Wigan 1   Man Utd   0

Quoted from Abdul19

Hardly exclusive to the Premier League though is it? I imagine that Charlton, the 2 Sheffield clubs and Huddersfield are the 4 highest spenders in League 1. The same for Swindon and Fleetwood, Barcelona and Real Madrid, Chester and Ross County etc etc.

. . . and that's why i said that it was representative of the problems throughout English football (which you decided to omit from my quote). . .
Bizarre!

Quoted from Dan

Nonsense. Manchester United have probably the best record of bringing through academy players in football. I wouldn't say they've ever bought a title. They've created more world class British players than Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City put together. And they just happen to have the best manager in the world. That you can't buy. I mean, I hardly follow the premiership at all, but it seems to me that Man United go about things properly (although maybe not as much as Arsenal). Sure, hate their fans, call them plastic whatever. I don't go in for sniping at other teams fans, but there's a definite point there. If Manchester United win the title this season, that's a kick in the girl private to any bored Arab Sheikh or corrupt Russian sat on a mountain of dodgy oil cash.

I'll throw your "nonsense" back at you.  Read some of the other posts which are more accurate than yours IMO.  Have MU not spent huge sums hoovering up talent over the years?  It depends on your favourite Billionaire, or if you fancy a change.  Or other reasons such as an irrational dislike of Manchester United (NOT FC - that has removed as it didn't fit  with the "brand") as a whole.  Which i do have, along with Liverpool.  Killing local football as a whole.

Quoted from Dan

Nonsense. Manchester United have probably the best record of bringing through academy players in football. I wouldn't say they've ever bought a title. They've created more world class British players than Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City put together. And they just happen to have the best manager in the world. That you can't buy. I mean, I hardly follow the premiership at all, but it seems to me that Man United go about things properly (although maybe not as much as Arsenal). Sure, hate their fans, call them plastic whatever. I don't go in for sniping at other teams fans, but there's a definite point there. If Manchester United win the title this season, that's a kick in the girl private to any bored Arab Sheikh or corrupt Russian sat on a mountain of dodgy oil cash.

Even in the team that had all of their 'youth' players they still had brought in a lot of talent for some quite costly sums at the time.

Even this team has De Gea, Ferdinand, Jones, Carrick, Berbatov, Rooney, Young, Nani, Valencia and Anderson are all fairly costly signings.

Although City have spent there money over a much shorter period I would have thought the relative squads are of a similar value, particularly if you take into account TPI.


*TPI is Transfer Price Inflation and is a way of adjusting transfer values in the past to modern day values to try and compare how much they would cost in today's market. An example of this is that Ferdinand cost United 29.1 million but in todays money he would have cost them 53 million.

No offence Dan, but it reads like you are a fairly educated bloke - so your ill-educated quote and "hardly follow the premiership at all" comment suggests you are a closet Man Utd fan.

Quoted from Paris Mariner

I want City to win because it would be nice to see somebody else's name on the top flight trophy. Anyway, before Chelsea and City came along who were England's biggest spenders? Manchester United. FACT. They've basically bought titles too by virtue of having more money than anyone else!!

Come on City!

In. A. Nutshell.

Quoted from Maringer

Who you'd like to win the title all really depends who your favourite Billionaire is, I suppose.

Is it Malcolm Glazer, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan or Stan Kroenke? These three own the top 3 teams at the moment (Kroenke will own Arsenal fully before too long).

Last year's billionaire, Roman Abramovich, has dropped off the pace a bit. He'll need to start chucking his money around this summer if he's going to catch up with his Billionaire competitors!

I personally would disagree with this.  I would rather man utd didn't win the leafgue because I find rhe majority of their fans incredibly nauseating.  Never fvelt that way about Chelsea fans when they won the league a few times, or Arsenal fans, or Blackburn fans back in the day.  

Quoted from biggles9999

Even in the team that had all of their 'youth' players they still had brought in a lot of talent for some quite costly sums at the time.

Even this team has De Gea, Ferdinand, Jones, Carrick, Berbatov, Rooney, Young, Nani, Valencia and Anderson are all fairly costly signings.

Although City have spent there money over a much shorter period I would have thought the relative squads are of a similar value, particularly if you take into account TPI.


*TPI is Transfer Price Inflation and is a way of adjusting transfer values in the past to modern day values to try and compare how much they would cost in today's market. An example of this is that Ferdinand cost United 29.1 million but in todays money he would have cost them 53 million.

While you're right, to a degree, most of those players are of a similar value because Man United will develop them. I bet you a pound to a penny Young, Nani, Anderson, Valencia, De Gea and Jones wouldn't have even been considered by the current Manchester City set up at the stage in their careers Ferguson signed them. It is definitely not the same thing.

GTFC R MASSIVE, I really don't get the logic of what you just said. If I hardly follow the Premiership, I can also hardly be a closet Man United fan. As a dispassionate observer, it puts me in a much better position to see this. I couldn't care less if people from Grimsby support premiership teams, just like I couldn't care less if someone supports Scunny or Bolton. I support Grimsby, I don't care about other clubs fans because I don't get caught up in handbags with them. Laissez faire I say.

You want it in Non-League terms? Man City are Crawley.

Top ten Premiership transfers:

1. Fernando Torres £50M
2. Andy Carroll £35M
3. Robinho £32.5M
4. Andrei Shevchenko £30.8M
5. Dimitar Berbatov £30.75M
6. Rio Ferdinand £29.1M
7. Juan Sebastien Veron £28.1M
8. Wayne Rooney £27M
9. Michael Essien £24.4M
10. Didier Drogba £24M

Not to mention the colossal sums (at the time) paid for Peter Schmeichel, Steve Bruce/Gary Pallister (I can't remember which), Andy Cole etc etc. They have got a great youth policy, yes, but that is somewhat diluted by the number of players transferred in over the years for million and millions of pounds. You can see why Fergie chose Man Utd over Villa.

Yes but they bought those 4 players for circa £120m to develop them.

Quoted from 1054

. . . and that's why i said that it was representative of the problems throughout English football (which you decided to omit from my quote). . .
Bizarre!

Oh yeah! But has it ever been different? And are other countries any different?

As for Sky being shut down, surely Al Jazeera or ESPN would just pick up the rights?