The Sun-Herald

The Complicated Case of Manchester City

Right minded people - and there must be a few of you out there, surely - will prefer Manchester City be relegated from the Premier League this season.

Either that or hope Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, or Arsenal are involved in a tense relegation struggle because the Premier League requires a shake up, one way or the other.

"Money can't buy me love," a 1960s pop group from Liverpool once sang and they got that right.

According to Paul McCartney, the song's composer, the lyrics were about prostitution.

Ouch.

City, you see, were always something of a non-event. They were a club that was likely to never win much, nor lose much.

They just were unless you're a Manchester United supporter and looked forward to the twice-yearly local derbies.

Ten years ago, the club was in the Third Division (currently known as League One - because it's actually League Three, get it? Me neither) with no hot water in the dressing room showers.

That's fine, unless you're a City fan, but then along came the government of Abu Dhabi (effectively a family) with Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan riding in from the desert wearing a blue scarf.

City, whose fans boast of being the only team geographically in Manchester, were now owned by a rich family from the Middle East.

A very rich family from the Middle East.

A family so rich that the club can not only now afford to buy the contracts of some of the world's best players but also pay those players unspeakably high wages, thus luring those players away from the more usual practice of signing with other clubs more likely to have success.

But this Abu Dhabi mob may be on to something.

They have taken one look at the Premier League, and the success Chelsea has experienced since sugar daddy Roman Abramovich became involved with the club, and decided the only way to beat them is to join them.

Forget a well-meaning policy of developing youth players over a decade (or even five years if you're Arsenal's Arsene Wenger).

Splash the cash.

Spend it and success will come.

So City went and acquired five centre-forwards (Roque Santa Cruz, Craig Bellamy, Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor and Benjani Mwaruwari), spending around $300 million on transfers during the off-season in total.

And here's the tricky part.

The Premier League is often billed as the "world's most exciting league" or some such rubbish but that's not true.

In the past decade only four teams have effectively challenged for the title and only three of those have actually won.

This is the famous "top four": Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal.

It's impossible, and players I have spoken with agree, to break into that elite group.

Exciting? Definitely predictable.

Then City perhaps make it interesting, assembling a talented team but one that is motivated solely by money.

To use the awful language of MBA graduates, this is an interesting "project".

For the neutrals, unlike City fans, we maybe get a win-win situation.

If City fails, we will watch a spectacular and expensive car crash.

If City succeed, the Top Four will be broken and this really will be a season more exciting than most.

But the moral compromise will be that money can buy success.

But probably not love.