The big spending club from the north-west did it. On a dramatic last day of the season, full of twists and turns, they finally held on to clinch a historic triumph and deny Manchester United at the death. Full of expensive signings, they had justified the huge investment made in the club and seemed set to go on and dominate English football for years to come. However, the summer saw a reliance on the players who brought them to the plate. A lack of key investment whilst in a position of strength had cost them dear, as hated rivals United recovered to recapture the title and their position at the top of English football.
Whilst I could be writing about Manchester City in 2012/13, I could quite easily be telling the story of Blackburn Rovers in 1994/95. On both occasions, clubs have had the chance to stamp their dominance on the English game and both have come up short.
For Jack Walker, the crowning glory of his multi-million investment in his boyhood club was the league championship success in the 1994/95 season. Lead by the ‘SAS’ strikeforce of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton and ably supported by the likes of Tim Flowers, Graeme Le Saux, Colin Hendry and Tim Sherwood, Rovers were a formidable outfit. However, qualification for the Champions League (at a time when it was actually a tournament for league champions only) meant that strengthening would be required.
The decision of Kenny Dalglish to move ‘upstairs’ and be replaced by Ray Harford may have had an adverse effect on the team. One could also question whether the team thought they had ‘done it’ and the motivation to retain the title was not as strong as the motivation to win it in the first place. All the more need therefore, to introduce some new blood to ensure a competitive squad for the following season.
It is sometimes forgotten how Rovers were viewed at the time financially. They were believed to have the highest wage bill in the league and paid top fees for players – as the combined £8.6m on Shearer and Sutton proves. To put that into context, you would have to something akin to £85m on that partnership today. Having won the league and with a new manager, this represented the perfect time to spend big and solidify their position as the new flag bearers of the English game and build a dynasty for years to come. Yet all Harford chose to do was to sign Matty Holmes from West Ham. To act as a reminder in the summer of 1995, some of the players who moved clubs were David Ginola, Phillipe Albert, George Weah, Andrei Kanchelskis, Stan Collymore, David Platt, Denis Bergkamp, Juninho, Paul Gascoigne and Ruud Gullit. Any argument that there was no one available to strengthen or improve the existing squad simply does not hold up. Whether Harford had too much belief in the championship winning team or Walker decided to rein in the spending, the decision taken was clearly incorrect.
Read more: http://www.sportskeeda.com/2013/04/14/has-failure-to-learn-cost-man-city-a-chance-at-dominance/#ixzz2QRbjBDBo
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