Hence the last seven days of the Premier League have seen two established and respected managers leave their jobs and one club, namely City, at the stroke of a pen move from an uncertain future to the brink of being the richest in the world.
This time last week, City fans were still just about digesting the news that their much-loved club was in the process of changing hands for a revised figure of £210m to become Arab rather than Thai-owned.
They were also getting to grips with the fact that before the ink had dried on a memorandum of understanding - in layman's terms a gentleman's agreement - City had splashed out a British record sum of £32.5m on Brazilian Robinho.
In the subsequent, frenetic, breathless and hyped-up 48 hours that followed, the Blues new owner's spokesman linked the club with every player in fantasy football land from Kaka to the two Ronaldos and from Buffon to Messi.
It was great publicity of course. It put the Blues on the front and back pages of every English newspaper and on excited television news bulletins all over the world from Manchester to Timbuktu.
But there comes a time when for the greater good of the team and its future ambitions - and those of the manager and owner - that the sabre rattling has to stop. That time has arrived.
It will not of course prevent City fans from having a pop at their neighbours whenever possible and nor should it because football may as well pack up and go home if it loses completely the tribal rivalry that sustains the clamorous interest of the paying public.
However, no-one likes a club that brags and boasts and the nouveau riche in football are treated with sniffy condemnation by others less fortunate than themselves.
Chelsea's flashing of the cash in early days of the Roman Abramovich empire made them one of the top teams in England for achievement and one of the most disliked at the same time. Contrast that to the more sympathetic hearing Arsenal received when they collected silverware.
City are lucky that, thanks entirely to the unswerving loyalty of their fans and the fact that even in the depths of English league's third tier, they attended matches in their droves, there is a fund of goodwill towards them.
Ask other Premier League clubs' fans to name a side they would have liked to win the `lottery' if their own favourites couldn't, few would have begrudged the Blues instant riches, especially if it means knocking United down a peg or two!
But that will not long be the case if City suddenly start telling the world that they are going to buy Fabregas, Torres et al when clearly that will not be the case.
Enemies are easily made in a business that is paranoid and the hands that slapped the backs at City when news came through of their good fortune could easily be holding knives in the blink of an eye.
It is no use harming the `brand' (a word that sticks in the craw of the man in the street) when it has yet to be properly established.
Talking too long and too loud about what you will achieve and who you will attract makes great conversation but will only make clubs between now and January redouble their efforts against City, treble the price of everyone they try to purchase and alienate the neutrals and media.
The princes of Abu Dhabi - the men with the vast funds and clout behind the takeover - have, it seems, already been well advised and have stemmed the flow of some of the more outlandish claims coming out of the Emirate. Good for them.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of Abu Dhabi's supreme ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is the main man behind the takeover.
He is a football fan but above all, according to informed sources, a man who loves his country and wants to spread its name and positive image around the world.
It is clear that for the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, the plus points of buying City are both personal and diplomatic with one of their aims for Abu Dhabi to eventually rival Dubai when it comes to the world stage and attracting foreign investment and tourism.
The rulers and their advisers clearly see parallels between City and United and Abu Dhabi and Dubai whose ruling family may now intensify their pursuit of Liverpool.
Although Abu Dhabi is the capital and largest of the seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates, which has Sheikh Kalifa as its president, they have recently had to play second fiddle to the fast-developing Dubai which has stolen a march in terms of recognition from the west.
Sheikh Mansour is the minister for presidential affairs in his country. He is also an oil mogul and manages the nation's International Petroleum Investment Company with interests on several continents.
In addition, one of his passions is educating the youth of his country and promoting opportunities for them. He is known to be keen, not only to maintain City's renowned Academy but to invest further in it.
Courtiers in Abu Dhabi describe him as intellectual and thoughtful and not the sort of man who would just throw money at an English football club for the sake of publicity or as a gimmick.
When Ramadan ends at the end of the month, City fans can expect him to play a more prominent role in shaping the future of the club and the proposed investment in the area around it.
