All the money in the world, two of the most expensive squads ever assembled in the world, let alone England, and what has it achieved so far? Nothing.

Well, ok, Chelsea are Premier League champions and FA Cup holders – but that counts for nothing THIS season.

For Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City and Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea, pre-season friendlies have proved a bit more than disappointing.

Just last night City were well beaten by Borussia Dortmund (3-1) while Chelsea slumped to defeat by Hamburg (2-1). Germany is still not a nice place for English clubs to go. But the story goes deeper than that. Chelsea lost to Eintracht Frankfurt (2-1) last Sunday and on the same day City lost 3-0 to Inter Milan.

Sure, it’s only pre-season and fitness and experimentation are the watch words, but you do wonder what psychological impact losing so often has on the players. Especially players unfamiliar with each other, as is the case at City more than Chelsea.

I have no doubt that both clubs will be up there at the top of the Premier League this season (though in City’s case, I still don’t believe they can really win the league), but there are very visible chinks in their respective armour that the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester United will be keen to exploit.

Compare and contrast these club’s pre-season results with City and Chelsea and it’s a whole different story. United won 7-1 last night, albeit against much weaker opposition in a League of Ireland XI, while Tottenham defeated Benfica 1-0 and Arsenal’s last run out was a 3-2 victory over Celtic (who crashed out of the Champions League last night, by the way, losing on aggregate 4-2 to Braga) as they won the Emirates Cup.

Fact is, it doesn’t matter how much you spend, you need a manager capable of turning mercenary players into a team, as Mourinho did with Chelsea’s first expensively assembled squad and as Ancelotti has done since. You have to doubt Mancini’s ability to do the same with City.

Money doesn’t buy you happiness, shrewd management does. That’s why Spurs, United, Chelsea and Arsenal will once again be the teams to beat this season – and City will learn a very harsh lesson, with Mancini ending up the ultimate casualty.