Does Money Really Mean Glory?

Money seems to be the stimulant around football these days. Real Madrid, Chelsea, and now Manchester City have spent big wanting success. Does it work?

Well, the "Galacticos" period with Real, which lasted from 2001 to 2007, did have some success. It brought the Champions League and La Liga title back to Madrid. However, Beckham only won one La Liga title during this period. Madrid spent big over these six years bringing Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, David Beckham, Michael Owen, Ronaldo (the Brazilian) and Ruud van Nistelrooy to the Bernabeu and have started to do it again.

This summer has seen Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Kaka all move to Madrid but only time will tell whether or not they will be successful. At the end of the day they only beat Shamrock Rovers 1-0 in a pre-season friendly.

Moving on and Chelsea is also an example of money bringing short term success. The Abramovic era started under Claudio Ranieri who was unfairly sacked after getting the Blues to second in the league, and then under Mourinho the big spending happened. Ashley Cole, Didier Drogba, Ricardo Carvalho, Petr Cech, and Arjen Robben were all brought in and they won two league titles in a row.

Now, was this the influence of a very good manager in the form of Mourinho, like at Madrid when Fabio Capello won Beckham his one and only La Liga title, or was it the vast amount of highly paid talent on the pitch?

I think it's fair to say that the manager plays a very big part in a team's success and that is why money does not always buy trophies. Mark Hughes is a fantastic manager, just look at his record at Blackburn now at Manchester City he has been given money to spend.

Robinho arrived last season and has been joined by Gareth Barry, Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, and maybe even John Terry.

However, City will not make it into the top four this season, Fergie will not eat his words and as Rafa says: "That is a fact".