My expectations of fellow Mancs, even if from the blue side of town, would lead me to believe that even they’ve got to cringing following the comments of Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim today.
After news broke through that City had bid for Dimitar Berbatov, one of their websites wrote a piss-taking article regarding them signing Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. “What day is it? September Fool’s Day by all accounts…” the writer joked.
Now it seems he wasn’t far wrong…
“Ronaldo has said he wants to play for the biggest club in the world, so we will see in January if he is serious,” Al-Fahim said. “Real Madrid were estimating his value at $160million (£90m) but for a player like that, to actually get him, will cost a lot more; I would think $240million (£135m). But why not? We are going to be the biggest club in the world, bigger than both Real Madrid and Manchester United.”
Let’s be serious for just a minute shall we. City made bids for a whole host of players yesterday, tabling over £200 million, yet only one player signed for them. Who? A player that was so desperate to leave Real Madrid he was crying and threatening to go to Brazil and never return. He would have signed for anyone who could afford him.
“The fact that he has accepted an offer from Manchester City says that he is not going for sporting reasons,” said Ramon Calderon after the sale.
Berbatov was totally unwilling to even meet with Mark Hughes, determined to push through a deal with United, which speaks volumes, but the new City owner just doesn’t seem to get it.
Whilst footballer can be mercenary bastards at the best of times, the greatest players still aspire to play for recognised “big clubs”, playing football on the big stage.
It’s not just Ronaldo who Al-Fahim thinks they can sign, but Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas as well.
Either this guy has got a wicked sense of humour or he is totally and utterly deluded. We shall see which one it is in January, I suppose.
Man Utd News 24/7
Heh,those people who never touch the ball in theirs life,thinks they are in supermarket and can buy anything they see with theirs ‘hard’ earned money.
But football is not like that and they will realise that very soon…
now we’ll see that even when city hve more money than us we are still the best team in manchester and the world
City Are Quickly Becoming A Joke…
They’ve always been a joke!
Which reminds me – are they Sunni or are they still Shiite?
Whats the bet on Robinho saying in future that when his agent said that Manchester is interested in him, he signed thinking they were United and not City. Because he never knew there existed a club called Manchester City
Check their homepage “Brazilliant” apparently. Lol
Also check Robinho in real madrid kit here http://www.mcfc.co.uk/default.sps?pagegid={1CF21E86-174B-420D-916B-04DE6DF5EE70}&siteid=502&teamid=1096
City, big? Don’t make me splutter my tea. The idea of city being anywhere near our stature is a joke so bad it makes me want to go and vomit all over Eastlands. I hope Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim gets a good upclose look at local eye-sights, such as the highly dangerous and cordoned off bee of the bang. Or maybe he’d like to meet the local maniacs, adicts and dealers of gorton. Enjoy the sky blue side of Manchester Doctor……
Al-Fahim makes Abramovich looks like a wise spender (an owner who is ten times richer than Abramovich definitely is ten times more insane than Abramovich)
It’s funny in all honesty. Im glad they got Robinho over Chelsea simpyl because i KNOW they wont hold any threat to the title…whatever the arab thinks.
That “Arab” is an one of the richest men in the world, and as we saw with Chelski a man with money can turn somethink marginal into something great. This is the new game where money and a good plan can bring success to a club. City have brought in some good players this summer and can push some teams around, and now they have a wealthy owner who has more to spend than Abramovich. While they may not threaten this year they are quickly becoming a more formidable foe and they can tempt clubs with huge offers to let some stars go. I may be more pessimistic but it seems clear to me that United will have a new foe to contend with in the transfer market.
That being said there is no way United would or could entertain a big bid from City for our best player, it would be completely the wrong message to send to the fans. It would be a joke to make such a bid, but he will continue to try and buy quality players to make this club a success.
On a serious note I think a team of
Joe Hart
Micah Richards Kompany Tal Ben Heim Garrido
SWP Johnson Elano Petrov
Jo Robinho
could give a headache to most of the teams around
Cid made a great point!
gotta a good team this season and will b probably b round about 5th or 6th.
however, how ever talented mark hughes is he hasnt had any experience of coach big prima donna stars like robinho, there every chance that he could throw a temper tantrum any time in the season if things dont go his way.
and i cant see the the stars of world football flocking to eastlands in january, they’ll b cup tied for europe and unless city are top which i doubt theres no real attraction apart from money!
al fahim knows nowt about football! i can see em spending big in january without major results sacking mark hughes and repeat the process with any manager until they get bored!
Individuals with that much money have a distorted view of reality. Although, they might be a little more successful; that success will not be based upon years of experience (and class). Manchester United would still thrive without our current owners. Can the same be said of city or chelski. For this reason Manchester United will always be a driving force domestically, and financially an international power house. I’ve had the opportunity to travel quite a bit and the reason teams like chelski are not supported like Manchester United is because they are viewed as the spoiled children of the rich.
