Debates, Rivals, Top Stories - Written by BlueChampion on Sunday, September 7, 2008 9:56 | 1,243 Views | 37 Comments | Add Comment
Man City can’t do a Chelsea because it’s not just about money!
After expressing his interest to sign Ronaldo, Kaka, Buffon and Fabregas, now the Sheikh wants Essien, and Gerrard. He might want Messi and Aguero too. He might try to woo Ronaldinho as well. What about Maradona and Pele? How about tempting them back from retirement? Is there something essentially different between the Chelsea project and the club who are now called as the ‘new Chelsea’?
“To put an offer of €42 million on the table for a player from Madrid…Well! The message is a warning to Roman Abramovich. We are the new Chelsea. Let’s put them in the shade.” - That’s what their new defender Javier Garrido said after Robinho’s signing. Even the press loves calling them the ‘New Chelsea’. That’s basically wrong because people think it’s all about money. Football history has shown us that the terms rich and poor are not synonymous with success and failure respectively.
Roman is a pioneer in everything he’s done. He’s earned his wealth from humble beginnings. Mostly, he knows what he’s doing. And if other billionaires think they can copy the Chelsea model and achieve success like we did, I’d like to tell them, they’ve seen only the brighter side of things. There’s a lot of efforts and hard work, planning and vision, and some very very efficient personnel behind all this. I’m not suggesting Man City’s new owners don’t have the brains but saying that they only sound so.
First of all, it is incorrect to call Man City the new Chelsea. The only similarities are that they have foreign billionaire owners and they are not afraid to spend money. Chelsea is a brilliant project where a lot of things fell in place, certainly not by chance or luck, but by planning and vision. It is not that easily copyable as it looks.
When Roman bought Chelsea, he splashed the cash no doubt, but certainly not on the best eleven players in the world. Jose had a certain list of players that he wanted in Chelsea and Roman got them for him. For all the transfers, JM had decided that he will maintain the English core of the team - Terry, Lampard, Joe Cole and he appointed Terry the captain and Lampard his deputy. He always believed that for a team to have sustained success in any league, the home nation players play a very important role. That was a smart decision. I’m very curious to see which Man City players who existed pre-Sheikhs will still find a place in the team next season.
Take a look at the players that we had or bought in 2004-05, they did not together make the world team of the year. Edge of Roman’s money was used to keep the competition away and also to force the selling club so that we could get the players on board with no delay.
When we won the first title under Roman/Jose, we had a bunch of good players, committed to ambition, lead by a great coach supported by passionate owner. These are all very important ingredients of success. Only after a couple of league titles and better champions league finishes, we started attracting the best names in business.
The historic day when we beat Bolton to win the first premier league title under Roman/Jose, this was the team. First eleven: Cech, Terry, Carvalho, Gallas, Geremi, Tiago, Makelele, Lampard, Jarosik, Gudjohnsen, Drogba. Bench: Cudicini, Huth, Smertin, Joe Cole, Kezman. These are not the same as Kaka, Ronaldo, Fabregas, van Nistelrooy, Essien, Gerrard of today. How many of our 04-05 title winning players would have made the team of the year at the beginning of the season 04-05? These are good players, some very good, who improved and grew with Chelsea. They were not superstars when they arrived at Chelsea then.
Just because some players were bought at inflated prices do not mean they do justice to their price. Even if I buy Eboue at £100 million, he’d still be Eboue. He can’t play like a £1 million player, leave alone £100m. So what I’m trying to say is players have two types of values - a fair value and a market value. We bought SWP for £21m which the market value was £21m, because we paid so much but his fair value must have been £8 - 10m. You’ll need to add a premium to the fair value to arrive at the market value. The premium could comprise certain factors such as (i) the extent of willingness of the club to sell that player (ii) the extent of willingness of the player to move (iii) the desparation of the buying club (iv) the competition to buy the player.
In that sense, the fair value of the team was in fact only about half the market value. So basically, we had a team of good players, who were coached by Jose Mourinho to glory. If we were to turn back time to the beginning of the 04-05 season and were to bet on premier league winners, how many would have given any chance to Chelsea at that time? So it was not all about money. If it’s all about money, Man City will win the premier league next season before they win the champions league too. In June 2004, when Jose Mourinho was just hired, Times wrote this about Chelsea, in their season preview for 04-05:
Still there is one vital ingredient missing, and it is one that cannot be bought. They need time on the grass together. Only the experience of training and playing with one another over a lengthy period will turn an ensemble of talented individuals into a cohesive team, and for that reason it is difficult to see Chelsea winning the League this time.
