City eye six more signings

June 16, 2009

Khaldoon al Mubarak

CITY are looking to bring in up to six more players in the summer transfer window, but won’t be forced into paying “joke” money for them.

Having already forked out £12m to bring in Gareth Barry, Blues chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak has revealed that was only just the start. But he admits he is frustrated by the criticism the club has received since January’s takeover.

“We will shrink our squad and add four to six players,” he said. “But there are two things going on. One, a general view of Arab investors and two, a whole hierarchy within football where there is a group of clubs that fall within the hierarchy and the clubs that fall outside don’t have a seat at the table and shouldn’t even demand one.

“I’m frustrated with people assuming we are going to throw crazy money at deals, that we won’t understand true values and we can’t negotiate or get value for a player.

“We’ve had numbers thrown at us that are a joke. There are situations where a £10m player will be offered to us for a ‘City price’ of £20m. We just leave. If people are throwing crazy numbers at us, fine, deals won’t be done.

“I will defend the value of every deal we have done.

“When we looked at Kaka, the numbers being thrown around were crazy, suddenly in the news you see ‘City are crazy’ and ‘City are %irresponsible’.

Passion

“Why is it when Real Madrid not only talks about but actually closes two deals, like the ones they’ve closed with the numbers they’ve committed to, it’s fine?”

Al Mubarak also says he didn't realise the importance of the club to its fans until he came to Manchester.

“I don’t think I truly appreciated what I was getting into until I got there,” he said. “It’s very easy when you are sitting in Abu Dhabi and when your knowledge of it is based on hearsay and based on watching football on TV and going to games.

“Once you go to Manchester and you are the chairman of Man City Football Club, you quickly realise the importance of that club to the city of Manchester and the people of Manchester, and that passion is not something that you take lightly.”

“I was really aware of how much people care and their lives are almost connected to it,” he said. “This is a team that has had a huge fan base but one that has been very frustrated.”

What do you think? Tell us your comments

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Peter Beagrie`s beagle (16/06/2009 at 23:39)

“Once you go to Manchester and you are the chairman of Man City Football Club, you quickly realise the importance of that club to the city of Manchester and the people of Manchester" ANY RAG FANS READING THIS, NOTE THE WORD "MANCHESTER"! CTID

dingdongbell, north (16/06/2009 at 23:41)

from now on were going to have to pay inflated prices for who ever we buy, RSC, Lescott etc and that's just for your good prem ship players, world class players won't even go near us unless we pay ridiculous wages, our owners will just have to get used to it, and of course ther are those who will still not come regardless of what we offer.

CTID

gorton blue, gorton (16/06/2009 at 23:44)

This just what i want to hear...This guy is class

bluenun, manchester (16/06/2009 at 23:44)

tevez, eto, upson, lescott, maicon, ibrahimovic.. top team

Ron Jeremy, upper ramsbottom (16/06/2009 at 23:48)

This should kill all the rumour mongers,i suggest we will bring in 5 more players at an average of 15mill a player,RSC will be first and Lescott as Everton havnt killed this rumour,and 3 that nobody has a clue about

SoCalBlue, Walnut, California (16/06/2009 at 23:50)

This fella certainly gives me the impression that my beloved Blues are in the best possible hands. Onwards and upwards and all that. Now just get us Tevez, Eto'o, Lescott, Yaya T, anther CB and LB and watch us go. Also keep Elano at all costs. I know I risk the wrath of my fellow Blues on 'ere when I say I'd rather have Elano on the right than SWeeP, but I think 'lano can pick a better pass than our Shaunie.

CTIf'inD

ozblueperth (16/06/2009 at 23:58)

In my opion he always seems to say the right thing.

South Stand Stander , at home! (16/06/2009 at 23:59)

"There are situations where a £10m player will be offered to us for a ‘City price’ of £20m. We just leave." you listening Big Sam????

what a top sounding bloke our chairman is, the future is looking good. now lets crack on and get these six players in, this feels like the longest christmas eve ever! im so excited :)

Hammy Hamstead (17/06/2009 at 00:04)

It's so refreshing to hear a unified message coming from the manager, chief exec and the owner. For the first time since I've supported the club I feel informed and totally reassured about our future. March onwards my blue soldiers....
:)

woolleyback blue, Heart of the City (17/06/2009 at 00:07)

Pure Magic..........You are a born BLUE.. It sometimes takes people a while to find us but once you do you can never get off the ride. How lucky are we to have these people in charge of our Club. Rags read and weep.

CTID

M9Lad., ny. (17/06/2009 at 00:15)

A Class act, the Man oozes and instills a calm confidence. A sophisticated gent who wont be taken for a fool, and a perfect figurehead for the new higher profile Manchester City Football Club. I for one am proud to have him as our Chairman, long may he reign.

g1lly blue (17/06/2009 at 00:16)

We’ve had numbers thrown at us that are a joke. There are situations where a £10m player will be offered to us for a ‘City price’ of £20m. We just leave. If people are throwing crazy numbers at us, fine, deals won’t be done.
Is that not what Mark Hughes is leading you to do with Santa Cruz and what he did for Bellamy?
Unfortunatley he can not attract the higher echelon players and is now paying way over the odds for the same type of player that he used to get for peanuts at boredom rovers.
He has NO proven track record for winning anything as a manager, Mid table battler thats all you get withthe Taffia.
If you want to be the best you have got to have the best in place.
People say he played for this that and the other, that means didly squat,
there is a saying that good soldiers dont alaways make good leaders.

dopeeze, Jersey, Channel Islands (17/06/2009 at 00:19)

anabsolutely outstanding article and full credit must go to Mr Khaldoom Al Mubarak for this statement and commitment that this statement providess.