His family's Emirate is not playing a game of fantasy football with City but will use the purchase of the club to help improve football in the Gulf area and enhance the reputation of their country.
The Abu Dhabi royal family will, by all accounts, be pragmatic, committed and responsible owners of City who want to make allies in the world of football and not alienate themselves.
The Sheikhs are keen that they have the respect of the English football hierarchy and public and are not seen as just obscenely rich and merely acquiring the club as a plaything.
There is unlikely to be much more in the way of showboating in the coming weeks with boss Mark Hughes left to plot the team's best way to develop into a superpower without the pressure of silly time constraints and over-inflated expectations of new arrivals.
That might be bad for headlines but it will be beneficial to City and the Sheikh in the long term and they have clearly chosen a sensible path.
Sheikh Mansour is already on the board at Abu Dhabi's Al Jazira Sporting Club where he has made it into one of the best equipped and fastest growing in the Middle East.
Close aides say he will do the same for the Blues in the long term but, for now, it will be a case of softly, softly until the deal is signed and sealed and due diligence completed. Tweet
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Theres only one Al-fahim
one Al-fahim.
Just fill up yer car n' he'll buy us kaka
walkin in Al-fahim wonderland.
why use fifty words when three thousand seven hundred and sixty eight will do?
yawn
A very interesting article.
I this is accurate then I reckon it's just what us Blues want to hear. The last thing that we need out of all this is to be despised throughout football simply because of our new-found wealth. It would be really great if we can be successful and yet still retain the respect (and dare I say it) admiration of other fans up and down the country.
Let's hope that Sheikh Mansour will indeed bring sense and stability to the Club rather than the showboating comments which came out of Abu Dhabi a week ago.
An interesting article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/sep/08/manchestercity.premierleague
Good article.
Sheikh Mansour !
Superstar !
He bought Man City,
Now he's buying Kaka...
Blue star………………
Blue star…………………………….
The only unleaded to put in your car………………..
However, no-one likes a club that brags and boasts and the nouveau riche in football are treated with sniffy condemnation by others less fortunate than themselves.
Remind you of anyone!!!
NO ONE WANTING TO PUT THEIR NAME TO THIS PATHETIC ATTEMPT AT DROWNING OUT OUR OVER DUE JOY????? MUEN STRIKE AGAIN. BITTER REDS!
Thank goodness we have at last got some common sense from our intrepid City reporter.
Let's all take a deep breath and savour the start of an exciting period for our fantastic club.
We must keep the heart and soul of the club - the loyal fans - and not become spoilt by the huge sums being mentioned. Don't rise to the scathing, jealous, retorts from our near neighbours on the outskirts of the City.
CTID
Good article, and good news that the new owners are trying to be level-headed and sensible about our new status. This is the right way forward. I'm sure I'm not the only Blue who felt a little uncomfortable with our statements of intent regarding signings. I did however enjoy the ones that upset the 'new bitters'.
Foreword : This is a long comment ! but I really wanted to put this online and get some feedback and thoughts, negative or positive.
Whilst we can all dream about a top 1,2,3 or 4 finish this season, I personally think this is unrealistic, puts us under undue pressure and allows our ‘rivals’ to tell us we think we can buy success. I’m not forgetting that we were in the top 7 for the first 5 months of last year and our squad is stronger now, but I just think consistency can’t be achieved overnight. And remember, last year, we could beat anyone on our day or lose to anyone on our off day !
I believe, Success isn’t just bought.
Money is an essential ingredient of any success in the premiership and Europe. Without it, you can’t compete. But, for success to be achieved we need other ingredients, including; Management, Player Development, Tactics, Commercial Exploitation, Marketing and Luck, etc.
If we achieve success in this manner, then we will also earn the respect of our ‘rivals’ and I believe the vast majority of our success starved loyal supporters, would prefer to achieve success with respect, rather than without it.