More than anything else, I’m delighted for Sparky. For a while it was looking like his choice of Man C was going to go wrong with the crazy Thai. Now he has the chance to manage with some cash and get ready for the for proper ‘big’ job.
It’s all going to be a bit mad for a while though, the papers must think all the Xmas have come early…
Cant wait to see how Citeh do against Chelski in the coming weeks.
Imagine if some Arab consortium buys us out??? And clears our debt in a flash…Oh fantasies fantasies…
the rivallry between Dubai and Abu Dhabi makes a future buyout a distinct possibility!
I’ll bet that scumbag Kenyon has faxed his CV over to the phlegm-rollers already, before Abramovich fires his loser arse.
He’ll certainly have a couple of business plans to offer them.
They also bought Pablo Zabaleta who I hear is a good player. He was at the olympics for Argentina anyway. I think he either plays DM or RM. I wouldn’t mind being a City fan now, just imagine their feelings. The only way that they will ever be regarded as a big team is if they start acting like one and they need to be ambitious to achieve that. They will be a force in one or 2 years. Not as good as us but still a force. I mean they already have a better team than Liverpool IMO and I think they will have to find a way to differentiate themselves from us because most of the players playing in foreign leagues will think what we all know: there’s only one team in Manchester!
They didn’t have time, to be fair. But money talks at the end of the day. We could have said the same of Chelsea when Roman took over. I hear City’s new owners have 10 times Roman’s wealth. If they give Sparky time on the job I think they’ll do well.
But in the premier league we must never underestimate the value of wealth the scale of ADUG and Roman and the mercenary nature of today’s biggest footballers. If they throw insane money, then players will sit up and take note.
That said, pretty sure Ronaldo won’t even consider moving to City. Nor did I really expect Berbatov to move their either.
In a way the US sub-prime problems were responsible for ManCity suddenly becoming a ‘big club’ after the ADUG bought over 90% of Thaksin’s shares.
I’m refering to the oil money. Rich Mideast sheikdoms suddenly become very, very rich. And where do they spend their money? The BPL where the attention of the sporting world is focused on, never mind the recently concluded Beijing Olympics. Will ManCity become as successful as Chelsea did with the Russian money? We’ll see……another Leeds United!!
Kenyon has not only faxed his CV, he also emailed & snailmailed I bet! Ask DHL or Fedex, he might have couriered it too!
godpye – “the phlegm-rollers” Ha ha ha. It is intersting that the question was asked recently on these pages “who are our biggest rivals?” the almost-unanimous answer being the dippers. Well there are some new rat-eating, bin-dipping, pikey kids on the block, and these ones have sovereign rings on their hands and golder belcher-chains round their tide-marked necks. They could well be leap-frogging the scousers very, very soon indeed, if they haven’t already. At least the moree intelligent Scousers know that they are a bit shit. The Citeh fans, punch-drunk with wealth are making me laugh with their “Just you wait, United” comments. They really think that buying the 18 dearest players on the planet is going to make them world-beaters. It will be like trying to run an old banger on rocket fuel. We will see how their nouveau riche frankenstein of a club performs but they need to do it before they can brag about it. At the moment their club is just an ugly little pimple on a big fat wallet
I just think and to be honest, Man City will become a force to reckon with cos with the cash at hand they will lure good players who can sacrifice Champions league football to join in the revolution starting in Man city but no matter how and when that happens Manchester United will be years ahead of them…simply cos we’re the best
I wouldn’t dismiss them offhand for the reasons various writers have discussed above. Sure, it’s doubtful success will come as quickly as it did to Chelsea – football-wise, City is lagging behind by lightyears.
But, seeing how mercenary most modern footballers are, I wouldn’t be surprised to see enough better calibre players wearing a blue jersey soon. Not necessarily world class, but enough to kickstart a genuine change for the club that will give them a better foundation for achieving what looks like pie in the sky dreams for now. Sad to say, money talks.
even if city r contenders for the tittle in the next couple of years it will be even better winning the tittle an seeing them cuming second or sumin like that.
the only players that will go 2 city r money grabbers like robinho, players who go to united ,cum because the club actully win throphies and the lub has a good history and will soon be the most succesfull english football team.
“We are going to be the biggest club in the world, bigger than both Real Madrid and Manchester United.”
Dear Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim,
You my friend are an ill man, you are not right in the head. You can spend £50m on a player who is only worth £25m, ‘just to get him’ but even if you used every penny of you billion pound fortune you could never, ever buy the 48 top flight domestic trophies that United and Real have amassed between themselves over the years and you can’t buy the 11 Champions League titles that us two clubs have between us.
It is called HISTORY and you cannot touch it or buy it with anything!
godpye: the new arab owner is a shite for sure! im glad robinho is at city, he could hav been dangerous for chelski.
