So in the words of Sir Alex Ferguson the spending of Roberton Mancini's Manchester is 'kamikaze' and the wrong way to about achieving success.
This is coming from the man who has broken the British transfer record on several occasions and demanded that Real Msdrid must pay £80 million pounds for Christinao Ronaldo.
This is also the man who this week admitted he spent £7 million on an unknown Portuguese striker named 'Bebe' without seeing the player live or even watching footage of him. Now this could turn out to be a stroke of genius one day, should the player develop but there is a good chance this player could never represent Manchester United with Sir Alex in charge. If this isn't a 'kamikaze' move then what is?
Spending around £130 million on six players compared to Manchester United's modest £24 million on three is a huge difference. The reason of Sir Alex's modest transfer spending is 'there is no value in the transfer market anymore'. What Sir Alex Ferguson is doing is protecting Manchester United Football Club, something Roberto Mancini never has to worry about.
Lets look at Sir Alex's transfer record, in 2002 Rio Ferdinand cost Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United £30 million, at the time being a British transfer record and the most expensive price ever paid for a defender. Since 2002 Manchester United have won four Premiership Titles, one Champions League, one FA Cup and three League Cups. Ferdinand has played 221 times and has become captain of club and country, you could say that justifies 'value for money'.
Manchester United also paid out £25.6 million for Wayne Rooney in 2004 just two years after he made his Premiership debut for Everton at the age of 17 in 2002. Since 2002, Rooney has won the Premier League title three times, the 2007-08 and two league cups. He has also been awarded the PFA Players' Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year in 2009/10. With this deal United paid for potential, idenfiting Rooney as a future sstar knowing £25.6 million would be value for money.
Other notable successes in the transfer market include Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic who were signed for fee's under £10 million and become players up there with the best in their position. But Sir Alex Ferguson has not always got it spot on with transfers - just like Roberto Mancini wont and like Mark Hughes didn't. Kleberson and Eric Djemba-Djema are the two obvious transfer flops who come to mind but what about Juan Sebastian Veron (£28.1 million), Owen Hargreaves (£17 million), Fabien Barthez (£7.8 million) and most recently Dimitar Berbatov (intial fee of £23.4 million) who is yet to prove himself to be worth his inital fee.
If anyone can explain what value Manchester United got from buying Juan Sebastian Veron for £28 million only to sell him on for £13 million less to Chelsea two years later I'd be welcome to hear it. You could even argue buying Owen Hargreaves for a fee of £17 million in 2007 from Bayern Munich for Owen to play 26 games before becoming a regular customer for every knee specialisit across the world. That works out at £653,446 per game. Where is ther value in money in that I may ask.
There is no hidng that Manchester City has spent a huge amount of money in the transfer market this summer but what Fergie describes as 'kamikaze' buy may be switched on it's head and called a huge investment for the club in years to come. With Yaya Toure as an exception all Manchester City's signings this year are 24 years old or below. David Silva, 24 (£25 million app), James Milner, 24 (£24 million p/x Steven Ireland), Jermone Boateng, 21 (£12 million), Mario Balotelli, 20 £24 million) and Aleksandar Kolarov, 24 (£16 million) all have their best years ahead of them and will all feature in the Manchester City first team this season and the years to come.
Sir Alex Ferguson was blessed with the greatest generation of youngsters a team in England has ever seen and maybe only have been bettered in recent years by Barcelona. Ferguson had the right of youth and experience and assembled a team that every billionaire tychool could ever dreamt of. Just how much would Roy Keane and Peter Schmichel been worth in current climate of players? It is still impossible to put a price on players like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes who still feature for Manchester 12 years on from the famous treble winners at the peak of their powers. But what is forgotten is Sir Alex added and bought quality to that team, Dwight Yorke, Teddy Sheingham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were all bought to in join Andy Cole who once upon a time was a British record transfer of £7 million from Newcastle United.
Sir Alex has bought many youngsters under the age of 24 in attempts to build his squad. Christinao Ronaldo (£12 million - sold for £80 million), Nani (£17 million), Anderson (£20 million), Antonio Valenica (£16 million), Rafael and Fabio Silva (unkown price), Nemanja Vidic (£7 million), Wayne Rooney (£25.6 million), Rio Ferdinand (£30 million), Ben Foster (£1 million - sold to Birmingham for £6 million) and Patrice Evra (£7 million). This summer Sir Alex invested in Chris Smalling (£8 million) from Fulham who two seasons ago was playing non-league football and Javier Hernandez for £12 million. So with all of these players with their futures ahead of them at Manchester United what are Manchester City doing that Manchester United have not done in the past?
What Manchester City is trying to build is a legacy, a legacy that is bigger than the one created by Sir Alex Ferguson and the red side of Manchester. What we could be talking about in years to come is the technical qualities of David Silva, the determation of Nigel de Jong or the penalty save from England and Manchester number 1 Joe Hart or the skills of England's brighest prospect Adam Johnson. If City does win the title in the coming years as it seems they eventually will given the financial backing they have Sir Alex Ferguson could be foreced to eat his own words and watch 'kamikaze' transfer prices decide the Premiership title race.
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