Manchester City Should Take Advice from Seattle Sounders FC

The Seattle Sounders FC (MLS) and Manchester City (Premier League) have a lot in common.

They both have VERY deep pockets.

They both have top talent in Robinho (Man City) and Ljungberg, Keller, and Montero (training and working on getting a work visa to stay with the SSFC).

They both have rich owners in Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Man City) and Joe Roth (SSFC), but Mansour is richer and a deeper family background than Roth but still.

Now overall Manchester Cityis more famous for many reasons, they were founded in 1880, they’ve won four FA Cups and much more as the Sounders FC are just coming into the MLS but have the goal of becoming the “benchmark for soccer/football in North America”.

Now getting back to the subject. Manchester City has recently been in the news about their record offer for AC Milan’s playmaking midfielder Kaka. City’s offer was 130 million euros. Now with the current economy you think anyone would accept that offer. But finally loyalty and heart made a long awaited return when Kaka said he declined City’s massive offer to stay at San Siro because that’s where his heart is.

Now Manchester City have also tried to sign Barcelona striker Thierry Henry, Valencia's David Villa and Juventus 'keeper Gianluigi Buffon but failed. Now when you’re a team like Man City with a lot of money you would want to use that money to get great, talented and top flight players like a Henry, Kaka etc, but money is not the only thing that draws a player to your team.

Just look at what the Seattle Sounders FC have done to get top European players over to the MLS and the point of this article. The Seattle Sounders FC have signed Swedish MF Freddy Ljungberg, GK Kasey Keller (from Fulham), and FW Fredy Montero from Columbia.

Now looking at that list the biggest name is Ljungberg because of his history in Arsenal and with the Swedish national team. Keller is not as big as Ljungberg but he’s most likely the best GK in the MLS other than NE Revolution Matt Reis. Now Fredy Montero is probably the most important part of the SSFC because he’s so young but very talented.

Now the title of this article is “Manchester City should take advice from the SSFC”. What I mean by that is the Sounders not only offered the right dollar amount to get a player like Ljungberg, but they also told Freddy what their plan was on who else they were targeting and also what they city of Seattle had to offer Freddy.

Freddy said that he felt very comfortable in Seattle and that’s what did it. Keller was born in Lacey Washington so he was a little easier to bring in but he also wanted to be with the SSFC playing and after he retires he wants to be involved. When Seattle announced that Montero decided on the Sounders FC over Real Betis, that showed that money is not the key.

So here are some key points that Manchester City should take from the Seattle Sounders FC:

1) Money comes second; show what your plan is on where your team is going in the present and future.

2) Offer the RIGHT amount of money, not too high but not too low and it comes in a close second.

3) Combine great players that are already established like a Henry, Kaka etc. and great young players like for example Montero.

4) Have GREAT TEAM chemistry. Robinho leaving practice isn’t great team chemistry.