We won the league. We lost just one match out of 38, which was due to a dodgy penalty. We amassed 95 points, which is still the British record in more than 100 years of football (even if you convert those old two-point wins to three). The goal difference was 57. To put it in perspective, Man Utd’s goal difference in 06-07 and 07-08 were 56 and 58 respectively. After winning the title in 04-05, Peter Kenyon said this:
Whatever they get this season is not about money, it’s about a lot of players who have improved. The old players we’ve got are better than they were 12 months ago and that is about their personal development and coaching. It was never the plan to just sign everyone and anyone, but I can understand why people thought that.
That’s exactly my point too. We did not have this plan of signing everyone on sight. There was a reason why players were bought. Some players were not even one of the best three players in their position in England. A lot happened on the personal development and coaching side as Kenyon states. The work that is required in terms of team work, ambition, spirit, attitude, ethics and discipline of the players, is immense. Otherwise, it is quite easy to get those little quarrels, ego clashes, ‘not-getting-alongs’ inside the camp. And these things will have a direct bearing on the pitch.
What Sheikh seems to be trying is to get the best eleven players and make them play for mighty Man City. That’s certainly not the smartest thing to do. Normally it takes time to assemble the galacticos in one place and then fail. But Man City might do it in record time. What could be the problem of having a team of Buffon, Kaka, Ronaldo, Fabregas, Essien, Gerrard etc? With so many strong personalities, someone stronger than all of them should be managing it. There are handful of managers who can do that job well. In the premier league, I could think of only one name and may be the rest I can count with my fingers, on one hand. Mark Hughes is a good manager but he himself would be making a big leap if he were to train Kaka and Ronaldo in place of Elano and Jo.
Before the Sheikh spend a billion on setting up his team, there’s this little of matter the players willing to make the move. Yes, Robinho signed for them but he was left with no choice. He badly wanted to leave Real Madrid (believe it, he was paid less than Drenthe) and Man City’s offer was the only one accepted by Madrid. His heart may not be with Man City but if reports are to be believed he is certainly not regretting joining Man City. Do you have any idea about how much he gets per week at Man City? Hold your breath, it is £160,000. So that’s two british records broken in one day. The most expensive players in British football gets the highest ever wages.
Assume for a moment that Robinho’s relationship with Real Madrid was good and he was paid and respected to his satisfaction. Do you think Madrid would have sold him or Robinho would have moved from the club of the century to the club of this transfer window? None of the European powers would sell their players who are key to their plans. But the thing not all the best players are in the top European clubs. Man City now has enough money to buy every player they want by paying their release clause fee. Say, if Aguero’s release clause says a fee of £100 million, if Sheikh drops the cash bag at Atletico, it would be too big a fortune for Atletico to reject. Aguero could be very upset but a £300,000 a week contract to make up his disappointment a bit.
What happens when you start ‘collecting’ the best players for your team is, you lose sight of your plans on the pitch which are overshadowed by the global plans. Sheikh wants to get big names, get noticed and recognised, and shoot up to sky at one go. Also you become the centre of attraction, butt of every joke, and also the common enemy in the world of football. You’ll be subject to much ridicule from the press even if you draw one match. The pressure would be so much that if they don’t win titles, someone has to take the blame and in most cases it has to be the manager. It could all come tumbling down a bit too early.
Back to where it started, I don’t see Essien going to Man City or anywhere else. He is quite happy here. We’re happy with him too. He has a big role to play in our ambition. To quote the cliche, ‘he is the engine of our team’ and we would retain him at any cost. I think Essien loves it here at Chelsea. He is very much part of the Chelsea family and he would love to be so in future too. So, let’s put this to bed.
Man City can’t do a Chelsea because it’s not just about money. Also what Man City does now is certainly not what Chelsea did. If someone doesn’t see the difference, it shows he/she does not read beyond the headlines. Finally, there is only one Chelsea and there is absolutely no such thing called ‘new Chelsea’.
37 Comments
1. joeblue
2. SAm
Nice article…..on the bullseye.
3. TBF
@BC
Brilliant Brilliant…………..Brilliant…….[applause]
the muppets[english press] can’t see the obvious.
i will like to add that hughes won’t be able to sustain the pressure,in fact even jose can’t sustain the pressure that sheikhs are creating…………they will buy 11 galacticos and expect them to win the league straight away……..it’s not possible in simple terms.
