Does money really buy success in football?

Started by Eruption October 28th, 2009 1:03 PM
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Eruption

Age 27
Male
North East England
Seen April 4th, 2020
Posted November 17th, 2017
6,316 posts
17 Years
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8329227.stm

You gotta admit, it's pretty funny.

Almost as funny as Newcastle's 6-1 hammering they recieved from Accrington.

Anyway, the point of this thread is in the title and I think no, Chelsea would disagree but if you base it on more recent years then my answer makes sense.

After Madrid's first huge spending spree, they had a few years below their quality. Now they're obviously spending again and all that money is still losing to Barca's youth policy.

Man City have been the other big spenders and so far it hasn't been to brilliant for them either. They're in a pretty nice position now but, that is probably down the teams around them not playing too well at the moment. They still look the same quality as last year only with about 3,000,000 more strikers.

[S]Now for no-one to reply and make me look a complete idiot.

Ivysaur

Grass dinosaur extraordinaire

Age 32
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Madrid, Europe
Seen 2 Days Ago
Posted April 5th, 2023
21,076 posts
16.2 Years
No. Definitely not. Just look at that. You can have the Ballon d'Or, you can spend 300€ millions in players. But if you don't have a proper strategy, if your only goal is scoring one more goal than your opponent (words from Pellegrini), you will never play properly.

I could talk a lot about my dear Real Madrid. In the last 6 years, they have spent millions and millions on players, but they lacked a thing: a proper plan. Barça has kept the same strategy for years: keeping the ball, making everybody play, from the keeper to the last forward, and never relax, even if you are winning by 3 goals. Madrid decided to keep their goal as empty as possible and hope someone will score. They have had 10 different coachers, and the only one who got something else other than getting kicked in 1/8 in the Champions League and in 1/16 from the King's Cup against a 2nd B class team was Capello, with an ultradefensive setup the two years Ronaldinho's downfall kept Barça away from getting the Spanish League.

There is also a detail that is worth mentioning: over the last years, only three players have stayed with them: Casillas, one of the best keepers in Europe, and Raúl and Guti, two half-players that should have been fired years ago. Thanks to Raúl, several forwards and midfielders have been misused, since they were forced to let him score, or sold at the end of the season so they wouldn't bother him (around 8 or so). Now Benzemá is going to be their new victim, and nobody says a word. Blaming the coacher is easier.

I could keep on and on, but yeah. They lost 4-0 against a 2nd B class team. Using 8 players from the regular team. And, since Ronaldo got knocked out, they have won 1 match out of 4. So yes, you can buy good players, but if you don't make a proper team out of them, you won't get anything. Soccer is a team sport, after all.

Gabri

m8

Age 29
Male
Portugal
Seen April 2nd, 2023
Posted July 2nd, 2022
3,937 posts
16.6 Years
Manchester City has a lot of money but they aren't spending too much as some would expect. And R. Madrid is just hiring superstars, but like Went said, you have to make them play with a proper strategy.

Well I'll give you a little example here in the Portuguese League: In the last year, Benfica spent, at least, three times more money in players than teams like FC Porto or my Sporting CP, and ended in the third place, with players like Reyes, Suazo, Aimar, and a few others in their team. The problem was that they didn't have a proper strategy for the players they had (but that was their manager's fault). So no; if a team has a loooot of money doesn't mean they are successful.