MAN CITY WON their first league title in 44 years yesterday in the most dramatic circumstances imaginable.
Of course, now that they’ve overcome this challenge, many will ask whether it is the beginning of an era in which City dominate the English game.
Roberto Mancini’s side are likely to get even better next year, as they look to build a side capable of winning the Champions League.
And City’s spending power is far superior to their rivals, so they are likely to be able to attract more world class players in the summer.
Then again, it has been one of the most unpredictable seasons in years, and the next campaign is likely to be as competitive as ever, so Roberto Mancini’s men surely cannot afford to take anything for granted.
Moreover, Alex Ferguson’s teams have been written off all too prematurely on many occasions in the past, only to bounce back with aplomb.
Therefore, we are asking if City will now dominate the league for years to come, or will sides of the calibre of United continue to be serious contenders for the title.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.
Manchester Utd… In decline since 1992!!!
Damian
Man United in decline since 1992? Shut up you fool.
Red devil, I think Damians comment was sarcasm. Don’t be so touchy.
Look at my profile pic you idiot!!!
Al man u fans whinging about City “buying” the title, shut up u fools uz have been doing it for years, ur days of bully boy tactics in the transfer market are over thanks 2 the Glaziers funnelling al the capital out of the club, A blue moon has risen n the only team in Manchester is blue…..
Paul
Man United were successful on and off the field even before the Glaziers took over. Are you sure about that? City spend over £330million on players since 2008. They did buy the title.
*Glazers
Gerard !!!! Ryan Giggs has been with Utd since he was 11 so it’s fair to say he was produced by Utd, Danny Welbeck is another plus Utd reserves won the league and I know there’s a few locals lads in there coming through again , don’t know if any local lads at city ??? That I could mention
@Paul — You only have to look at Chelsea & Roman Abramovich to see that Billionaire owners won’t shovel cash into the furnace indefinitely!! Sooner or later a line has to be drawn on spending! City’s Sheik will get bored after a few years & something else will turn his eye!!!
Man United have never had any billionare or Millionare owners, they never bought big name players…….
Who gives a flying fcuk – they are Champions !!!!
Nope
Would you not expect you’re club to want the best players available, I’ve supported United for 40 years and don’t mind how we win the title, spend a billion on players ( unlikely cos of the Glazers) or bring talent through. One point to make is that money has not guaranteed Chelski the prem and as of writing they ain’t won a Champions league yet. Yesterday was what being a football supporter was all about. Raw emotion and for me ultimate disappointment, but it’s over now so we can swap our club loyalty to cheer on Trap’s army and wait patiently for August to start all over again. Well done City.
Also don’t forget city only won on goal difference.
They will continue to spend and improve in my opinion.
Much is made of the amount they have spent compared to Utd say.
But the comparison is flawed. Utd have spent big on players over a long period. Their squad is already at a certain level. For a club to raise to that level, they need to improve the entire squad, not just add a few players per year as Utd have done over the past 20 years.
Looking at total spend of both teams isn’t a fair reflection.
The meme doing the rounds on twitter summed this up. Te starting price for the 2 squads last weekend was £161m for Cities 11 players and £169m for Utd’s. Also remembering that Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney’s exceptionally large transfer fee’s were paid when the average player sale was much lower.
I can only see City improving from here on in. Unfortunately.
Since 1992 Chelsea have spent £744 million on players, City have spent €649 million, Liverpool £552 million and United £305 million. Average per season Chelsea £25 million, City £23 million, Liverpool €11 million and United €8 million. Those figures belie the so called heavy spending of United.
Is that net or total spend? Are you saying that the current Utd squad equates to 55% of total spend (£169m) over the past 20 years?
It doesn’t stack up.
@danny Net spending since 92 – Chelsea £515 million, City £473 million, Liverpool £226 million and United €177 million. Still belies United spending their way to glory. Don’t forget how much home grown talent United used over the years.