CTID

BigA, Tyldesley (17/06/2009 at 00:22)

I think this shows Khaldoon is having his eyes quickly opened to the culture of football. The attitude shown towards City's owners verges on the racist where Arabs are classified as stupid and only having vast amounts of oil. No credit is given for business acumen. It must be a shock to the system when we are trying to compete with the likes of Real Madrid and their borrowing capacity (what credit crunch??).

Pivo, Manchester (17/06/2009 at 00:30)

Well said Mr Chairman. Perhaps the penny has finally dropped now he's had a more "hands on" involvement with the team, that the big clubs are not about to let teams outside the top 4 upset the status quo. Maybe one of the reasons the incoming transfers have been thin on the ground is due to City not being willing to shell out more than market value for players they've been in for? Platini isn't my favourite football exec but at least he's been consistent with his condemnation of clubs paying out enormous sums for players. It's that idiot Blatter who always seems to change his tune when it suits him. The man has no credibility left - not that he had much to begin with. At least it looks like we have sensible people running our club at last and I have more faith that we'll eventually get to where we all want to be.

Austin Powers (17/06/2009 at 00:31)

Carefull Al Mubarak you are developing an emotional bond to the Football Club that once established will never leave you.
Many lives have intertwined over decades with our fortune's myself included with joy's and sorrow's manifested in a multitude of threads woven into the emotional tapestry of our supporters love for the club.
A realisation perhaps that we are not driven or motivated by fleeting success but by deeper and stronger alliegance's to old fashioned working class values which are the roots of the club's strength within the Manchester community and have never been abandened.
So that's my theory why we are consistantly around 5th in attendance figures down the years for the English League no matter what division we have found ourselves in.
The club and fan base have alway's been special it's now being noted on an international scale.

Peter Doherty. As good as it gets. (Debt free), Levenshulme (17/06/2009 at 00:35)

Good to see he recognises what he's up against and is prepared to let the people carving football up amongst themselves that he knows the score and is after them. What I most appreciate and what our friends at Old Trafford will never recognise and our chairman has is that our club represents us as a community of Mancunians and that we are tied to it much as a family is tied together. That's what a club should be and not a bunch of tourists looking to associate themselves with a club winning trophies simply because they are winning trophies.

John Wythenshawe Exile, Indonesia (17/06/2009 at 00:38)

Khaldoon al Mubarak is talking facts, I hope the rest of football world are listening especially Madame Platini and the gutter press.

Garrincha's jockstrap, Solihull (17/06/2009 at 00:40)

A great interview from a great man. We are in for one hell of a ride with ADUG at the helm, I don't think we'll be hearing 'sack the board' or people calling for Swales to return anytime soon.

As for the 4-6: Sergio Ramos/Maicon at right back, Lescott/K.Toure at centre half, Javi Martinez or another young, energetic box-to-box midfielder, Santa Cruz, Tevez, and Eto'o/Forlan/Huntelaar will do very nicely indeed.

g (17/06/2009 at 00:41)

Yeah, good point. I think that the way troll lives in a cave. Due to lack of camaradeririririre there may be a long scissor and a small scissor but who's gonna cut it? Barber out. peace

Peter Doherty. As good as it gets. (Debt free), Levenshulme (17/06/2009 at 00:41)

What I meant to say in my last post is that the Chairman 'gets' it!

Mr Sibierski (17/06/2009 at 00:43)

lege

Darren Preece (17/06/2009 at 00:49)

Santa Cruz will be the first at 15m, primarily to keep the physio in work .....

Who put the soot in Salford? The Yank franchise (17/06/2009 at 01:11)

Totally professional owners. Know where they are at and where they are going. Watch the doubters and MH knockers fade to oblivion along with Man U, who if I read their loan commitments correctly, will financial implode on Jan 1st 2017. Watch this space ...............

bluejedi (17/06/2009 at 01:26)

Tevez update
by the daily tevez :)

Yesterday alot of people claim to have seen tevez ariving at the city of manchester stadium doors an getting out of a white Audi then shaking hands with Mark Hughes at the main doors

I can back this up me and my brother were at the City of manchester stadium to vist the manchester city shop, as we walked towards the front of the stadium a white Audi and a few other 4x4 cars with blacked out windows speeded past us we ran as fast as we could to get to the try an see who it was, there was actualy two guys getting out of the white Audi Kia Joorabchian and tevez and they went in the doors at the stadium. The guys in the black 4x4 cars with blacked out windows followed them in they looked like body gaurds.

When they went in through the doors at the stadium through the glass front, it did look like they were being greeted by about four guys in suits, all i could see was 3 of them was white an one was darker skinned, thats all i can say tho, i cant say they were being greeted by mark hughes although its more than likely that one of them might have been hughes.

Yesterday I read a few people posted sightings of eto at carrinton, im not entirely conviced yet because press would have seen him, an if mark hughes was greeting tevez it would have been tricky, however theres always a possibility, if it really was eto, maybe he was at carrinton too look around they might of been trying to stall him until mark hughes arrives.

If the people posted eto sightings were at the city of manchester stadium then that would have been more convincing because talks an signings are usually done at the stadium.

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