AS AN ex-Chelsea player and a fan who traipsed all the way to Moscow in May to suffer the disappointment of losing the Champions League final, I must say I was affronted by the behaviour of Manchester City last week.
Robinho had agreed to come to London and the next thing we know he had been tempted by the delights up north. With their new money and brash boasts, City brazenly outbid us for the services of the world-class player we had already pencilled in for th
e match next Sunday at the City of Manchester Stadium. Well all right, even I can spot the irony and even the humour in the entire affair. The is even a snigger factor in the fact that Manchester United, who have been lording it over City all these years, are unlikely to be able to compete with them in the transfer market.
In the background, however, there are some deep concerns for the future of the English game. Overnight a club that have perennially been in the shadows of their neighbours, scraping about hoping for a top-10 finish, are now arguably the world's richest football team thanks to the Abu Dhabi royal family. Forget history, the quality of the manager and the years of planning, this sort of money talks loudest in the modern game.
I have no doubt that within a year or two City will at worst finish in the top three of the Premiership, just as Chelsea did before them when their sugar daddy turned up, but where does it leave the integrity of the league?
The finances of the game down south are now such that any mere millionaire who fancies helping a club will be laughed out of town for being a relative pauper. Clubs that have been run well but do not have a billionaire benefactor might as well give up hope of winning anything substantial in the foreseeable future.
This has probably been the case for some time, but the elite organisations are disappearing so far out of sight that the likes of Wigan, Bolton or even older more established names such as Everton and Spurs would be better served organising scouting systems to find developing oligarchs rather than developing strikers.
In Scotland we all know that the Old Firm's utter dominance all the way from the pitch to the balance sheet has had negative effects on how the SPL as a league is regarded abroad. It is a much less saleable property to TV companies because it is so predictable and, just maybe, England is heading the same way, even if there are four teams instead of two. The rest become fodder and after a while that isn't fun or even particularly interesting. A cursory glance at the attendances for the likes of the aforementioned Wigan and Bolton gives cause for concern – 18,000 against Chelsea a couple of weeks back was not exactly impressive for the greatest league on the planet.
In the midst of the madness, Man City-supporting friends are walking around looking punch drunk and I for one can't blame them for their stupefied grins. Two weeks ago, Thaksin Shinawatra's millions and his freedom were both in question and it looked like the club was only days away from meltdown. I was in Manchester to cover their friendly against AC Milan and afterwards most of the fans had already given up hope.
The talk was of a fire sale of players from under the nose of new manager Mark Hughes. This was particularly sad, as I had just watched the team beat the Italian giants, play some stylish football, welcome back a host of injured players but, maybe most impressively, blood some of their hugely impressive youngsters.
City's Under-18 team won the youth cup last season after a bruising final against Chelsea. If all else was failing at least the fans knew that in the long term there was a production line of talent ready and primed to produce the next Micah Richards. So what happens to them now? Is Daniel Sturridge going to be able to muscle his way into the team when Robinho is only the first of many worldwide stars who will roll into the training ground in his Bentley on day one and most likely his Ferrari on day two?
It is another of English football's current problems shown in microcosm. The development of these kids is certain to be stunted and as such the national team will suffer even more. If there was a concerted plan to ensure these youngsters get through via teams from a lower league it could still work, but the new owners will have domestic, European and global triumphs in their sights rather than the fate of the national team.
Have a thought for even the best English players currently at Manchester City. Shaun Wright-Phillips has just escaped from Chelsea having been transformed from a £21m rising star of the game challenging David Beckham for the right-wing berth in the England team into a bit-part player who managed precious few starts and only four league goals in two years. Then days after returning to the comfort of his old club and scoring a brace on his debut, they have just morphed into the new Chelsea, only bigger. Do you think there is any chance of him still being a first-team regular in 12 months' time? I doubt it.
I watched a youngster called Ched Evans make his mark in the UEFA Cup qualifier against EB Streymur. He was powerful, hard working, confident and talented. In the light of the recent events he was also wasting his time. His future hopes to become a fixture in the first team now depend on his ability to up his game to Galactico standard in a matter of months.
The City fans will understandably care little for his plight. Ask most Chelsea regulars how they feel about watching Ballack, Deco and Didier Drogba compared to Durie, Nevin and Doug Rougvie and they will smile pityingly.
And even if the season tickets are a lot more expensive these days, few would swap Premiership trophies and Champions League finals for sixth place in the league and the odd cup final every 10 years just to save a few quid.
The real concerns are for those left behind in the big spenders' wakes: the other clubs without billions and without much hope of tasting glory unless you class that as surviving in the league each season; for their fans who are expected to turn up and pay fortunes knowing that they will not be having a glorious moment in the sun anytime soon. Even the players for clubs outside that elite band know that while they will be wealthy enough, their role may now be the football equivalent of the Washington Generals, the team that was beaten every week by the Harlem Globe Trotters. And we all know that wasn't true sport at all.
The full article contains 1184 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