4. Jon Stewart
yeah the whole new chelsea gimmick is bull
5. Nihongo Blue
First and foremost chelsea success is not about money only. we didnt made any high profile signing when we won back to back titles. ranieri did what ramos did this season and jose improved upon the existing. more psycologically rather than buying big heads. i remember this spoof
roman to jose: do you need kaka?
jose: no
roman: do you need ronaldinho
jose: no
roman: so what do you need to win?
jose: you just need me 
actually hughes is a good manager. if anything can win city anything is hughes not robinho or some high profile signings. just being a high price signing doesnt guarantee he is gonna play well in EPL. Anyways arsenal has left a huge scope for city/spurs/villa/everton to finish in top 4. an injury to fabregas and arsenal is nothing at all and i wish it happens. their is no one to admin arsene and he is gonna pay for it this season surely. he is good but he has taken too much chance this season.
cant wait for 13th sept when we defeat city 3-0 and show that **** robinho what has he missed.
up the chels
PS: JoeBlue nice having you back. cheers
6. CFCIR
CITY ONLY WANT TO BUY STARS,THIS SHEIKH IS STUPID.
ROMAN SPENT MONEY IN CHELSEA BUT WE BOUGHT PLAYERS LIKE ESSIEN/DROGBA/ROBBEN….
THESE ARE NOT STARS.CHELSEA CHANGE THEM INTO STARS. NOW SCOLARI MUST WORK HARD FOR 13TH SEPT GAME . HEY GUYS , DID YOU REMEMBER OUR 6:0 VICTORY AGAINST THEM WITH AVRAM,
WHY SCOLARI CAN NOT REPEAT IT?
7. trueblue
excellent article BC, this article should be in one of UK’s newspapers ,coz people in england always see chelsea from a different perspective
8. Jo
excellent post!!!!!there is only one chelsea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9. denver
Good article man !!
I don’t think we will give them 6-0 at their stadium but we can beat them.
NB. when we beat them 6-0 we were just upset at how the league was going for us so we decided to take things into our own hands. And just have no mercy!!
10. denver
bc it seems we have a mid field issue on our hands, Essien is out, ballack is out, Mikel should be back, I hope we use Ivanovic soon
11. Lissette Evil Blue
There is a new Chelsea yeah and thats US the same one(jaja) We are the new a Chelsea. U know what mean this season with the new vibe we are Winning. Cus no other team tean can do a Chelsea ok. Move on now.
12. Lissette Evil Blue
Oh I forgot to say that you man deserve and award really man I always enjoy reading your stuff what is that award called yeah A Pulitzer Prize.
13. trueplatinum
you couldn’t say what i was thinking any better
we may have spent money on some stars but they were namely for the future or for stability
but it has been our younger players who make up the older core of our game today
man city has some great youngsters being richards, johnson, kompany and sturridge
these new owners will buy every star under the sun and these guys will be pushed out to haunt them later
the best thing man city can do, is shed the deadweight of the team and invest in some young players who are proving themselves, like gettin drenthe to replace garrido
14. needJOSE
i had always believe that u need british core player in your squad…like what we did, and manure….
15. Adonis
Everyone, look at the bright side: It sure is going to be fun being Manchester City in upcoming Fifa releases 
There’s only one Chelsea. You said it right, BC. The Sheikhs are tired of their horse racing so they want to dabble in another sport. They don’t have the passion. They concidered Manchester City one of the ‘prestegious clubs of Europe.’ Let me set you straight, sheikh… you’re only prestegious if you win things, and ManC hasn’t won a thing since before your ruling family came to being.
I loved reading Garrido’s comments about the NEW CHELSEA. HA! That dumbass doesn’t realize that he’s not good enough to be a substitute on the team the Sheikh is talking about buying. It’s going to be hilarious when he gets kicked off the team. I really am so excited about that happening.
Come on, already!! I WANNA SEE US BEAT MANCHESTER CITY!
16. Ravi
Any news about Essien Injury. Suddenly with John Obi & Ballack injured our mid field would be light , considering we have three important games (CL) .
