For years and years, Manchester City has lived under the shadow of their local rivals, Manchester United, with United winning every cup you can ever win and City winning next to nothing. It really wasn’t even a rivalry. Now with City being one of the richest teams in England, the flame of the rivalry has been rekindled and Manchester City Football Club has become the team to beat in the English Premier League.
City are undefeated in 15 games scoring 48 goals on the way, including a 6-1 thrashing of United at Old Trafford. They won last year’s FA Cup defeating Stoke City, making it their first major trophy since the 1976 League Cup. This was the club’s longest trophy drought in their 131 year history. Yes, they defeated United in the FA Cup semifinals, but let’s face it, Stoke isn’t the hardest challenge. So the question remains, are they a championship calibre team yet?
The Sky Blues are the newbies of the Champions League making their debut this year. They are currently top of what is supposedly the best league in the world - EPL. Yet, they were surprisingly knocked out of the Champions League at the group stages. City, the new “rich” kid on the block, winning only three of six games, kicked out of the group stages? How peculiar. What happened? Not enough dough? No good players? With a payroll that others can only dream of and a team sheet with the likes of Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Samir Nasri, it is doubtful. How about the lack of experience? As individuals...no! As a team...possibly.
The Abu Dhabi United Group has to realise that unfortunately in the footballing world, money doesn’t buy you everything. Sorry guys. Maybe in a few years time, they can progress to the latter stages of what is arguably the most prestigious football club tournament in the world. For now, the team lacks experience against different looking outfits.
City looks and feels like a championship team and may be on their way to becoming one of the best in the world, but not just yet. They are certainly the most formidable opponent in the Premier League at the moment, but the teams are all familiar. Even in their FA Cup win they were still playing local teams. With their new loaded owners, the club is essentially only three years old. They might be doing well in England but there’s still a while before they dominate most of Europe. Nothing remains of the 2008 Manchester City team except the stadium and the fans.
Let’s use FC Barcelona as an example. Barcelona has been arguably the best club team in the world for the past few years, pulverizing both local and international opponents. How often have they been in the news during the transfer windows though? Not much. They have made two big buys in the past few years in David Villa from Valencia and Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal. The other players on the team have been playing with each other for years. The way they gel, their recognition of each other’s traits and playing styles is evident on the field. The team also has a plethora of experience in the big stages of tournaments winning two Champions League trophies and FIFA World Club Cups in three years.
City can emulate Barcelona by having stability in their squad. Their team is definitely good enough. The buying phase is over. Let the players gel and play together. But for now, sorry Mancini...you’ll have to wait and see mate.
