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I've been thinking about our status recently in world football and I think we are higher than most people imagine.

The way I see things is that I think at the moment there are only a select few clubs in the very top bracket. These teams are:

Barcelona
Chelsea
Real Madrid (albeit potless last year)
Man U
Inter Milan

I think as a result the above clubs are currently more desireable to a player than us.

But thinking about it, I honestly think we're next in line and 6th 'most desireable club' in world football at the moment after the teams mentioned above.

I think these other 'top clubs' such as Arsenal, Liverpool, AC Milan, Juventus, Valencia are in decline and all they have to offer is a history of winning things. if we're being honest none of them are looking likely to win any more trophies either now or for the forseeable future.

I personally think that this whole history bollocks of the top clubs is massively overstated especially by pundits and the media. I really don't think a player will join Liverpool over us currently just because they won a stack load of trophies in the 70's and 80's. What the fuck's that gotta do with anything now?

As I was saying to john68 on facebook, if a guy is 60 years of age and he's telling a woman he used to look like Brad Pitt 40 years ago and shows her pictures as proof she's not going to fuck him on the strength of it now he's fat and wrinkled. I myself used to have a six pack and was extremely fit and in great shape but now I've put weight on I can't fuck the hot women I could previously. I don't see why players should look at a club who hasn't won anything for half a decade like Liverpool and want to join them because they were great in the 70's.

In my opinion, and if I was a player I would be mostly concerned with a club's present and future prospects.

Our future is possibly brighter than anybody's. We have almost unlimited funds, a fantastic youth system, a loyal fanbase and ambitions to become the biggest club in the world.

Barca will have to continue pulling rabbits out of a hat like Messi, Iniesta, Xavi etc and they can't continue to do that forever. Real Madrid are still heavily reliant on loans from the bank of Madrid as are Man U. Chelsea have stopped spending as much since Roman lost a lot of his money in the credit crunch and the vast majority of their best players are either approaching 30 or 30+. As for Inter I think the Italian league is rather in decline at the moment and their new manager will have to achieve similar to Mancini and Mourinho which will be extremely difficult. There aren't a huge amount of funds available at inter either.

I'm not discounting history completely I'm sure in some respects it's nice to play for a team that is traditionally winning, but who else thinks this is massively overstated?

I'll go back to the Liverpool v City scenario again. If I was a player and both Liverpool and City approached me you've got to look at the facts (like rafa says).


Who will pay me the most wages? - City
Who is looking most likely to win more trophies in the next 10 years? - City
Who has the most funds? - City
Who has the best facilities? - City
Where am I less likely to have my house robbed? - City
Who is traditionally the bigger club? - Liverpool

Now I'm sure when I meet Liverpool to see what they have to say the room will be full of pictures of old Liverpool teams winning things and perhaps the trophy cabinet on display etc. They would try to sell me on their history and on the promise that it will be replicated and all I need to do is put my signature on the dotted line. I would be saying that's all very well and great, but what can you give me now and for my future of being a player here? Cue a vague response and back to more history lessons.

However, when I go to meet City I first see that my wages are twice as high than what Liverpool were offering me and I am shown huge funds are available to help strengthen the team. The youth teams are extremely well organised and I am seeing some excellent players training. The facilities that I'm presented with are absolutely top notch and I'm shown a proper plan that's in place for success then I would consider it a no brainer that City is a better club for me to be at than Liverpool for both my present and my future career.

Manchester City the 6th most desireable club to be at in world football. Any takers?

I think players would choose teams like Arsenal over us still.. So your topic is moot.

Vhero wrote:I think players would choose teams like Arsenal over us still.. So your topic is moot.

hahaha all that post and you get that in response.
I like this new postive Edge. Nice post.

You put an awful lot of effort into that and I respect that, but what a pile of utter crap.

not being champs league is still our achilles heel, otherwise i would agree.
i reckon we are top 10 most desirable even without it.
at the moment i think ac milan, bayern munich, arsenal are still more desirable.

Slim wrote:You put an awful lot of effort into that and I respect that, but what a pile of utter crap.

So between Liverpool and City who would you choose to sign for currently leaving aside you being a city fan?

I'd much rather take more money and trophies thanks.

Good post Edge, nice read. However, as a few others have stated, the draw of the Champions League cannot be overlooked and a lot of players would not join us without it; even though we know different they'd be classed as money grabbers, a tag that many do not like.

So, even though there are probably many out there who want to join us, the lack of prestige that is the Champions League is seeing us come up short, a thing that the likes of Arsenal et al hold over us. Hopefully not too long now.

