It'd be perfect for us in terms of development as a team if one kept up and the rest fell away. Just enough competition domestically to keep us sharp while being able to focus more on Europe. Not that surprised if Chelsea drop off, they've only finished in the top 2 twice in the last 5 years. Another thing effecting Chelsea's spending that people are missing out on is the cost of their new stadium, I've a feeling with Abramovich's personal finances taking a dive in the last few years he expects the club to fund the development themselves which will hurt them in the transfer market for the next few seasons at least.
I see what you're saying. It is a kind of ideal, but I take more satisfaction from the tougher leagues. The PL still feels very competitive at the top, but it's true that without FFP we would only need one or two more windows like this summer's to make it very hard for the teams around us to catch up. A kind of Real Madrid type scenario for the PL, which I reckon is privately what Mansour wants.
Does anybody else NOT want us to steamroller the PL every season? Set a few records yes, do a double or treble, win the PL three times in a row yes (well 4 to set a new record) but not win it every single year and not have it done by April each time - I don't want the PL to turn into a one horse race like Scotland or a lesser extent Germany - we need other sides to like Chelsea, Arsenal & Liverpool to make a fist of it (Man U can fuck off however)
Good post and a fair summation I think of the choices the 'other three' face in terms of how to compete with City.
My own opinion is that Abramovich decided long ago he wasn't going to compete. Hence the biggest transfer fee they've paid post Torres is 32 million pounds for Costa/Hazard. This is a very different model from the one he used when he came in and is much closer to the Arsenal one. It's interesting for me because if Chelsea/Arsenal do continue to be content with a top 4 finish each year without there being an enormous pressure to deliver trophies we could end up in a situation where City dominate the league for the foreseeable future.
In a way that'd be a shame. Winning a competitive league is far more satisfying that winning a two team one. I'm not saying it's currently uncompetitive BTW, just that if the trends continue I can see us being miles ahead of the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal in five years time.
NO. I want to win it every year, I really couldn't give a flying fuck about Chelsea, united, arseanal, liverpool or competion , I want to win the quadruple every year and keep on winning it playing great football ,I want to go on holiday in spain and instead of messi shirts everywhere I want one of our hero's on their backs. I want a trophy room the size of old Trafford, in fact I want sheik Mansour to buy old Trafford and make it our trophy room with Ferguson as the caretaker polishing our cups ,I want the world.