Manchester City and Chelsea have both benefited from the arrival of billionaire owners, with Shaun Wright-Phillips claiming the success enjoyed at the Etihad Stadium has been “more strategic”.
The former Chelsea and City winger told FootballFanCast: “From a mentality perspective, Chelsea’s success was instant and City’s was structurally built. From the facilities, the way they’ve bought players. I don’t think they have spent over £60 million on a player. They’re more strategic.
“Whereas, when Chelsea were doing it, it was just instant and it worked, but it’s something that would never work again.
“It’s the same if you look at Liverpool where it has been structurally done and they never had a massive takeover. When Jurgen Klopp came in he brought little things in slowly and I think that is a route a lot of clubs will go down from now on if they ever have a takeover.
“Despite that, Chelsea and Man City both had the same aspirations. They both wanted to win titles and play in the Champions League.”
While City’s vision is considered to have been more long-term than Chelsea’s pursuit of immediate results, the end goal was no different.
Wright-Phillips added: “I think the mentality has always been the same. All the managers that have been there have always known how big City is as a club, and they’ve all had the dream of doing the things they’re doing now. Sadly, in the past they didn’t have the budget to do it.
“I think Mark Hughes set the pace. It was incredible to play under him, he came with entertaining football, we played well on the break.
“I think we were sitting fourth when he got the sack. We couldn’t believe it, but that’s football. When a lot of money comes into the game, a lot of things change.
“As for them looking forward and changing, I think Man City always had the desire to be where they are now.”
madmax22
474
City is more strategic on failing . UCL baby [Crylaugh]
Fosbeikmnu
451
nonsense. So is Chelsea that is not willing to be at the top level. let's remind you that Chelsea as already won like 3 European cup but city has never done that
AlhajiFolawemi
202
Chelsea dominated the epl since that time as no team have won more league titles than Chelsea, equaled with Man utd on 5. Chelsea became a big real force in Europe for the following 10yrs since the billionaire took over. All these were done by a team. Chelsea had instant success since Abramovic took over doesn’t mean it wasn’t structured, I can remember Chelsea won a treble(excluding the league) in 1998 during Zola, Di Matteo and co time. Chelsea have gone to sign some of the best players around the world including Deschamps. We signed Chris Sutton too for £10m who became a flop. We hence had a strong strong that included Gus Poyet, Melchiot, Di Matteo, Jody Morris, Terry, Zola, Eddie Newton and co... Chelsea finished 3rd that season and was constantly in UCL till Abramovic bought Chelsea. Chelsea didn’t win in his first year but finished 2nd. That was two positions up from 4th in the previous season. And then from 2nd to 1st. Chelsea signed great players when JM came in as our manager but not none was record signings for epl talk less of Europe. Drogba was the most expensive of all at £36m followed by Calvaho £27m. Others are far less than that including Robben. People should stop making nonsense excuses that if not for the billionaire, yes! He helped but Chelsea was already becoming a big team, we were on the rise and with his money, only that Chelsea was financially stable and strong in epl to pay wages of those players and also keep them.