City excess

London’s financial hub is not the only ‘City’ whose excess is currently upsetting the masses.

It seems that since Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan took majority control of Manchester City, people have been getting in a tizz. Apparently their obscene spending is ruining the game.

For sure City has been paying premiums for players, £22m for Joleon Lescott for example. The funny thing is people were congratulating David Moyes, Everton manager, on his stand against City when the offer was £20m. What principle? The bid was raised by an extra £2m and Lescott was gone with Moyes looking at bringing in 3 new recruits, including the captain of financially struggling Portsmouth. Everton simply milked more money out of the City owners as is their right but let’s hold back on the drama.

It’s not only the little guy who is getting upset though, I was particularly impressed by the chutzpah of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich who came out during the week in support of a UEFA floated idea to cap the amount clubs can spend.

Abramovich is known as one of the infamous Russian Oligarch’s who was friends with the right people at the right time when the countries public assets were being handed over to mates of the system. He then introduced himself to the west by buying Chelsea FC in 2003 and spent huge money buying up great talents for the team’s bench. If you told a driver the amount of salaries players were now demanding they would probably crash their car, just ask as Ashley Cole.

In reality Chelsea were not one of the ‘great’ clubs before 2003, but they somehow got acceptance to the fiefdom and want to shut the door behind them as they take their seat. Another owner making noises about spending levels is our friend Silvio Berlusconi at AC Milan. It seems it no longer suits him to flex his financial muscle either.

The foundations for the excess in football were set many years ago. Big clubs across Europe, such as Real Madrid would spend their substantial money to have brilliant players on their benches just so other clubs could not have their services.

City is playing the money game when the fiefdom is struggling financially, why is it not their right?