It was the moment the Manchester City boss said: "Right now, we
aren't ready to compete for the title."
He then added: "Maybe in two weeks we will be."
Well, there can be no excuses now. If City are not ready to
contest the title after their latest bit of transfer business then
they never will be.
On Wednesday their transfer outlay in the Sheikh Mansour era
headed towards the £400million mark when they splashed a club
record £38m on Atletico Madrid's Sergio Aguero.
The Argentine international became the TENTH
player on whom City have spent more than £20m -
EIGHT of them signed by Mancini in the greatest
spending spree in history.
The others are Joleon Lescott (£24m), Alexsandar Kolarov (£20m),
James Milner (£24m), David Silva (£26m), Yaya Toure (£24m),
Emmanuel Adebayor (£25m), Mario Balotelli (£24.5m), Edin Dzeko
(£27m) and Carlos Tevez (£25m).
This is not an anti-City rant. This is just a relaying of the
facts.
In comparison, Manchester United have just three players costing
£20m-plus - Dimitar Berbatov (£30m), Wayne Rooney (£30m) and, way
back in 2002, Rio Ferdinand (£29m).
Chelsea have four - Fernando Torres (£50m), Didier Drogba
(£24m), Michael Essien (£24m) and David Luiz (£21m).
Arsenal, the last of the Champions League qualifiers, have...
NONE.
On the Continent, Champions League winners Barcelona have four -
David Villa (£38m), Alexis Sanchez (£33m), Dani Alves (£23.5m) and
Javier Mascherano (£22m).
In fact, the closest any club comes to City are Real Madrid with
six - Cristiano Ronaldo (£80m), Kaka (£55m), Karim Benzema (£32m),
Xabi Alonso (£28m), Angel di Maria (£21m) and Lassana Diarra
(£20m).
What does it all mean?
Well, for one, Mancini can hardly get away with a statement
like: "Teams like Manchester United and Chelsea don't need to buy
six players - they only need two or three.
"Maybe next summer we will only need two or three."
If any team does need a clear-out then it probably
IS Chelsea. While City can hardly fit any more
signings into their squad.
Second, if I was a Manchester City fan I would be seriously
upset if they DIDN'T so much challenge for the
title as win it.
Apologies for repeating myself but Jose Mourinho won Chelsea's
first championship in 50 years in his debut season at Stamford
Bridge.
He then repeated the feat 12 months later.
City fans point out that Chelsea were far closer to the finished
article when Mourinho arrived than was the case when Mancini
pitched up at, well, whatever they call their stadium these
days.
So Mancini has had his bedding-in time.
Yes, he ended 35 years of pain when City won the FA Cup last
season (then, again, Portsmouth won it in 2008).
And City fans, who have endured so much for so long in United's
shadow, are more than happy to be breaking the barriers down one by
one, season by season.
But now the time has arrived.
With or without Tevez they will be expected to make a serious
challenge this season.
If they don't, something will be seriously wrong.