Of course, we could just buy everyone, win trophies and gloat in our bliss, but I don’t think most of us want that. In fact, I would even suggest the majority of real supporters would settle for a team that is consistently challenging the best teams in the league, without being solely financial bullies.
What is success ? This is where the problem could lie.
Each supporter, each owner, each player and our manager may have very different beliefs of what success is.
For me, it’s reasonably easy to define;
2008/2009 : remain in top 10 all season, achieve equal or greater points against ‘traditional top 4’, qualify for UEFA automatically, challenge for Champions league spot, a semi-final or better in any cup competition, attract two more world class players in January window, develop and nurture our real youth potential, filter out our weaker squad members and confirm Mark Hughes for 2009/2010 season and beyond.
2009/2010 : remain in top 6 all season, take more points from ‘old top 4’ than they take from us, qualify for Champions league, at least one final, one or two more players secured early in the transfer window, have a strong team and subs that virtually picks itself, win respect from the media for the way we have changed the face of English soccer, due to style of play and achievement.
2010/2011 …. I think we all have some ideas for this one.
I think in modern day football, and as investment in other clubs becomes more frequent, the future does not have a place for a dominant English or European club. I envisage honors in England will be shared between 6 or more clubs within the next 3 or 4 years. Not the 2 or 3 that have dominated the English scene in the last 16 years.
I believe in the next 3 to 4 years; We will be bigger, We will be better, We will win something, The ‘Top Four’ will be no longer, We will have more opportunities to wind up our cross town rivals, but I just don’t think that the future will provide the opportunity to create 10 or more years of domestic or European dominance, as other teams have had during the past decade.
Are we the biggest club in England, in Europe or the World ? I would answer NO ! Again, it depends on how you measure ‘big’ but at a minimum it must rely on support base and the clubs ability to generate revenue. There is a big difference in having money and making money.
If we consider the support base as the total of real supporters plus ‘followers’, there is no doubt we are not the biggest. Other clubs have many more ‘followers’ across the globe.
We all realize that with success we will get more followers. Our real supporters are already established, being successful will not add more. However, it is those followers that will increase our revenue earning ability and with success, with revenue and with followers, we will become a ‘bigger and better club’ and I hope we do it in a way to be admired.
good article for a change.
if all this is true then the future is most certainly sky blue.
can't wait for saturday, i'm gonna get there early and soak up the atmosphere which should be fervent excitement.
In SMbZAN, GC&MH We Trust. CTID
The person who wrote the article says"No one likes a team that boasts"but do you hear this paper and other papers condemning Utd,Liverpool and the like when they continually boast and snipe at the lesser clubs when they have the temerity to try and steal a march on them.The reporter talks about "Goodwill" but Ive not seen any being afforded to City from the media and rival clubs.Only today i see that Peter Hill-Wood is putting his twopenny worth in regarding the purchase of Robinho.
As i have said many times before wasn't it his club along with Liverpool and utd who wanted to start a European super league so as to carve up all the TV money and let the rest of the premier league rot.When it looks like any other club is going to spoil their junket they cant help but try to put a negative spin on things and considering it doesn't bother utd why do they feel obliged to comment in such a negative and childish way.
He looks very like the purple one to me!
To the tune off Daylight come and I wanna go home or something like that.
All together now....
DECO!!!!!!!! DECO!!!!!!!!!
Over the hill, not good enough for Brazil, ignorant Gnome.
BOOKMAKERS have been running for cover after the dramatic events at Manchester City, or Middle Eastlands as the stadium is now known.
The price on Mark Hughes’s men winning the Premier League this season has been slashed to 66-1 from more than seven times those odds.
And, more realistically, City are now 9-4 favourites to be the top club outside the big four of United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.
As City’s new owners, the mega-rich Abu Dhabi United Group For Development and Investment, reveal the full nature of their ambitions, so the odds-layers cut the Blues for a whole host of achievements.
Among these are City’s quote of 6-1 about landing a trophy this season.
