Have City Learnt From Chelsea?

Having watched the demolition of Man Utd at the hands of their rivals Man City, City are now favourites for a maiden Premier League Championship. Given the players at their disposal it is hard to argue otherwise. Fergie made a good point before the match when he said that he likes to hit form around 'March' time towards the end of the season. Fergie knows better than anyone that titles are not won before Christmas. Closing out a Title is much more difficult than setting the pace and leading the race 3/4 quarters of the way.

But back to City and the subject at hand. Man City are a rich club. Yes their is debt, but there is also investors on hand to wipe that out if need be. City are a club on the rise. They have the City of Manchester stadium and the sky is the limit. In a way they were the best team for any investor to invest in. Look at the problems Liverpool and Newcastle have faced in the boardroom.

Now Chelsea. How do they fit into this discussion? Well both City and Chelsea have massively wealthy backers. Turn back to 2003 when Abramovich kick started the money train trend. Money could buy success. Unfortunately this didn't work for Ranieri, but a year later Mourinho remedy this with Championship success. Mancini like Mourinho then had a massive squad with great depths in their reserves. Abramovich despite Mourinho delivering back to back titles, a League Cup was still not happy with the success Chelsea had. Europe was and is still the trophy he desires. In 2006 for me is when it started to come undone. Shevchenko £30M. Ballack on a free. All seemed like someone else's doing and not Mourinho's. It took another 4 years before Chelsea tasted League success and that was after Champions League heartache and an 2 FA Cups in the bag.

City seemed to have followed a different route. Mancini has been left to manage and run the team and has had full board support without interferance during the Tevez saga. No-one is backing the player and rightfully so. More importantly the board aren't either. Despite being their tailisman last season and captain, it does not make him bigger than the club and that is a harsh lesson he is learning. City understand that conquering at home is more important than conquering abroad. Take their neighbours Utd. Won 5 Titles before winning in Europe. Strangely enough it took another 5 Titles for another European success. This is something I think Abramovich has taken for granted. 2 back to back Titles does not mean you can conquer the rest of the field. Some will argue look at Barcelona or AC Milan or even Liverpool. Barcelona have a culture that exists within their football. As did Milan, but they also had a squad of vast experience. Liverpool took advantage of an opportunity that presented itself and that hasn't been replicated by a team under similar circumstances since. City have not got a culture in place, but they are building. Chelsea didn't and still don't.

I wonder if City will create a new path to glory.

i'm not sure about city

too early