Post by Macmoish on Aug 30, 2011 6:57:18 GMT
It's not right...And it's not Fair
TELEGRAPH/Mark Ogden
Manchester City taken to a whole new level with Sheikh Mansour's £1 billion investment
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan approaches his third anniversary as Manchester City owner on Thursday having become the first £1 billion fantasy football manager following the £23 million purchase of Samir Nasri from Arsenal.
Three years after the regime of previous owner Thaksin Shinawatra almost plunged City into financial meltdown, with the club desperately attempting to fund the £6.45 million signing of Argentine full-back Pablo Zabaleta before the 2008 summer transfer window closed, the transformation of Manchester City is now almost complete – at the cost of £915,000 a day.
Having spent £210 million to acquire Thaksin’s stake, plus a transfer outlay taken to £433 million with Nasri’s arrival last week and an aggregate wage bill of £360 million, Sheikh Mansour’s bank account has now had £1.003 billion of its funds directed towards his football team since Sept 1, 2008.
“It was a fantastic day,” recalls Bernard Halford, club secretary at the time of the takeover. “We signed Robinho at the last minute and I remember having to get the forms done at ten to midnight, with all the fans outside, driving around the stadium peeping their horns and singing.
“It was 1.30am before we got finished, but it was a fantastic day and a marker in the sand from the sheikh about what he was going to do with the club.
“It was as though it had been really cloudy and, just like that, the clouds are blown away and it’s a clear blue sky with something big coming up on the horizon.”
From celebrating qualification for the group stages of the Uefa Cup following a penalty shoot-out victory against FC Midtjylland just days before the sheikh’s arrival, City now stand joint top of the Premier League and are preparing for their debut season in the Champions League.
Roberto Mancini claimed following Sunday’s 5-1 victory at Tottenham that only Barcelona are producing more exhilarating football than his collection of superstars.
Across Manchester, United supporters attempting to dismiss the clear and present danger posed by City’s fearsome spending power have resorted to labelling Mancini’s team as the ‘Gorton galacticos’, a reference to the deprived area of east Manchester which lies in the shadow of the Etihad Stadium.
There have also been concerns expressed by Arsène Wenger about City’s spending, Liverpool owner John W Henry has spoken out against the controversial £400 million sponsorship deal with Etihad, while Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge claims City will need a ‘trick up their sleeve’ to avoid falling foul of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations.
City are becoming accustomed to anxious glances over the shoulder by rivals who once regarded the club as little more than a faded institution, distinguished only by a loyal band of long-suffering supporters and an ability only, in the words of Francis Lee, to win “cups for cock-ups”.
Three years of Abu Dhabi ownership have turned ridicule into resentment, with even Sir Alex Ferguson finally conceding this summer that City pose a threat to United’s ambitions.
The capture of Nasri has brought City’s emergence into sharp focus at Old Trafford. United had attempted to sign the player, lodging a £20 million bid with Arsenal in June, but whether Nasri wanted to wear Mancunian blue or red, he chose blue and his performance on his debut against Spurs suggested that United’s loss is very much City’s gain.
Mancini, courtesy of Sheikh Mansour’s money, has assembled an attacking force comparable to any team in Europe, even the magical Barcelona.
In the final game of the Thaksin regime, City faced Sunderland at the Stadium of Light with Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland attempting to provide goalscoring chances for the wayward Brazilian, Jo. At White Hart Lane, Edin Dzeko helped himself to four goals thanks to brilliance of Nasri and David Silva – the Ferraris have replaced the Ford Fiestas.
Dzeko, a £27 million buy from Wolfsburg, insists the time has come to look beyond the club’s outlay on players.
“People only speak about how much Manchester City spend.” Dzeko said. “Of course, we have spent, but other teams have as well. We showed against Spurs how we can play and when you play football like that, it is amazing.”
During the first year of the sheikh’s ownership, his investment in the club, both on the pitch and off it in terms of infrastructure improvements and an upgrade to a training ground dismissed as “unfit for purpose” by former manager Mark Hughes, amounted to more than £10 million a week.
The City project was described as a “personal equity play” by the sheikh’s associates, his own passion rather than the PR vehicle of the oil-rich emirate.
To date, he has attended just one fixture – the 3-0 home victory against Liverpool last August – but he and the executives he has hand-picked to run the club regularly convene in Abu Dhabi for live screenings of City games.
The hand of Abu Dhabi has touched more than Mancini’s stellar squad. A previously dysfunctional stadium is now a luxurious arena, with open-space offices replacing the windowless boxes – and Thaksin’s feng shui expert – to encourage more blue-sky thinking.
Chauffeur-driven limousines now ferry new signings from hotel to training ground, with the club’s attention to detail such that City’s player liaison department identified and secured a home for Sergio Aguero, the £35 million buy from Atletico Madrid last month, within 10 days of his arrival in Manchester.
