I DON’T know whether President Obama is a Manchester City fan, but his reference to “gathering clouds and raging storms” was a sober Presidential reflection on the Kaka debacle and the problems at Eastlands.

The newly-elected President was right to issue a stern warning to the Premier League strugglers and any others who think that the days of big money transfers and of players who earn salaries big enough to bail out a struggling Wall Street bank are here to stay – they aren’t.

The Kaka cock-up has revealed that our national sport retains an absurd belief that it alone will remain untouched by what Mr President called “the crisis”.

How can anyone possibly believe that a soccer player, no matter how good, is worth paying £500,000 a week in the present profoundly grim economic cicumstances?

That’s £500,000 for a week in which they play at Old Trafford or a week where the highlight is a trip to Stoke or even a week when he sits on the treatment table.

Manchester City, especially its chief executive and perhaps its ultimate backers, need to quickly learn the difference between price and value. No matter how much money the Sheikh has, he cannot buy sporting success and all attempts to do so are doomed to fail.

Sports teams – and this applies to all field team sports – are not built solely on a pile of cash. Success demands much firmer foundations than that.

Other values like loyalty, commitment, team spirit and sense of duty to team-mates and even fans are the cement which binds great teams together.

As the economy lurches further into deeper trouble, and the new boy in the White House warns us all of the problems to come, the Premier League boardrooms may continue to be the one place where the recession is never mentioned and the good times continue to roll.

But if you believe that you will believe anything, really anything – perhaps even that Kaka would desert the glamour and tradition of Milan for life in east Manchester. Even for £500,000 a week.