Who should be more worried...

about the new money coming into Man City

Depends what you mean.

Considering it's quite conceivable that they'll be able to buy the league within a year; I'd say any team with aspirations of winning the the league should be worried.

If Tottenham buy a really good striker to replace Berbatov in january, or the next summer. I think the top 4 could well have two new teams in the near future for sure. Man City are years and years away from the title.

I'm not saying Arsenal or Liverpool will definitely qualify for the CL this year, but I don't think Robinho going to City will be enough to qualify for the CL.

He's a quality player, but he's never shown any prolonged consistency for Madrid in his three years there, so I can't see him inspiring a weaker side in a new league to CL qualification in his first season.

If today's transfer rumours are anything to go by City could buy a whole new first XI in January or the summer.

Chelsea were already in the CL when Abrahomovic came along, but Ranieri wasted no time in making the side virtually unrecognisable bringing in Duff, Bridge, Cole, Crespo, Makalele and Mutu for something like £120m. If City make these kind of signings in January they could certainly be a threat.

However, the Premiership as a whole is much stronger than it was 5 years ago, both financially and in the quality of it's players. Ranieri was able to collect some of the best players from abroad because of Chelsea's financial muscle and also because they were already in the Champions League. As the situation stands the best players in the world are already in England, and generally English clubs aren't so impressed by big money with midtable sides turning down record offers for their best players. Top Champions League players are unlikely to choose City until they get there, Robinho being an exception.

The Robinho deal is a very important one for City, and based a lot on luck as far as I'm concerned. The player was about to go on strike and would have gone anywhere so it will be interesting to see how he does, it's certainly a signing that says City mean business and will have put City on the map as far as European football in concerned.

For this season I think City, Spurs, Villa, Everton and maybe Portsmouth will all be chasing the 5th spot. What wil be interesting is when the EPL only has 3 CL places just how many sides with be chasing the 3rd place.

Glenn Hysén wrote:If today's transfer rumours are anything to go by City could buy a whole new first XI in January or the summer.

Chelsea were already in the CL when Abrahomovic came along, but Ranieri wasted no time in making the side virtually unrecognisable bringing in Duff, Bridge, Cole, Crespo, Makalele and Mutu for something like £120m. If City make these kind of signings in January they could certainly be a threat.

However, the Premiership as a whole is much stronger than it was 5 years ago, both financially and in the quality of it's players. Ranieri was able to collect some of the best players from abroad because of Chelsea's financial muscle and also because they were already in the Champions League. As the situation stands the best players in the world are already in England, and generally English clubs aren't so impressed by big money with midtable sides turning down record offers for their best players. Top Champions League players are unlikely to choose City until they get there, Robinho being an exception.

The Robinho deal is a very important one for City, and based a lot on luck as far as I'm concerned. The player was about to go on strike and would have gone anywhere so it will be interesting to see how he does, it's certainly a signing that says City mean business and will have put City on the map as far as European football in concerned.

For this season I think City, Spurs, Villa, Everton and maybe Portsmouth will all be chasing the 5th spot. What wil be interesting is when the EPL only has 3 CL places just how many sides with be chasing the 3rd place.

Top post Glenn

Isn't there a new rule coming in saying that each team has to have a certain amount of british players ?

With all this money coming in, the price of good english players is going to sky rocket even further.

We would have been better off signing Barry this summer, god knows if we will ever get him now.

Its academy players not English players.

its basically players who are eligible to play for england.

To quote FIFA

“a club team must start a match with at least six players that would be eligible for the national team of the country in which the club is domiciled.”


This would only be applicable for UCL/UEFA cup at first and will be later adapted by the domestic leagues.

This applies to all the leagues, if i'm not mistaken.

Every big 4 club should be equally worried. It should be the lowest winning points score since the idea of the big 4 came apart and you can only imagine it's going to come down and down in the next few years as the other clubs improve.

Nobody should be affraid : when you blow 42M on Robinho instead of buying a decent player (hell, you can get more than one decent player for that money) you'll end up being the laughing stock

City's best buy this window has been SWP, who funnily enough belongs at City

L.r.d wrote:If Tottenham buy a really good striker to replace Berbatov in january, or the next summer. I think the top 4 could well have two new teams in the near future for sure. Man City are years and years away from the title.

So were chealsea and they won it more than once.