Manchester City

This is something I started writing after the City Liverpool match. It’s not completed.

When I watched the match between Manchester city and Liverpool yesterday, I couldn’t help but admire Manchester City. With Sheikh Mansoor, the owner, watching Manchester City put on a convincing display against the most successful team in English football. The 3-0 victory could be considered an ample return for the 130 million investments the Sheikh has made.

I believe Manchester City can put up a serious challenge for this year’s English premier league. Yes, the victory came against a Liverpool team who are looking more and more mediocre as time passes, but the victory against a team still which is still considered one of the power houses of English football will give them a huge morale boost and will push their campaign forward. Liverpool doesn’t look like a team who can challenge for the title anymore. Only Gerrard, Kuyt and Torres looks like players who can mount a serious challenge. And with Torres out of touch and Mascherano leaving, I believe the same fate as last year for Liverpool, a sixth or seventh place finish.

Manchester City’s crazy buying (Which I think is the reason for the last rise in petrol prices) was criticized by many including Sir Alex Ferguson. They spent over 130 million pounds for bringing in new players this summer. When Chelsea did the same some 6-7 years ago, when the Russian oligarch came and invested a huge 91 million in a single transfer season, I was really furious and joined everyone in slamming the ‘money football’. But this time around, I don’t feel there is anything wrong with city spending this money. The reason for that the same reason for which I watch BPL, to see a really competitive league. The more clubs stepping up to the so called ‘top 4’ the more competition there will be in the league and the more we will be able to enjoy good football. That is what we all want in the end, right? Just because a spending like this hampers the chances of our favorite team winning trophies, we shouldn’t detest it right? I can see why the traditional fans (the people from England, who support their home town clubs) being furious about the spending, but us who are thousands of miles away from there and supports the team we support because that was the team who were winning everything when we started to watch the league (or in the case of some because, the team was very good to play in FIFA ’09) should be happy that the league is becoming more competitive.

One more reason why I don’t hate City’s buying spree is because of the players they bought. Except David Silva, no other players can be called as a real superstar, the kind of which Real Madrid buy. The players they bought are really good footballers, like Milner, Tevez and Barry who always seem to give a 100% to the cause of the team. They have bought only players they require, unlike Real Madrid, who usually just buys the costliest player in the world, irrespective of whether they need him or not.