Is Manchester City's new transfer policy designed to balance the books?

They might have spent £200 million on players since the Arab takeover but it seems what Manchester City really want to do is invest in YOUTH.

After splashing out £32.5 mil on Robinho, £20+ mil on Joleon Lescott and more on the likes of Wayne Bridge, Emmanuel Adebayor and Gareth Barry, chief executive Gary Cook is now saying the club will be developing home-grown talent instead and finding as-yet unsung heroes.

He's obviously had a close look at the money columns and realised they've forked out far too much.

They have looked on jealously by all accounts at Arsenal's model and want a bit of that.
They are forgetting of course that it is Arsene Wenger, not the system, that makes that work and he has a major eye for a bargain and a player who will become a legend.

Unless the Eastlands gang can rustle up a man of his experience and stature, they'll struggle to stop the excessive spending on proven stars.

And being taken for a ride by other clubs who realise they'll have to pay over-the-odds for men they want.

Of Arsenal's regime, Cook said: "Financially, it’s a better model than one where you get into negotiating a market price that has no pre-determining factors other than supply and demand.

"That’s a model I don’t subscribe to and one I don’t want to be beholden to. I would rather control or manage our destiny over the long-term."

Mark Hughes might not be happy to hear him say there won't be anything like the spending they've just done through the next couple of windows.

There are still gaps in the City ranks and they're not yet the proven top four team they aspire to be. Cook added: "I think you’re going to see Manchester City really ramp up its activity in the youth area, in the development area of players.

"There’s often opinion that we are just going to keep buying players, but that’s actually the antithesis of what we’re trying to do."

Micah Richard, Shaun Wright-Phillips (before he went and returned) and Stephen Ireland are home-grown success stories for Manchester City but they'll need to invest a heck of a lot to fund the right sort of infrastructure when starting from scratch.

But then, they could always sell Robinho and some of the other players warming their bench and reserves to fund it.

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