Overhead Analysis

I’ve had a real chip on my shoulder ever since the Abu Dhabi United Group arrived in Manchester to splash the cash around Eastland’s. I don’t know why but it really angered me that just because a large influx of cash was pumped into the club that they were being spoken about as the most likely to break into the top four and Manchester City officials were flying out to Saudi Arabia armed with ambitious documents about how everyone will be drinking Manchester city energy drinks in two years time.

Maybe the root of my irritation is more due to the fact that I had €20 on them to beat Stoke recently and then watched on in disbelief as they were not only beaten but couldn’t even carve a decent chance out against Stoke team reduced to ten men early in the game. Call me a cynic, call me an old boring bastard, but I for one was delighted when Kaka didn’t succumb to the truck loads of cash offered by the newly wealthy Manchester City. People told me he’ll definitely go, that it’s all about money these days and that no man could refuse a basic salary of £500,000 a week. So I found it refreshing that there is at least one player in the world with the integrity to say no to a transfer motivated only by money. Kaka showed a characteristic that appears to have deserted modern football... loyalty.

For the entire of last summer while a very exciting international tournament was progressing, the main headlines on the sports pages each day were dedicated to nonsense like “Ronaldo’s mother wants him to live in Spain”. Comments like this would be amplified in a flurry of rumours and it seemed inevitable that Christiano Ronaldo would turn his back on Old Trafford. In the end it didn’t materialise but throughout the ‘affair’ all it would have taken would’ve been Ronaldo to say a few simple words, “I'm happy in Manchester, I'm not going anywhere”... he never did.

Similar displays of disloyalty were displayed by Robinho in his transfer to Chelsea... eh I mean Man City. Robinho reportedly broke down in tears repeatedly in front of the Real president at the time, Ramón Calderón as he begged to be allowed leave the then Spanish champions and one of the most historical clubs in the world. He hoped to go to Chelsea, in the end it didn’t seem to matter to him which shade of blue he wore; his services went to the highest bidder.

This brings me back to Man City; along with the arrival of Robinho there was talk of breaking into the top four, league titles and Champions League campaigns. Man City fans rejoiced and fully believed that this was their break, that this could mean that they would finally no longer be the eternal bridesmaids to the red side of Manchester. However it hasn’t yet gone to script. Dumped out of both the Carling and FA cup they are currently mid table but still in the last 16 of the Uefa Cup. A key reason why things haven’t taken off as hoped is that when money has been invested before, like with Chelsea there was a better base of players there in the first place. At Manchester City they were looking to people like Darius Vassell to get their goals, the squad was desperately imbalanced and this was a club remember that not too long ago spent a season in the third tier of English football.

Robinho may have increased the profile of the club and made it a more desirable destination for other players but as wish-lists were being drawn up of players that will be bought fantasy football style, Cesc Fabregas summed it up best by dismissing a move to Manchester City by claiming “It would be career suicide”. David Villa, David Silva and Gianluigi Buffon obviously thought similarly and how could they think otherwise. Manchester City will definitely not be in next year’s Champions League and it’s very unlikely they will play in the competition in two years time.

Looking at who they did sign left-back Wayne Bridge was the club's first January signing, arriving from Chelsea for about £10m, quite a princely sum when you consider Wayne bridge became the best paid left full in the world after making the move. Craig Bellamy joined from West Ham for a fee believed to be worth £14m. Nigel De Jong joined shortly after with German media reporting that Mark Hughes's side may have paid as much as £18m to sign him even though the midfielder had a clause in his contract that would have allowed him to leave Hamburg in the summer for £1.8m.

The scene started to resemble a scenario I'm regularly faced with late on a Saturday night. There are ten minutes to go before the nightclub ends and the cream of the crop are either taken or have aggressively declared their lack of interest so the only alternative is to take whatever I can get or leave empty handed. This smash and grab approach (moving away from the analogy) is not going to work in the long run. Players like Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bridge definitely have talent but never seem consistent enough to cut it at big clubs. Also, despite spending a lot on transfers this season the squad still seems quite lightweight (Richard Dunne excluded) in defence.

It’s likely that City’s season will finish with a mediocre mid table position this year, but what will be more interesting than their form between now and May will be the calibre of players they bring in over the summer. It would seem a Uefa cup position would be the minimum they require if they are to attract the top tier talent over the summer. At the point of writing this it looks more likely that Robinho will leave the club rather than them being able to attract players of his calibre. To my eyes Manchester City have a stiff task ahead of them if they are to achieve the ambitious plans they have set for themselves.