Why Man. City can improve the EPL

With the funds to buy world-class players like Brazilian Robinho (right), Manchester City can put together a roster of enormous talent. Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty Images Related Links WORLD SOCCER: EPL clubs seek a City-like savior The Limey's Mailbag Keep the banter flowing to The Limey. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

Thanks to Dimitar Berbatov's 90th-minute winner at Bolton last weekend, Manchester United is back on top of the Premier League for the first time this season. Yet it was the 17-time English champions' crosstown rival, Manchester City, who hogged the global spotlight last week.

City's $147 million bid for AC Milan's Kaká would, had it been successful, have smashed the previous world transfer record: the $65 million Real Madrid paid Juventus for Zinedine Zidane in 2001. That fee, and probably over-exaggerated reports of $700,000 a week in post-tax wages, caused controversy throughout England.

If the Royal Bank of Scotland's record $50 billion loss hasn't made you question the sanity of the UK banking sector, then the views of Keith Harris, soccer financier and the chairman of investment bank Seymour Pierce, should. He recently told the BBC that, "We should be seeing a trend of worldwide restraint in the wake of some serious problems and this is not what we are seeing here by any measure."

True if you've overspent, or invested your money in backing mortgages for Jazzy Jeff to buy Uncle Phil's pad, but Man. City's $147 million bid represented a genuine inflow into European soccer, one that would have allowed Milan to rebuild an aging squad, thereby replenishing other clubs' coffers.

Accusations that City lacks the tradition to attract leading players are short-sighted. In terms of success, City has underachieved distinctly for decades -- 1977 being its last real assault on the league title. But with two league titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups and a European Cup Winners' Cup triumph, glory hasn't totally evaded it. Nor have those memorable scenes that make a club's character: goalkeeper Bert Trautmann playing through the pain of a broken neck to achieve FA Cup glory; Denis Law's double hat trick in a game that was later to be called off for fog; its young, unfancied side drubbing United 5-1 in 1989; or the craze for waving inflatable bananas at matches.

Man. City is not a soulless vehicle for new owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan's unwholesome and unwelcome manipulation of soccer's traditional strata, and such allegations demean a loyal, local, patient and passionate fan base that has found unusual solace in City's age-old trials and tribulations. It is those Milan fans who chose the Rossoneri over their local club who have played a larger part in the centralization of soccer power and the reinforcing of money's reach.

Important though history is, City's potential is a stronger determinant of its current status. Its 43,500 average attendance is the fifth-highest in the EPL, and backed by Sheikh Mansour's billions, the club is now emerging as the world's richest.

Cycles of clubs rising and falling in soccer's standings, sometimes because of step-change interventions, are long-standing. No one should welcome attempts to form a closed shop of England's or Europe's elite. That City and Aston Villa look like expanding the EPL's "Big Four" into a "Big Six" is a matter of celebration. It's much more interesting to have real competition for Champions League berths.

Indeed, that Manchester United is the city's predominant club is largely due to City letting its rivals share its facilities at Maine Road until 1949 after Old Trafford was bombed in World War II. Maine Road was a bigger, more central ground, and United flourished there under legendary manager Sir Matt Busby, growing its crowds, and even, in those less partisan days, picking up some of City's fans. Prior to the war, City's 20th-century average attendance had been higher than United's in all but four seasons; post-war, it has remained consistently lower.

Milan's trophy cabinet bulges now, but from 1907 to 1951, not once did it secure the Serie A title. Furthermore, shortly before the '86 arrival of Silvio Berlusconi as chairman -- the media mogul and Italian Prime Minister is currently worth $9.4 billion -- Milan was relegated twice, in '80 and '82.