In this nightmare scenario, he abolished the sky blue colours, changed the club name to Manchester Etihad and banned anyone, who dared to protest.
There truly would have been a Blue revolution, though not of the kind which the Abu Dhabi group’s more sensitive takeover has effected.
Spare a thought, then, for traditional fans of Salzburg, against whom the Blues kick off their Europa League group campaign in Austria tomorrow night.
For that is precisely what happened to their club five years ago, when proud old SV Austria Salzburg, who had been knocking around for 72 years and had won three Austrian league titles and reached the 1994 Uefa Cup final, found itself being bought.
New owner Dietrich Mateschitz – the billionaire owner of energy drink company Red Bull – went into the club with all the delicacy and sensitivity of a red bull in a china shop.
A club which traditionally played in violet and white was ‘re-branded’ Red Bull Salzburg, had its colours changed to the corporate colours of red and white, and the badge changed to the Red Bull motif.
It was part of Red Bull’s drive to associate their brand name with sports franchises – they also bought up New York Metro Stars, clubs in Germany and Brazil and two motor racing teams, re-naming them all.
Salzburg fans who dared to protest were banned from the stadium, their objections dismissed as ‘kindergarten stuff’, and the club website declared the club was founded in 2005, rubbing out its entire history.
Banners, flags and drums were banned, and replaced with a choreographed ‘matchday experience’ of laser shows, celebrity kick-offs and It’s A Knockout-style entertainment.
The beautiful Austrian town, most famous as the birthplace of Mozart and the setting of The Sound Of Music, was suddenly alive with the sound of dissent.
Traditionalist fans set up the Violett-Weiss initiative to campaign against Red Bull’s attempts to eradicate their history.
They received minimal support from the Austrian FA, who merely insisted the “Founded in 2005” claim be removed from the website.
But other fans were seduced by Mateschitz’s promise of a 30m euros budget, which he claimed would make Salzburg a major European force within three to five years. City fans can relate to the temptation of that kind of promise!
The fans split into two camps, the red-whites who accepted the changes, and the violet-whites, who eventually set up their own club – SV Austria Salzburg – in the seventh division of Austrian football.
They have achieved four successive promotions and now play in the third division. But Red Bull Salzburg ploughed on regardless, and the promise of riches and success and the Americanisation of the ‘matchday experience’ doubled attendances. Still, the average 14,000 crowds tend to rattle around inside the 32,000 capacity Red Bull Arena.
Italian manager Giovanni Trappatoni was drafted in, with Germany legend Lothar Matthaus as his assistant, and they won the Austrian Bundesliga title at the first attempt.
Trappatoni left halfway through the following season to take over the reins of the Republic of Ireland, and in came experienced Dutch manager Co Adriaanse, who won the title the following year and then cleared off to manage in Qatar.
He was succeeded by another Dutchman, Huub Stevens, who knows all about Nigel de Jong, Vincent Kompany and Jerome Boateng – he managed them at Hamburg.
Stevens made it three titles in four years, but the European superpower status Matechitz promised failed to materialise. In four attempts, Salzburg, who are forced to drop the Red Bull name in European competition due to UEFA rules on commercialism, have failed to reach the group stages of the Champions League.
The latest failure came last month, when they lost 2-3 at home to Hapoel Tel Aviv before drawing the return leg. Any dreams Salzburg fans might have had about a City-style player recruitment drive also fell short of expectation.
They brought in Germany internationals Thomas Linke and Alexander Zickler from Bayern Munich, but that only brought domestic success, and both have now left.
The team is now based largely around Austrian internationals Franz Schiemer, Jakob Jantscher and Roman Wallner but they have had a poor start to the season.
But City cannot afford any complacency. Last season Salzburg proved their credentials at this level by winning all six Europa League group games, beating Lazio, Villarreal and Levski Sofia home and away. Tweet
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Is the match on TV?
I prefer Diet coke anyway, Red bull tastes like TCP.
Maybe Red Bull should buy United out, they could do with the cash and they would sell their own grandmother for some cash...
Mancini @ 8/1 for next manager to leave his post, not a bad shout at all!
Stevens makes his teams play defensively and physical. He is rather succesfull with this formula, even gaining a European trophy with Schalke. He is a very commanding manager, that's why he probably succeeded most in Germany.
Salzburg are a very difficult outfit to play at their ground, especially now when City to them is a big scalp, and it being the 1st game of the groupstages. They lost their goalscoring hero Janko to Twente what explains the difficult start and not scoring too many goals. They will defenitely try a trick or two, intimedating, falling and rolling over for what is typical of Austrian football lately.
This can turn into a typical bananaskin for City. With the class and international experience in our squad we still should be able to grin out a professional draw or 3 points.
Might still touch a few nerves, though, methinks!
Imagine that Sheikh Mansour had swept into City in 2008 and declared: “This is a new club with no history.”
Then he'd be telling the truth!!
I think we'll do a job tonight, patience is key in Europe.
Just hope we can switch back on the for the next Premiership match this time!
