Learning from past is key to City future

It may have taken right up until the final seconds of the season to decide it, but you have to say that Manchester City fully deserve their Premier League title.

The football they have played, some of the goals they have scored and the way they have destroyed so many teams this season all make them worthy winners.

Had Manchester United managed to retain the trophy instead, as looked the case for a long time on Sunday, then we all would have said they got away with it, that they managed to somehow sneak their way to a 20^th title. But, after Sergio Aguero's dramatic goal which was a winner both on the day and for the whole season, it felt like the right team were going to be crowned champions.

Sir Alex Ferguson was accepting of United's likely fate in the week building up to the final games, but he was insisting that the club have plenty of young players who will develop and compete with City in the coming years. While he is right that the likes of David de Gea, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Tom Cleverley, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck are all young footballers of great promise, I still believe that they will need a few more top quality additions to play with them and see them fulfil their potential.

Welbeck has been playing very well recently, but he needs to maintain that level for a much longer period of time if he is to prove himself as a top-class forward. Jones has bags of potential, but he really needs to be nailed down into one position if he is to truly excel.

Perhaps Ferguson is also including Wayne Rooney, Nani, Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia, who are all approaching what are generally expected to be their peak years, in his comments, but that is a bit of a stretch.

Of course, we are all anticipating that this is the start of an dominant era for City. They must learn lessons from the other teams who have spent big over a relatively short space of time to win the Premier League. Blackburn Rovers were never able to repeat their title win of 1995 after their historic spending began to be eclipsed. Chelsea did, but their problem was that they built the house but not the foundations. Most of their best players today are still those who won the title back in 2005.

City have taken steps to address that by building their big academy facility in the shadow of their stadium, so it remains to be seen if that bears fruit or not. Several of City's players have been quick to say that they must win the title again if history is to truly judge them a top club. We will have to just wait and see what this group can achieve together, but greatness is certainly within their grasp.

When you have some of the best players in the world in their respective positions all over the pitch as City do, as well as the spending power to get even stronger, who knows how far they can go.