Pellegrini and Mancini had the tools that he did, if not an even greater spending power considering the drawbridge of FFP hadn't been pulled up yet when Mancini got the job. They weren't able to win back to back titles or hit the points tallies season after season that Pep has been hitting.

This is a Pep thing if you look at his career as a manager and the point totals he can accumulate

When he goes there'll be a drop off for sure.

Also might be worth reminding people that City hit record income from transfers out of the club for an EPL team in the most recent transfer window. They had to sell before they could bring in new players. Refreshed the squad all at a profit.

In the last five years over half of the teams in the league have a higher net spend than City.

Spending doesn't guarantee success

And they may suffer when transitioning from a successful manager. (Juventus won 8 titles in a row but then put the novice Pirlo in charge.)

However, when Guardiola goes, you'd expect Man City to replace him with the next big thing. But even if they don't do that, and make a poor choice - what will happen?

Newcastle United will probably fill the void.

One state backed team replaced by another. And they will win the Premier League with 30 (plus) wins, dropping points in only a handful of games.

A change of champion does not equal competition in such a scenario, because the English football is meant to be far more competitive than that.

Newcastle United will probably fill the void.

One state backed team replaced by another. And they will win the Premier League with 30 (plus) wins, dropping points in only a handful of games.

Im not speaking for Newcastle, much less their scummy owners etc, but it is worth pointing out that they spent £123 million (€142m) on transfers during the summer.:

Which is £29 million less than (ahem) Nottingham Forest:

While it's no good having the world's richest owners if they cannot spend it:

Trap junior wrote:

For years the English clubs hace been cryng out for a winter break. This year they got one. So what do they do? Play friendly after friendly and sometimes going half way around the world to do it Confused

The point being that they want to use winter breaks to get in some warm weather training, or maybe play a friendly or two, during which they could eg rest players who needed it, or ease back in players who hadn't been getting game time for one reason or another, and/or get a look at a few youngsters in a less pressurised environment.

Besides which I know that at least some clubs gave their players a week or two off at the beginning of this break, before calling them back in for a "mini pre-season" - at least those players who aren't actually in Qatar, that is.

Or do you imagine that clubs which spend literally millions on sports science, medicine and conditioning etc, suddenly ignore everything their specialists are saying and go off on a trip which will undo all their previous work?

Yeah, that must be it. LOL

In the summer yes i.e. after the season is over, not mid-way.

The big thing about a mid winter break is that studies have conclusivley proven that players in Northern Europe pick up significantly more injuries, esp strains, muscular, soft-tissue types, than players in Southern Europe.

And this is not down to differences in style of play, refereeing, competitiveness or league structure etc. Rather it is pretty much down to the strain of having to train and play consistently over 3 months of cold weather.

For which even a short break will prevent many of these injuries, and/or help already fatigued/injured players to recover fully.

Some nail biting races among them

Football can be strange at times

City have been nothing special at all this season

Football can be strange at times

City have been nothing special at all this season

I’d agree and throw in the fact that teams are now taking there chances against what was always a leaky back line it’ll go down to the wire regards the league (which I don’t think city will win but I do see them taking the champions league).

The main point of the article is that despite all the glamour and hype the EPL its is on the decline e.g. the poor showing of English clubs in this seasons CL and ultimately it could end up like the current state of Serie A.

He sites the German model as the way forward saying that Bayern Munich would walk the EPL.

I tend to agree with him your views on it?

Meanwhile, here is a rather more recent take from The Guardian's Sean Ingle, based (I think) on Deloitte's latest report for 2023 on the state of football's finances.

Premier League looks armour-plated, whatever La Liga thinks about its spending

There is a telling moment in Apple TV+’s punchy new documentary, Super League: the War for Football, in which the head of La Liga, Javier Tebas, gives a withering assessment of those who seek to control the modern game. “You have to keep up the fight,” he growls. “Money is not everything. Far from it. The rich don’t have the same ethical standards. There’s lots of liars and fakes. Betrayals happen all the time. Loyalty is practically nonexistent. I’ve never trusted anyone.”

Tebas has a lawyer’s mind and a pugilist’s love of a ruck. It is a healthy combination, and football is the better for it. Without him, as well as the Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, and Paris Saint-Germain’s president, Nasser al-Khelaifi, the European Super League might well have become a reality. Now, however, he has a fresh target in his crosshairs: the Premier League.

On Thursday Tebas warned that the Premier League was not financially sustainable – before promising to fight the rules that allow English clubs to “distort” the transfer market by spending huge sums despite making losses.

His comments were typically belligerent but they were based on numbers to make the eyes water. Last summer Premier League clubs spent a combined £1.92bn on transfers – about the same as the other big five European leagues combined. As if to further make Tebas’s point, over the weekend Chelsea signed Shakhtar Donetsk winger Mykhaylo Mudryk for £83m – having already spent £60m on Benoît Badiashile, David Fofana and Andrey Santos in the January window and £278m last summer.

Are such figures preposterous? Definitely. Do they make people queasy? Absolutely. But is the Premier League becoming more financially unstable? Well, no. In fact, that’s the intriguing thing here. The bubble doesn’t look about to burst; rather it appears armour-plated.

The bald reality is that the Premier League is able to spend far more because the gap between it and other leagues is growing. Last season it broke the £10bn barrier for broadcast and commercial revenue for the first time, while stadiums operated at 97% capacity. And, notably, while transfer spending was up in the summer, as a percentage of turnover (32%) it was in line with the league’s last commercial cycle in 2019 (30%).

Just as important, the Premier League remains football’s equivalent of the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars, with sheikhs, oligarchs, oppressive regimes and hedge fund managers all keen to do business – however uneasy that makes some fans feel, and whatever the consequences for their clubs.

But it’s not just the biggest seven Mos Eisley Cantina English clubs where the money is flowing. Staggeringly, Everton and Wolves now have higher revenues than the seven-time European Cup winners Milan, according to Deloitte’s latest football list, while Southampton earned more money than Napoli, who are galloping away with the Serie A title.

These numbers are discombobulating, for sure. Yet they show just how much of a financial monster the top flight of English football has become.

The Premier League insists this hasn’t happened by chance but by design, based on how it distributes its wealth. Last year Manchester City earned £161.3m in prize money and broadcast revenue, while the worst performing team, Norwich, made £100.3m. That ratio of 1.6-1 is lower than other leagues in Europe – and has been for decades – leading to knock-on effects that benefit the league.

More here: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2023/jan/16/javier-tebas-premier-league-spending-la-liga

Double Maxim wrote:

What will the Man city situation have on the reputation of the EPL?

Wounding, but not fatal, I'd guess?

Indeed, if the PL could manage to find them guilty and impose a proper punishment, they might try to spin it along the lines:

"Look everybody! We've managed to do what UEFA couldn't. And don't try to say it's just an English thing when PSG are signing Messi, while keeping Neymar and Mbappe etc"

Anyhow, I'd hope that a Guilty verdict would actually reflect more on Abu Dhabi than anyone else, though when it comes to it, I doubt that that lot care greatly what anyone else thinks.

The state of the EPL LOL

The Decline of the EPL

Premier League looks armour-plated, whatever La Liga thinks about its spending