Quote:
Originally Posted by devo22
I always hear that wages argument, but it's not like the players of City, Chelsea and other clubs are playing for a beer and a sandwich, you know ...
And is there a reason why you put supporters in quotation marks?  |
I agree with the wages argument. Chelsea, City and United are the three biggest spenders.
2009:
MUFC - £123 m
MCFC - £82.6 m
CFC - 167.1 m
2010:
MUFC - £131 m
MCFC - £133.3 m
CFC - £174.11 m
My point to all of this is that while City have spent egregiously on both transfers and salaries over the past four seasons, United are hardly a model of fiscal responsibility. They are in the top four of all-time Premier League spenders and have a very high wage bill at the club. That is not to say this is unique to them - hardly. It is a substantial problem across the board in Europe.
United supporters (no inverted commas this time) crying foul over how much City spends rings hollow for me. They've spent massively over the past 20 years on both transfers and wages, as have Chelsea, Liverpool, etc. They all spend ridiculous amounts on players and wages. I don't begrudge City for spending the way that they have. It is the way business is done in the Premier League these days and they are simply playing catch up and doing what every other professional football club in their position would do - spend.
People here in the South-East hate Crawley Town for the same reason. They went from being a provincial club in the Conference to League One in a few seasons, due to a new owner at the club. He's invested money (legally) into the club and they've made some good purchases and sales. But people hate them because they spend when other clubs like Wycombe, Gillingham, etc, cannot.
I personally would love to see a much more rigorous set of financial considerations placed upon EPL clubs - probably akin to some sort of hard cap. That will never happen, though I argue for its benefits with my neighbour (MCFC) fan all the time.
As long as wealthy oil sheikhs and ex-Soviet kleptocrats are interested in football ownership, and Rupert Murdoch keeps throwing money at the FA to have exclusive broadcast rights and the pot of Champions League money keeps on growing, this is only going to get worse. And by worse I mean that the rich clubs will keep spending huge sums on players and wages and all the other clubs will have to fight it out for a top 10 finish and a lengthy Cup run.
Oh and I do the "" thing because I'm a pedant.