Re: alastair's inferior thread

[Feeky Magee]

I made quite a lengthy post in there about hedgefunds and the likes, it's a short post, three or four sentences long. Anyone give it a look?

Will delete this thread when I get an answer. Thanks in advance!

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

To illustrate what I'm saying about my doubts about city winning the league.

In 2007/08, they finished with 55 points. They were taken over on transfer deadline day in the summer of '08, buying Robinho, Jo, Ben Haim, Kompany, Wright-Phillips and Zabaleta, and in January Bridge, Bellamy, De Jong and Given, altogether for £127.7m. They finished 2008/09 with 50 points.

In the summer of 2009 they signed Barry, Santa Cruz, Tevez, Adebayor, K. Toure and Lescott, as well as Johnson in January for a total of £125m. They finished 2009/10 with a big improvement of 67 points.

In the summer of 2010 they signed Boateng, Y. Toure, Silva, Kolarov, Balotelli, Milner and Dzeko in January for a total of £154.75m. They finished 2010/11 with 71 points.

2008 - £127.7m for minus 5 points
2009 - £125m for plus 17 points
2010 - £154.75m for plus 4 points

To me this illustrates a few things:

city spent £25.46m per point increase over the last 3 seasons. The Premier League is normally won with about 85 points, going by this city would need to spend £356.44m to reach this total. But, it is obvious that points gained get harder as you move up the table, hence 17 points gained in 09/10 compared to just 4 points last year. So one would think going by the money angle, a lot more spending is needed. As has been pointed out, this may not be possible with the FFPs.

Now obviously there are a lot more factors than simply money spent and city should probably expect to gain from some of these - increased squad togetherness and understanding, etc., and perhaps a new manager after not that long.

Chelsea had an easier job, given they were already achieving about 65-70 points per season before the takeover, and therefore coming from a higher base.

With the FFPs coming in, the main part of city's splurge appears to be over, and I still think their squad is not quite up there, perhaps it is in terms of individual quality, but a league-winning squad needs so much more than that.

One also has to consider the number of players in the squad who see city as merely a stepping stone to greater things, whilst earning a huge wage in the process. A fair few of their signings have been players with a point to prove, but who weren't quite being courted by the top, top teams. I can't see quite a few of them wanting to end their careers at city, barring success very quickly.

Last season, United, Chelsea and Arsenal all had their worst seasons for quite some time, and city never even really challenged. Presuming they spend about £50m this summer, as appears to be roughly the likely amount, next season is huge for them. Can they keep increasing points totals when they're not flinging hundreds of millions at the squad? Will last season's trend of points increases being more difficult the further you increase continue?

A lot of questions to answer before considering city as anywhere near certainties for a title yet methinks.

It's mine forever, Feeky.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Thought there was the beginnings of quite an interesting debate beginning in the Berbatov thread. I said:

to which there was a couple of replies along the lines of:

I think it's something that applies to a lot of fans, even if a lot don't admit it. It's more a subconscious thing with me and it's definitely not something I'd be thinking of when we're on the attack, but I think I first realised it when the ball went into the net from a goalmouth scramble and my second thought - after 'get in!', was 'did Berba get it?'. Like I said, I don't want to feel like this.

Nick Hornby wrote in 'Fever Pitch' about how he enjoyed England wins less when Bryan Robson wasn't playing - I've never gone that far at all, but I share some of his feelings on how a liking for an individual player can perhaps be a distraction.

I don't think it's particularly a revelation, it's just something a lot of people are reluctant to admit. I think if you polled those on here about a) their favourite player and b) would they prefer if this player scored a bit more than others, I think the majority would say yes.

When one spends so much time debating an issue (it's possibly the United issue, after the Glazers possibly that I've spend most time debating with fellow fans about), I think it's only natural that they feel a little more pleased when something that helps their argument occurs.

Now, I feel obliged to point out my passion for United. I'm living on €75 a week and have still managed to get to 8 games this season - kipping in coach stations, getting up for ferries and planes at 4am and skipping college. Despite my liking for Berbatov, if we could find a player who I think would do better for Manchester United, I'd swap him in an instant. But I must confess that if we win and Berbatov scores, well, I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily happier, as I'm usually at 100% happiness, but let's just say it's the icing on the cake, big time.

Is it that controversial when one player scores or does well getting a little bit more satisfaction than if others had? Do you think it diminishes overall passion for the team? Do you feel this way about any players?