Competing for Top Four? Man City Should Be Challenging for Top Prize!

Those followers of a top four side—and of a nervous disposition—look away now, as Manchester City’s latest oil-fuelled acquisitions are of such an ilk that Mark Hughes’ men will have a hard time being intimidated by any challenge posed upon them.

With Hughes’ bold yet shrewdly conducted pursuit of John Terry, which still has a chance of coming to fruition, can you really imagine the likes of Terry, Tevez, Adebayor, Robinho, Barry etc. being intimidated when awaiting in the tunnel of any top four arena?

City’s rebuffed £15m bid for Joleon Lescott is an encouraging sign. It proves that Hughes is having his say in which players are being brought to Eastlands and shows City’s intentions of having two top class centre backs of Terry and Lescott’s stature before the season kicks-off, whether or not they are successful in either’s capture.

This faith in Hughes is vital in order for City to compete with the very best in the league, which on paper seems a feat they have every chance of succeeding in, with players that wouldn’t look out of place in any top two, let alone top four team sheet.

So it looks good on paper—well what about reality you may cry?

Hughes wants alternatives in each position which top teams need, in order to compete for the top prize and without the distraction of the Champions League this season, City will be fresh throughout the season, compared to their title rivals—with a squad that already has more depth than at least one of their top four rivals (Arsenal).

Sparky’s system is also starting to take shape with the same blueprints that ironically Chelsea mastered, when they too were bankrolled by their own billionaire owner, who seemingly at the time had an unlimited pot of Russians roubles to play with.

A back four, two holding players, three other attacking players, and a big striker up front—with players already there and brought in who have experience in playing in such a way. The system should not take too long for City’s talented ensemble to get to grips with, brushing aside far less adequate sides in the league with a bullishness that Chelsea once mastered under Jose Mourinho, who faced similar doubts that City have too readily had thrown at them.

City’s Middle Eastern owners are ready to spend more than a billion dollars (£610m) on transfer fees and wage commitments in their first year in control—the biggest one year expenditure on new players by any sports club in the world.

Whether this amount of investment ploughed into clubs is ultimately destroying football is another matter (take a look at my earlier article on salary caps in football), but what is certain is that the annoyance City will provide to Manchester United and the like, will be a schadenfreude experience.

This unexpected challenger will make the league far more interesting, at least for the near future.