Great MEN Article to Shut up all the Rags

SrilankanBlue said:
Brilliant from Brennan, have to say he's doing a mighty fine job of fighting our corner

Comment: Shrewd City's eye for value showing United up


When you look at the two line-ups in Tueday’s one-sided derby, it is clear the Reds have been spending their way to mediocrity – their starting XI at Old Trafford cost £181m, and a superior City team cost £168m.

Well, at least United fans can console themselves that they haven’t bought their way to success, eh?

Indeed, when you look at the two line-ups in Tueday’s one-sided derby, it is clear the Reds have been spending their way to mediocrity – their starting XI at Old Trafford cost £181m, and a superior City team cost £168m.

There are some staggering statistics which suggest that when it comes to Sir Alex Ferguson’s old mantra of ‘value for money’, City have been streets ahead of United in recent years.

Rio Ferdinand cost almost half as much again as the entire Blues defence, including Joe Hart. Marouane Fellaini cost more than Yaya Toure, David Silva and Samir Nasri, who weaved such elegant patterns around the floundering Belgian.

Juan Mata’s £37m fee overshadows the £30m City shelled out for the outstanding Fernandinho – a fee which some dismissed as over-priced at the time. No longer – the Brazilian has been a huge factor in taking City to the next level.

The Blues have been accused of ruining football, yet the evidence against United is there for all to see.

Spending record amounts on players is what inflates the transfer market, and United’s team on Tuesday included players who represent English record fees for a goalkeeper, defender and teenager. Even more daunting for the Reds is the amount of investment in players they need to achieve parity with a City team which will strengthen again this summer.



They might also consider that the Sheikh’s broad-based investment means City’s superiority goes much deeper than the first team.

The Blues are also better at every level below the first team – and that is acknowledged by Reds coach Phil Neville and their striker Robin van Persie, whose own sons are in the Blues academy.

Of course, youth development is an uncertain area, but there are far more prospects in the City set-up – both English and foreign – than there are at Carrington.

The money ploughed into developing the academy and its facilities, which will blossom into the crowning achievement of the Etihad Campus next year, is likely to be Sheikh Mansour’s greatest legacy to City, to Manchester and to English football.

Anyone who thinks that is over-blowing the facts should know that the Blues’ academy is largely stocked by local boys.

The flippant accusation levelled at City since Sheikh Mansour’s take-over is that their rise is somehow artificial, buoyed up by unearned money, and that it is all a little tasteless.

It is utter bunkum, of course. The investment from Abu Dhabi has been a good one – the motive was to boost the name of the emirate, and its state airline Etihad, and the association with City has done just that.

Etihad’s profits have surged since 2008, and the association with this classy City team enhances the airline’s reputation, while Abu Dhabi is now on the map as a tourist destination – something in which City have also played a big part. It is laughable United fans criticise a major investment by City’s owners which has been hugely beneficial to both parties, while the Reds’ owners have plunged their club into debt.

It is even dafter that Uefa thinks Sheikh Mansour’s investment, a huge boost to football and the community in Manchester, needs investigating under the Fair Play system, while the plunder of United is not.

Of course it is dangerous to dismiss United – they remain a great club with a big global standing. But it is City who are setting the pace in

Manchester now, and the Reds are limping along in their wake.
Click to expand...

Thats the best thing about the truth !! it cant be questioned..
 
Fair does Stuart, I've been critical of you and more especially the MEN in the past for knocking City
and not giving United the same treatment but that was an excellent article.
Interesting that Sky made the same comparison about the starting 11s.
Are we just starting to be accepted as being a "normal" big club again and not "money bags City"
by the media?
 
I've lost count the number of times I've had to state these facts to Talk Sport spewing red muppets in the last year or so, but there it is, spelled out, in the usually Red- centric MEN, at a time when the once papered over cracks in Fergie's team, are now gaping chasms of biblical proportions, the fans are revolting, quite literally! The once stoic mask, repeating the Mantra of give the manager time a la Fergie, has dropped, nay, been ripped off, thrown out of the pram, stamped on and been spat on! The brats aren't happy! they want their success back! they don't share! especially with City fans!!! It's so unfair!!!!!
Our initially derided "holistic" approach is making steady progress, the new Academy will be the talk of the town, and the women's team is set to do the same, the stadium is going to be expanded, and our manager is a gentleman and a scholar, if we can just cap the season off with another title, it will be fantastic, if not we can regroup, strengthen, and come back next year......
 
Fantastic article but then again they always are from him, its the scouse knob head that wound me up.
 
Brennan is awesome. I didn't think anyone in the media had the balls to point that out. It's much easier to just pile on "money City" and the "oil sheikh".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
✖
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.