Now that we have all got our breath back from the dramatic events of transfer window deadline day, it is easier to look at the news that emerged from Manchester City yesterday.
The take over of the club by the richest people in the world might be very exciting for City fans, but it casts a huge shadow over the rest of football.
It was bad enough when Roman Abramovich took over at Chelsea and bought them the Premier League title, but we now have a club with substantially more spending power than them. The intentions of the new owners were made pretty clear last night with the purchase of Robinho and the fact that they bid for just about every other world superstar that they could.
It will be sensible to wait and see what happens and consider evrything carefully before making any ‘knee-jerk’ reactions, but the feeling overall is one that this can only be bad news for the game in England, and potentially the rest of Europe, because the lure of the money at Chelsea and City is likely to entice the best players.
I hope I am wrong in my gloomy outlook, but I don’t think I am.
Graham, this is one of those rare occasions that I agree with you. This spells nothing but trouble for the Premier League and indeed Europe, as now we have potentially five superclubs (if you include Arsenal and Liverpool) in the Prem, two of which can buy any player they want at any time. If these Arab owners are true to their word, it will just increase the gap between the top teams and the mediocre teams, rather than closing the gap like has slowly been happening over the last few years. Let’s not forget that David Dein and his Russian benefactor at Red & White Holdings are hoping for a take-over of Arsenal, too. FIFA must do something to prohibit such possibilities.