Manchester City are now the richest club on the planet !
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City beat Chelsea to sign £32.5m Robinho
Surprise twist to deadline day as Brazilian breaks British record
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan - £555 billion
Roman Abramovich - £11.7billion
Manchester City demonstrated their new-found status as the richest club on the planet when the billionaire Arabs who have bought the club from Thaksin Shinawatra stunned Roman Abramovich late last night by signing Robinho from under the noses of Chelsea.
The Brazilian has cost a British-record £32.5m after a remarkable transfer-deadline day in which Manchester United managed to rush through Dimitar Berbatov's signing on a four year-deal for a fee of £30.75m - After that Abramovich was left under no illusion that Chelsea are no longer the financial superpower of English football.
Never has Abramovich lost out in a straight battle of money for a player's transfer. And never before have City had the financial muscle that comes from being backed by an organisation as powerful as the Abu Dhabi United Group, comprising members of the super-rich United Arab Emirates royal family and the multi-billionaire Sulaiman Al Fahim.
On a seminal day that saw Thaksin sell the club for £210m and relinquish his chairmanship, Robinho's arrival represents an immediate statement of intent - a box-office signing that takes their spending to £70m since Mark Hughes replaced Sven-Goran Eriksson as manager.
"I am absolutely delighted to get the opportunity to work with such an incredible talent like Robinho," said Hughes, who will give the Brazilian a debut, against Chelsea, on September 13. "In order to compete with the best teams in the Premier League we have to be in the market for players of this calibre, and Robinho is undoubtedly one of the best in the world. I am really looking forward to introducing him to the rest of the squad and to the City fans. This is a real statement of intent as to the ambitions of Manchester City."
The transfer represents a major disappointment for Chelsea and their manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, who had identified Robinho as his principal target, and the player had gone so far as to give a bizarre press briefing in Madrid on Sunday declaring his wish to move to Stamford Bridge.
Indeed the lesson of the past 24 hours is that the Premier League has a new big hitter. "I just wish we could have done it [the takeover] earlier to give us more time to spend but unfortunately I was on vacation travelling across Europe when the proposition reached me," said Al Fahim. "Thierry Henry and [Brazil's] Ronaldo can add the confidence and the experience and provide the mix with he younger players. These are the kind of players we are looking for. We have deep pockets."
A day of high-stakes negotiating began with City bidding £34m in a late, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to hijack United's move for Berbatov. At the same time City made an opening bid of £28.5m for Robinho as well as contacting Valencia to see whether £40m would persuade them to sell David Villa and offering in excess of £10m for another striker, Stuttgart's Mario Gómez. Valencia and Stuttgart did not want to sell, and Berbatov always had his heart set on Old Trafford, but Real were willing to do business provided City offered another £4m. As Al Fahim said: "Money is not a worry to my board."
City were unable to compete with United, however, when it came to Berbatov, despite offering Tottenham a more lucrative deal and letting the Bulgarian know through intermediaries that they would pay him more in wages.
To the intense irritation of Spurs, Berbatov flew into Manchester yesterday without permission and was picked up at the airport by Sir Alex Ferguson. He was then taken to the training ground before being driven to a hospital to undergo a medical while United came to a compromise with Spurs over the fee. "This is a key signing," said Ferguson. "Dimitar is one of the best and most exciting strikers in world football. His style and ability will give the team a different dimension."
Tottenham earlier completed the £14m signing of Roman Pavlyuchenko from Spartak Moscow, as well as bringing in the £8m defender Vedran Corluka from City. They would rather have sold Berbatov to City and also took a call from Real offering £36m. However, Berbatov made it clear he was interested only in United and Spurs had no option but to reopen talks.
