Buying success?

[coleridge]

Yep, you're right about Pallister I'm pretty sure.

The reason I remember the £13m is that at the following home game, the bloke behind me in the Main Stand said to his mate at kick off:

"Pitch looks nice today John". John replied "Well it should do, it had £13 million's worth of shit on it last week"

I've never forgotten it.

While it might not sound a lot of money in football terms now to some people, £13 million back in the pre-Sky, pre-commercialised days of 1989 was a hell of a lot of cash especially when you consider that at the same time United was almost sold to Michael Knighton for £20 million.

The thing that makes me laugh about some of their fans is that they try to peddle the myth that United have only ever spent self-generated cash. This is simply not true - while it may have been the case since the early 1990's, Ferguson's £13 million spending spree in 1988 and 1989 far outweighed what the club was generating, and as a result it plunged them millions of pounds into debt.

As I remember it, Martin Edwards was trying to buy short term success based on loaned money so that he could maximise the public flotation, allowing him to then spend more time in the ladies' loos [allegedly].

 

[r.soleofsalford]

since jimmy hill in 60's got rid of the minnimum wage,
i would say the biggest payers of transfers and wages have generally won most things give or take the odd blip, especially in the last 20 years this has been the case.
its nothing new, they are just jealous its now our turn to have a go

very true, the days of ipswich town, derby county, and teams of there ilk, actually winning the premier league in english football is nothing more than a distant memory.

 

[BLOOMUEN]

It is an interesting statistic but what do you think it tells us, PB?

'Not trying to be facetious, I was just a little unclear what your point was:


That it is the journey to success that costs the most, and that Rags, Dippers and to a lesser extent Gooners have really been maintaining, rather than establishing, success?

Or that throwing £10million per season at it doesn't even make a ripple?

I was trying to say that simply throwing money at players doesn't guarantee success. It's how well you use it that makes the difference, both in terms of who you buy and how you put the team together.

Thanks for clarification. BTW I obviously meant Chelsea in the bit about maintaining success!

 

[nijinskybell]

Slightly at a tangent but does anyone know what the deal was with utd and the FA when they hosted England games? How much did Utd make from those games?

 

[M18CTID]

While it might not sound a lot of money in football terms now to some people, £13 million back in the pre-Sky, pre-commercialised days of 1989 was a hell of a lot of cash especially when you consider that at the same time United was almost sold to Michael Knighton for £20 million.

The thing that makes me laugh about some of their fans is that they try to peddle the myth that United have only ever spent self-generated cash. This is simply not true - while it may have been the case since the early 1990's, Ferguson's £13 million spending spree in 1988 and 1989 far outweighed what the club was generating, and as a result it plunged them millions of pounds into debt.

As I remember it, Martin Edwards was trying to buy short term success based on loaned money so that he could maximise the public flotation, allowing him to then spend more time in the ladies' loos [allegedly].

Wasn't that Bryan Robson? ;)

But yes, although I don't remember the reasons behind the spending spree myself (I just assumed it was done to try and get them challenging Liverpool at the top of the table), what you say about the loaned money just blows the self-generated cash argument out of the water.

 

[Skashion]

We've spent the last one and a half years being told you can't buy success, history, class, a team etc.; FACT. Therefore, if we start getting some success, we've got to have earned it. :)

 

[BLOOMUEN]

One of the things that consistently pisses me off at the moment is the notion that in football there are different types of money:

Good Money:

MUFC - ripping off their own fans and prostituting themselves all over the world - even pulling out of the FA cup when it suited?

Arsenal - choosing to invest in their youth system, infra structure, 60K seater stadium and facilities to ensure a healthy and sustainable future. Also creaming off the best young talent in Europe etc...

Liverpool - benefiting from being part of the cosy, self-perpetuating monopoly of the four English champions' League clubs.

Bad Money

Any club that dares to try to break that monopoly, and for reasons already outlined within this thread, that can only reasonably happen following an initial period of heavy investment.

Fortune has smiled upon us and for that I am grateful. However, City, do have history and are, by any yardstick, a big club. So for any 'big club' currently excluded from the cosy cartel, there no longer exists another means by which they can have genuine pretentions of success. David Moyes has done a fantastic job but Everton are now light years behind us. For me, the real fortunate ones were the clubs who were experience their purple patch when the real brass came into the game. After nearly 30 years without a title, the rags turned the corner just when it mattered. Fifteen years before that it might have been Villa or Forest that would have benefitted. Go back another decade and we'd have been in there, anyway!

Whilst I recognise our good fortune, I feel no guilt and will enjoy our period in the sunshine. My first year as a season ticket holder was the year after we last won a trophy, so like many City fans, I've put my time in! Whilst I couldn't give a stuff about the Sky 4, I genuinely would still welcome a means by which the clubs below us (Villa, Everton, Spurs etc) could also aspire to winning things again, but I suspect that the concept of real fair play is so much more complex than Platini has people believe and not just about protecting Europe's traditional elite.

Rant over!