Danny i think if you take away last 5 years man utds average would go up. They have not been spending big since then. Until chelsea and abramovich came along man utd broke every transfer record in the book. They were the biggest spenders in the 90′s and bought their league titles just like chelsea and even blackburn at the time.
@begrudgery 1992 to 2001 totals spent on players. Chelsea £121 million, Liverpool £111 million, United £80 million, City £55 million. In those figures consider City spent 4 seasons outside the Premiership in those years. Still can’t see how United bought titles.
UTD WILL BE BACK. once the new financial regulations come in to play city will be stumped.
The Empire WILL strike back. We’ll keep the red flag flying high ’cause Man United will never die.
@red devil you do man utd proud with comments like SHUT UP YOU FOOL. no real fan.
Mancini looking very awkward holding the cup. We will be back next season to remove that awkwardness. :-)
Love these “we” comments. They are highly paid professionals. They probably don’t even know about the rants of a few on the Journal… Wonder do they know about the Journal.. The “we” gang can tell their buddies..
Anyone but United. It’s time for Ferguson to be out out to pasture.
Ridicules comment. He’s come back time and time again.
Ahahahahaha. City dominate the Premier League. City may have bought good players but they didnt produce them. They were already well known around Europe even before they joined City
Apart from scholes which of yesterday’s starting 11 were produced by utd?
You may have heard of the most successful footballer in the history of the English game, Ryan Giggs!! Also Johnny Evans!! Cleverly was on the bench too!
I don’t see what whether or not them producing players has to do with them dominating the Premier League…
I think it makes a big difference to dominating, I think you can win a league or two by aquiring players but all teams I can recall that dominated supplemented that with a core of players that they produced or bought very young and moulded and that consequently had a deep and genuine affection for the club.
City bought their way to success. United started many years ago and built their success and wealth up themselves. Take nothing away from City, they deserved to win the league this season but they just bought it. The money they have is not from winning league after league, it’s basically because they were bought over but hey, that’s life. They still deserved to win the league but never ever write Manchester United off. Look at Chelsea, Blackburn and Arsenal ; they were all the best team in the country at one stage…
Their biggest challenge will be to do what Chelsea hasn’t done and replace players as they get older. That is providing they keep spending.
As long as Fergie is still breathing, United won’t be far away. It was only a tie breaker that separated the 2 teams.
Bit sad that the Liverpool fans are clinging to this for any joy out of their season. They have been relegated to Liverpool’s #2 team. I can’t see them passing any of the top 6 for the foreseeable future.
League was won on goal difference. That suggests the teams are of equal standard
Blackburn came and United came back, Arsenal came and United came back, Chelsea came and United came back, City have arrived (albeit by goal difference) and United will be back no doubt. All this talk of empires and new dominance has been heard before yet no one is yet comparable to United irregardless of why money has been splashed about.
Man City will be up near the top as long as they have the money they have now. I expect Man Utd and others to keep challenging them though.
did inflation not go up since the nineties the 2 clubs spent big comparing the 2 spends like with like is not accurate.
City 2012 £76 million, United 2012 £53 million, City 2011 £154 million, United 2011 £27 million, City 2010 £125 million, United 2010 £21 million, City 2009 £127 million, United 2009 £35 million. That’s comparing like with like, inflation has no effect on those figured.
Because of the recession no figures from about 2007 have really gone up, the comment is alluding to the fact that in 1993 we paid £3.75m for Keane and it was a record and in 2011 city paid a club record of £34 for Aguero making it hard to quantify the effect of money. We all know they’ve spent more the last 5 years but they had to to catch us because they were starting from a weaker base!
@ Joseph. Yet in the 90′s when United apparently bought the title City spent £55 million compared to Uniteds £80 million while spending 3 years in Division One and 1 year in Division Two. Figures don’t show the supposed gulf.
