Manchester City Polarising Opinion As Eto’o Ponders Joining The Party

by Tom Mallows

After the rather farcical attempt to lure Kaka to Eastlands in January, Manchester City boss Mark Hughes has lowered his sights a little this summer, but he has still formed the nucleus of what could be a very, very good side.

If you consider Robinho and Shaun Wright Phillips are already at the club, add Roque Santa Cruz and (potentially) Carlos Tevez and Samuel Eto’o into the mix and you have a potent attacking force as good as anyone in the country, if not Europe. Behind that will be last year’s fans player of the year Stephen Ireland and two rock solid midfielders in Gareth Barry and Nigel De long as well as Shay Given between the sticks.

Many believe a defensive addition is needed; Joleon Lescott has been mentioned, to complete the team. Once that defender is in the ranks I truly believe City have a side that can go for the title – the ‘big four’ clubs are now acutely aware of City’s presence breathing down their necks.

But already I have noticed a sizable shift in the reaction to City’s lavish spending. The City fans are obviously delighted, they will gloss over the fact they are buying success and argue that after all their years of heartache they have earned the break. Some other fans agree and are happy to see a club finally breaking up the ‘big four’ monopoly at the top of the Premier League.

However in the eyes of many other fans Manchester City are rapidly becoming their second least favourite club after Chelsea. Fans will now love to beat them and claim the moral victory by proving you can’t win everything with money.

Why the ill feeling? Well some of it will be because City are trying to hoover every team’s best players – they have been bothering Blackburn for Santa Cruz for over six months now. This perceived notion that they can simply go out and buy who they want will be seen as arrogance by many sides, above and below them.

The big four will naturally feel threatened that their cosy rich man’s club is under threat. The teams just below them, Everton, Aston Villa and Spurs, will be annoyed that while they are looking to build sides to compete with the big four year-on-year, City have just done four years work in one and look set to overtake all of them.

There is also underlining jealousy at their immense spending power. Fans of other clubs trot out the lines that it is immoral and bad for the game. I totally agree, I think the figures banded about are obscene. The old adages of good coaching, organisation and hardwork are out of the window and football is now decided by the size of your cheque book. But if your club were taken over in similar circumstances and bought the world’s best players would you be complaining?

We will wait with interest to see how the City ‘project’ turns out but already I get the feeling that whatever they achieve they will not get much recognition or praise because of the way it was brought about. And every time they stumble it seems a safe bet that it will be greeted with a smug sense of satisfaction from those clubs without a Sheikh’s billions behind them.

Tom Mallows is a sports writer for Betfair and columnist for Just Football

England, English Premier League, Manchester City, Samuel Eto\'o, Tom Mallows