Napoli president Antonio De Laurentiis has questioned Manchester City's strategy, claiming that their 2-1 defeat to the Italian side proves that the Citizens only know how to spend large amounts of money.

A massive investment in the club has allowed owner Sheikh Mansour to place a star-studded squad at the disposal of manager Roberto Mancini, who has followed last season's FA Cup success by taking the team five points clear atop the Barclays Premier League table.

Game Intelligence's resident agony uncle continues to provide a kindly ear to the victims of football's dog eat dog world. Even the misunderstood need some understanding. As long as Manchester City and Sheikh Mansour are footing the bill... Dear GI, ... Continue reading →

To start, declarations that Manchester City are now guaranteed to win the league or triumph in Europe come as extremely premature overreactions.

But the possible reverberations concerning Manchester City's potential future conquests in the wake of their clinical 6-1 destruction over England's most dominant team and Europe's runner-up only to a seemingly invincible Barca do tend to evoke the sense that Roberto Mancini is on the verge of pushing their "noisy neighbors" tag into oblivion by reaching the stratosphere of the world's clubs.

According to League Managers Association (LMA) chief Richard Bevan, several of the foreign-owned Premier League clubs want to do away with relegation.

"We're very keen that the report is successful in helping the Football Association introduce a licensing programme for clubs," Bevan said.

According to League Managers Association (LMA) chief Richard Bevan, several of the foreign-owned Premier League clubs want to do away with relegation.

"We're very keen that the report is successful in helping the Football Association introduce a licensing programme for clubs," Bevan said.

-
Birthday for Rodney Marsh: Marsh Memories
-
- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general.

How 25 years of poor planning left Merseyside trailing Manchester

Back in 1986 Liverpool and Everton were England's top clubs but now they play second fiddle to their neighbours The short, history-suffused walk from Anfield to Goodison Park often transports pedestrians back in time.

El futbol en su estado puro sigue perteneciendo a los equipos de tradición, a los grandes por naturaleza, los históricos. Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Inter, Bayern. Perdidos por ahí están Liverpool y Juventus que aunque se renuevan y buscan emerger en el panorama mundial este año al menos seguirán fuera de la Champions League.

... as Lord Sauron of Mordor; and Isildur, High King of Gondor and Arnor, respectively. (Editor's note: Darshan is probably one of the most creative writers to ever write about football, not to mention contribute to AFR. This season, we're letting him go deep into the unknown.

Liverpool joined the grand coalition attacking Manchester City's £400m sponsorship deal with Etihad, with managing director Ian Ayre saying yesterday that Uefa should investigate whether it is an illegal deal under its financial fair play regulations.
Speaking in Kuala Lumpur -- where on Monday Arsene Wenger accused City of "financial doping" -- Ayre suggested that the 10-year sponsorship agreement with Etihad may be an illegal 'related-party' deal, which financial fair play specifically outlaws.

Roberto Mancini looking to his homeland for transfer targets. - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Manchester City coach Roberto Mancini has identified a host of Serie A targets that he will be interested in buying this summer. The Italian is concocting a transfer wishlist to City owner Sheikh Mansour, which contains players from the length and breadth of Italy's top flight.

Let me start off by admitting that I am a die-hard Manchester United fan, but I will try and keep my analysis of our bitter cross-town rivals as objective as possible. Ever since Sheikh Mansour's takeover at Eastlands, money has been pumped into...
This is a content summary. Visit http://www.

I decided to call it a day with England because it just wasn't any fun any more. I don't know why it became like that, I'd just stopped enjoying it. I like being at home as well there was an awful lot of time away from home and my family and for me there's nowhere better than Manchester.
Paul Scholes on why he quit England.

When you look at what has happened to Manchester City in recent seasons being Chelsea fans, I can't help but think back to how it all happened for us and draw comparisons. The thing is as much as we look at City, the money they have been spending and the huge amount of players that have come into the club, we still think they are some way off from being realistic title contenders.

MANCHESTER CITY owner Sheikh Mansour is reported to be willing to pay 180M€ for REAL MADRID player CRISTIANO RONALDO according to "rumours" coming out of England & picked up here locally by the local Spanish Sports daily s. The Portuguese star cost REAL MADRID 96M€ in 2009 & Manchester City hopes to convince the Spanish Football Club by doubling the initial investment Cristiano Ronaldo 2011

In the football world there is a trend to view shareholders and directors of a club as custodians rather than owners. Fans are considered to be the heart and soul of a football club and it's real owners. In the past the Arsenal directors/shareholders have released statements recognizing their role as caretakers.

News has broken in the United Arab Emirates that Manchester City moneybags owner Sheikh Mansour is preparing an outrageous £2 billion bid for Manchester United's Old Trafford traditional Stadium....
Continue to the full story

Photo by Probek

Three-quarters of the Premier League's clubs will need to significantly reduce their spending on players' wages if they are to qualify for European competitions after Uefa's "financial fair play" rules are introduced. The European governing body's executive committee is set to approve the regulations, which will require clubs to breakeven, and not make persistent losses, from 2012-13.

Sir Bobby Charlton was in Abu Dhabi this week for the Laureus Sports Awards. He was asked about Manchester City owner, Sheikh Mansour, who he recently met, and Sir Bobby claims that he was more interested in talking about the reds than the blues.

"This [Abu Dhabi] is not the home of Manchester City," said Charlton.

MANCHESTER United will win the title this season. I have little doubt about that. They have already built up a lead that a number of their players and – more importantly – their manager knows how to maintain.

And with Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal stumbling over themselves in the chase, the race could be over long before the end of the season.

The recession is finally over! Or so it must be if you consider the record £225million spent this January by English clubs, compared to the measly £30million spent last January.

The excitement of transfer deadline day seems to send the footballing world crazy. Inflated prices are now part and parcel of transfer windows, as clubs scramble around to get the paper work sorted so that last minute deal can go through.

Manchester City fans have one player to thank for keeping their side in the hunt for this season's title, Carlos Tevez. Despite Sheikh Mansour recently splashing out millions of pounds on promising players from around the globe, Carlos Tevez remains City's jewel in the crown.

First there was Carlos Tevez. The giant blue advertisement screamed "Welcome to Manchester" as the sky blue poster stuck up two fingers to the red half of Manchester and signalled their arrival in amongst the big players in the Premier League.
Then came Sir Alex Ferguson and his infamous "noisy neighbours" remark which incensed followers of Roberto Mancini's Manchester revolution.