Malaga CF - The New Man City?

When Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan completed his purchase of Man City the first thing to happen was an attempt to steal Dimi Berbatov from underneath Man United's nose, and when that failed they signed Robinho as a back up for a transfer record fee of £32.5million.  It was a clear indication of how the club were intending to conduct business, and since then, nothing much has changed as superstar after superstar have joined the club for inflated fees.

Two years later in June 2010 the Spanish club Malaga, fresh from being promoted back to the Primera Division where taken over by Sheik Abdullah Al Thani, a Qatari billionaire who sits on the board of the Doha Bank.

The changes weren't as instant as they were over in Manchester, the team was largely unchanged for the start of the season, leaving the club in the relegation zone by the January transfer window.  In the window, manager Manuel Pellegrini brought in the duo of bullish Brazilian Julio Baptista and Argentine hard-man Martin Demechelis, the teams fortunes turned in the second half of the season and eventually finished 11th in the league.

Now, so far this doesn't have any parallel with the big spending Man City, however, I think this could be about to change.  Stories have been circulating for a few weeks about Man United tracking Inter's midfield genius Wesley Sneijder, but today Malaga have revealed their interest in the £35million rated man.  Add this to the secured signing of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who presumably won't be playing for peanuts, their alleged chase of Liverpool centre back Daniel Agger, potential move for World Cup winner Fabio Grosso and with a loan offer for Emmanuel Adebayor on the table maybe Malaga's new owner is beginning to flex a little financial muscle...how long until we see Man City vs Malaga in the Champions League final? And will Leonardo's PSG be hot on their tails.

I've always believed that money can't buy a club success, but that's getting harder to believe...thank God for teams like Blackpool and Swansea who can show the world you can be entertaining and successful (I'm sticking to that too, I remember not too long ago when Swansea and Carlisle were battling it out to avoid relegation from the old Division 3).