FFS

A guy puts a bit of effort into making a case. He puts forward arguments to support that case and offers his opinion. You dont have to agree with him, its a forum it'd be boring as hell if everyone always agreed but if you are going to disagree with the argument at least have enough respect to offer some sort of counter argument to support your position.

This place is getting like YouTube.

Beefymcfc wrote:Good post Edge, nice read. However, as a few others have stated, the draw of the Champions League cannot be overlooked and a lot of players would not join us without it; even though we know different they'd be classed as money grabbers, a tag that many do not like.

So, even though there are probably many out there who want to join us, the lack of prestige that is the Champions League is seeing us come up short, a thing that the likes of Arsenal et al hold over us. Hopefully not too long now.

Maybe if the player was signing a one year deal, but otherwise I don't think they would.

You mention Arsenal, a player snubs us to go and play there and cites 'Champions League' as his reason. However, next year Arsenal might not even be in the top 4 themselves and then what is the player gonna do?

We have more chance of winning the Champions League in the next 5 years than Arsenal in my opinion.

I think we will be a better side than Arsenal next year and therefore we would have a better chance of the league, FA cup and carling cup than they will have.

The only thing they have on us is the Champions League as you say but in all honesty, what's their chances of winning it next year without Fabregas as well?

To players we're probably the next best thing after teams who can offer CL footy.

But maybe 'status' is the wrong word to use edge, teams like Juve have spent the past few decades winning trophies and earning their status. I don't think money gives you this status by right.

LookMumI'mOnMCF.net wrote:To players we're probably the next best thing after teams who can offer CL footy.

But maybe 'status' is the wrong word to use edge, teams like Juve have spent the past few decades winning trophies and earning their status. I don't think money gives you this status by right.

The last time Juventus won anything was about 7 or 8 years ago. They're going no where and if I was a top player and had an offer from Juventus and one from City I'd see that they're going no where and join City who clearly are.

I think we're the most attractive Premiership side outside of the Champions League to sign for right now - although I think the Premiership will begin to lose it's dominance if last season's Champions League is anything to go by. Serie A and La Liga are strong. Personally, I didn't think we'd get the likes of Adebayor and Tevez when we couldn't offer them any European Football last season. If I was a Pro then I'd want to test myself against the best in Europe.

We need to ask ourselves which true World Class Players ply their trade in this Country that aren't originally English. There's not as many as we might like to think.

btajim wrote:I think we're the most attractive Premiership side outside of the Champions League to sign for right now - although I think the Premiership will begin to lose it's dominance if last season's Champions League is anything to go by. Serie A and La Liga are strong. Personally, I didn't think we'd get the likes of Adebayor and Tevez when we couldn't offer them any European Football last season. If I was a Pro then I'd want to test myself against the best in Europe.

We need to ask ourselves which true World Class Players ply their trade in this Country that aren't originally English. There's not as many as we might like to think.

Serie A isn't strong in my opinion. You could name the top 15 players in the world and I doubt one would be plying their trade in Serie A.

It is very hard to make a completely objective judgement as a city fan and put yourself into the position of a top player who may make other judgements such as the facilities, climate, the national style of the game, proximity of family, language and culture into the pot with money and CL football before making a decision. What is important to one player will be irrelevant to others.

That said any player who cannot see the ambition and resources at Manchester City as an exciting project must have had some very interesting offers from somewhere else....or just be plain stupid!

edge275 wrote:Serie A isn't strong in my opinion. You could name the top 15 players in the world and I doubt one would be plying their trade in Serie A.

Who won the European Cup? Inter Milan. The Italian League is definitely in the Top 3 in Europe.

So where are these Top 15 players and who are they all playing for? Dukla Prague and Rotor Volgograd? Bit of an empty response when you don't name players as an example.

btajim wrote:

edge275 wrote:Serie A isn't strong in my opinion. You could name the top 15 players in the world and I doubt one would be plying their trade in Serie A.

Who won the European Cup? Inter Milan. The Italian League is definitely in the Top 3 in Europe.

So where are these Top 15 players and who are they all playing for? Dukla Prague and Rotor Volgograd? Bit of an empty response when you don't name players as an example.

Do I really have to tell you the players who would plausibly fit in a top 15? The only 2 I can think of that would have the slightest chance of appearing in there from Serie A is Eto'o and/or Pato. About 10 of the 15 are playing for Barcelona and Real Madrid.

*edit* Was the Portugese league the best league in the world when Porto won it?

edge275 wrote:

btajim wrote:Who won the European Cup? Inter Milan. The Italian League is definitely in the Top 3 in Europe.

