ANYONE who believes Blackburn Rovers simply bought the Premier League title back in 1995 needs to take a long, hard look at what is happening at Manchester City.

If Jack Walker really was the first in a new breed of football club owners to buy the ultimate prize then you may as well hang the championship winners medals around the necks of Carlos Tevez & co now.

After all, if money really does guarantee success, then Manchester City’s rivals have no chance. If this is the reality, it is game over. No contest.

Fortunately we all know this is not the case. While money obviously helps, it won’t be enough alone to bring instant glory – don’t be surprised to see Roberto Mancini’s men still flattering to deceive come May.

The ‘money thing’ has always been an easy thing to throw at Rovers for those ‘green-eyed monsters’ who couldn’t stand a small town club breaking the monopoly of the powerful.

Look at the actual facts and you will see Rovers’ title-winning squad cost less to assemble than the Manchester United side who finished runners up to them in 1995 and the Liverpool side who finished fourth.

Of course they spent big, smashing the transfer record twice for the signings of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton, but a look at the history books will show they weren’t alone.

United splashed £7m on Andy Cole, while Liverpool and Leeds paid big money in their own pursuit of success. The difference was Kenny Dalglish spent his allowance wisely.

Rovers weren’t doing anything different to the other top sides at the time, they were just doing it better.

After all, their rivals weren’t exactly queuing up for the likes of Graeme Le Saux, Tim Sherwood and Henning Berg.

Fast forward 15 years, though, and football has reached a different planet with City, Rovers’ opponents tomorrow, seemingly in a totally different financial galaxy.

If you talk about attempts to ‘buy the league’, then this surely is the ultimate having spent £100m more than any of their rivals in assembling their current squad.

All the big-money Premier League arrivals this summer have been at the City of Manchester Stadium.

The problem, for them, is they still seem a long way short of the world class talent on show at Chelsea.

The financial gulf in the Premier League’s early days was not huge between its members. Some obviously had more money than others, but it was competitive.

Now though the rich have certainly got richer.

While the league’s lesser lights increasingly struggle financially, the funds of the bigger boys have just rocketed – with City leaving everyone in their wake.

Will they eventually claim that elusive crown?

Possibly, in fact quite possibly. Let’s face it if they keep spending the way they are, they will have the pick of the world talent eventually.

But Mancini’s summer signings seem to have followed no pattern. There is no question he has added quality but now let’s see him fit them all into his team.

What Dalglish and Jack Walker did at Ewood Park back in the 1990s should have taught anyone with new found riches a lesson.

It is not what you spend that matters, it is who you buy.