Comments on: Manchester City May Not Be as Rich as You Thought

By: Brian Phillips

Brian Phillips — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:04:02 +0000

@Oliver Yes, exactly. Bhoyrul has almost no credibility. My point is that everything he said about the sale turned out to be exaggerated, but—even though he has no credibility—he was widely quoted, featured on TV, and generally treated as a reliable source by the media. Thus, a lot of exaggerations crept into discussions of the sale.

This post is pointing out that he was wrong, not telling you he’s someone you should listen to.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:53:07 +0000

Is the “expert.. Anil Bhoyrul” the same “Anil Bhoyrul is a former Daily Mirror business journalist who was investigated over the so-called ‘City Slickers’ share tipping scandal along with the paper’s then editor, Piers Morgan … On 7 December 2005, Bhoyrul and his former Daily Mirror colleague James Hipwell were convicted of conspiracy to breach the Financial Services Act 1986. Bhoyrul was sentenced to 180 hours of community service on 20 January 2006.”(source : Wikipedia)

If he is, you should name your other experts so we can find out how reliable they are.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:19:59 +0000

@Brian Phillips – No ne ever said they were going to spend 850 billion. But they have in fact spent more money than any one else ever have in such on a short period, much of it on mediocre players.

Kaka wont take your money? Oh heck buy robinho. He sucks? A what the heck buy James Milner, even though he cant even hold down a jersey on the england team? Fabregas wont take your dirty money, oh just spend 24 million on Yaya Toure and give the rejecters the figer by throwing Yaya a salary that Barcelona would never have given him in a lifetime.

Yeah, they’re spending money like drunken sailors – which is exactly what was predicted. There is no point dragging through red herrings about which of the shiekhs gazillion bank accounts and shell companies the money is coming from. It’s being spent – rapidly.

By: Brian Phillips

Brian Phillips — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:19:45 +0000

@Sam They are not, however, spending $850 billion, or anything even remotely close to it.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:06:16 +0000

Well, two years on its pretty clear this article was way off base. Fact is that Man City has been spending money like water and has totally distorted both the transfer market pricing and player salaries.

Joleon Lescott for 24 million? Well now anyone with an England fringe player wants that kind of money. Look at Milner’s subsequent transfer and the prices being turned down for Jagielka and gary Cahill.

With Yaya Toure earning 220,000 GBP per week, not only are the likes of Rooney demanding similar numbers (and that story isnt over I’ll bet, as he will probably force a transfer with his exit clause before he is 26) and you can only imagine that every midfield donkey in the premiership will now argue that if Yaya is worth 200K a week then surely they are worth no less than a quarter of that amount.

Man City is spending so much money that even Abramovic’s flunkies are crying “uncle” and calling for UEFA to enforce financial sanity. That pretty much says it all.

But no, Man City has not been backed by a sea of easy money from billionaire owners, nooooooooo….

By: Manchester City May Not Be as Rich as You Thought « Scissors Kick

Manchester City May Not Be as Rich as You Thought « Scissors Kick — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:27:22 +0000

[...] “It’s been happening quietly, since for some reason the media don’t seem all that eager to visit the possibility that their original version of the story was full of exaggerations and mistakes, but some of the grandiose claims about the purchase of Manchester City by the Abu Dhabi United Group are finally starting to go up in smoke. For instance: the notion that City’s new owners—usually described as “the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi royal family”—were sitting on $850 billion which they were prepared to pour into the club. This astonishing, not to say newspaper-selling, claim turns out to have been based on a simple misconception.” (Run of Play) [...]

By: Tweets that mention Manchester City May Not Be as Rich as You Thought - The Run of Play -- Topsy.com

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:09:59 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by bonedi gunawan, Brian Phillips. Brian Phillips said: Unrelatedly, please don't remember that I once wrote a post called "Manchester City May Not Be As Rich As You Thought." http://bit.ly/d1rzhZ [...]

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:38:40 +0000

I kept thinking that once the dust settled some of the obvious exaggerations would be rolled back. And maybe that’s starting to happen, but when the Guardian is continuing to repeat phrases like “a family fortune of more than £555bn” in an article meant to debunk their earlier exaggerations, you really have to wonder.

Richard — I agree about City supporters having cause for optimism. At the same time, I was mildly taken aback at how eager many of them seemed to be to entertain the fantasy of being Chelsea squared.

By: ursus arctos

ursus arctos — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:36:14 +0000

Not to blow my horn, but I was debunking the original myth in a number of fora within hours of it being “revealed”.

Football journalists are criminally lazy when it comes to “business-related news” (and much else, for that matter).

By: Richard Whittall

Richard Whittall — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:25:59 +0000

So, in other words, Manchester City fans still have reason for relative optimism.

Whatever ends up happening in January, if anything, I still firmly believe that the club with the historically wide following will always trump the club suddenly in the ranks of the nouveau riche.

It would certainly be absurd, considering Europe is on the cusp of a fairly substantial economic downturn, to pour oil resources into Citeh for the ‘glory’ of Abu Dhabi. Owners, players and fans may want to think of the benefit the ‘Slow’ movement could have on football ownership in the UK. It’s working nicely for the Villa, touch my worn and warping Ikea desk.