Money may not win titles in the English Premier League, but lack of money precludes titles. Yes, all rich teams do not win the title, but all the teams that win titles are rich. The "big four" of English football have the highest wage bills by far. Last available figures from the 2006/2007 season show that the top wage payers were Chelsea (£132.8m), Man U (£92.3m), Arsenal (£89.7m) and Liverpool (£77.6m). Surprising? Not.
If that is not enough of a correlation, then take a look at the next four (bar one) highest paying clubs: West Ham, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton. All those fighting for UEFA Cup places or dreaming of challenging the top four. In fact, the only team paying more than the next four and not getting similar results is Newcastle United, the perennial under-performer of the league. Manchester City, newly acquired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, is widely expected to challenge for a top four spot. While they appear to have little chance of doing so this year, they might after a summer of transfer activity next year. But I'm willing to wager a few quid that when they do, their wage bill will look more like Chelsea than Blackburn. English fans who live on dreams of some genius manager making shrewd acquisitions or harvesting their clubs' youth academy can wake up and smell their credit cards.
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