Squad for this Season: Strong Enough for the Title?

In 1976, Swedish pop group ABBA released a single called ‘Money, Money, Money’ which includes the lyrics, ‘All the things I could do / If I had a little money / It’s a rich man’s world’. 34 years later, these lyrics could be applied perfectly to encompass the situation in which Manchester City now find themselves.

The upper echelons of the Premier League are, in a sense, a touch like the luxury department store Harrods. The poverty-stricken clubs can admire and wonder at the resources and ability of the top clubs, just like the poor can dream of what might be, if they had the money to shop at Harrods.

For many years, City were one of these poverty-stricken clubs, languishing in the lower end of the Premier League, having had forays into the Championship, and even one unforgettable season in League One. The Blues have always been one of England’s great clubs, in terms of supporter numbers and loyalty, but the club never had the financial resources to compete at the level at which we now find ourselves.

However, that all changed with the arrival of Sheikh Mansour, and before him, former Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. Although much-maligned, the disgraced leader deserves credit for re-establishing the Blues as a major club. Despite his dubious past, I firmly believe that the current owners would not have invested in us without the prior involvement of Shinawatra.

With the money available to Roberto Mancini, the heirarchy surely expect great things this season, and City’s loyal supporters are equally optimistic. The media have spurted endless vitriol in our direction, mainly aimed at the vast quantities of money we have spent in order to establish ourselves among the leader players in the league. But it goes without saying that we needed to part with that cash so that we had an opportunity to break the comfort of the ‘top four’. Any club in our position, with our financial capability, would have done the same.

And that brings me back to my opening paragraph. ABBA’s song applies to our situation at the moment. Lacking the finances, City could never have even contemplated the Champions League, but with the backing of Sheikh Mansour, it just goes to achieve what can be accomplished with that all important ingredient: ‘Money, Money, Money’.