[Archived] Other premier league 2011-12

[adopted scouser]

We didn't buy the title.

'Course we did.

[K-Hod]

I am struggling to see how any real football fan can possibly be ok with Arab Oil Money FC winning the title over Man United. United are at least a traditionally successful club, they are part of English football. Arab Oil Money FC is a squad of international superstar mercenaries thrown together to win a title for their Arab prince. (Or whatever royalty is in control) Arab Oil Money FC is a slap in the face of tradition, a slap in the face of building a proper hard-working, loyal team, a slap in the face of fair play and sports integrity - it proves that the one and only thing that matters in football is massive amounts of money. Same way that Abramovich FC bought success. United, for all their faults, have spent peanuts in comparison to these two clubs over the years, and have been winning trophies for many, many decades. They don't get handed their success.

Arab Oil Money FC and Abramovich FC are what opened the door for Venkys to slither in and poison our club. Except that, with our luck, our foreign overlords turned out to be clueless chicken farmers who have an unexplainable love affair with a certain idiot in charge of the club.

My word.... The way football has gone these days, the only way to get into the elite is to spend a shed load of money and take risks.

If you go down the academy route, bigger teams will poach your players.

This United generating their own money argument is valid, but largely nonsense.

How many British transfer records have they broken?

The only reason United are this succesful financially is they've amassed fans from outside the Manc area due to winning everything in sight for the last 20 years.

You think they'd have this kind of fanbase if they were mid-table?

[Amo]

'Course we did.

NET spends:

City (09-12)

= £264m

Rovers (92-95)

= £18.5m

We invested our money astutely to strengthen the side. City have thrown extortionate amounts of money at building and rebuilding an all-star side until they finally won the league. You could argue it's just semantics but I don't believe our achievement should be spoken of so glibly, especially compared to City.

[adopted scouser]

NET spends:

City (09-12)

= £264m

Rovers (92-95)

= £18.5m

We invested our money astutely to strengthen the side. City have thrown extortionate amounts of money at building and rebuilding an all-star side until they finally won the league. You could argue it's just semantics but I don't believe our achievement should be spoken of so glibly, especially compared to City.

Not being glib at all, the cash invested at Rovers was (in real terms) way and above the clubs around us. Trying to make direct comparisons in a market twenty years hence is a little silly don't you think ?

What makes us different is we had a benefactor who actually loved the club, not venture capitalists or Russian Oligarchs, but however you look at it, we still bought better players with Jack's money and climbed the league at an alarming rate and won the title.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Man Utd were also fortunate to become the top team in the late 90s/early 00s at the start of the Internet boom.

Sweet - Vieira, Overmars and Bergkamp could still be classed as expensive - remember to adjust for inflation and Shearer was the world record transfer fee at that time.

I didn't say they spent more than the other top teams......I said they recently spent more than the other teams in the league......I would imagine there have been quite a few examples of teams winning the league whilst not spending as much as other teams recently had.

I accept you have a valid point in that maybe they did not "buy the title" like other teams could definitely be described as doing.

In 96/97 and 97/98 the transfer fees paid were;

- Blackburn - 43,275,000

- Newcastle - 27,570,000

- Arsenal - 21,050,000

- Liverpool - 19,300,000

- Man Utd - 11,150,000

So we know what happened with us....Newcastle could be classed as under-achievers.....spent similar to Liverpool and basically double Man Utd.

So they still spent pretty significantly at the end of the day.

[Amo]

Not being glib at all, the cash invested at Rovers was (in real terms) way and above the clubs around us.

Well, no, that's not really true, is it?

Liverpool had a NET spend of £14,600,000 in 94/95.

Leeds had a NET spend of £15,290,000 in 94/95.

Spurs had NET spend of £6,735,000 in 94/95.

Trying to make direct comparisons in a market twenty years hence is a little silly don't you think ?

Nope. Even taking inflation into consideration there is no comparison. Look at the money we made on the likes of Sutton & Shearer. Like I said, we bought players astutely, as Hughes did when he was here. Now look at the money City had spunked away on players like Robinho, Santa Cruz, Jo etc.

What makes us different is we had a benefactor who actually loved the club, not venture capitalists or Russian Oligarchs, but however you look at it, we still bought better players with Jack's money and climbed the league at an alarming rate and won the title.

But it paints the picture that we vastly outspent our rivals, as City have in recent years, when that simply wasn't true. Dalglish spend the money economically and invested in players who rose in value. City have spent lavishly on poaching the best talent from the clubs around them to build an all-star side. The likes of Stuart Ripley, Alan Wright, etc. were not top-level players when we signed them. Le Saux & Hendry were out of favour at their former clubs, and Henning Berg was a relative nobody from Norway. Not really comparable to how the Arabs have spent their oil riches.

[Stuart]

Love that post Toppers.

[Mattyblue]

Plus Ian Pearce, Atkins, Wilcox, combined fee of about 500k.

Jack and Kenny took us from nowhere, but we didn't buy two or three multi million pound players for every position.

[Sverre]

as other people point out here, Manchester United and also Arsenal, achieved massive success in a period where winning trophies meant financial rewards at an extreme level.

In addition the rapid increase of premier league's popularity at the time meant that football fans around the world took notice and started supporting successful teams such as Manchester United. This would then mean lots of income from merchandise.

