NFR What Manchester City winning the league means for English/European football.

[Frankie-Peter Taylor]

As 'Hey Jude' rings around the Etihad, the signs of Blue and White ribbons and the team dressed in Sky Blue lifting trophies is sure to become the norm. This first Premier League title is more momentus than it may originally seem. The momentum of an already class Manchester City squad is in full swing after an unbelievable turn of events against QPR, who thanks to Stoke, stayed in the top level at the first time of asking. The important thing for Manchester City is to now build on their current success, now with the Barclay's Premier League title in their cabinet and it seems all the money in the world to spend, Manchester City will look to dominate not only England, but Europe as well. They can now attract almost any player in the world and it is expected that the highly impressive Eden Hazard will be one of many high-profile new faces in a transforming wonderful squad.

The only worry for Manchester City is to make sure they also plan for the coming years as well as the current. We've seen in recent times with Chelsea, that the London side only bought players that were good at the time of purchase and didn't give much thought to their long term success. It could be a busy summer for Roberto Mancini as the standard has been set for the coming years and after today's success. The Arabic owners have now tasted the top accomplishment and unquestionably will expect more of the same and for European dominance. Everyone turned the blind eye to City's Champions League 'failiure' due to them being Champions League virgins and also having the most difficult group with finalists Bayern Munich, impressive Italians Napoli and usually reliable but recently poor Spaniards Villareal.

Without a doubt do I believe that had Carlos Tevez had been availiable rather than going on holiday and playing golf for 5 months in the middle of the season, Manchester City would have had a much more emphatic route to the trophy. Although it sounds silly that one player would have made the difference, the improvement of results after a little blip, that started in January against Everton where Roberto Mancini took the blame for the result after being poorly prepared, ended against West Brom in April in what was Carlos Tevez's first start since his own little mid-season break. Coincidence? I think not. The term 'world class' class gets bounded around a lot in modern football, but it's clear that Manchester City have more world class players in their squad than their red neighbours. How many Manchester United players would get into this City side? You really could only argue four, Nemanja Vidic over Joleon Lescott, Patrice Evra over Gael Clichy, Paul Scholes/Michael Carrick over Gareth Barry, and United's top scorer Wayne Rooney fitting into the side somehow ahead of either Tevez or Aguero.

It's clear to see that the dominance of the Blue Moon is set to stay and this summer could be the most important in English history. Manchester City will want to continue their success and Manchester United will want to wrestle back and win their 20th Premier League title. You could even add into the battle Chelsea wanting to stake their claim again whether it be under Roberto di Matteo or another manager, Arsene Wenger tightening some bolts on his Arsenal side and Harry Redknapp looking to keep his star players and adding some more quality which he didn't do in January with the mediocre signings of Louis Saha and Ryan Nelsen. It may be safe to say that Liverpool's chances of winning the title are rapidly falling away with an embarrassing squad and the unlikeliness of JW Henry placing another £100m into the hands of 'King' Kenny. The dynasty has started, how long will it continue?