Manchester City's New Owner Flexes His Muscles A Little More...

[blizeH]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/...quer-world.html

“Ronaldo has said he wants to play for the biggest club in the world, so we will see in January if he is serious.," Al-Fahim said.

"Real Madrid were estimating his value at $160m but for a player like that, to actually get him, will cost a lot more, I would think $240m.

"But why not? We are going to be the biggest club in the world, bigger than both Real Madrid and Manchester United.â€

Al Fahim has also revealed other names on his shopping list – Liverpool’s Fernando Torres and Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas are also seen as potential targets.

Jesus christ, Roman wasn't this bad when he took over Chelsea was he? Are we finally getting a taste of our own medicine?

[Tim]

Will be interesting to see how much outrage there is in the press about this guy playing Billy Big Bollocks from the get-go.

We got crucified for 'ruining football etc' and Roman has never put himself in the spotlight giving it the lobster, but somehow I doubt this chap will be castigated as severely.

[TheWestwayWonder]

Give it time, Tim. A few more weeks like this and people will be comparing Roman to Gandhi

No idiot worth his salt would bid market value for Ronaldo to a City rival. Let alone that figure. Its gonna be a rude awakening for these fellas in teh first six months when they realize they cant just splash out 200 million and expect the team to walk over everoyne. There are wages, replacements, busts, etc etc, and its all going to be a very expensive proposition.

[Tim]

They also need to realise that not everyone will want to come to the club!

Ronaldo wants to play for Real, not City, so why would they be able to convince him otherwise? Huge wages will work for some players, but until they are an established super-power in football, which takes time, there will still be limitations to who they can tempt to the blue side of Manchester.

[midlandblue]

London will always be a major draw to players and thier families.

[Alan]

They're going to have a massive reality check pretty soon.

They can offer players massive wages, but they can't guarantee Champions League football just yet. When Roman took us over we could offer players that opportunity, plus we were already an established top team, having finished in the top 6 every season since around 1997.

I seem to remember West Ham having delusions of grandeur upon signing Tevez and Mascherano, and we all know how that turned out...

[Jayhawk]

is it wrong to hope to see them fail?

meh, probably.

[Scott]

[TomW]

Do you think they will rename Man City, Abu Dhabi United? Im sure citeh fans would love that

[BlueBeamer]

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=afp-...p&type=lgns

"Khaleej Times said Fahim and the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment hoped it would help make Abu Dhabi a "global sports capital" and that they planned to buy more clubs outside Britain."

Aren't there rules about teams with common ownership cannot compete in common events, ie The Champions League or UEFA cup?

[Modueke]

People want to talk about money ruining Football, this is a massive example and a million miles off things Chelsea done since 2003.

If I were a Man City fan right now, I'd be concerned! This man will ruin their club and they will become the most hated club.

We have been shown that Roman hasn't used Chelsea as a five minute wonder, he celebrates the goals, watches the games and has been with us 5 years. Who's to say, like some other clubs, this man will get bored at Man City and piss off in a year?

I know the City fans are running around like a dog with two dicks right now, but if I were in their boots, I'd be very wary!

[dkw]

People want to talk about money ruining Football, this is a massive example and a million miles off things Chelsea done since 2003.

If I were a Man City fan right now, I'd be concerned! This man will ruin their club and they will become the most hated club.

We have been shown that Roman hasn't used Chelsea as a five minute wonder, he celebrates the goals, watches the games and has been with us 5 years. Who's to say, like some other clubs, this man will get bored at Man City and piss off in a year?

I know the City fans are running around like a dog with two dicks right now, but if I were in their boots, I'd be very wary!

plus roman has spent a lot of money on the facilities and academy at chelsea, cant see these boys doing that. it also pisses me right of that there so happy and are boasting about the money they have, when i guarantee these same fans have spent the last 5 years slagging us off and hating us for being rich. bunch of f**king hypocrites.

[sweet waffle]

The media are going to have to come up with a new nickname for City like they did for us with Chelski (which I hate). Any suggestions?