[Tom]

City may have spent a lot but also have spent wisely in some areas and invested in youth

Kompany, Hart and Richards for a combined £7m ain't too bad although non under the current regime I suppose

[sweet]

What is possibly most telling about the quality of the premiership at the moment is that the team that finished 3rd this season, were almost a mighty 20 points behind the champions.

I think most people will agree with the fact that the current united squad should be nowhere near the top 2 at the moment and have a no better squad thn spurs, chelsea or arsenal. That it is purely down to the excellent management skills of ferguson that has kept them surprisingly in contention for the title.

So forgetting that for a moment, and assuming united didn't have such a great manager, City could have possibly ran away with the league by an alarming 20 points this year and are possibly only going to get stronger.

If chelsea don't get their next management choice right, and united do not replace ferguson with a 'worldie'. Then we could see City dominate for the forseeable future (but probably not whilst fergie is still around).

[Tom]

You can vote for best and worst of the season on the guardian site

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/poll/2012/may/14/premier-league-2011-12-vote

Interestingly in gripe of the season there is an option for criticism of rovers fans, currently in third

[Rovermatt]

They haven't really won the league, they bought it.

You're right. I have much more admiration for teams like United and Chelsea who have unearthed gems trawling through the bargain bins. Fair play to them...

In the context of the spending power of the time, we certainly flexed our financial muscle to gain success. Even Wenger's great team's relied upon expensive recruits to play his brand of football. Of all the Premier League winners, Arsenal are perhaps the nearest to not 'buying' the title.

[Stuart]

You can vote for best and worst of the season on the guardian site

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/poll/2012/may/14/premier-league-2011-12-vote

Interestingly in gripe of the season there is an option for criticism of rovers fans, currently in third

Down to fifth now Tom.

Pleased not to see Kean in the top 10 managers of the season candidates.

Disappointed not to see either he or Dann in the flops section.

[DE.]

You can vote for best and worst of the season on the guardian site

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/poll/2012/may/14/premier-league-2011-12-vote

Interestingly in gripe of the season there is an option for criticism of rovers fans, currently in third

I don't understand.

The Guardian print this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/mar/21/steve-kean-blackburn-manager-of-year

Yet good old Stevie Kean doesn't even get in their top 10 manager nominees?

Sh1t be wack, yo.

[Rovermatt]

I am struggling to see how any real football fan can possibly be ok with Arab Oil Money FC winning the title over Man United. United are at least a traditionally successful club, they are part of English football.

Because it's Manchester ****ing United. I would want them winning a church hall raffle.

Manchester City, for all their money, have a many, many fans with vivid memories of playing in the third tier of English football. Say what you want about how their spending power has tilted the balance but their supporters are far preferable to United's plastic, cockney, day-tripping hordes.

[A cup of beans]

You can vote for best and worst of the season on the guardian site

I'd like to vote this as the most bland, unimaginative, dull, awful peace of TV commentary ever!

I've long argued that Alan Parry is the worst commentator on TV, and Andy 'Irish' Townsend, well... need I say more ?

Dont get too excited!

[Tom]

Tevez showing his class again

City are parading with the trophy and he holds aloft a sign saying rip fergie

[Amo]

Tevez showing his class again

City are parading with the trophy and he holds aloft a sign saying rip fergie

Give him two million years of evolution and he'll catch up with the rest of us.

[adopted scouser]

Tevez showing his class again

City are parading with the trophy and he holds aloft a sign saying rip fergie

Don't know how he's got the nerve to join the parade. Refusing to get off the bench, going home playing golf for weeks.

[bigbrandjohn]

With McLeish getting the chop you don't think they would substitute one unimaginative Scottish loser for another ?

[Stuart]

Apparently the police have had to be called to Picadilly Station this evening.

Security are trying to lock up but Tevez is refusing to come off the bus.

[neekoy]

My understanding the Tevez sign is in relation to SAF comments about United ever being underdogs to City and Fergie replied "not in my lifetime"...I thought it was quite clever..

And Tevez for as much a jerk as he is has been key in their run since his return so he can go on the bus

I am wrapped for Mancini, I really like the bloke, for someone to be in such a pressure cooker environment as that and win the title is a great achievement for him.

I don't begrudge City winning, you spend big and put in a decent manager and you have a chance at winning the league, simples. You could be like Liverpoool, Newcastle or Spurs and spend a crap load of money for no return.

[DE.]

With the amount of money they were spending they were always going to win the league at some point, the test for City will be whether they're able to retain it. I think they have a good chance tbh - they'll only get stronger in the summer. Utd's financial clout has weakened significantly in the past few years and they seem happy to let Giggs and Scholes continue to run midfield despite their combined age being nearly 80 years old.

Meanwhile Arsenal won't strengthen anywhere close enough to challenge, Chelski ditto barring a massive change in direction by Abramovich, Spurs will be Spurs and bottle it as usual around the mid season mark... and the less said about Liverpool the better.

It's a poor league and City should have no trouble dominating it for some time to come.

[AllRoverAsia]

I'm not trying to defend Barton in any way as he is a complete nutter but Tevez should have been sent off for the punch on Barton. If the Ref did not see it then the FA should do him. Tevez is also a @#/?.

With McLeish getting the chop you don't think they would substitute one unimaginative Scottish loser for another ?

McLeish went because the Owner of Villa listened to the fans - I hope Coco sends himself his dismissal notice soon.