17. blabliblublu
i cant see essien and fibreglass joining man city
no way
but the most loyal player in the history of football “i am a rossoneri at heart i am a rossoneri at my head
i am a rossoneri at my butt”’s agent is telling his client kaka could be tempted to join man city
18. pandayumyum
ive ready many different blogs and many different articles concerning football and i must say you are simply one of the most thoughtful and brilliant writers out there. Your articles are always very opinionated and well thought out and I appreciate it. This article in particular is quite brilliant. Keep up the good work.
19. JoseHoliday
Actually the ones who are scratching their heads must be ManUre cos those derbys are gonna be real sizzling hot, hotter than they were before and both teams gonna lose precious points.
20. Jo
provided that essien,ballack mikel,drogba are still out injured,the team to start against man city will be:
cech
bosingwa carvalho terry a cole
belleti/ivanovic
lampard deco
sinclair joe cole
di santo
however i doubt sinclair di santo and ivanovic will start as scolari may nt risk it….
21. Stamford Brigde will NEVER fall
Read my mind BC, read my mind !
I actually live in dubai so theres this huge thing made out of an abu dhabi sheikh buying an english club, its in the news and stuff. In fact, an article once stated that when a journalist once asked Dr Fahim if hes willing to spend $2 billion on the club in a single transfer, he replied “If thats what it takes”. Its crazy cuz you cant just buy glory, i mean, look at QPR.
Like CFCIR said, lets get a similar result like what avram got .. A 12:0 this time, cuz scolaris twice a better everything than grant… C’mon Man City, get ready to do the math… Blues Forever !
22. JoseHoliday
BC
Great stuff !
could you have a little box on the home page telling us when the next game is going to be ?
Much appreciated.
JoseHoliday
23. Stamford Brigde will NEVER fall
Hey BC, you gotta read this ! :
“Robinho: I’ll Show Chelsea What I’m Worth
“It is Real’s fault that I did not sign for Chelsea but it is also Chelsea’a fault,” he told The People. “I don’t think they managed it very well. They waited until the last minute and it turned out badly for them.” “When I play against them I will show that they were wrong not to raise their offer. City presented the offer five hours before the deadline and until then I had not been thinking about them at all.”
Now we’ve GOT TO thrash them…GO Blues !!
24. owonatty
Great Article. ManCity still have a lot to learn and we’ll teach them a little next match. It is true they can not stand the pressure and the english press which will make every manager and player to perform below par. We should wait and see. Situation will surely sort itself out and we’ll all see and mock them.
Go Blues!!!
25. CFCIR
before roman chelsea were a great team. chelsea deserved to owned by billionaire.chelsea potential charged roman to bought chelsea. chelsea didnt buy stars in 2005 or 2006. only shevchenko and ballack were stars.
other players like cech/terry/lampard/coles/essien/gudjansen/huth….. they reached to higher levels at chelsea and become stars. mancity have a great potential in big scores losses(6:0 & 8:1)
chelsea must learn them a great teach. if we beat them next week lots of pressure will come on citizens and their silly power feeling will get off.
26. KG
hey i’m a first timer here and i daresay i’m impressed with your writing. its bullseye everywhere. man city can’t do a Roman stunt. they’ve got not history to back them, and even Ryan Giggs came out slamming their history.
but seriously, all this matter none when we whoop man city’s arse come the 13th. and it’ll be sweet!
27. TAF
Well said man, football is a team sport, the success of a team is correlated to their perfomance on the pitch, not the amount spent on them,
28. denver
guys let us be careful on this one…. because i noticed over the years that chelsea don’t play well after an international break, its like it disturbs our riddim !! but we can beat the for sure!!!
29. Lissette Evil Blue
Juve: City playing ‘fantasy football’
Juventus president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli has laughed off reports of a possible bid for Gianluigi Buffon by mega-rich Manchester City.
“It’s fantasy football,” he told Sky Italia. “This summer there was another case of fantasy football, to be precise the story of David Trezeguet to Barcelona.
“That was fantasy football, and this is the same.”
Ja ja Its true thats whay their doing.
30. cap123
http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=855251 good lad that mark hughes
31. jpenov
What a dick:
“It is Real’s fault that I did not sign for Chelsea but it is also Chelsea’s fault,” Robinho told The People.
“I don’t think they managed it very well. They waited until the last minute and it turned out badly for them.
“My head was at Chelsea but now that is forgotten. I know Scolari is upset with me but these things happen.
“When I play against them I will show that they were wrong not to raise their offer.”
