AGEING CITY LAG WAY BEHIND CHELSEA SWINGERS

SHEIK MANSOUR was determined to do things differently from Roman Abramovich when he bought Manchester City. Now Chelsea have become everything City wanted to be. City were supposed to dominate English and European football with a ‘holistic’ approach, bringing through young talent and not just spending the huge sums Abramovich did when he arrived at Chelsea. Instead, despite their successes, they have an ageing squad, problems with Financial Fair Play (FFP) and making the same errors in the Champions League as when they first played in it. Chelsea, by contrast, have some of Europe’s brightest players, buy and sell intelligently and are thriving on the pitch, too. Sheik Mansour’s recruitment of Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain from Barcelona was seen as crucial in helping transform City’s philosophy and standing in the game. Yet have the changes gone to plan? I would strongly argue no. To have such riches but have one of the Premier League’s oldest squads and be so heavily reliant on one player — Yaya Toure — shows there has been mismanagement and poor decisions with the quality and age of signings. Am I being too harsh? Four trophies since 2011 may say yes but for the £500million spent since 2008, who is the young star who will carry them forward? Who is City’s Eden Hazard or Thibaut Courtois? Why are they so top-heavy with players in their late twenties? Is there another team in the Premier League so reliant on its main players? Every time Manuel Pellegrini makes changes for cup games, like against Middlesbrough, Wigan and Newcastle in the last 12 months, results have been appalling. City will have to spend big again this summer. I think they need five top players, which could cost beyond £150m. But how will they do that when UEFA have punished them already for breaking FFP rules? They got into a position last summer where they could not replace Alvaro Negredo and, when you look at the current squad, you wonder who Pellegrini could sell to generate transfer revenue. Credit should be given for how they have stayed in the title race, particularly as they had to do without Sergio Aguero for so long. Keeping the gap to five points has been a brave effort — they are the only side who can stop Chelsea. In Europe, however, the latest defeat by Barcelona illustrated how far they have to go. It will not be lost on City’s hierarchy that their season could be over by the middle of March.