What as opposed to ` this is a small club with a small club mentality , little history , no trophy for 34 years and living in the shadow of its glamorous neighbours ` Think Salzburg got off lightly .
THE GAME = Personally I'd start with Boyata at the back alongside VK. Good experience for the boy and not a risk I.M.O. Whilst this game is away it is not the hardes away game we'll face in Europe this season, and crucially whilst low on experience to date, Boyata is good enough to cope without a doubt - Just leave Kolo (classic slip against BRFC, although Hart equally &/or moreso at fault).
OWNERSHIP = Not at all worried about our (City's) ownership in terms of longevity and input. Shake Rattle & Roll are winners and do all they can, both financially & management-wise in business, to turn everything they touch into Gold.
I am really looking forward to this one, we will see a strong side no doubt but can see us winning this one 1-0 or 2-1. I think Silva and Dejong should come back into the side as it will give us two better options and leave out Vieira and Sweep. Milner and Aj are certs for me and can bring an attacking option with Silva and Tevez showing us glimpses of what we are about to receive. Defense for me should have Boateng in it and drop Richards I would play Toure at left back and Lescott centre back I can see a few youth players being named as this is to me one of the easy away ties.
My Squad
1, Hart
2, Boateng
3, Kompany
4, Lescott
5, Toure( Kolo)
6, AJ
7, Dejong
8, Yaya
9, Milner
10, Silva
11, Tevez
Subs Given, Boyata, Barry, SWP, Adebayor,
I think this squad can win this tie comfortably, 2-1 to City I am going for
As a City and Hyde United fan - I would draw attention to what City have done at Hyde - changed the colour of the kit, repainted the stadium and rebadged it and changed the name of the club - dropping the United ... corporate rebranding or insensitive dismissal of a club's history, you decide... but we shouldn't throw stones at other teams.
Aitch, the game is on ESPN - 6pm kick off.
I do beleave ESPN have the game on from 5.30pm
I wan´t to see Adebayor and Silva from start!
This is the sort of game the Blue Matadors having been looking forward to. We are going to make saltzbergers out of the red bull. Yum Yum.
There's a team over the road from here called red bull as well.
What if the Glazers had swept into the swamp and created a debt mountain? Well that would be old news which is still playing out in front of us. History repeating itself every day.
"CityLady" , Hermanus, South Africa (15/09/2010 at 10:54)
As always your post is perceptive, a model of intelligence and common sense. But whenever I hear or read a City fan predict a comfortable win a sense of dread and impending doom descends on my shoulders. You know the sort of thing I mean, it's a bit like seeing Ted Knott or Dukinfield Blue have sent in one of their miserabilist postings.
Please continue with the clear sighted posts but please please leave out the predictions--it only tempts fate. Me, I'm always prepared for the worst but hope for the best.
Man United show how to do a takeover-change colours from red to yellow and green-change massive profits to massive debt-change full houses to an emptying stadium-change a young squad to a team of geriatrics-change 22 years of trophies to a slowly emerging drought....well done to the Glasers,who still need to milk the Rags some more....
Maybe all the rags on here are feeling a touch bitter because this is all a little close to home for them.
There was a load of Red Bull on Sky Sports last night v Rangers! LMAO
I'm not one for dabbling over here too often, but light shows and celebrity burgers...!! Noel and Ricky snorting along the touchline... Ring any bells...??
i know of a club who have seemingly ripped the central nervous system out of Hyde "United"... whoever wrote this article needs shooting... unless James Robson really is a blue... talk about the pot calling the kettle metal...!!
No more tactical cock ups like last Saturday. Play players in the right positions. i.e. SWP is not a left winger and never will be. Silva should have started. Salzburg have had a shocking start to their season but this is a tricky tie if we under estimate them and Mancini should not be doing a Hughes or Keegan and putting out a weakened team. We need at least a point and he should put out a strong side that can achieve that. Given/Hart, don't care which, Richards, Kompany, Toure, Lescott, de Jong (I assume he is fit again), other Toure, Milner behind Tevez and AJ/Silva out wide right and left. Bench - gk not picked, Vieira, Barry, SWP, RSC/Jo (not both).
Actually, what is more concerning is a report I have just read that Balotelli could be out until possibly January but certainly won't be back in early November. as was previously hoped.
We desperately need Adebayor back in the lineup, if only to finish some of these gilt-edged chances we have missed recently. Balotelli will be of immense help in this regard, also. With someone besides Tevez up front, Mancini can finally play some more conventional attacking formations. Right now, his other options up front are RSC and Jo - not too tempting, but Mancini will need to get some positive performance out of them for the time being. If Ade isn't available to feature on Thursday, RSC or Jo should start. Maybe Tevez will be rested, as he clearly wasn't 100% against Rovers, and we will need him for the Wigan fixture this weekend.
Excuse me, ed. Wakey wakey. Is the light on? You posted the comment about the team immediately. Where is the one about Balotelli being out til Jan? Nothing rude or offensive in there. Just commenting on an article in the Daily T, which actually was yesterday's.