When chief executive Garry Cook pulled aside a senior official following the victory in Denmark against Midtjylland to whisper that “some seriously wealthy people” were close to buying the club, hope of a brighter future extended to possibly beating United to the signing of Dimitar Berbatov.
United won that particular battle, but the sense within Manchester and the Premier League is that City are now fully equipped to win more battles than they lose.
City slickers: how the club are improving off the pitch
It is not only the team who have been transformed at Manchester City since Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan’s arrival as owner on Sept 1, 2008.
SPONSORS
Prior to the 2008 takeover, City might have been a Premier League team, but they were floundering in the lower leagues when it came to commercial revenue. In 2008, City were into the fifth year of a shirt sponsorship deal with Thomas Cook which earned the club a mere £1.5 million a year.
Three years on, the club has just struck a 10-year partnership deal with Etihad Airways which could be worth as much as £400 million. The deal covers stadium-naming rights, shirt sponsorship and the area surrounding the ground which is now known as Etihad Campus.
TRAINING GROUND
More than £10 million has been pumped into the training base at Carrington since 2008, transforming it into one of the best in the league.
Yet plans are in place for a £50 million facility close to the Etihad Stadium which will house the training ground, Academy and a state-of-the-art medical centre. Despite the improvements to Carrington, its location next to a public footpath continues to cause problems for the club, with photographers free to catch images of training ground confrontations between players that led to ‘Fight Club’ headlines last season.
CITY STREET
In an effort to connect with supporters and improve the match-day experience, the club opened the City Street fanzone last season. The area, which consists of covered, open-air bars, big screens and football-related games for children dominates Joe Mercer Way, the approach to the stadium.
In another move to meet the needs of supporters, a sheltered queuing area was introduced two years ago after chief executive Garry Cook witnessed fans standing in the rain while waiting for tickets.
AMBASSADORS
Mike Summerbee shouldered the club’s ambassadorial duties prior to the Abu Dhabi takeover.
But as well as importing the best players from around the world, City are now capitalising on the iconic status of Patrick Vieira, whose presence at the club has been highlighted as a key factor in Samir Nasri’s decision to leave Arsenal for City. Despite making his name with Arsenal and France, City have appointed Vieira as an ambassador following his retirement as a player this summer after 31 appearances for the club.
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/8729541/Manchester-City-taken-to-a-whole-new-level-with-Sheikh-Mansours-1-billion-investment.html
TELEGRAPH/Mark Ogden
Manchester City taken to a whole new level with Sheikh Mansour's £1 billion investment
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan approaches his third anniversary as Manchester City owner on Thursday having become the first £1 billion fantasy football manager following the £23 million purchase of Samir Nasri from Arsenal.
Three years after the regime of previous owner Thaksin Shinawatra almost plunged City into financial meltdown, with the club desperately attempting to fund the £6.45 million signing of Argentine full-back Pablo Zabaleta before the 2008 summer transfer window closed, the transformation of Manchester City is now almost complete – at the cost of £915,000 a day.
Having spent £210 million to acquire Thaksin’s stake, plus a transfer outlay taken to £433 million with Nasri’s arrival last week and an aggregate wage bill of £360 million, Sheikh Mansour’s bank account has now had £1.003 billion of its funds directed towards his football team since Sept 1, 2008.
“It was a fantastic day,” recalls Bernard Halford, club secretary at the time of the takeover. “We signed Robinho at the last minute and I remember having to get the forms done at ten to midnight, with all the fans outside, driving around the stadium peeping their horns and singing.
“It was 1.30am before we got finished, but it was a fantastic day and a marker in the sand from the sheikh about what he was going to do with the club.
“It was as though it had been really cloudy and, just like that, the clouds are blown away and it’s a clear blue sky with something big coming up on the horizon.”
From celebrating qualification for the group stages of the Uefa Cup following a penalty shoot-out victory against FC Midtjylland just days before the sheikh’s arrival, City now stand joint top of the Premier League and are preparing for their debut season in the Champions League.
Roberto Mancini claimed following Sunday’s 5-1 victory at Tottenham that only Barcelona are producing more exhilarating football than his collection of superstars.
Across Manchester, United supporters attempting to dismiss the clear and present danger posed by City’s fearsome spending power have resorted to labelling Mancini’s team as the ‘Gorton galacticos’, a reference to the deprived area of east Manchester which lies in the shadow of the Etihad Stadium.
There have also been concerns expressed by Arsène Wenger about City’s spending, Liverpool owner John W Henry has spoken out against the controversial £400 million sponsorship deal with Etihad, while Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge claims City will need a ‘trick up their sleeve’ to avoid falling foul of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations.