So where are these Top 15 players and who are they all playing for? Dukla Prague and Rotor Volgograd? Bit of an empty response when you don't name players as an example.

Do I really have to tell you the players who would plausibly fit in a top 15? The only 2 I can think of that would have the slightest chance of appearing in there from Serie A is Eto'o and/or Pato. About 10 of the 15 are playing for Barcelona and Real Madrid.

*edit* Was the Portugese league the best league in the world when Porto won it?

You've already contradicted yourself but are clearly being deliberately vague. You originally doubted one would appear but now it's possibly 2. Do you even know what you're talking about?

I'm asking you to back your strong views up with evidence and you've failed to do it. You've named two players. Are we to believe that both Real Madrid and Barcelona share 10 of the best 15 players in the World? There's more than 5 in the Premiership. Gerrard, Rooney, Terry, Torres, Cech, Fabregas...

The Porto victory introduced the world to the talents of Mourinho. He had that side punching above their weight and then left for England. One of the Top 3 European Leagues.

edge275 wrote:

btajim wrote:

edge275 wrote:Serie A isn't strong in my opinion. You could name the top 15 players in the world and I doubt one would be plying their trade in Serie A.

Who won the European Cup? Inter Milan. The Italian League is definitely in the Top 3 in Europe.

So where are these Top 15 players and who are they all playing for? Dukla Prague and Rotor Volgograd? Bit of an empty response when you don't name players as an example.

Do I really have to tell you the players who would plausibly fit in a top 15? The only 2 I can think of that would have the slightest chance of appearing in there from Serie A is Eto'o and/or Pato. About 10 of the 15 are playing for Barcelona and Real Madrid.

*edit* Was the Portugese league the best league in the world when Porto won it?

One of the top 15 already plays for us and we dont have CL footie yet. Its up to Mancini, Cook and Marwood to sell the project when we are talking to players who will otherwise be talking to the top three of four clubs in Europe. Tevez signed up, two or three more and we will have it cracked but as Edge says we are really competing with the top 2 in Spain for the true world beaters.

blues-clues wrote:One of the top 15 already plays for us and we dont have CL footie yet. Its up to Mancini, Cook and Marwood to sell the project when we are talking to players who will otherwise be talking to the top three of four clubs in Europe. Tevez signed up, two or three more and we will have it cracked but as Edge says we are really competing with the top 2 in Spain for the true world beaters.

How long have we been competing with Barca and Real Madrid for true world beaters? City have failed to sign Ronaldino, Kaka, Eto'o and Terry in recent years. Is the pressure now on to sign Messi or Villa this Summer when we'll end up with Kuyt and Milner?

btajim wrote:

edge275 wrote:

btajim wrote:Who won the European Cup? Inter Milan. The Italian League is definitely in the Top 3 in Europe.

So where are these Top 15 players and who are they all playing for? Dukla Prague and Rotor Volgograd? Bit of an empty response when you don't name players as an example.

Do I really have to tell you the players who would plausibly fit in a top 15? The only 2 I can think of that would have the slightest chance of appearing in there from Serie A is Eto'o and/or Pato. About 10 of the 15 are playing for Barcelona and Real Madrid.

*edit* Was the Portugese league the best league in the world when Porto won it?

You've already contradicted yourself but are clearly being deliberately vague. You originally doubted one would appear but now it's possibly 2. Do you even know what you're talking about?

I'm asking you to back your strong views up with evidence and you've failed to do it. You've named two players. Are we to believe that both Real Madrid and Barcelona share 10 of the best 15 players in the World? There's more than 5 in the Premiership. Gerrard, Rooney, Terry, Torres, Cech, Fabregas...

The Porto victory introduced the world to the talents of Mourinho. He had that side punching above their weight and then left for England. One of the Top 3 European Leagues.

I think it's you who doesn't know what you're talking about. I'll accept out of the prem Rooney, Terry, Torres, Fabregas and Gerrard and also throw into the mix Drogba and Lampard. So there's 7.

Then from Spain you've got Ronaldo, Messi, Ibrahimovic, Iniesta, Xavi, Kaka, Casillas, Villa (all either Real or Barca) so when I said about 10 I was right it's 8 which is close enough and possibly 9 if/when Fabregas moves to Barca. That's without including the likes of Higuain, Alonso, Busquets and other really top players playing at either real or Barca.

The top players in Serie A like Pato, Eto'o, Maicon and Cesar can't hold a candle to the likes of what the prem and more so La Liga has to offer.