Stoke chairman Peter Coates has warned Manchester City owners the Abu Dhabi group that spending vast sums of money on players will not guarantee success.
The Abu Dhabi United group took over at Eastlands in September.
Coates told BBC Radio Stoke: "The terrific players they are being linked with can see that they are near the bottom of the league.
"Even when you have unlimited money, as Chelsea have discovered, running a football club isn't easy."
Coates thinks the huge transfer fees paid by Chelsea, and other Premier League big spenders, have damaged football.
"Roman Abramovich's money has been bad for the game in the sense that it inflated the wages you have to pay players.
It's a pipe dream to hope that whatever Manchester City do won't send up prices for everyone else
Stoke chairman Peter Coates
"The Premier League is the richest league in the world but most of the clubs have serious financial problems.
"All this money comes in and goes out the other end and we add to it, it's not a very sensible model," he added.
And Coates believes Manchester City's seemingly inexhaustible coffers will affect the whole of the Premier League.
"There's every likelihood that it will have an affect on everyone else," said Coates. "And because so many clubs are struggling they probably won't be able to do anything in response.
"It's a pipe dream to hope that whatever Manchester City do won't send up prices for everyone else."
Stoke have spent around �4.5m in the January transfer window in bringing Matthew Etherington and James Beattie to the Britannia Stadium.
Coates said he expects more new faces to arrive in North Staffordshire before the end of the month.
"I would have thought another two players might come in," said Coates.
"In a way that would make our squad too big, but we'll deal with that when it happens."
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