So when was the last time you won the league before the oil money ? when was Chelsea's last league before the Russian money , PSG hadnt won ligue one for 20 years before they were bank rolled, or is there another secret to the recent success's ? your current transfer record is -924 million euro, Sunderlands is -239 million almost 700 million less. Its because of these high inflated wages and transfer fees , that teams with limited investment try and match these clubs valuations and thats why the current football fan is being priced out of the game.
When was the last time that any club that didn't have one of the most expensive and highest paid squads won the league? Forest in 1977? Villa in 1981?
The financial arms race in football is as old as the game itself. The first £1,000 player, the first £100,000 player, the first £1m player, etc. Wages have been going up since the abolition of the maximum wage in 1961 and Liverpool were the first club to pay a player (John Barnes) £10k a week. Sol Campbell was probably the first to get £100k a week when he moved to Arsenal.
In 1981, the revenue sharing arrangement was ended and clubs were allowed to keep all their gate receipts instead of handing over 25% to the visiting club. Clearly that favoured the bigger, better supported clubs and those clubs dominated from then, until people like Jack Walker, Matthew Harding/Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour came along.
In 1988, the ITV deal that Greg Dyke put together was weighted very heavily towards the same clubs who had demanded the end of the revenue sharing agreement. Clubs were paid for the games that were televised and it was Arsenal, Liverpool, United who got the lion's share of that. Those same clubs were among the architects of the Premier League, which, together with the Taylor Report, saw clubs starting to price out what they saw as the less desirable elements among their support in favour of a better-heeled, more middle class fan base. The expansion of the Champions League, whereby a team who finished 4th in the PL, 20 points behind the winners, could share in the significant revenues from that competition and stay ahead of the team that finished 5th increased the divide between the cartel and the rest.
All of these things happened well before our takeover in 2008 you know so please spare me the self-righteous whingeing and at least have the decency to acknowledge the fact that you had a not inconsiderable role in creating the monster that football has become today.
And, to get back on topic, even then there's no guarantee that Guardiola will dominate the PL. As Jurgen Klopp is finding out, it's a lot more competitive than the other top European leagues, with the possible exception of Serie A. And even if he does, people will say "Well, so he should with the money they've spent". Which conveniently ignores the fact that teams like Leicester, Palace and even Spurs are up there while Chelsea aren't.