City are becoming accustomed to anxious glances over the shoulder by rivals who once regarded the club as little more than a faded institution, distinguished only by a loyal band of long-suffering supporters and an ability only, in the words of Francis Lee, to win “cups for cock-ups”.
Three years of Abu Dhabi ownership have turned ridicule into resentment, with even Sir Alex Ferguson finally conceding this summer that City pose a threat to United’s ambitions.
The capture of Nasri has brought City’s emergence into sharp focus at Old Trafford. United had attempted to sign the player, lodging a £20 million bid with Arsenal in June, but whether Nasri wanted to wear Mancunian blue or red, he chose blue and his performance on his debut against Spurs suggested that United’s loss is very much City’s gain.
Mancini, courtesy of Sheikh Mansour’s money, has assembled an attacking force comparable to any team in Europe, even the magical Barcelona.
In the final game of the Thaksin regime, City faced Sunderland at the Stadium of Light with Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland attempting to provide goalscoring chances for the wayward Brazilian, Jo. At White Hart Lane, Edin Dzeko helped himself to four goals thanks to brilliance of Nasri and David Silva – the Ferraris have replaced the Ford Fiestas.
Dzeko, a £27 million buy from Wolfsburg, insists the time has come to look beyond the club’s outlay on players.
“People only speak about how much Manchester City spend.” Dzeko said. “Of course, we have spent, but other teams have as well. We showed against Spurs how we can play and when you play football like that, it is amazing.”
During the first year of the sheikh’s ownership, his investment in the club, both on the pitch and off it in terms of infrastructure improvements and an upgrade to a training ground dismissed as “unfit for purpose” by former manager Mark Hughes, amounted to more than £10 million a week.
The City project was described as a “personal equity play” by the sheikh’s associates, his own passion rather than the PR vehicle of the oil-rich emirate.
To date, he has attended just one fixture – the 3-0 home victory against Liverpool last August – but he and the executives he has hand-picked to run the club regularly convene in Abu Dhabi for live screenings of City games.
The hand of Abu Dhabi has touched more than Mancini’s stellar squad. A previously dysfunctional stadium is now a luxurious arena, with open-space offices replacing the windowless boxes – and Thaksin’s feng shui expert – to encourage more blue-sky thinking.
Chauffeur-driven limousines now ferry new signings from hotel to training ground, with the club’s attention to detail such that City’s player liaison department identified and secured a home for Sergio Aguero, the £35 million buy from Atletico Madrid last month, within 10 days of his arrival in Manchester.
When chief executive Garry Cook pulled aside a senior official following the victory in Denmark against Midtjylland to whisper that “some seriously wealthy people” were close to buying the club, hope of a brighter future extended to possibly beating United to the signing of Dimitar Berbatov.
United won that particular battle, but the sense within Manchester and the Premier League is that City are now fully equipped to win more battles than they lose.
City slickers: how the club are improving off the pitch
It is not only the team who have been transformed at Manchester City since Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan’s arrival as owner on Sept 1, 2008.
SPONSORS
Prior to the 2008 takeover, City might have been a Premier League team, but they were floundering in the lower leagues when it came to commercial revenue. In 2008, City were into the fifth year of a shirt sponsorship deal with Thomas Cook which earned the club a mere £1.5 million a year.
Three years on, the club has just struck a 10-year partnership deal with Etihad Airways which could be worth as much as £400 million. The deal covers stadium-naming rights, shirt sponsorship and the area surrounding the ground which is now known as Etihad Campus.
TRAINING GROUND
More than £10 million has been pumped into the training base at Carrington since 2008, transforming it into one of the best in the league.
Yet plans are in place for a £50 million facility close to the Etihad Stadium which will house the training ground, Academy and a state-of-the-art medical centre. Despite the improvements to Carrington, its location next to a public footpath continues to cause problems for the club, with photographers free to catch images of training ground confrontations between players that led to ‘Fight Club’ headlines last season.
CITY STREET
In an effort to connect with supporters and improve the match-day experience, the club opened the City Street fanzone last season. The area, which consists of covered, open-air bars, big screens and football-related games for children dominates Joe Mercer Way, the approach to the stadium.
In another move to meet the needs of supporters, a sheltered queuing area was introduced two years ago after chief executive Garry Cook witnessed fans standing in the rain while waiting for tickets.
AMBASSADORS
Mike Summerbee shouldered the club’s ambassadorial duties prior to the Abu Dhabi takeover.
But as well as importing the best players from around the world, City are now capitalising on the iconic status of Patrick Vieira, whose presence at the club has been highlighted as a key factor in Samir Nasri’s decision to leave Arsenal for City. Despite making his name with Arsenal and France, City have appointed Vieira as an ambassador following his retirement as a player this summer after 31 appearances for the club.
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/8729541/Manchester-City-taken-to-a-whole-new-level-with-Sheikh-Mansours-1-billion-investment.html
