Yes we were. Our owners changed the whole footballing business model and pretty much all of our signings at the time mentioned being convinced by the scale of the ‘project’. Just the size and ambition of the investment in East Manchester was enough for anybody to be convinced of their intentions; the argument about Mansour upping sticks when he gets bored was just a lazy acusation made by rival fans (supported by some elements in the media)
Perhaps it’s easy for you to see why VVD would prefer Liverpool but I don’t agree at all. I’d be shocked if talented players were overly concerned about the possibility of spending large amounts of time on the bench. If that’s the case here then maybe it’s in city’s best interest he signs for Liverpool.
I never said he would prefer Liverpool over us, what I said is that I can imagine a situation whereby guaranteed game time & a determination to honour the agreement he made with Liverpool might keep him on course for Anfield.
Everything you've said about City proves my point exactly.
Did we buy a new stadium? Did we have CFA? Did we have a high financial turnover? Did we have world class players? Did we have major sponsorship? Did we have CFG? We had none of these things in 2008 & it was all talk until we proved ourselves.
In fact at the time, we had something akin to what Frank gave us, before it came to light that his finances had been frozen by the Thai authorities.
Even Kaka recently explained he didn't want to take a risk with his career by coming here because we were an unknown quantity with a relatively shit squad.
How many players gave interviews about City throwing money about not giving us class or history, before they rocked up to chew on our fatted calf? Remember Clichy's interview? Nasri's interview? Terry's interview (albeit he ultimately used City to get a better deal from Chelsea)? Even Kolo Toure accidentally called us Money City in his interview just after signing for us!
We had to prove our new owner wasn't just some fly by night with big words, but prove it we have. Nothing we have in place now, was there in 2008/09 apart from vast sums of money, but who doubts Manchester City Football Club now?
In terms of players choosing us over any other team; when did we begin to sound so Raggish? Think about what you've been posting & think back to what the Sky 4 clubs & their fans said about City back then & ask yourself what is so different to the words you've just typed & what the all said about us 8-9 years ago?