And if City’s owners are serious about making them the best side in the world sooner rather than later – money being no object – then Ladbrokes’ 16-1 about them winning the Premier League within the next three seasons could start to look rather generous.
City have endured so many false dawns in the last 40 years that a little caution is advised as money is no guarantee of success.
It will be interesting to see what happens if there is no immediate sign of progress and how much time the excellent Mark Hughes is given to produce the goods.
But one thing is for certain, the landscape of the Premier League has been completely altered by these latest developments because, if reports are to be believed, not even Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich can compete with the Abu Dhabi chiefs when it comes to spending clout.
Heady times, indeed, if you are a City fan.
This comment is much more satisfying and important than being linked with Messi or Kaka in any of the tabloids.
No-one wants to become obnoxious and unversally hated like the Rags and it is pleasing to know that ADUG want to respect the heritage and traditions of the game. Hopefully we can blend a few big name signings with some of the current squad and compete at the top end of the table without losing our own identity.
Obviously a red reporter suffering from the jealousy factor that we now have cash. It's not about bragging. City fans over the last 30 years could never be accused of that. We have been the butt of every comedians jokes. I have stood in the rain at Bournemourth, Wycome and oxford wondering how much worse it can get. Dreading coming to work after derby day or after United won something else. This is not about bragging, this is about optimism. We have a chink of light that maybe, just maybe after all these years we may be in with a shout. And even now, i sit at work with a fellow blue, wondering how we will manage to mess this up! So please dont tell me not to brag or boast. And your wrong about chelsea. i have enjoyed watching them over the last few years. I have not despised their wealth. They, like City, can still remember losing at shrewsbury not that many years back.
If you want to discourage boasting stories then dont print articles linking us to the worlds biggest names.
Ok, so weve got stacks & stacks of Sheckles. so wot, it has to be spent wisely. Lets all fasten our seat belts & hang on because, and as it is CITEE we are talking about its going to be a bumpy ride. But 3 weeks ago people like the News of the World were saying we were dead & buried, a convict owned us and we were for the scrap heap, Macclesfield here we come again.
But no, not Know we are going places but lets not try to run before we can walk. Never forget boys, stick together when they slag us, WE ARE FAMILY & they dont understand that.
BUT I HAVE SAID IT BEFORE & I WILL SAY IT AGAIN.
WE DONT SUPPORT CITY FOR THE GLORY, THE SILVERWARE OR THE PRAWN SARNIES, NEVER HAVE, NEVER WILL. WE SUPPORT OUR GREAT CLUB BECAUSE WE WERE BORN TO.
Any comments?
Mark of the jjbluee fame
Fill up your tanker...
fill up your tanker...
Get some diesel in you car...
Will the petrol stations in Stretford...
help pay for Messi and Kaka?
Sorry couldn't resist
Mountmellick Blue 12.35
Deco is Portuguese not Brazilian
oh do try to cheer up a little mr bailey
Why does the sheikh look like david blaine??
BritBoyInFlorida
9/09/2008 at 12:28
I think your comments are pretty spot on. We need to build a team mixed with you and experienced ‘stars.’ With Mark Hughes at the realm I really think we can achieve that. What I don’t want to see is Hughes being sacked in May because we’ve only finished 6th or 7th!
Realistically though we shouldn’t finish below 7th, we’re a top 6 team with our squad, maybe with a couple of new signings in Jan we can cement that. I still would be surprised if we finish top 4, but who knows.
Chris- I agree with your article, I almost cringed when I heard we wanted ‘18 players in Jan.’ In private they should talk about Fabregas, Torres etc. But don’t publicly declare anything. I don’t think we should publicly declare we ant Jo Bloggs- it’s called being honourable.
I still things those comments were really to let the footballing world know city are back and to gives us fans a sense of what’s to come. The report emulating out of Abu Dhabi recently have been much more reassuring and positive. We’re keeping our youth policy and Hughes has the final say in any transfers.
Does anyone know when due diligence should be completed?
Nice one Chris Bailey.
Plus, done yerself no harm there eh lad!