Comment: We don't need a blank chequebook

Last updated : 14 June 2005 By Marc Higginson

The last time the title was won purely with money was when Jack Walker bankrolled Blackburn to glory in 1995.

What about Chelsea, you may be thinking?

To an extent, money did help Chelsea to romp to the title last season but it didn’t have half as much impact as Jose Mourinho.

Claudio Ranieri soon realised how hard it was to mould a team around money and paid the price with his job.

And Mourinho was given the same financial backing but instead of buying superstars and building a Championship Manager team of Verons and Crespos, the 'Special One' brought in players he knew and trusted like Carvalho and Ferreira.

Taggart from across the city sniped to Mourinho, ‘you can’t buy anything with money’, and Mourinho agreed.

‘You're right, Alex. My Porto team (that knocked United out on their way to winning the 2004 Champions League) was cheaply assembled,’ Mourinho replied.

And City could do worse than shop around for bargains and bring through the best crop of kids we’ve had since the late eighties.

Some of the free agents this summer will be hungry to prove themselves and be thankful for being given another chance whilst the kids love the club and want to follow the lead of Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Stuart Pearce is one man who knows all about being snapped up from the lower divisions and becoming an all-time England great and I’d much rather we did this than bring in an over-rated foreigner only here for the pay-day.

Keegan spent £50m and only got us so far. Last season, we spent £100,000 on two full-backs and had a much better season, and that's because team spirit and hunger are as important as talent.

This is something ‘Psycho’ knows only too well and I reckon we’ll see some real bargains being brought in by our new manager between now and the start of the new season.