Why Mancini’s the man

Wednesday, 21/07/2010

As Roberto Mancini’s summer spending spree at Manchester City rapidly approaches the £100m mark, long suffering Blues fans will be starting to wonder if they can actually buy the Premier League title this season.

You may say that this has been done before, with Chelsea, Blackburn and Manchester United all throwing money into the market, enticing summer signings to ensure success.

A fair point, but it pales into insignificance when you examine the extent that City’s billionaire owners are currently bankrolling the club.

Maybe it’s more noticeable because of their rivals’ lack of movement in the market, but the Eastlands outfit’s outlay is currently dwarfing everybody else’s in Europe.

The Premier League spending spree started off in the early 1990s when Blackburn owner Jack Walker heavily backed manager Kenny Dalglish.

The Scotsman brought in the likes of Alan Shearer, Tim Flowers, Tim Sherwood, David Batty, Stuart Ripley and Chris Sutton over a three-year period.

They all proved great signings as Dalglish moulded an ultra-competitive team with a direct style of play. It suited the early years of the Premier League perfectly and resulted in the 1995 title success.

Without the former Liverpool manager, Blackburn would’ve just been an expensive set of players, but with him they became winners.  

Manchester United had always brought in top talent from at home an abroad, but their spending reached new levels during the summer of 1998. After losing out to Double winners Arsenal domestically and struggling in Europe, Sir Alex Ferguson splashed the cash to bring in Dwight Yorke for £12.6m, Jaap Stam for £10.6m and Jesper Blomqvist for £4.4m.

United’s extra investment was rewarded with a treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.

Fergie’s squad, filled with emerging youngsters, just needed that extra bit of strength and quality. The Premier League’s greatest gaffer used the cash to add the finishing touches, rather than build a new team.

The summer of ’98 was probably his most drastic foray into the transfer market, but one of Ferguson’s great strengths is identifying when it’s time to move players on and make alterations and new additions to his team.

In 2003, the face of English football was changed forever when billionaire Russian Roman Abramovich, bought Chelsea and gave first, Claudio Ranieri, and then, Jose Mourinho, a transfer market golden ticket.

The likes of Frank Lampard, Arjen Robben, Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Ashley Cole, Ricardo Carvalho, Andrei Shevchenko and Petr Cech were all bought in big money deals.
Within two years, and following the arrival of Mourinho, the Premier League title was delivered in 2005 and reclaimed in 2006. Ranieri had attracted top players, but it took the tactical nous and mental toughness of Mourinho to turn Chelsea into winners.

The 'Special One' still spent his fair share, but he knew exactly what the team needed and how the new arrivals could help maintain the success he had created.
Now it’s Man City’s turn to try and buy the title. They signalled their intent last season bringing in Carlos Tevez, Gareth Barry, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Joleon Lescott and Roque Santa Cruz for over £100m. This followed signings like Robinho, Shay Given and Nigel De Jong.

After replacing manager Mark Hughes with Roberto Mancini last term, City then added Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson at Christmas. A fifth place finish and no trophies wasn’t much of a return for all that investment, but the moneymen have again given Mancini the green light to spend big this summer.

Germany defender Jerome Boateng arrived for an undisclosed fee and was soon followed by Yaya Toure from Barcelona for £25m and £24m David Silva from Valencia.

The Citizens continue to be linked with further signings such as James Milner, Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko, and at least one or two new players are likely to arrive before the end of August.

This spending has to lead to success and the pressure is on for Mancini and his men to at least challenge for the title this season. Champions League qualification is a must.

The Italian will need to use every ounce of the experience he gained in Italy, leading Inter Milan to successive Serie A titles, to turn a squad of stars into a title-winning team.

So can you really buy the Premier League title? The answer is yes; if you have the right manager in charge to mould a team and a squad to play a successful and consistent style of football.

Money makes a difference, but managers win titles.

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