probably due to the kit colour changing from red!). Ask the taxman how many hundreds of millions will be pumped into the British economy, ask the local community in Beswick about the £1 billion project for the area around the ground. Whatever the right and wrongs, the season ahead should be an absolute cracker. I can’t wait.
Written By Howard Hockin
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Brilliant , all the good points in one place .
Bloody well written .
Cheers
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Best article i’ve read in yonks.
I’m sure the vast majority of City fans can relate to this,
Brilliantly written.
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Good article, a bit long but some great points.
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holy arseholes thats some lengthy blog,but pretty damn true and well put across,i quite enjoy being part of something hated it beats sympathy anyday.
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Other fans started hating us the day we were taken over. Their hate reflects badly on them not us. It shows them to be churlish, envious and reactionary. They’d prefer the rags and Chelsea kept winning the trophies for the next years doing exactly what we’re doing – throwing money at it. Sod them they can weep into their bitter and twisted replica shirts every time we win a trophy (if should a thing should happen)…
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Couldn’t access the third page, but still the most comprehensive demolition of City’s critics I’ve yet seen. Take a bow, son!
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Fantastic article that blue, I have been saying much of the same things myself to those who criticise City as killing football, but never that well put across, fantastic article take a bow.
I just hope one or two fans of other clubs actually read it, like you stated I couldn’t care less what they think, but there is not a thing in there that can be argued with or denied.
5 stars and a High Five from this blue
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Best rebuttal of the hate, bitterness, jealousy and downright misconceptions that surrond our club at the moment that I’ve yet seen.
Get the author a beer keg to hook up to his taps, he deserves it!
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Thanks for comments. Change 3 in web address for page 3 from 3 to 03 to see last page!(ie add zero)
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I am an Arsenal fan and I do agree with some of what you say. City have not set a new trend. Chelsea were already doing it and before them Madrid. I however was not happy with, what i consider to be, the influence they had on the global market and similarly I am not happy with how city are going about things. I do not begrudge you pushing the boat out a bit with the financial back up you have but beyond a certain level it becomes distasteful. I agree that you are now in a position where you do not have to slowly build over many years but I think a 3-5yr plan to be regularly in the top 4 and challenging for top honours is not unreasonable. The transfer fees and wages you are paying are abhorrent, (even though, before you say it, hypocritically we benefited with Toure and the other charming chap from Togo). I believe that City now, but also still Chelsea and Madrid, dictate the wages and transfer market from the top down and the amounts these 3 pay in transfers and more particularly wages has a knock on, domino type effect down through the league so that all players wages are elevated. If Gareth Barry is paid what he is what does that make Fabregas and Van-Persie worth? Much more than we (or most other clubs) could afford even though we have a healthy turnover and profit. I believe all other clubs then are paying higher wages than they want or can afford due to the dictation of players wages from the 3-4 clubs that don’t have to operate within a normal business model. When a club goes into administration it is normally because their wage bill and money spent on transfers is unsustainable. if all clubs were operating more or less within a normal business framework then the transfer market and players wages would stabilise to a normal level so, even though you are not the first to act this way, I believe that this mode of operating is an enemy to football as a whole and I always feel that when a club is going to the wall that it can be traced back to the 3-4 clubs that are distorting the financial situation in football.
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