Manchester City Balance on the Brink of World Domination.

The lineup of Mark Hughes’ Manchester City has certainly flourished since the finalisation of an investment from Abu Dhabi, an international oil co-orporation led by  Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, half brother of the Abu Dhabi president. The company, (which is said to be worth over £7.0 billion U.K pounds) took over the Manchester club’s previous shareholder, a former Thai president who struggled to maintain a successful income for the club and faced debt worries.

The fortune of the UAE group, enough to purchase a team of 180 Cristiano Ronaldo’s, based on the new Real Madrid footballer’s latest £80m valuation, has already contributed to many expensive signings, the first of these being samba star Robhino from Real Madrid at £32.5 million – a British record. The Brazilian international is apparently earning a colossal £160k per week, totalling to a shocking £86m plus each year.

Throughout this years summer break, Manchester City have taken full advantage of their stunning cash backing from the Abu Dhabi franchise. Parting with £12 million for Aston Villa central midfielder, Gareth Barry, a further £25m for the red side of Manchesters’ Tevez and a whopping £25m for  Arsenal’s big African forward Adebayour, Manchester City have only spent a weeks worth of pocket money.

However, wizard winger Robinho claims that the new formidable attacking force is not enough, quoting ‘unless the defence compliments the attack, you will not win anything.’

It appears that manager Mark Hughes agrees with this opinion  as he plans a swoop for Chelsea’s rock solid captain, John Terry. In a recent interview, it is claimed that Robhino firmly stated, ‘I have heard nothing about the John Terry signing other than what i have read. He is the sort of world class leader we need at the back.’

Due to the difficult times that Terry appears to be enduring at Chelsea of late, mainly surrounding the continuing saga of his newly proposed payslip, which measures up to be less than that of fellow teamate Michael Ballack, it seems that the City board have acted at exactly the right moment - when their chances of prising the defender away from his team are as high as they ever will be. Terry’s ’strop’ is said to be leading to a surprise transfer request – unless the deal is adjusted to meet the ‘needs’ of the central defender.

With this and many other swoops for prized talents on a global basis, it appears that the City spending spree will not be calming any time soon. Deals for other footballing icons such as Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o have already fallen through – only increasing the desire  to purchase further stars.

Despite the Manchester City fans’ delight at the prospect of being the wealthiest club in world football, many other teams and officials are keen to show their displeasure at tycoon takeovers. Many are of the opinion that competition is reduced, as smaller clubs have no hopes of ever growing or developing in to bigger and better teams. Another arguement that is often put forward relates to how the sport is slowly transforming in to a field of business – with players motivated more by money rewards, and less by the joy of hearing the home stand roar their names.

Since the inflation in popularity of teams going public, which began in the early stages of the 1990’s, the trend has only faced rapid growth, with more and more foreign investors setting their sights on the ownership of prestigious teams, specifically in England. Many fans are turned agaisnt this method of money making, as the protests against Manchester United owner Malcom Glazer earlier this decade suggest. Fans often face the trauma of the club being ovetaken by new owners, who often take full power over transfers, finances and investments, defeating the object of employing a club manager.

Despite beign heralded in the past for its sucessful, democratic structure, the popularity of stock listings has somewhat fallen with most parties: no profit for investors, problems for clubs and expensive for fans – often leading to less interest of the public in the sport.

Many financial experts have suggested that ‘the pride of owning a premiership team is worth the loss in profit, and can always be used as a way of advertising to the public anyway.’

Despite the desperate attempts of fans to prevent football takovers from destroying the beautiful game, it seems as if the pleading public remains unheard by Manchester City Officials. First team manager Mark Hughes is quick to defend the borderline ridiculous investments put in to strikers this pre season, quoting, 

“We understand how people may view us at a time in the world when times are hard for a lot of people and the economics of the world skew to a negative slant. But football sometimes bucks that trend, and we’re in the business of trying to make our club better and we have to spend significant amounts of money to get significant players. That has never changed, irrespective of the economic situation in the world. We haven’t had the benefit of Champions League money over a long period of time and we haven’t had the success to generate the large amounts of money you need to build a squad that is capable of winning trophies. All the top squads and managers have all spent significant amounts to be successful. We are just trying to be successful and, to do that, we have to spend money.”

Rafael Benitez is one of few managers to pounce verbally upon Hughes’ actions, saying that the market is becoming ‘distorted’. However, it seems that no matter how many complaints are heard, City can simply not calm down their frantic bidding in depseration to attract the footballing icons of the 21st century.

The question remains: will football transform from an enthralling sport in to a thriving minefield for business and industry? Or will Manchester City realise that their excessive spending could have similar effect to the ‘Leeds Utd Trauma’ in decades to come?