32. Pensioner
Hi Blue Champions,
I don’t see why Man City can’t be successful in the EPL. They won’t win the league but I can definately see a top eight finish.
Cheers
33. Pensioner
Anyway Man City will only try and win the league next season, right now there goal is to get into europe.
Cheers
34. LieDetector
Hi BCs,
I can c the success of Man City already. Yep. Its all from blue’s forums… If you are not really scared, y do you make such huge noise??!!!
Man city - “the new Chelsea”. I wont be happy if i were a Man City fan to here this stupid comparison. Sheikh wants Man City to be some thing huge than that of Blues… A vision better than what Roman had and to do that he has huge wealth way more than what Roman has…
Money isn’t everything, i agree. But that is what is the foundation of the huge skyscraper that is planned for. I see a strong foundation in Gulf oil tycoon. The one who reads this would obviously accept. Q is whether the sheikh will carry this forward in right direction. I hope he does since he is a good business man.
I read in this article that JM brought no superstars… Are you guys conscious? then who are these? Drogba, Robben, Essein, Cech??!!!! You say that they are raw talents when he brought? did he make them a gr8 players? They were already established players. Come on man.. They were just united with Russian money. Its shear money that defeated Man U to get robben along ur yatch. Would u disagree?
Regarding Mark Hughes, I too have the doubts. But he may be used like Raineri, may be till next season. There are lots of extremely popular managers who are free agents now. Frank Rijkaard, Roberto Mancini, Marcelo Lippi - to name a few. I am sure, the owners know that!!!
Modern footballers are more attracted towards money. If not y would
Robben choose chelsea over a much established Man U?
Figo swap Real over Barca?
Sheva swap Chelsea over his so called second home “Milan”? was it to learn English?!! 
Ballack swap Chelsea over German powerhouse?
y did cashly cole leave his youth club arsenal?
y did lamps demand a figure more than that of his colleagues even though he was well payed?
………………… list goes on……………..
Being a blue you should know the power of the money. Or u should never under estimate its value. I believe, money is a major factor in modern football… Money used in right direction can create a new brand of football… Given some time new good brand(obviously with huge pay cheque n burning desire to win) attracts lots of gr8 footballers… With a collection of gr8 footballers guided in right direction - VICTORY IS INEVITABLE!!!!!
I am not saying that Man City is gonna win something this year… With this amount of money at their disposal and given their desire to win combined with some positive moves on and off the pitch…
New football fans have yet another brand to choose “MANCHESTER CITY”
Cheers!!!
35. PointBlanc
Hmmm…. but the point that was being made was that, Man City aren’t using their money properly. Buying all the best players may not really help. and the ‘new chelsea’ thing is bullshit.
36. LieDetector
Not using their money properly? What did you see as wrong investment? Is that Robinho??? Ha ha… see any of the chelsea blogs… just a week before close of transfer window…… See the blues fans praising Robinho for his skills…. Now saying that he is not a good investment is just a sign of mere frustation of not landing him…
Even the chelsea management we elated with prospect of Robinho…. A sign of that is…. stupidity of selling the shirts that carried the name “Robinho”….
Would you disagree?!! No one can… If so, you guys are lying….
37. zack
We’ve only made one big signing. We’ve only had one day in the transfer window. You’re on day one thousand and whatever. We’re on day 63. Stick your bitter comments up your arse. Come back in 2 seasons time and we’ll have a proper look at who did the right thing. Typical cockney.
hey BC
| Quote This Comment | Add Comment | Go To Top | Back To Home | Gravatar | BC Shout | BBC Radio | Refresh |spot on man, spot on, we payed inflated prices but not for world beaters like Zidane’s and Figo’s and Ronaldo’s of the time but individuals who were to become a team, Madrid bought all the stars of the world at one point but mind you that was the time they dint win anything too, only now when they have become less of a superstar arena and more of a team that they have started winning titles again, another point to come in mind is that Chelsea were already on the way up, we were thereabout when Roman bought us, he dint just turn us from a mid table team to contenders, we had been a team to reckon with before he had even arrived, let Man city try to make their own legacy, as they say the bigger they are the harder they fall, but trying to copy our sucess is nothing but sheer stupidity, i think all the billionares in the world looking at Roman think that they too are no less and given a chance they too can transform any club into the greatest one ever, then they imagine all the stars of the world putting on their teams jersy’s, like Fabregas has just said for any top class player to sign for them wld be career suicide…