Contributor: Craig Orwin
@craigomcfc
So another summer, another spending spree and it seems City are in everybody’s bad books. Apparently we shouldn’t be buying good players and improving our squad, £120 million on full-backs, heaven forbid! With all the money we’ve spent, why should we be shelling out £45 million for a world class winger in Bernardo Silva, oh and there goes £35million on another goal keeper!
What an increasing amount of media pundits and rival fans are failing to grasp, is that to win titles you have to upgrade your squad every year and clubs who are trying to compete on all fronts will be doing the same. City have bought younger, fresher, quality players and yes they come with considerable fees.
There is little doubt that bringing in Bernardo Silva for the one dimensional Jesus Navas, Kyle Walker for the legendary but ageing Pablo Zabaleta, French international Ben Mendy for an inconsistent Gael Clichy or indeed Real Madrid’s Danilo for a 34 year old Bacary Sagna all qualify as substantial upgrades. What seems to be overlooked is all but one of the outgoing players have left on a free (to the benefit of the receiving club), they have been loyal to City and professionally seen out their contracts while contributing to title wins and cup victories.
I have seen arguments suggesting City are making a mockery of the Financial Fair Play regulations. City have recorded increasing profits for the last 3 years, so how is it we are acting financially irresponsible? We are not breaking the rules and have even been given a £33m refund from UEFA from their naïve penalty fine a couple of years ago. We are merely playing the financial game that has been created by the governing bodies. Our sponsorship deals with Nike and Etihad arguably fail to represent fair value in the current market when comparing them to the type of deals Arsenal, United and Chelsea benefit from.
While City and other big spenders are accused of inflating transfer prices, I believe selling clubs also have a responsibility for creating what is deemed fair value in the market place. Every Premier League club has benefited greatly from the increased TV revenue and that is being reflected in the money expected by clubs for their prized assets. The £50m price tag for John Stones was set by Everton, who I suspect would have been equally flabbergasted by Sunderland’s £30m asking price for their young goalkeeper Jordan Pickford or Swansea’s £45m valuation of Gylfi Sigurðsson. When English clubs buy foreign, they seem to negotiate better value for money, however there is a slight inflation due to continental envy of English TV rights. Ultimately everyone knows the premier league is awash with cash and we’re being made to pay.
What the masses are failing to realise is that it’s us, the average football fan who are essentially paying for the premier league’s exuberance. We pay this in the form of ever increasing TV subscription fees and match day tickets. Are we receiving any more value for money than previous years as our TV providers and football clubs at large act with such a degree of overindulgence? Instead of reflecting on this, many choose to mock those clubs who fail to sell out or even groups of fans who may find themselves priced out of modern day football. Many of these mocking “fans” seem to be doing so from the comfort of their sofas, armed with phones, Ipads and laptops from which they view their team’s displays.
Now for the so-called failure of our youth set up. The City Football Academy at the Etihad Campus has been open for little over two years. This £100m investment has been deemed a waste of money by many, as City haven’t consistently brought players through to our first team. Kelechi Iheancho has been the most prominent and is likely to be sold for around a quarter of the value Sheikh Mansour put into the CFA. Meanwhile Ines Unal has been sold for €10 million to Villareal and Olivier Ntchem to Celtic for £4.5 million. Some might say while City haven’t yet found the diamond who is worthy of a regular spot in our own first team, the academy is still successful in developing professional players while recouping some of our transfer funds. As excitement surrounds players such as Foden, Maffeo, Sancho and Diaz and title wins from almost all age groups, we can certainly say the future is blue in this crazy and propelling footballing world.
Contributed by: Craig Orwin (T: @craigomcfc)
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