Hey big spenders!

Firstly, apologies once again for the lack of posts recently. The last couple of weeks have been rather busy, topped off with graduation this week, so writing things for this blog has taken a back seat. Anyway, I realise I may have said that this blog will 'mainly be about politics' when I first set it up but, in the interests of making more regular entries, I will be diversifying to include things I find of general interest.

So, onto today's topic: football. Or, more specifically, Manchester City. With the news today that City have added to their embarassment of riches up front by signing Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor it is interesting to consider the prospects for City in the forthcoming season. Regardless of the reasons why their new signings may have gone there, it is fair to say that a team with the likes of Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez, Adebayor, Robinho, Roque Santa Cruz and Shaun Wright-Phillips (with presumably more to follow) can not be disregarded as a potential challenger to the top teams this season.

With seven weeks to go until the transfer window closes, it is reasonable to imagine that Man City will continue to spend like there's no tomorrow, with defenders presumably next on Mark Hughes's shopping list. Yes, he may be after John Terry but I can't realistically see him (and lets be honest here) throwing away his chance of ever winning the Champions League, the one big prize he hasn't yet won, in pursuit of an extra £60,000 a week (or whatever his salary increase would be). It will be interesting to see who City are able to bring in to strengthen the backline - certainly, if they can get in two or three quality defenders one would find it difficult to see how they wouldn't at the very least get into the top six, if not challenge the top four.

On paper, I fully expect City to have a squad on a par with the top four by the end of the transfer window. Some of the very best players will continue to shun them, but the last few weeks have proven that they are still capable of attracting a pretty good calibre of player. The challenge for City, and for Mark Hughes in particular, is now twofold. First, he has to turn a bunch of quality players into a team; its all well and good having top class players but they won't compete with the best if they can't play for each other. Second, he has one of the most difficult tasks a manager can have, and that is to consistently get the best out of some very talented players who, despite what they may say, are at City (at least in part) for the considerable amount of money on offer.