Roberto Mancini Defends Manchester City following Sir Alex Ferguson's 'kamikaze' jibe
With the signing of James Milner from Aston Villa, Manchester City’s summer transfer spree went over the 125 million-pound mark and Mancini’s city rival Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United) has branded City’s summer spree as ‘Kamikaze spending’, as he thinks that assembling a squad via a chequebook is the wrong thing to do and success cannot be achieved like that.
Although Manchester United have never in one summer spent such an insane amount, they have done their share of kamikaze buys in the past. Before the advent of Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) in the Premier League, Manchester United were the only club in English football that would pay large sums to acquire average footballers. The signings of Eric Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson and Juan Sebastian Veron are prime examples.
Sir Alex Ferguson has broken the British transfer record on no less than three occasions and has himself operated in the so called kamikaze mode for more than a decade.
This is the same man who disrupted the player values in World football when he demanded a record 80 million pounds for the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid, and refused to budge down on it; in fact, it was the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo that started the inflation process, and since then, it has gone even more crazy.
Sir Alex only recently admitted that he bought the Portuguese striker Bebe without even properly seeing the man play and paid 7 million for his transfer. Now if paying 7 million for an absolutely unknown player is not kamikaze, nothing is.
Manchester United declared that there is no value in the market and that is why the club was not going to be very active in the summer, and the club only spent 24 million pounds as compared to City’s 130.
But this is nothing but a smokescreen that only masks the true picture; the club is in financial turmoil, and in the presence of a (rumoured) 716 million pound debt, no one could have seen a crazy summer spending spree at United, and in fact, it was the club's debt that put chains around Fergie’s hands.
There were days in the Premier League when Manchester United spent 29 million on Rio Ferdinand, 28 million on Sebastian Veron and 31 million on Dimitar Berbatov, but such days are well and truly over. Sir Alex claims that the 80 million pounds generated from the Cristiano Ronaldo sale are available to him should he wish to spend, but everyone knows that the fact is far from the truth.
Fergie’s kamikaze jibe at Manchester City seems to be more out of envy than anything else, as he, too, would like to have the unlimited financial resources that Mancini has. In fact, who wouldn’t?
Mancini defended himself quite compellingly and articulately on the eve of their Europa League tie against Timisoara in Romania, and pointed out the fact that it has been United and Chelsea that have been doing the same kamikaze spendings in recent years, and now it was City’s turn.
Mancini’s predecessor, Mark Hughes, admitted that City were packing the work of several transfer windows into one, as it was necessary to catch up with the big fish of the Premier League, and if they were to challenge the established order of the Premier League - and in a free market and economy they can't be blamed, can they?
There is no denying the fact that City have paid exorbitant sums to secure their targets, but the point that everyone seems to be missing is that fact that Mancini has spent in players that are young and will benefit the club in years to come.
If City win the Premier League this season, or even finish in the top four, all their spendings will be vindicated and Fergie’s kamikaze jibe will look hollow.
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