ACTUALLY ONE OF THE BEST IVE READ...
ALEX FERGUSON wrote off Manchester City earlier this season as a small club with a small mentality.
As far as he was concerned, his nearest and dearest didn't "come into the equation."
We put that down to rhetoric, a knee-jerk and abrasive reaction to City's 'Welcome to Manchester' banner for Carlos Tevez, whose wage demands were so patently unwelcome at Old Trafford.
Now another banner touches a Mancunian nerve - this time Roberto Mancini claiming he and City will be forcing the Stretford End to haul down the gloating 34-year reminder of how long it's been since City won a trophy.
A few months ago, all this could have been dismissed as parochial, over-the-garden fence mud-slinging. Not any more. This is reality.
United are in trouble, City breathing down their necks and the balance of power starting to tilt discernibly towards Eastlands.
News that United are considering raising fresh funds through a £600million bond issue to bring escalating debts under control is further evidence they are struggling.
The most worrying recent figure of all is that net interest on their loans was £69m against an operating profit of £72m. How soon before they can't even cover that?
No wonder they have to sell players like Cristiano Ronaldo. No wonder United fans fear much of the £80m they received for Ronaldo will be going towards debt repayment rather than Ferguson's transfer kitty.
At the same time, the owners of Chelsea and Manchester City write off both clubs' debt - £340m at Chelsea, £305m at City - by converting it into some form of private share 'equity'.
Such is City's wealth (£500billion or so) they can even carry a £25m striker like Emmanuel Adebayor whose strike-rate has gone from four goals in his first five games to two in 10 - as if he thinks, like he did at Arsenal, he's done all the hard work.
Mancini is now already on the look-out for defensive replacements despite Mark Hughes spending over £50m on his back four. He also intends to bring in TWO midfield players.
Which brings us to the curious case of Patrick Vieira. Mancini's interest in the Inter Milan player makes little sense since, as this column pointed out when Vieira was linked with a return to Arsenal, the 33-year-old's best days are long gone.
Vieira himself says: "What's important for me is to go to Manchester City to show the coach I'm the same player as I was during the time he was at Inter."
In that case, Mancini should not go anywhere near him as the injury-plagued midfield man has completed just 34 games in 3½ seasons at the San Siro.
Yet it is the clearest sign of City's money-no-object mentality that they can even consider paying Vieira £140,000 a week for a half- season holding operation.
In comparison, United grow increasingly powerless at a time when they have lost three of their last six home games in three different competitions culminating in the FA Cup disaster against Leeds.
In the longer term, neither Ronaldo nor Tevez have been replaced with players of even vaguely similar quality.
It will be the same when Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs follow Gary Neville into retirement while an enormous question mark still hovers over Rio Ferdinand.
Meanwhile, Nemanja Vidic could well be the latest Old Trafford star to follow David Beckham, Gabriel Heinze, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo to Real Madrid.
Now that WOULD be a banner for City fans to raise at the Carling Cup semi-final first leg at Eastlands on January 19.
United - Madrid's Feeder Club.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... z0bycKdXFa
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