A Common Fan’s Sports Diary

To be a BIG Club Man City first need a BIG Manager. Like one of these guys

When Jose Mourinho went to Inter, the likes of Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard were ready to go join him.

When Luis Felipe Scolari came to Stamford Bridge, Deco and Bosingwa followed

As soon as Carlo Ancelotti became manager of Chelsea, rumours of Kaka and Pirlo joining the Blues started doing the rounds

In Mark Hughes’ reign at Man City, the only player willing to come to Eastlands purely because of the manager has been Roque Santa Cruz.

See the difference.

Forget tactical acumen and man management skills, Mark Hughes is light years away from the likes of Mourinho, Scolari and Ancelotti, when it comes to having the persona and the resume to attract big name players to come and play for them.

In the case of Man City this becomes an even bigger handicap because they are a second rung club – not big enough in their own right for the big names – a club which for all its riches has managed to sign just a single world-class player; and that guy supposedly thought he was joining Man United and often appears to be disenchanted at the club. The club has suffered the humiliation of having its overtures for the likes of Kaka and Buffon turned down in spite of tabling bids which would have dwarfed previous transfer records. And that too in today’s recessionary times.

You can argue that Mourinho, Scolari and Ancelotti can attract these players only because they have coached them previously and the superstars are very comfortable playing for them again. But that is exactly the point that we are trying to make.

Big time players want to move to a club primarily for two reasons – either because of the club’s name or because of the star power of the other players playing for the club. Man City have neither. They are the poor cousins of Man United, have never won anything and I don’t know any super stars who are dying to rub shoulders with the likes of Stephen Ireland and Richard Dunne.

They cannot change their history or their stature overnight. And they don’t even have European football to offer.

As for raising the quality of their players, that is exactly what City are trying to do in the first place -they are caught in a classic catch-22 situation. Until, they get the first lot of quality players, other big names are not going to join.

That brings us back to our original argument now that we have exhausted all the other options.

The most sure shot way of getting the first lot of superstars is to target the ones who are willing to move with their manager. And the easiest way of doing that is by getting a manager who has managed a clutch of big name players. Once City have their manager and their first set of big names, the others will automatically follow. They will be assured in the knowledge that this club is now on the move in the right direction.

Additionally having a big name manager helps in keeping the inflated egos of the superstars in check. Do we have any evidence to believe that Mark Hughes can handle the tantrums and mood swings of players like Didier Drogba or Cristiano Ronaldo or Zlatan Ibrahimovic? Especially after having seen Robinho toy with him on a regular basis.

That leaves us with one last question.

How hard will it be to get a world class manager?

Not too hard at all.

There are scores of great managers around. In addition to big bucks, which is quite an incentive in itself, City also offer any manager a fresh challenge, a complete free hand to run things and an opportunity to build a world beating club. Great managers have fallen for far less.

It is difficult to understand the reluctance of the Abu Dhabi Sheikhs in parting with Mark Hughes. Even from a purely footballing standpoint, he has fared worse than his predecessor Sven – Goran Eriksson and that too with a far bigger budget.

Time is running out fast. Ideally City should have moved into the top 6 in the 2008-09 premiership season and put on a good show in the Europa League to establish their credentials as a club growing in stature. That would have helped in attracting big time talent. Now they are hopelessly running from one agent to another, chequebook in hand. They will end up signing a bunch of mediocre names or some talented malcontents, much like their efforts in the January transfer window. With Florentino Perez back at Real Madrid and Chelsea looking to start afresh under Ancelotti, the bidding war for big names is going to be hotly contested.

Man City with Mark Hughes doesn’t have a chance to compete with these big boys.

That is unless they decide to get a big boy of their own.

Does he see his dreams coming true?

Manchester City are the richest football club in the world. They are also perhaps the only club with tons of money to spend in the January transfer window. The clubs Abu-Dhabi based owners want to make it the biggest most successful one in the football world. And they have made it abundantly clear that money will not come in the way of making this a reality.

Man City have before them the examples of Real Madrid and Chelsea – clubs which have won numerous honours on the back of massive spending to bolster their squads.

But after three weeks of transfer activity it seems Man City have no ambitions of matching or bettering the likes of Chelsea or Real Madrid.

They seem to be headed more in the direction of aping the Newcastle Uniteds and Tottenham Hostpurs of the world.

What else can we make out of the signings of Wayne Bridge, Nigel De Jong and Craig Bellamy?

Would any of these players be ever coveted by one of the big Four in England or by one of the major European powerhouses?

Man City must be in fool’s paradise if they think they can challenge the big boys with players of this calibre.

Chelsea wouldn't have dreamt that they would make such a profit on Wayne Bridge

Wayne Bridge was an often unused second choice player at Chelsea – so Man City have basically picked up the leftovers of the second richest club in England.

Nigel De Jong wasn’t really setting the Bundesliga alight and Craig Bellamy has been an average to decent player at best – the kinds of which are already aplenty at Man City. Why add more mediocre players to an already mediocre bunch.

