Man City will win the Premiership within 5 years...

[Schards#2]

..and join the list of Man Utd, Blackburn and Chelsea in winning simply because they had the greatest financial resources.

Yippee

[Streets]

Fair play to the new owner. Arsenal all set to be the 5th best club in England.

LOLz @ Chelsea still huffing and puffing for the greatest achievement they can't buy. (European Cup)

LOLz @ losing out to City for Robinho

[frimmers]

it's goodbye to abramovitch and kenyon at chelsea...

[frimmers]

..and join the list of Man Utd, Blackburn and Chelsea in winning simply because they had the greatest financial resources.

Yippee

that is capitalism schards..as a tory you should be delighted...

[soggy biscuit]

Arsenal all set to be the 5th best club in England.

You appear to have mispelt the word 'Liverpool'

[frimmers]

Arsenal all set to be the 5th best club in England.

You appear to have mispelt the word 'Liverpool'

fair kop guv...

[Streets]

Arsenal all set to be the 5th best club in England.

You appear to have mispelt the word 'Liverpool'

I can't help but see Arsenal's commitments to their 'debts' hinder their progress. They can't already compete with Chelsea or Man Utd. Now certainly with Man City.
Liverpool and Arsenal both fighting to the death for Champions League football via the 4th place, or will be the case within 2 seasons.

[Huntley & Palmer]

Arsenal's commitment to what debts? They are one of the best run clubs in the Premiership financially

[papereyes]

Praying that Villa, Portsmouth, Everton or Spurs kick on a level to really put a cat amongst the pigeons.

[Huntley & Palmer]

Everton haven't got the financial clout unless they find someone to buy out Kenwright. They can't even secure the funding for their stadium yet, much like Liverpool

[Seal]

It just reiterated how much bullsh1t this whole 'big 4' things was. It's not an insurmountable gap, you just need someone to come in with LOTS of money.

I think it's great that the monopoly could be broken, would be hilarious to watching Liverpool & Arsenal desperately sweating for 4th place.

Man City just need to try & keep in the race until January, when they can strengthen again.

[Dirk Gently]

So instead of a "big 4" we'll have a "big 5", and the desire amongst them to be seen to be bigger than the others and to out-bid each other will drive up transfer fees and salaries for all clubs, not just themselves, while the financial gap between the 5 of them and the 15 other "also-rans" in the PL will get bigger still.

Meanwhile, it won't take long before the Sheiks of Abu Dhabi are hosting friendly matches in one of their shiny new stadia in the desert, and doing everything they can to get home PL and cup matches played there too.

[papereyes]

It just reiterated how much bullsh1t this whole 'big 4' things was. It's not an insurmountable gap, you just need someone to come in with LOTS of money.

I think its shown exactly how big a deal it was, to be contrary. The only way you can close the gap is to be taken over by a multi-millionaire. Great.

[papereyes]

So instead of a "big 4" we'll have a "big 5", and the desire amongst them to be seen to be bigger than the others and to out-bid each other will drive up transfer fees and salaries for all clubs, not just themselves, while the financial gap between the 5 of them and the 15 other "also-rans" in the PL will get bigger still.

The gap in income between finishing 4th and finishing 5th will be the killer.

[Dirk Gently]

It just reiterated how much bullsh1t this whole 'big 4' things was. It's not an insurmountable gap, you just need someone to come in with LOTS of money.

I think its shown exactly how big a deal it was, to be contrary. The only way you can close the gap is to be taken over by a multi-millionaire. Great.

Exactly - and you don't "break a monopoly" by adding another club to it - all we now have is a monopoly with 5 clubs instead of a monopoly with 4.

[papereyes]

Except that there's only a sustainable income for four of them.

[Dirk Gently]

So instead of a "big 4" we'll have a "big 5", and the desire amongst them to be seen to be bigger than the others and to out-bid each other will drive up transfer fees and salaries for all clubs, not just themselves, while the financial gap between the 5 of them and the 15 other "also-rans" in the PL will get bigger still.

The gap in income between finishing 4th and finishing 5th will be the killer.

For people with the sort of money we're talking about here it's fairly insignificant - they've shown a desire to out-Abramovich the other 4 clubs, so they'll pay whatever it takes to achieve it. The obvious casualties are Arsenal and Liverpool, but I'd bet this hastens the sale of Liverpool to the Dubai Consortium, which means more Arab Princes ready to out-Abramovich the others. Then Arsenal will succoumb to someone similar to try and compete - and where will that leave the other teams?

[chandog]

So instead of a "big 4" we'll have a "big 5", and the desire amongst them to be seen to be bigger than the others and to out-bid each other will drive up transfer fees and salaries for all clubs, not just themselves, while the financial gap between the 5 of them and the 15 other "also-rans" in the PL will get bigger still.

The gap in income between finishing 4th and finishing 5th will be the killer.

For people with the sort of money we're talking about here it's fairly insignificant - they've shown a desire to out-Abramovich the other 4 clubs, so they'll pay whatever it takes to achieve it. The obvious casualties are Arsenal and Liverpool, but I'd bet this hastens the sale of Liverpool to the Dubai Consortium, which means more Arab Princes ready to out-Abramovich the others. Then Arsenal will succoumb to someone similar to try and compete - and where will that leave the other teams?

even poorer
compared to the big 5 (man city included now)

[Huntley & Palmer]

Arsenal have been trying to fend off the advances of Usamanov for a few seasons now. He would be an investor that may crank up the spending at Arsenal, though the majority shareholders there do not want him on board and have tried to keep him out by signing continuous lock down agreements between them. The current one lasts until September 2009. It's an interesting one there because they also have Stan Kroenke on board as a competing share holder against Usmanov, he has yet to make any sort of move since Dein sold his stake to him.

[papereyes]

So instead of a "big 4" we'll have a "big 5", and the desire amongst them to be seen to be bigger than the others and to out-bid each other will drive up transfer fees and salaries for all clubs, not just themselves, while the financial gap between the 5 of them and the 15 other "also-rans" in the PL will get bigger still.

The gap in income between finishing 4th and finishing 5th will be the killer.

For people with the sort of money we're talking about here it's fairly insignificant - they've shown a desire to out-Abramovich the other 4 clubs, so they'll pay whatever it takes to achieve it. The obvious casualties are Arsenal and Liverpool, but I'd bet this hastens the sale of Liverpool to the Dubai Consortium, which means more Arab Princes ready to out-Abramovich the others. Then Arsenal will succoumb to someone similar to try and compete - and where will that leave the other teams?

There might be a season or two of flux but it will settle down to a new equilibrium. And there's only enough Champions league football, which is what they're going after, for four teams.

Someone will miss out.