It's easier to spend money than make it?
Don't get me wrong, we're being left in City's dust in terms of how to run a football club - but come on, they can spend anything they want. We're rich, but we're not cheat code rich. They've put more money into their academy which has basically delivered them a decent sub than we've spent on transfers in the post-Fergie era. They have gorgeous, top of the line facilities, down to the best menu for journalists in the country on matchday, an incredible new reserve stadium and so forth. A pretty amazing squad that is generally around peak age. A successful manager they're happy to pay off to leave early to hire an even more successful manager at I'm sure incredible cost. They spend twice what we did (net) in the summer and no one utters a word, but every match someone mentions LVG's expenditure. Because for City that is normal.
It IS impressive, but their room for error is enormous. We don't have that luxury because SAF and Gill allowed us to be bought by people who view us as a business, not a football club.
In theory this should be the final piece of the puzzle in establishing them in the Top 5 clubs in Europe. And that will come at the expense, presumably of ourselves. (Real/Barca/Bayern/PSG/City). And the answer to the question of how can you get into such exalted company? A little under 1.5bn all in, and half a decade.
The interesting question for Ed is how much does it cost to ruin a football club?