Manchester City doing it all wrong

JAN 25 — There have been two names in the past week that has hogged European and Asian headlines — Obama and Kaka. News about the former brought much relief to the United States and to the rest of the world.

The latter, however, brought shock and even disdain among most people in general, let alone football fans, around the world.

Since news first broke of Manchester City’s ridiculous bid for Kaka at a record price of more than £90million (RM439 million), the media have been going to town with one story after another, most of it made up by the creative English tabloids surely.

Reading it all, I cannot help but draw comparisons with Chelsea, the other suddenly-rich English Premier League club since a few seasons back. Chelsea too did splash the cash when Roman Abramovich first arrived during the reign of Claudio Ranieri at Stamford Bridge.

The Sheikhs, from the Arab conglomerate which took over Manchester City, have a collective wealth that far exceeds that of any Russian billionaire. So, it is obvious they are basically trying to outdo Abramovich by splashing even more cash in the transfer market.

It was reported back in 2004 that Abramovich chose Chelsea ahead of MU and Spurs because of the fact that Chelsea was the most economical option, being affordable, well-established and a big-city club. I doubt the Sheikhs gave any thought to this.

Chelsea took a very pragmatic and productive route in their first season of new money in the summer of 2003. They signed about nine key players, most already world-class, to cover a variety of roles on the pitch.

They were English lads Wayne Bridge, Joe Cole and Glen Johnson; Argentinians Juan Sebastian Veron and Hernan Crespo; and the rest being Damien Duff, Gérémi, Adrian Mutu and, finally, Claude Makelele.

The total cost for all these players was certainly more than £100 million, but compare the total quality and depth acquired with almost the same amount offered now for just one player, albeit an amazing one, in Kaka.

By the way, care to venture a guess as to who was the most expensive of the lot at the time.

Unless you are a hardcore Chelsea fan with a great memory for player transfer fees from many years ago, you probably wouldn’t have guessed it to be Damien Duff at a club record signing of £17 million.

In contrast, the only world-class player that City signed at the start of the season was Robinho from Real Madrid. That was an amazing coup in itself and certainly put City on the map (pun unintended).

He has since admitted to being fooled into thinking he was going to a much bigger club, possibly even to the red half of Manchester. But it was still an extraordinary piece of business by the new owners.

Robinho is a great player but there is no point signing an attacker with flair when the rest of the team behind him are not exactly the same support he is accustomed to from playing for Real Madrid and the Brazilian national squad.

What City really need is a Makelele-type player. Lassana Diarra would have fit the bill but then Real Madrid came knocking and to no one’s surprise he preferred the white of Madrid to the blue of Manchester.

City opened their January activity with the signing of Chelsea’s Wayne Bridge. It’s a good statement of intent, as Bridge has won several trophies at Chelsea. But so too has Phil Neville when he was at Manchester United.  Get the picture?

Bridge, as we all know, is motivated by money. Why else would a player competing for the England left-back spot agree to have stayed in Chelsea all these years just to play second fiddle to Ashley Cole? Now, with the new rich boys in town, he has got the playing time he desires plus the right amount of money to boot.

Since the collapse of the move for Kaka, City have confirmed the signings of Craig Bellamy from West Ham United and Nigel de Jong from Bundesliga club, Hamburg SV.

de Jong could add steel into City’s soft midfield if he settles in well. As for Bellamy, I don’t think he is worth the £14million City paid. Do Manchester City need the Welshman when they already have Jo and Benjani?

This seems to be nothing more than manager Mark Hughes wanting to reunite with Bellamy hoping for the latter to bring some of his previous sparkle, from their time in Blackburn Rovers, into the lacklustre City squad.

He is obviously also hoping that it will help to cover for his lack of tactical nous. After all, as Hughes has proven previously with Blackburn and now Manchester City, he only knows route-one football with hard tackles and long balls.

Needless to say, what City really need to do is replace Hughes just like how Abramovich replaced Ranieri with Jose Mourinho. And Hughes is not even in the class of Ranieri, let alone Mourinho.

The new owners need not wait like the Russian did. He had good reason to, at the very least, since Chelsea were doing well in the league as well as in the Champions League. But Manchester City are currently just four points off the relegation zone. Hughes should’ve been fired weeks ago.

I find it rather amusing that the Sheikhs think a guy who wants to sign a fellow countryman because he did alright for him at club and international level — despite not qualifying for nor winning anything — is capable of delivering major silverware!

To win the league in England you need a manager with a degree of experience when it comes to winning things and making judgments on players that may or may not help achieve this goal. Currently, apart from the Big 4, only Aston Villa have got such a person at the helm. Not surprisingly, Villa have worked themselves into a top four position now.

What the City owners are trying to do is create a dream team that is the envy of the world. This is actually fantasy football. It may work for a couple of years but the future will be bleak.

In Football Manager, you eventually get bored after winning everything and are likely stop playing. That's what will happen at City too.

Manchester City will never ever again be able to run or function as a business. It is merely a play thing for its new owners and will require a constant stream of cash from them to survive.

Abramovich has already proven what can happen when he gets tired of it all. Now imagine what will happen when these Sheikhs get tired of City?

Finally, all this money can't buy you fans. Chelsea haven't managed it. And when you share the same geographical coordinates with an already illustrious and much-decorated club, you will never even be the biggest club in your own home.

Acts like this Kaka bid will just help you make enemies and expose you to ridicule from the media and rival fans in England, let alone the rest of the world.