You'll never win the title with quids: City beware, history shows big spending doesn't guarantee success
Published 23:00 27/07/10 By David Anderson
Roberto Mancini claims Manchester City’s rivals are frightened by their transfer splurge this summer.
But it is the Italian who should be worried judging by the fate of the Premier League’s previous big spenders.
In the 18 seasons of the Premier League, the club which has spent most have only been crowned champions on five occasions.
Newcastle, Leeds and Liverpool have all splashed the cash over the years in their attempts to win the title and all have failed.
Even Fergie has seen that riches do not guarantee success and Manchester United trailed in third in 2002, despite spending £57million that season on the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Juan Veron.
City already have two failed campaigns behind them and they limped in 10th in 2009, despite spending £113million on the likes of the British transfer record signing Robinho.
They topped that last season as Mancini and Mark Hughes spent a staggering £124million - the most in a Premier League campaign - to finish fifth.
The Blues have spent more than their rivals combined this summer and are set to smash the £100million barrier again, having already rung up £77million on David Silva, Jerome Boateng, Yaya Toure and Aleksandar Kolarov.
Phil Thompson was Gerard Houllier’s No 2 at Anfield when he forked out £36.3million on the likes of Didi Hamann and Emile Heskey only to finish fourth in 2000 and claims money does not guarantee the title.
“By spending money, what you are doing is improving your chances and by bringing in better players, you are making your team better,” he said.
“But it does not guarantee you success and things can go wrong.
“Even Manchester United have found that out and they spent a record £28million on Juan Veron in 2001, but still didn’t win the title.
“You look at the players City are spending all this money on and, yes, they are good players, but are they great players?
“I know he wants Fernando Torres, but I look at Yaya Toure, David Silva and Jerome Boateng and for me they are not world-class players, yet he has spent world-class money on them.”
Thomo claims buying players is the easy part and that making them into a team is much more difficult.
Houllier needed 12 months to bed his new signings in and his investment came good in 2001 when they won the treble of FA Cup, UEFA Cup and League Cup.
“You can spend all the money you like on new players, but you’ve still got to mould them into a team,” he said.
“City haven’t quite managed that yet and the turnover in players there has been incredible. For all of the transfer windows over the last two years,
it has been the same story of players coming in on big money and others going out.
“It’s hard to build a cohesive team against such a backdrop of change. All these new players coming in also causes unrest among the ones already there and egos get bruised if players are not playing as much as they would like to.
“Spending big money also brings more pressure and with everything City have spent this summer, I expect them to be challenging for the title.
“Nothing less will do after what they have spent, but, money doesn’t guarantee you success.”
Danny Mills was at Leeds when Peter Ridsdale tried to live the dream a decade ago and saw Sheikh Mansour arrive at Eastlands and says the secret is to buy players who will work together.
“You can buy all the players you want, but if you’re not careful, you end up with a team of big egos,” he said.
“When you have a bottomless pit, like Mancini has at City, the temptation is there to buy every world-class player you can get. The bottom line is you’ve got to build a team you gel together.
“I remember at Leeds, they tried to buy the best player they could for every position, but that does not always make the best team.
“Sometimes you need a few lesser lights, who understand their role in the team and understand what’s required of them.
“You need a few hodcarriers as well as bricklayers to get the balance right.
“That was Mourinho’s great strength and despite spending big money on players, he still managed to instil a great team spirit at Chelsea.”
