its good to hear a proper opinion. most of what i hear is just how amazing it is all gonna be as city rule the world. some city fans dont seem to realise that all these players will NOT settle. if they all settled together and all proved to be good signings then someone would have blessed them with a magic spell or something because some of these big signings WILL be flops.

10 years ago we were getting beat by Stockport at home in the league. We had to walk back through the back streets of Moss Side to get away from the ground, and we had Barry Conlon up front. We would wait for the cup draws in the hope we would draw a big team away so we could get to a decent ground. 8 years later we had a new stadium and had some how managed to get in the Premier, and hoped to finish in the top half, and maybe hope to go on a bit of a cup run.

Now we are the richest club in the world, and have a realistic chance of soon winning the league and a few trophies. my season ticket stands at £420, which I consider to be excellent value. I am not paying the players wages or transfer fees someone else is. We have a great stadium, and the area all around it is being developed by the new owners. People are moaning at the money we are spending, yet no one seemed to moan when the skint mob broke the transfer fee for Robson Cole Veron Ferdinand and payed fortunes for an 18 year old.

Moss Side - Barry Conlon - Autoglass trophy - Macclesfield or Eastlands (soon to be the Las Vegas of the north) - Carlos Tevez - European cup - Real Madrid its a fkin tough choice.

All those City fans became all bitter and twisted for years about Utd buying the league.........

And now they have the money it's "oh we deserve to win it because we have won feck all for 36 years"

Biggest hypocrites around.

cgull

Of course, and I don't blame United or City for taking that approach. For several reasons, football changed in the late 90's and the only approach, imo, that would lead to success is spending big.

Wenger has done an amazing job, but fallen short. Everyone else has been spending, because it's what football demands.

So yes, SAF would happily have spent the money, and the majority of fans would enjoy it. But many of us at the ground, whilst enjoying seeing a team of stars, didn't forget what was happening and I'm sure City have supporters who feel the same, beneath the enjoyment of challenging again.

The real shame for me is that football just seemed to be hitting the ceiling; wages were reducing, albeit still at scandalous levels, and clubs were managing their finances a lot more carefully. City's financial invasion has put paid to any hope of that lasting!

Don't get me wrong, it had improved about 1%! But we did seem to be hitting a point where levels of spending were unsustainable and, as such, being lowered somewhat.

Add Chelsea to that, and you have 3 of the 4 biggest spenders in the prem reducing their spend considerably - this has a knock on effect.

I didn't say it was a complete reversal, but there's no doubt that Chelsea have spent less than when the Russian arrived.

Fair point.

But I guess market forces are wider than just football as an industry, with owners restricted to spend if their private enterprises are experiencing a downturn.

City's owners are unrelated to market forces, to an extent.

The only thing city are destoying is the sky 4 cartel! Anyone with a brain
can see the only way to compete had to be to take this approach.So stop
being bitter and deal with it.Football changed a long time ago so why should
city feel guilty after what we have been through.

The only drivel is the opening post and while some people do post reasonable ,balanced comments
regarding football finance there are a lot of jealous,bitter people out there.My comments are
aimed at them and not necesarily every contributor on this thread !
I just do not remember such rabid derision when chelsea and united were breaking transfer
records.
I suppose it is much better to be talked about and be the main story in football today than be
an also ran.