Don't hate the player! Hate the game!
When you are taken over by an Arab with more money than most small countries, I wouldn't expect to make many friends. From the moment it happened the comments were rolled out from everywhere (mainly rags) about how we had sold out to foreigners and with the amount of money we had we were going to ruin football. Well I say; tough! It's our turn for success! We are sick of living in the shadows. We are a big club and have been waiting for our chance to return to prominence for too long.
Football has change, thats the simple fact. Ever since the influx of Premier league T.V. Money, the sharks have been gradually circling since the true potential of what could be made from football was revealed. The 'foreign legion' began pouring into the sport, from Mohammed Al-Fayed at Fulham, right through to the Japanese consortium that took over Plymouth Argyle not two days ago. It is just the age we live and young fans that have just started to follow the game will fail to know different.
It is clear that some owners are here for money. Despite all the drama in Liverpool, it is clear that George Gillett and Tom Hicks are not at Liverpool for their love of The Kop and 'soccer'. Then you look at owners like Randy Lerner at Villa and Sheikh Mansour with us, these men have a genuine love of the game and this can be seen through their actions and interactions with fans. They are willing to listen, with Lerner even going as far as to interact with fans over forums, although I do pray that our Arab owners do not stumble onto Bluewatch as I am sure they will be shocked at some of the goings on (you know who you are.)
We are lucky. There is no doubt of that. We are arguably the richest club in the world. It is just typical City luck that in the summer we are intent on spending big and signing the cream of World football, and that Real Madrid are also on a mission to rebuild their Galacticos. Just out shining us and making us feel not so important.
We have all the tools in place to rule English football. People will say we 'bought' the title; so what. The only team I feel that can say they haven't bought the Premiership is Arsenal and even then they had signed Ljungberg, Viera, Bergkamp and, Overmars for sizeable fees.
The way football is now, you have to buy the League. You are never going to get teams like West Ham, Sunderland or Aston Villa challenging for a title off their own backs it just won't happen.
So for now lets just ride the wave. We are on the brink of something big, I can feel it and its all thanks to a couple of men from the Middle East. God I love City!!
Kieran O'Brien (mcfc_kieran)
