It is very selective in favour of United. However even in that period we only brought in a few for over £25m and I think we can all agree most were well worth it - Dzeko, Aguero, Tevez possibly and Milner, and fernandinho.
We also signed some of this clubs best every players in that period and after the takeover, for under the figure they mention, such as David Silva and Yaya.
In fact you could easily argue that some of our poorer signing were the cheaper ones, and we should in fact have invested more rather than settle for economic options. At the end of the day the fee doesn't dictate a players ability in every case, but it does give an indication of how they are valued by the market.
In this very selective period both Manchester teams won the league twice. However, how many of each squad was still there five years later? By which time city has won another two league titles and countless cups, compared to a relatively barren period for United.
Silva was still here, Aguero, Yaya, fernandinho, Vinny if we're allowed to include such a 'cheap' signing. For United it's pitiful and shows how short termist their thinking was in recovering from the departure of the bacon faced one. Not bad players so much, just bad strategy. Berbarov, Tosic, Obertan, Bebe, Van Persie, Zaha
The only players still there at the start of this season were De Gea, out on loan Smalling and the face. All of whom are cited as being not good enough anymore, in contrast to our lot who are very much at the core of the team.
Then we get on to the current financial health of both clubs. One is very self sufficient and turning a profit despite investing continually and seeing that return success on the field. The other is something like $700m in debt and chasing the rainbow, turning corners every five games and again talking about investing record amounts to get back on top and end years of no notable success.
I think if the author of the article asked who had invested better, then the answer is obvious. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
Bless you if you read through all of that. Evidently it is much easier for the MEN author to just write an article about how city bought success so nobody else ever had a chance.