Top 10 British transfers
£32.5m Robinho (Real Madrid to Man City)
£30.75m Dimitar Berbatov (Tottenham to Man Utd)
£31m Andriy Shevchenko (Milan to Chelsea)
£29.3m Rio Ferdinand (Leeds to Man Utd)
£28m Juan Sebastián Verón (Lazio to Man Utd)
£27m Wayne Rooney (Everton to Man Utd)
£26.5m Fernando Torres (Atlético Madrid to Liverpool)
£24.4m Michael Essien (Lyon to Chelsea)
£23.8m Didier Drogba (Marseille to Chelsea)
£21m Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man City to Chelsea)
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more to come from man city
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555 billion? corporation, not individual right?
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Yea, so the probable individual asset of the 2 abu dhabi brothers would be about 100b pounds? still 10 folds more than RA's
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crap, why the 2 american owners from liverpool never sell the club to them
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how come i got bad feeling for chelsea... it's like wat they gonna buy, man city gonna to offer more... imgine chealsea bidding for kaka and messi in jan... den last min man city come in with a bigger bid and snatch them under the noses again... hahaha...
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wah jia lat... huge cash cow for city
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Originally posted by freak creeper:
how come i got bad feeling for chelsea... it's like wat they gonna buy, man city gonna to offer more... imgine chealsea bidding for kaka and messi in jan... den last min man city come in with a bigger bid and snatch them under the noses again... hahaha...
well... you reap what you sow..
when chelsea use money to out bid man Utd wanted players.
they should have see this day coming..
Retribution -
holy shit, imbar
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its like
Lich vs Meepo -
I don't thank it will be so easy next time... This time, Chelsea and probably the whole leauge were caught off guard but it won't be so easy next time when Chelsea now know what City is capable of...
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well... hard to say at this moment of time...
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Well money will never buy you prestige and that's the reason why players like Berbatov do not want to go Man City at this point of time. City needs time to build their credentials as title challengers and players who join them now ultimately has 1 thing on their minds and that is the paycheck.
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WTF
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in future it will be even more difficult for other clubs to get the top players. having chelsea around in the transfer market is difficult enough, now they have man city. spurs and man u are also spending big money on individuals.
those who are unwilling to cant afford to spend will have no chance in attracting the top players.
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Well, it seems Liverpool, Arsenal and United to a certain extend, would have to depend on their club's prestige to persuade players to join them in future...
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wow in comparison roman's fortune looks like peanuts.
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holy cow. a whooping 555BILLION worth of assets.
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Originally posted by freak creeper:
how come i got bad feeling for chelsea... it's like wat they gonna buy, man city gonna to offer more... imgine chealsea bidding for kaka and messi in jan... den last min man city come in with a bigger bid and snatch them under the noses again... hahaha...
thats probably not the case, Real was pretty pissed with Chelsea because of the pre-order shirt thingy, for any other transfer, seller would probably notify all buyers when there is a new bid comes in, this very case is due to Real trying to play Chelsea out, even if someone came in with the same offer as Chelsea reported 28-29m i would gather Real will do business with them instead of with Chelsea..
good thing for the blues of Manchester, with ultra rich UAE owners entering into EPL it would be fun to see how the rest of the league catch up with EPL.
however, alot will still be left to be seen if UAE owners are willing to bankroll the way Roman did, not all will spend the way Roman spent.. and not all will be as willing to let result determine the way their money goes...
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this year EPL sure exciting...
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this is e kind of owners liverpool desperately need. rich and willing to spend.
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Originally posted by Fs4751:
this year EPL sure exciting...
exciting, yes but not this season....this season city will be lucky to be at the top half of the table....next season will be a different story once they have the time to scout for more players....then again i doubt hughes would be around then....he's nobody with that kind of money the club has...there's a new manchester in town...lol....expect more new fans to jump on board.... liverpool also had some dubai group wanting to buy but the club owners weren't willing... -
just like chelsea..we will see the exodus of chelsea fans to manchester city fans...and i hear most sports shops are increasing their manchester city jerseys more than tenfold..
fair weathered ninaboos.. -
you guys are taking football too seriously.. i mean it doesn't matter of the guy/gal sits beside you is a fair weather fan or a die hard steady pun pi pi fan.. at the end of the day, you support your club in the way you enjoy while others do it their way.. different stroke for different folk pal... chill take a chill pill.....