[undertow]

The media are going to have to come up with a new nickname for City like they did for us with Chelski (which I hate). Any suggestions?

i find the nick chelski amusing. the ending 'ski' is typical for polish names, not russians.

[Modueke]

Abu Dhabi United mentioned quite a lot here, but have also heard Al-Qaeda City, which probably wouldn't be the greatest.

[byatt]

Fair play to Manchester City, in all fairness we've had the monopoly over the last few years when its come to transfers, and thats all thanks to Mr Abramovich, but fair enough time to pass the proverbial torch on to the Abu Dhabi (i thought it was the clumsy git that played for Arsenal, who broke his foot kicking JT)

I think now we'll only get the players that want to play for Chelsea rather than the players that want to be paid by Chelsea, and hopefully we won't start playing silly beggars trying to outdo Manchester City in the transfer market.. I hate to use it as an example but Man Utd have coped and challenged us despite not having anywhere near the resources to compete with Abramovich financially in the transfer market... How? By dealing sensibly and improving when they've needed to

I know we at Chelsea are proof that money doesn't guarantee success, Claudio Ranieri is a prime example of this, he spent over £100m on apparent top quality players and we still fell short of trophies, i think you need the right manager and the right balance of players to win the league, and thats what we had under Jose...

When Roman opened the chequebook, we started off small-fry bringing Glen Johnson in and then started to negotiate deals with clubs for the big names at the time like Crespo, Makelele etc... Man City have jumped straight in at the deep end and have plunged for Robinho, perhaps suggesting Mark Hughes didn't make this deal, we plumped for one of the brightest prospects in English football at the time, they've gone for a big star to prove they mean big business...

[Modueke]

Man City have jumped straight in at the deep end and have plunged for Robinho, perhaps suggesting Mark Hughes didn't make this deal

Exactly what I was thinking last night, it seemed they only went for players that other clubs wanted, instead of buying players in weak areas or tactical arrangement.

[byatt]

Exactly what I was thinking last night, it seemed they only went for players that other clubs wanted, instead of buying players in weak areas or tactical arrangement.

they went for Robinho and Berbatov straight away, okay so they are players suspected to have been available for the right price... but for me they were trying to show there biggest rivals, us from a financial point of view, and United from a football and supporters point of view, that they mean business from day one, i heard Sparky last night on SSN and he seemed as shocked as anyone that the Robinho deal had gone through

[TheWestwayWonder]

If they want to waste money on a player they dont really need, I say let them do it. They picked their battle and sent a message by getting him. Now they have three-four months to plot their next move while before the window opens again. Smart business by them, really, but highly symbolic.

I think Robinho fell in love with the idea of himself being a record transfer. Which is little wonder because his ego is supposedly legendary.

plus roman has spent a lot of money on the facilities and academy at chelsea, cant see these boys doing that. it also pisses me right of that there so happy and are boasting about the money they have, when i guarantee these same fans have spent the last 5 years slagging us off and hating us for being rich. bunch of f**king hypocrites.

It was obvious from the Liverscum takeover that fans are all upright and moral so long as they are casting stones, but as soon as the prospect of some fat cash gets dangled in front of them they are willing to forget all that talk. Like you say, im just glad Roman is a football man and not looking for some kind of cheap thrill.

So far everyone outside of Lerner at Villa has turned into a fiscal or managerial bust: Gillet and Hicks, Ashley at teh toon, Shiniwatra, the Glazers, etc. Though 850 billion pounds is nothing to laugh at.

[dkw]

i had an epiphany last night while looking at the players city are after. when roman came in we were told he would buy every one of the worlds top players, but he didnt. he brought in superb players, but i dont honestly think one of them was regarded as the best player in the world in his position. cech, riccy, paulo, joey cole, duffer, robben, essien and drogba were all top class players, but not regarded as the best. i dont honestly think its possible to buy the top 11 players in the world anyway, and i also doubt a team could handle the egos of said 11.

[Scott]

And it's not just football clubs they are buying.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/76cba2e8-791b-11...0077b07658.html