All I heard.......

Ripley basically you turned round and called me an idiot and then what you wrote actually somewhat agrees with me...

Its based on an estimation of the players value, the only difference is you have added in a merchandise aspect....

But I never specified that we weren't including merchandising in an estimated value.

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So if its not based on transfer fees at all I can only assume its based on predicted values of players?

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Nope. You assume wrong.
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So basically with this little back and fore I infact assumed correctly.

Not that any of this matters anyway.

All I said was the advantage has switched from City and Chelsea with their huge spending to United now, previously City and Chelsea could outspend United but now the tables have turned and it will be interesting to see how well City and Chelsea can do against a bigger spending side.

We're both doing OK up to now and things will be different next year when our FFP ban is over.

You'll never be able to spend as recklessly as you have in the past 10 years and that will makes things harder, you will infact have to compete as the poorer team something which didn't result in much success in the majority of City's history...

We haven't spent recklessly as has been pointed out several times. We had to start from scratch and build up a decent squad in stages. Lemons like Robinho and Jo have been offset with great players like Kompany and Zabaleta whilst the likes of Silva and Aguero have proved to be fantastic value for money.

I don't think anyone, aside from you just now has been silly enough to suggest City's spending was not reckless...

Certainly if you compare the spending to the achievement it certainly looks reckless...

I wonder if there has ever been such a big spending team that failed so continuously on the biggest stage...

Or that won so little for a spend so big.....

Its based on an estimation of the players value, the only difference is you have added in a merchandise aspect....

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That wasn't the "only difference" I added. Go back and read my post again.

The estimation of a players value is just that, an estimation. Yet the value of a player to his contracted club isn't estimated (as in roughly calculated). Players are assets, and for any business to "roughly calculate" the value of an asset would be, quite simply, ridiculously naive.

Or that won so little for a spend so big.....

5 trophys so far. Let's assess United in 3 years time and bear in mind that their starting point was league champions, not 17th in the table.

So then it is estimated...

Note my post excluding nothing about contract length, merchandising or other aspects you would obviously take into account whilst estimating a players value.

Maybe your the person who doesn't know what he is talking about.

Also Forbes have been ridiculously naive in the past for one

To say that discussing footballers value on a forum is that is quite silly on your part and I suspect part of a rather angry rant.

Binky we've won many times what you have by spending far less already, as have most teams in existence

Certainly if you compare the spending to the achievement it certainly looks reckless...

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I can't agree with that at all. City got taken over in September 2008. Since then, we have a net spent on transfer fees in the region of £450m.

In terms of the CL, we've achieved nothing of note, but domestically it couldn't have gone much better - from breaking into the top four, to two titles and two cup wins.

How does City's net spending over the last 6 years compare to other clubs? Well, during that time:

Chelsea's net spend has been £289m
United's net spend has been £250m

Of course, United and Chelsea clubs were miles ahead of where City were in 2008 in terms of squad quality. So clearly, just in order to catch up to United and Chelsea, City would have to spend more money than them.

In terms of European spending, the last 5 transfer windows shows:

PSG £235m net
United £165m net
Barcelona £155m net
Chelsea £137m net
Real Madrid £126m net
City £107m net

Except City started spending a decent little bit of money before the Sheikh came as well, Jo for £18M wasn't exactly in line with City's usual business prior to that time.

Even if we don't include that though you have won an FA cup and a league cup which is hardly anything to write home about. Even one of your two league title wins was on goal difference and you have been a bit of a disaster in Europe in general.

TBH Its starting to look like you will need to you will need to do some serious spending to try and at least get to the CL knockout stages regularly and if you don't spend you will probably begin to fall away over the next couple of years domestically.