A week ago people(including me) were saying that Manchester wasn’t going to have a spectacular year. Boy were we wrong.
In case you havent heard:
Robinho from Real Madrid to Manchester City
Dimitar Berbatov from Tottenham Hotspur to Manchester United
Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim, a man who is richer than Abromovich, takes over Man City
I constantly find it amazing how after one weekend the entire soccer landscape can be changed. We were looking all summer for the “Mega-move.” The transfer that would change the entire football world. The Man City take over is that move. On the first day of his ownership, Al-Fahim made bids on Berbatov, Robinho, David Villa, and Mario Gomez. The Berbatov bid was accepted by the Tottenham front office but not by Berbatov himself, therefore sending him to Manchester United. Meanwhile he was able to pry away Robinho from Chelsea, the club that he said 24 hours before his move he was set on. Today he has even come out and said that Manchester City is willing to offer Cristiano Ronaldo 135 million pounds to come to Manchester City. That is 270 million dollars. Talk about mega-deal.
Al-Fahim has made this year’s goal: a Champions League birth. He is ready to do what ever it takes to get Manchester City on the next level. I can’t wait to see another global spending spree in January, the likes of which we have only seen since Abramovich at Chelsea. This man is going to completely change the game in England, in the same exact way Chelsea did. Because of Al-Fahim, the rest of the Footballing world will have to invest more money into more players, just to keep up. We will see better players, bigger moves, and more talent on the biggest stages.
Unfortunately there will be a cost. Expect ticket prices to continue to rise as club profits fall. (Chelsea isn’t expected to turn a profit until 2010 at current track.) This game will continue to become a rich-man’s game, thus destroying its working-class roots.
There will be both good and bad things to come, hopefully there are more goods than bads.
Filed under: soccer, sports | Tagged: Chelsea, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Villa, Dimitar Berbatov, England, English Premier League, Manchester, Manchester City, Manchester United, Mario Gomez, Real Madrid, Robinho, Roman Abromovich, soccer, sports, Sulaiman Al-Fahim, Tottenham Hotspur, UEFA Champions League
Hi Gabe.
What I’d like to know is who at Tottenham made the alleged deal with whom from City.
Let’s assume it’s not Al-Fahim on the phone to David Levy.
And who was involved in arrangeing Berbatov’s meetings at Old Trafford?
And why was it Berbatov who seemed able to make the final decision?
All good questions, I am not sure about who was talking at Tottenham or Man U, but I do know that its FIFA guidelines that prevent Berbatov from going somewhere he didn’t want to go. I guess he had his mind set on Old Trafford, while Robinho wanted out of Madrid and the hire ups there were willing to send him ABC (Anywhere But Chelsea.)