I never said that we bought the title, but we did spend significant sums of money, I don’t think you can consistently win without both spending large sums on freshening the squad whilst keeping a constant core of locally produced, or players brought young that you’ve moulded.
united,chelsea arsenal and spurs will all improve in the summer, next season all the other teams will want to beat them or park the bus in front of the goal. if I was a betting man id put money on united to win it next season
City had a better goal difference that makes them the best team. When city beat united one nil the united team cost more. Bitter bitter bitter. Plus their should have been seven minutes injury time not five.
Most likely, the same will happen to them as happened to Chelsea. They spend big, build up a great squad, win a couple of titles and then retain that winning squad for too long, making them uncompetitive in 3-5 years time.
Utd will always be a threat and even with the new financial rules, I expect Chelsea to return the season after next to threaten them. They have a lot of very good under 23s coming through – Bertrand, Piazon, Marin, Hutchinson, Lukaku, De Bruyne, Romeu, Sturridge, McEachran, Kakuta, Courtois – and if even a third of them turn out to be as good as they look, they’ll have a strong team on the cheap.
City have already showed they can’t defend there titles, FA cup defence first
Game went crashing out to Utd ,and same will happen with the league, the team they have now will change over the next 2 yrs , Balotelli , Tevez, will be sold, Toure wants to go back to Barsa, Aguero will go elsewhere eventually cause Maradona pulls the strings there, yes they will buy new players but will never replace those
They’ll do quite well, but there’s one reason that will stop them dominating the Premiership until the fix it and thats Mancini. He’s a good manager, but he’s not a great one. He’s made decisions that have thrown away points on them on a number of occasions, not to mention their atrocious runs in the cup competitions. If that was a truly world class manager you can’t help but feel they would have run away with the league and won at least one of the cups with the squad thats there.
It’s been an amazing season. As a United fan I was disappointed with the European campaign and that highlighted major problems in the squad. City had teething problems there as well. I admire Ferguson for getting so much out of a squad with limited recsources. Bringing back Scholes was a stroke of luck, Vidic was a monumental loss and there are issues in the full back positions, another center half and a new midfield. City’s team spirit will have finally cemented after winning the league. There are players there to admire like Kompany, Richards, Hart, Silva and Aguero who give it their all. I’ve no time for Balotelli even though he’s a talent and Tevez needs to prove his worth to City fans again. United will be beaten in the transfer market by City this summer so Fergie will have to look at youth again I’d say. Well done City, it was an exciting finish and well done United for putting it up to them with the injuries and below par players they had this year.
When City beat United 6-1 at Old Trafford last October. Many people were saying City will walk the league. They are idiots for it. Also I have to laugh at people saying United are in decline.
If utd don’t buy another centre back and a decent holding midfielder then in my opinion they will be in decline, they need to sell at least 5 players, eg berbatov, Anderson, park etc
Don’t worry, Utd will bounce back, in about 10 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Funny Gerard im comfortable with our centre halfs with Vidic back in next year, it’s the middle of the park where I want a couple in, and maybe a right back too if a proper one becomes available
united wont be able to compete unless they spend big cant understand why anyone thinks that one or two players will fix their problem as if one or two players would make the difference between getting knocked out of europes’ b cup and winning something city will win prem next year easy mancini has already proved he can do it and it wont be goal difference sorry united fans nothing last forever
Big yawn !!!!!!
I wonder how many of you supported English team 2 years ago in South Africa?
The ultimate challenge for City is staying on top of their game and continuing to win trophies, it’s going to be challenging for United, but you can never write them off while Fergie is in charge, despite all the off field issues with the Glazers/money etc.
Fergie’s final challenge, perhaps? To see off the noisy neighbours.
If they properly invest in this new training and youth academy and supplement it with continued spending on top players they won’t be far away but I’d like to think Fergie will keep united up there challenging as long as he is around, our problem is that he is 70 and has to step down eventually!
NO
I’ve seen too many Premier leagues where United were written off, the most recent just finished. I think 2 or 3 times they were gone yet it still took 5 mins of injury time in the last game for City to clinch it. Football’s a funny old’ game and hard to predict. Anyway Liverpool should come roaring back next season eh?!