And it isn’t very clever of them to think that breaking the world record for a single transfer will make the January activity a super success. In the midst of all this mediocrity, they have been involved in a 105 million pound pursuit of Kaka – as if they had to somehow spend the full transfer budget, even if it was on just one player. Haven’t they realized already that one world class Brazilian hardly makes a difference? Their ambition is completely misplaced – Kaka even plays the same position as City’s current best player – countryman Robinho. Was he really worth spending so much on – I would have rather spent 35 million each on three world class players – Three players who would have been far better than Bridge, De Jong and Bellamy.

It looks as if their transfer activity is being handled by someone suffering from multiple personality disorder – one personality wants to become the biggest club in the world and goes after Kaka while the other target premiership survival and goes after Bellamy and Bridge.

Fulham president Al-Fayed had warned of the threat of Man City’s financial muscle. But the might of money also needs a marriage with tactical acumen to create a world-beating sports team. And at this point in time Man City football club seem to have all of the former and none of the latter.

This article was originally published on www.goal.com

As you can see Robinho's brain is empty

As news broke out that Kaka would move to Man City for a world record transfer fee of 105 million pounds, fellow Brazilian footballer Robinho was taken to task by his father for not spending enough time learning and acquiring knowledge. In what is definitely a moral victory for those who advocate that world class sportsmen should spend more hours reading and gaining knowledge, Robinho Senior argued that had his son utilized all the time he spent on Real Madrid’s bench (which was a lot of time because he was never in the playing eleven) in the pursuit of knowledge, he wouldn’t have been tricked into believing that he was actually going to Man United and not to Man City. And had that not happened, Robinho’s transfer would have also commanded the same wages and transfer money that Kaka’s movement to Man City will involve.

Grey haired Mark Huges in his playing days

It is believed that the gullible or shall we say ignorant Robinho didn’t even know that a club called Man City existed. When the current Man City manager Mark Hughes met him, the Welshman showed the Brazilian footage of his playing days with Man United and sold him the story that he was actually a player manager at Man United. That Hughes’s hair had already greyed during his playing days would have made the story convincing and fooled Robinho into believing it.

This story has taken Real Madrid and Spain by storm. Club president Ramon Calderon has taken responsibility for giving away Robinho for so less and resigned. He has however requested the media to report that he resigned because of vote rigging so that he can be seen as a cunning and manipulative man by the Public and not as a financial fool. The loss in export revenue to the tune of more than 50 million pounds and the subsequent loss in export duty have also been taken up in the Spanish Ministry of Trade. It is believed that a high-level committee will be set-up to handle player transfers in the future.

Italy on the other hand is celebrating. In addition to match-fixing and drugs, the football authorities have always let the players have a healthy dose of news and information. The AC Milan clubhouse has increased the number of subscriptions for news dailies and magazines and other clubs are expected to follow suit. The ministry of Education has set up a help-line which players can contact in case they need information on foreign clubs and managers.

It is also believed that after Kaka, AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi plans to offer, first Ronaldinho and then Beckham to the Sheikhs of the Abu Dhabi Group. Rich people have a fetish for collecting rare items and which football-mad sheikh would mind having in his collection, three of the finest Brazilian footballers who all happen to play in the same position. As for David Beckham, he will be used as a mascot in the derby games against United while wife Victoria will lead the chanting of the Club anthem. The overall package will net Berlusconi more than 300 million pounds. An out of job investment banker has warned the sheikhs that this will be enough money for the Italian to buy the Man City Football Club itself. After all, it was last sold for 200 million just a few months back. But Berlusconi has already scuppered such speculation by saying that he will never buy a club which doesn’t even have a trophy cabinet.

Kaka is well informed and even has reading glasses

Meanwhile Robinho has countered that had it not been for his mistake, Kaka would have also fallen for the same trick. He has in fact asked his international team-mate for a share of the 105 million pound transfer fees – he argues that he had to make the sacrifice for Brazilians to discover the truth about Man City. Kaka hasn’t agreed to give him any of the money but has decided to send him all his old books and newspapers and promised to help Robinho learn about the World when he joins him at Man City – after all it was his knowledge that set him apart from Robinho.

We just read how the meltdown in the financial markets has deeply affected the Premiership clubs leaving a few almost on the brink of collapse

But you know what – the folks in the blue half of Manchester are grinning from ear to ear

If you want to know why, check out the top name on this list. And we all know where the owners of Manchester City come from – Abu Dhabi

The City fans have every reason to be in love with the Sheikhs

That means that while the rest of football world will be practising financial prudence when the transfer window opens in January, Manchester City will be the only ones with pockets full of money. It will be a market where everyone will be looking to sell and City will be the only buyers around – the only club capable of paying huge transfer fees and adding more players on high salaries.

Guess in the football players’ world, all roads now lead to Manchester – the Blue half that is.