$ Man City Hype $

After having a day to digest the entire Man City-Abu Dhabi-Robinho scenario, I've come to the conclusion that we all need to slow down a little on crowning City as world beaters just yet. I'll start with Robinho.

First off, Robinho is not worth the 32.5 million pound fee he commanded. City's new owners overpaid to introduce themselves to the football world in grand style. They wanted it to be known that they are now a player on the world scene. Great, but don't get Robinho confused with one of the top players in the world, he's not. At least not yet.

When he came over to Real Madrid, the Brazilian forward was tabbed to blossom into one of the world's greatest. They handed him the number ten jersey three years ago, and never saw him climb to the heights that Messi, Ronaldo, and Kaka have since then. Can he get there? Perhaps, but Robinho is 24 now, far from the 20 year old that came to Europe looking to dominate the world.

I'm not suggesting that the Robinho signing wasn't a good one. He just would have looked far more dangerous surrounded by Ballack, Drogba, Lampard, Cole, etc. One attacking player will not take City from a mid-table squad to the top 4. It will be how the team meshes that decides where they finish, not superstars.

As for the deep pockets of Sulaiman Al-Fahid and the Abu Dhabi group, it would be too hasty to automatically equate that with success right away. Al-Fahid even stated that they are targetting next year to start winning trophies. Of course, to this everyone would respond, 'well, look what happened with Chelsea and Roman Abramovich's money". Man City differs from Chelsea in several ways and it's not guaranteed that they will repeat their success.

For one, Chelsea was considerably more successful befoe Abramovich was on the scene, than Man City has been in the last few years. They had finished in the top 6 for the prior seven seasons and had a good core of Lampard and Terry to build on. And when the new Russian owner came in and spent 100 million pounds, it didn't translate directly into a championship. The list is too long to cover, but of the transfers, only Joe Cole, Makelele, and Damien Duff made a real impact on the team. They finished second under Claudio Raineri, and brought in Mourinho and a bunch of new signings to seal the deal the next year. It was Mourinho that brought the new signings and its old core together.

There is no way of knowing if that can happen with Mark Hughes and City, or whoever they bring in for Hughes at the end of the season.

The most troubling thing is Al-Fahid talking about how he is going to go after Ronaldo, Torres, and Kaka. Man City has a group of talented players now: Petrov, Elano, Richards, Kompany, Wright-Phillips, Benjani, Jo, Castillo, Johnson, and Ireland. They are all solid Premiership players. How well are they going to play, knowing that the Robinho's and Ronaldo's of the world are going to come in and replace most of them by next year. Why would they play now for somebody else's glory later? It's unfair to your players, letting them know just how expendable they are.

One final point when it comes to the glorious, championship plans of the new owners and their version of Real Madrid's, "galaticos". How can we forget that the Mardrid galaticos failed to win a trophy for three consecutive years. Stocking their lineup with 8 of the greatest in the world, and then failing to find the right mix.