Chelsea Deposed Manchester City by Outsmarting Them in the Transfer Market

On Monday night, the future talent of Manchester City and Chelsea will be on display when the two teams meet in the first leg of the FA Youth Cup final at the Academy Stadium in Manchester.

At the moment, there is an embarrassing paucity of young talent at both clubs either in the first team or about to come through the ranks.

In Chelsea’s 1-0 victory over Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, they could only boast one player they had produced themselves, captain John Terry, and he made his first-team debut in a different millennium 17 years ago.

But even this is better than the reigning champions Manchester City, who failed to field a single homegrown player in their 2-0 win over West Ham United at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The obvious hope, for both City and Chelsea, is that some of the players representing their youth teams in this final will eventually break into the first team.

But the needs of both clubs are always immediate, and so it is likely that rather than patiently nurturing young players, they will enter the transfer market and spend many more millions on new signings this summer.

It was in the transfer market last summer that Chelsea gained a crucial advantage over City, which should see them now depose City as Premier League champions. 

Last summer, as the champions, Manchester City missed the chance to add to their squad from a position of real strength.

Jon Super/Associated Press

UEFA’s financial fair play sanctions limited City to spending, for them, a rather modest £49.8 million on four new players—Fernando, Willy Caballero, Bruno Zuculini and Eliaquim Mangala—as well as two free transfers, Bacary Sagna and Frank Lampard.

With the exception of Lampard’s cameos, none of these signings have been an unqualified success at City over the last nine months.

This season, City needed at least one player who could make an immediate impact, a player to inspire the old guard and continue the momentum of last season's title success, but they instead got a collection of underwhelming squad players.

This continued a trend in recent years of City’s inconsistent and uninspired purchases in the transfer market.

Three years ago, after City won the Premier League for the first time, they brought in another group of comparatively modest players who also failed to make any real impact, including Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair and Maicon.

City have the money and the ambition, but their recruitment of players under the stewardship of chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain has become muddled.

As champions in both 2012 and 2014, Manchester City have twice had the chance to build a dynasty and twice thrown it away.

Jon Super/Associated Press

When was the last time they signed a player they could hail as an absolute success? It's arguable that's as far back as 2011 and Sergio Aguero.

The spine of the current City side consists of Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, David Silva and Aguero, and it needs to be bolstered with players of similar quality this summer.

In contrast, Chelsea’s recruitment drive in the last year has been exceptional and an example of how to improve a team.

Jose Mourinho’s side had come close to winning the title last season, but he detected a need for more guile and creativity in midfield and a more reliable supply of goals from his strikers.

Enter Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa. These were not hopeful purchases; they came with a guarantee.

At the moment, Fabregas is the Premier League’s leading assist-maker with 16 this season, some distance ahead of Angel Di Maria, who has 10 in second place.

The Spaniard has also scored crucial goals, three in total, including the winner against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road earlier in April.

Costa has been one of the main beneficiaries of Fabregas’ ability to pick a pass and is currently the Premier League’s third-highest goalscorer with a total of 19 this season, just one score behind Harry Kane and Aguero.

After slumming it with Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba last season, Chelsea now have a prolific scorer in Costa.

Scott Heppell/Associated Press

Last summer, Chelsea also made the additional signings of Filipe Luis, Loic Remy and Didier Drogba, who have all played their roles in what looks like it will be a title-winning season.

And remarkably, the cost of these five players was almost completely covered by the sale of three inferior players Chelsea had no desire to keep.

Chelsea spent £85.3 million last summer and immediately recouped their money with the sales of David Luiz, Romelu Lukaku and Demba Ba for a combined £83.7 million.

The title will almost certainly be paraded at Stamford Bridge in May, but it was won as soon as the transfer window closed in September.

Chelsea can afford to feel rather smug about the business they did and how spectacularly well their new signings have performed.

While Chelsea and Manchester City can take pride from their academy sides reaching the FA Youth Cup final—and will no doubt hope a player emerges they can blood next season in the first team—the harsh reality remains that titles are won and lost in the transfer market.

It is here where City need to vastly improve, and where Soriano, Begiristain and whoever is their manager next season need to show greater judgement in the summer.