Hang on, there always was one huge, financial monolith in the Premiership to begin with, long before Abramovich came along. The one that won it seven of its first nine years. The one that spent £108m (when £108m was a lot of money) buying the likes of Henning Berg, Jaap Stam, Dwight Yorke, Fabien Barthez, Juan Veron, Diego Forlan and Ruud van Nistelrooy in the space of four years, despite its fans' claim that all the success was due to players grown from seeds in their manager's back bedroom. The one that used to create headline news by holding glitzy press events to announce the publication of its corporate accounts.

That chequebook was open, I suggest, after the success of Ferguson's first young team. You're right, he did spend and spend big, but not at first. The monies spent now are farcical compared to that which he started off with. Henning Berg, Jaap Stam, Dwight Yorke, Fabien Barthez, Juan Veron, Diego Forlan and Ruud van Nistelrooy came after the emergence of Beckham, Scholes, and the Nevilles, built on that burgeoning success with the 'seeds' of that team. If Ferguson spent that much right at the start of his tenure, then I'd agree with you, but he didn't.

Nishlord wrote:

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Wonder how long it is before City of Manchester FC starts up?

53 years ago - Maine Road FC of the North West Counties League.

Completely different, though they're now trying to appeal to a more 'disenfranchised' fan. Not that it appears to be making much difference.

So what did the League decide about this?

the cabal hivemind has ruled that this finney fella is wasting his time; blame has been passed to each and every individual hoops fan.

tough break, but that's how it goes sometimes.

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If Ferguson spent that much right at the start of his tenure, then I'd agree with you, but he didn't.

You're right the absolute sums were different then than they are today, but compared to his rivals, he did, because he could.

In his first year in charge he spent a total of £2m bringing in Viv Anderson, Brian McClair, and Steve Bruce, then the next summer spent a further £2.5m on Jim Leighton and Mark Hughes. Then came the summer of 1989, and Ferguson's almost Supermarket-Sweep style dash around his rivals that brought in Mike Phelan, Neil Webb, Gary Pallister, Paul Ince, and Danny Wallace for a total of £7m. Add in the fact that he bought Lee Sharpe for next to nothing, and Ferguson had bought an entire first team of near-million-pound players before any of the "Fledglings" came through.

The amounts he flung about were comfortably more than most other clubs could afford to spend. Only Liverpool, in the same period, could match Ferguson's first two summers of spending with a total of £4.3m on Barnes, Beardsley, Aldridge and Houghton, but then had to save up for a year to spend £1m on Ronnie Rosenthal. Everton, probably Liverpool's biggest rivals in terms of success on the pitch in the eighties, were only able to spend around £1m a summer on players like Pat Nevin and Stuart McCall.

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Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore has been discussing changing the name of Queens Park Rangers, the club he owns, to Queens Park City, to reflect its ties with London.

QPC?

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Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore has been discussing changing the name of Queens Park Rangers, the club he owns, to Queens Park City, to reflect its ties with London.

Surely you mean London Rangers.

It's bollocks. Shit stirring by the Daily Mail. Briatore issued a statement almost immediately saying the club would be talking to their solicitors. I wish they'd talk to their supporters as eagerly.

...but there's a strong rumour the club has sold the name of the stadium to Kingfisher Beer. Announcement expected later this week.

The flagrant greed of our owners seems insatiable.

'Of course the Carling Cup is traditionally a poorly attended competition and for this reason Premiership clubs often like to discount tickets for early round games, particularly when facing lower league opposition. However this reduction can only be brought in with the agreement of the away side and according to communications from United today QPR have said no. Man Utd will now be forced to charge both sets of fans Premiership prices to see this match.

There were rumours that Rangers had done something similar at Villa Park in the last round, rejecting the home team’s plans to sell tickets at £10 for adults and eventually compromising on £15. That was never confirmed, though widely reported in the press, however an e-mail from Manchester United to the QPR 1st Supporters trust has confirmed this time that: “For any Carling Cup match we put to the away club that cheaper ticket prices are set. You are right in saying that we put the cheaper price to the board at QPR but they declined.”' loftforwords.com

I can't recall a time when the mood of QPR supporters has been so dark, and given the travails of the past dozen years that says a great deal.

Middlesbrough did similar in the last round. And Coventry did the same last year.

The Coventry case was interesting as Manchester United had implemented their 'automatic cup scheme' where by season ticket holders had to pay for the match even if they didn't plan on attending. Consequently, Coventry were guaranteed a share of 75,000 tickets. Of course they wouldn't agree to a price reduction, there was absolutely no reason to.

I'm not sure if the ACS is still in operation this season, I seem to recall reading that it got tweaked slightly.

QPR have made a statement saying there will be no more "category A and B" games until the end of the season

Still leaves away fans paying £30 for adults and £20 concessions though

http://www.qpr.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10373~1429061,00.html