When Robinho signed for City seconds before midnight exactly two years ago, it topped off perhaps the most extraordinary day in the club’s history.
It is a sign of just how far the Blues have travelled that they now have no worries about being able to do without him.
September 1, 2008 was a day that no City fan will ever forget. Blues supporters awoke to discover that the Abu Dhabi Group had bought the club from former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for £210m.
Overnight, City had become the richest club in the world, and set about making a marquee signing as an instant statement of intent before the transfer window closed at midnight.
What followed bordered on the surreal. The Blues put in a bid to sign Ruud van Nistelrooy from Real Madrid, then made a cheeky attempt to hijack United’s £30.75m move for Dimitar Berbatov.
Crowd
Manager Mark Hughes, collared by a television crew at the club’s Academy golf day for his thoughts, struck a pose somewhere between composure, excitement and bemusement.
And then, at around 10pm, news started to filter out that City had succeeded in luring Robinho to Eastlands from under Chelsea’s noses for £32.5m – a British record.
Despite a promising start – a debut goal in a home defeat against Chelsea – it never quite worked out for the Brazilian in Manchester following his move from Real Madrid.
But City’s football administrator Brian Marwood dismisses any notion that the club were wrong to splash out so much money on him.
“I wouldn’t call Robinho a mistake,” Marwood said. “His performances for the national team show you what a talent he is. He’s had performances for City which have lit up Eastlands at times. In his first season here, he got into double figures for goals and was our leading scorer.
“Ultimately, the Premier League is not an easy environment for anybody to come into, whether you’re born in England or Brazil.”
As the first signing of a new era, Robinho arguably found himself burdened with a level of expectation which no individual player brought to the club since then has had to face.
It would not have helped that, in the words of Brazil’s 1970 World Cup legend Tostao, the playmaker was “still lacking some maturity as a person”.
Spotlight
In addition, he found himself at a club who were beginning the long process of transformation in the full glare of the media spotlight. When Hughes and chief executive Garry Cook arrived at Eastlands three months before the takeover, they discovered the club’s infrastructure needed a major overhaul.
For Hughes, that meant refurbishing City’s Carrington training complex, which he described as “rundown” and “not fit for purpose”.
It was symbolic of Hughes’ initial struggles at City that his early-season press conferences after taking over had to be held next door at Sale Sharks’ training ground, in front of a sponsors board hastily taped to the wall. On more than one occasion, the press conference was interrupted when the board fell down.
The Welshman subsequently admitted that he came close to walking away from City before the Abu Dhabi takeover, with Thaksin’s troubles – he had £1bn of assets frozen and skipped bail when his wife Potjaman was convicted of fraud in Bangkok – affecting the running of the club.
For Cook, there were a whole host of additional headaches, as he attempted to keep City on an even keel amid their pre-takeover financial concerns.
Move
Under Thaksin, City had borrowed from Standard Bank against future Premier League TV money and bought players on deposit.
Cook, who was preparing to move his family over from the United States at the time, found himself sitting in a hotel room in Cheshire wondering if he had made the right move in coming to City.
But once Sheikh Mansour had bought out the club – and paid off their debts – Cook and Co were able to set about changing things off the field.
“In terms of environment, the club is unrecognisable from what it was two years ago, even if we very purposefully looked to ensure throughout that it has never lost its identity or the soul that makes it so special,” Cook said.
On the pitch, Robinho and Co took longer to get things right. A defeat at West Brom meant that City spent Christmas 2008 in the relegation zone. A humiliating FA Cup exit at home to Nottingham Forest led many to speculate about Hughes’ future.
Robinho’s struggles to perform in away matches – notably a dreadful display at Portsmouth in February 2009 – led others to speculate about the Brazilian’s future. In the end, it was Hughes who left first, sacked last December after failing to meet a pre-season points target.
Under Roberto Mancini, the Blues came within a whisker of Champions League qualification, then spent more than £100m on six new players in a bid to push them over that line this season.
And yet the more the club progressed, the further Robinho was left behind. Mancini allowed him to return home to Brazil to join Santos on loan, and the player could not have made it clearer that he wanted to make the move permanent.
Even though that move was denied him, it was obvious that his heart was elsewhere. Now the player who was a big part of a huge day in City’s history has the chance to make a fresh start.
Blue revolution marches on
September 01, 2010
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This is a good piece, it is so nice to know what goes on behind closed doors.
Get you facts right. City had permission to talk to Berbatov and United didn't so United hijacked City's deal...but glad they did...at least we can afford to make mistakes!!!
Every article is about Robinho including the one about RSC!!! OK for today but now time to move on and concentrate on those who are here now. Please MEN no more Robinho stories and by the way we don't need an article every time he scores for Milan because guess what......no-one cares anymore.
Those were the days.. jumpers for goal posts..No money in the tills,repo men outside trying to get their hands on anything of value.. but enough of our neighbours! Great article(at last).
Great piece. I believe we are being run in the best possible way nowadays.
Would like to wish Robi and his family all the best. He did provide some great times at Eastlands and helped to 'put us on the map'... For that I thank him. A shame it didn't work out, but these things happen.
However you dress it up ..... he didnt have the stomach or team ethic to do the job .
There is no denying his brilliance but there is also no denying his incompetence.
We are now stronger in every department and have a look about us that we mean business for real .
