The Remarkable Story of Manchester City’s Rise Under Sheikh Mansour

It’s been one of the most remarkable stories in modern football. On September 1, 2008, Manchester City were taken over by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), changing the face of the club—and the English game—forever.

Between 1996 and 2003, City were a club stumbling between divisions, with a series of relegations and promotions defining the period. But in 2007, real hope arrived in the shape of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who acquired a 75 per cent stake in the club for £81.6 million and installed former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson as manager.

Shinawatra came with a questionable reputation having been embroiled in charges of corruption back in Thailand, something that would come back to haunt him later. 

Eriksson went on a trolley dash around Europe, signing a collection of relatively unknown players at the cost of around £60 million. It was one of the best seasons the club had enjoyed in a long time—significantly better from the sleep-inducing football produced under Stuart Pearce.

City played attractive football, and in Elano, Michael Johnson and Geovanni, they had players capable of brilliance. City were in the top four at the turn of the year, but the season ended on a sour note. They sunk to ninth and lost 8-1 on the final day to Middlesbrough. Eriksson was sacked.

Twelve months after the false hope of Shinawatra, the real deal arrived. Shinawatra’s assets had been frozen; then-chief executive Garry Cook travelled the world in search of new investment, and he delivered in the most emphatic way imaginable.

ADUG assumed control of the club, turned them into the richest side in the world overnight and set about turning them into a winning side. Their targets were the highest imaginable; the City fans could barely believe what had happened.

They have made good on almost all of their promises. They’ve revolutionised every aspect of the club, modernising at a staggering rate, yet have remembered the club’s values, which are rooted in the community.

They inherited a side managed by Mark Hughes, whom Shinawatra installed after sacking Eriksson. The Welshman had impressed during spells with Wales and Blackburn, and Shinawatra and his advisers identified Hughes as the man to take City forward.

However, it soon became clear Hughes was a less impressive transfer-market operator when he had an abundance of money to spend, making a series of high-profile errors and failing to oversee the kind of progress City’s owners expected during his 18 months in charge.

He spent a staggering total of £270 million. His first and only full season saw City finish 10th, one place lower than Eriksson had managed on a far stricter budget, and he was sacked in December of his second season with City in sixth place. 

“A return of two wins in 11 Premier League games is clearly not in line with the targets that were agreed and set,” read a City statement at the time. 

Hughes was a spectacular failure. Few managers will ever enjoy such an abundance of transfer funds, and his 47 per cent win ratio was desperately poor. It should be remembered that some of his more successful signings—Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta—were played out of position under his watch and found their best form once he had departed. Although there were some fans upset at his departure, they must now realise it was their desire to see some stability in the dugout after years of turbulence, rather than common sense, that was driving their unrest.

A squad with Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott, assembled at great cost, should have been far better than it was. City were disorganised and going nowhere. Their owners had shown patience towards a manager who wasn’t their choice, and he deserved to go. Most clubs would have cut their losses at the end of Hughes’ first season.

Roberto Mancini replaced him, and so began one of the most exciting and successful periods in the club’s history.

The Italian instantly shored City up at the back. They had been conceding at an alarming rate under Hughes, and within a few weeks Mancini had tightened them up and made them hard to beat. He led them to a …

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