Man City spending will Sheikh up Big Four but won't bring title

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He also happens to be a fanatical Manchester City supporter. No one I have met has been more excited by the wild spending of Mark Hughes's Abu Dhabi-financed hucksters. No matter whom they buy and what they spend on wages and transfer fees, my friend celebrates.

His reasoning is simple: forget politics, he has spent his whole sporting life resentful of the power and wealth of Manchester United. He believes that the Old Trafford club are imposters and that City are the team that every true Mancunian should support.

Now, at last, City are wealthier than United and seem set to galvanise a Premier League that has become stale and predictable. That, at least, is how he sees it.

I disapprove of City's spending but I am also persuaded that United and the rest of the so-called Big Four have had it easy for too long and that what the Premier League needs above all else is surprise and more open competition at the top.

City last won the League in 1968, during a period of genuine surprise and unpredictability - from 1967 to 1973, seven teams won the old First Division. In contrast, since it was set up in 1992, the Premier League has been won by only four teams and one of those, Blackburn Rovers, have no chance of winning it again.

I don't think City are genuine title contenders. Hughes has bought profligately but not altogether wisely, with the exception of Gareth Barry and, perhaps, Carlos Tevez. But it will be fun seeing how they go in the early months of the season and don't be surprised, after a few shocks, if they are top at Christmas.

Jason Cowley is editor of the New Statesman