The future is Blue ,MCFC Blue
City are NOT the richest club in the world, they just have the richest owner. The club is still worth and generates a pittance!
We Blues should never feel too bad when we have been mugged on transfers....Barca look like they have theoretically lost 40m pounds on Ibra,who also has nothing good to say about them...Real Madrid have theoretically lost more than this in the last two years on Dutchmen alone....and the only reason that the Italians have not also been had is that they've been skint for the last five years...it seems that eventually somebody gets taken-so even if we theoretically have lost on Robinho(14m),RSC(14m),Bellamy(8m),Lescott(10m),perhaps we are not at the top of the tree.....
and ?????
different topic entirely (but I'm bored with Robinho stories).
Andy Gray is moaning about player power and how being multi-millionaires has made players lose any loyalty to their employers or the supporters.
http://www.sport.co.uk/news/Football/43003/Sky_Sports_pundit_slams_shabby_behaviour_of_Mascherano_.aspx
Players being multi-millionaires? would that be because Sky TV has pumped billions into the PL and totally ruined what was once a wonderful game that anyone could go and see on a Saturday afternoon and turned it into a complete mockery of sport with over-Americanised hype and BS from all four corners of the screen?
would that be the same Sky TV that pays Gray a seven figure salary to spout his claptrap about overpaid footballers? I think so.
These are the kind of articles we need sometimes, just to show that there are actual human beings that are running the club and who make mistakes every now and again. Believe me, stories like this will do a lot more positive things for the club rather than the 'postive spin' ones coming out most of the time. This is a football club, not a political party. CTID.
I agree with Richard Lyons. It is a very informative piece. City has made major strides and will continue to do so, regardless of the snide and often ridiculous comments of the haters. For Robinho, he served as a statement rather than as a catalyst. Robinho was City's coming out present, but he lacked the ability to play the role, so he is gone. Goodbye to him and I wish him well. Great clubs aren't built on animosity toward former players, unless they move to United of course.
Very interesting article. It's never dull supporting Manchester's only football club.
Great article with a different slant on things. Unless Robhino bucks up his ideas he will struggle to get in the Milan team who looked more than comfortable scoring four at home in their first match of the season. Pleased to see that Bojinov scored a very good goal in his first game too! He was a player I would loved to have kept who was stricken by injuries but was a very good player.
Good luck!
End of the day it hasn't worked out for Robi or City the way we all hoped, but the publicity that came with the transfer and the statement of intent was worth a fortune. Even where I live everyone knows who City are now, and unfortunately it wasn't the case a couple of years ago. And to think he couldn't even get in the first team now shows just how far we've come. Will be nice to see us beat Milan in the Champions League final in a couple of years time, with Robi sitting on the bench (or in the crowds) watching us take them apart!
This is an interesting (but belated) perspective from Mike Whalley on where we were and where we are and where we are going.
But why is Robi a news story in Manchester?
Robi doesn't play here anymore, and he never worked here.
From a life-long City supporter.
I don't think City need to justify buying Robinho. Real put a high value on him, Chelsea were prepared to pay ONLY £28 million for him so I don't think the world thought he had no talent. What HAS become obvious is that he has no b@*lls, as I fear AC will discover when it rains and gets chilly in north Italy.
How about the one when Sky TV and the Premier League nearly had a heart attack and complained to the hilt when some regulatory body advised that the Premier league should start selling the games in blocks to different companies to promote more competitive charges to customers rather than seeling only to Sky. It seems everyone can preach about fair play and until it starts to affect them.
What's a "marquee" signing ? I thought that was a tent.
Do you mean marque?
I LOVE the banter with the Zombies from the theatre of DEBT!!
Robbi was a very expensive mistake as a footballer but a great success is helping to spread the word on a new power from Manchester. City were instantly a global name, every major newspaper in the world carried the story and still do follow City news.
United should be thankfull we have given the reporting hacks some great stories otherwise the headlines would be the doom and gloom at the swamp! (debt, season ticket sales down etc)
How much did berbaflop cost? thats right nearly the same as Robbi, and how much would he be worth today 15 -18 million not much better eh! Now you understand why SAF buys players like I back horses at the bookies, if the name sounds good he must be good! Now what was that bit about reckless spending,....
Good article, this too may be of some interest -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/aug/31/manchester-city-transfer-window
for me cook and marwood are still useless and until they show me something to change that i will always think this way
Oh how times have chaged! I remember a few years ago players like big Joe Corrigan and a few others would get the bus to Maine Road and a Finglands coach would drop them off after the game. The soul of the club? We are the soul of the club, the ones that stood in the Kippax week in week out. A club can have all the money in the world or owe all the money in the world, but without the loyal fans then its worth nothing.
There is no Blue revolution. As we all could see on Sunday, we will not win anything this season either. Top 4? U'r havin' a laff. We still have players in the team who can't pass, like Richards, Lescott, De Jong, Kompany, Barry, K. Toure.
Up front on his own is a striker who misses sitters that we would expect a 14 year old girl could score from. Then we have a few Fancy Dans who keep persisting on trying tricks and flicks that "never" comes off, or that their team mates don't understand.
We still have no answer against sides who are physical and tight marking.
Mancini won't last long. By Christmas we will have a new guy in charge and will have to start from scratch - again...