Though City and United fans hate each other mostly, and the wit and banter bashing is in fighting form, whenever they happen to be in near contact to each other, I still have a lot of nearby neighbour and friends who support City. I always call them Man Shitty whenever I see them or write about them on message boards. Thing is though, City fans are exceedingly loyal fans, and follow their lot home and away, singing, bantering, laughing, hail, rain or shine. Just as we do. They have not had the finance until now, to compete, and have had to watch a lot of shit, but the faithful have stayed faithful. I am getting as much an earbashing from my City neighbours now, as I did when they beat us home and away this past season. To be honest, I am okay that they have got this finance to help them now. Football is dog eat dog now, so lets see who finishes top dog before we bite.
By the way, what happened to Managers having a say what players they want for their team?. It is another Chelski, where the players are brought in according to who Abramovitch wants, rather than the manager. Managers seem to be just yes men in those kind of Billionaire playground clubs. Poor Sparky.
If this group really is backed by the Abu Dhabi royal family they have £500,000,000,000 in assets and £500,000,000,000 tied up in fuel. We can only hope that players like Fabregas’ and Ronaldo’s loyalty is enough for them to resist mammoth wage offers. If not then the rest of us could be in trouble.
I’ve come on here just to read what the supporters of our nearest & dearest rivals think.
Firstly I agree that we may not have your history, however before football was invented in 1992, your history didnt compare with that of Liverpool’s (and still doesnt match it!!!), but history is there to be re-written, just as United have over the past 15 years However Tom F compared United to Real Madrid in terms of trophy haul. This I have to pull you up on Tom!!! Madrid have won 1 less European & World titles as you have the domestic championship!!!!!! In total they have won over 92 major titles.It is they that are quite rightly the worlds biggest club, as recognised by FIFA at the turn of the century.
Back to my original point though. You appear to dismiss our chances of competing with United. How you can do this is beyond me. You have to realise that the financial backing we have makes it a fait acomplait. The only clubs who have won the premier league are those who have bought it, including your goodselves. I’m pretty sure that we will come close over the next few seasons!!!!
I also hate all this blustering from the arab regarding Fabregas, Torres or Ronaldo. It does make us look foolish, and we have no chance of ever landing this type of player. And to be honest I wouldnt really want us to do that anyway. We have the makings of a decent side already and I wouldnt want any spoiled “superstar” to stop the progression of some of our great kids (Sturridge etc).
Finally, i’d like to congratulate you on signing Berbatov. He was without the best player I saw all last season at CoMs and I’m sure he’ll have the same effect on your side that Cantona did.
I look forward to competing with you all over the coming seasons!
Good luck! – Your going to need it!!!!
L’pool should be scared; very scared, indeed. As the weakest of the “big 4″ they are the club most vulnerable to the new kid on the block.
And, lest your “hatred” of ManShitty blind you – some pertinent facts are: excellent manager, top-notch youth development scheme that has been in fine fettle for the last few years (Micah Richards, Michael Johnson, the nutter Stephen Ireland, and Daniel Sturridge are the best of the crop and they ain’t shabby). Plus, a loyal following and a brand-spanking new stadium. Now they had oodles of money, too.
The question that hasn’t yet been asked is what this investment means for the Glazers’ property (lets not be silly – these EPL clubs may not be “franchises” but they are “property”) ? All this bleating about the size of the UTD debt suddenly takes on a new perspective if you consider that the biggest “prize” of all – ManUTD – looks like a bargain pickup by the gnome and his five dwarfs. The team is younger, better and even more successful on the pitch than when they bought it. They paid 800,000,000 – their “property” is probably now worth at least 50% more (?). Safer than houses !
Firstly,7/4 sparky to be sacked by the end of season.Does anyone think you can buy the top 18 players and then have them managed by Mark Hughes?Get real.Second,top 18 players?One of which being Ronaldo, a fat head with a gammy knee?Shows how much those Arabs know.One thing could be interesting though, i could see Ferguson selling CR for 135 million to city if he plays up this season.To see the look on his face when he wakes up finding himself on the even grimmer side of Manchester.Poser.Give me ten more scholes,giggs,nevilles please,real Man utd footballers.
In response to Denton Davey,there is a tale of a jewish trader.He buys some tinned fish from another businessman for 10p a tin and he sells them a couple of years later for 20p.The man he sells them to comes back the next day and says ‘hey those tins you sold me yesterday,i opened one and theyre all out of date,theyve all gone off’.The jewish man replies’Those tins werent for eating,they were for selling’.
Ernest Magnall’s Love Child Said – At least you are not spouting the same arrogant, nouveau riche nonsence that some of the less articulate citeh fans have been spewing these last two days. There is nothing wrong with competition, it’s all this “we can buy and sell you a thousand times, your history” stuff that I find laughable. You do recognise that you can’t just do it overnight, the Galactico way, and as long as you recognise that you won’t be able to just bludgeon everybody else out of the way, you stand your best chance of muscling your way into the ‘Big Four’ on a long-term basis. You won’t find any fear of that in the red half of the city. Bring it on