On the morning of September 1, 2008, Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group announced they had bought Manchester City — a club hurtling towards financial ruin under Thaksin Shinawatra.
By the end of the day, they had smashed the British transfer record by splashing out £32.5million to sign Robinho from Real Madrid. A decade on and City fans are still catching their breath.
In May they were crowned Premier League champions for a third time — and this season are the bookies’ favourites to lift the Champions League trophy.
Here Sunsport football writer Martin Blackburn talks to some of those who have seen the incredible Etihad revolution at close quarters.
BRIAN MARWOOD (Football Administration Officer who oversees City Football Group’s six clubs)
The 2008-09 season had been a difficult one and that’s when the work started. I arrived in a director of football type of role.
I’d met chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak in spring 2009 a few months after the takeover and our 45-minute meeting ended up being about four hours, chatting about football and my views.
I got to understand a lot about Khaldoon, his vision for the club. They seemed the right people to work with.
My role was to look at the football operation in all the key areas and get it to a level where we could achieve success.
Some areas were very good, others had issues. The club was under-performing and there was a reason.
The ambitions of the owners was to have a club that was challenging for trophies. We started with player recruitment and so the early priority for me was to assemble a squad which gave Mark Hughes a team that was capable of challenging at the top of the Premier League.
We got David Silva and Yaya Toure very close together. We also signed Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero.
Others were important too like Gareth Barry and Joleon Lescott.
Then we had to support the players, with sports science, player welfare, performance analysis. All those things.
We had to create a better environment. It’s easy to think of three Premier Leagues, three League Cups and an FA Cup.
But I always felt my role was much broader than that.
We’re also very proud of the success of the womens’ team. Then there’s the academy.
I also have a broader role as managing director of global football across the six clubs of the City Football Group.
That was all off the back of an email I got from Khaldoon.
He had a vision to create one of the best training environments in football.
These owners are special — always trying to do the right thing.
I’ve been in football more than 40 years and these takeovers as they can involve a lot of tears.
But the mandate these guys set, well, most of that has been achieved — or surpassed. They’ve also put the right people in.
Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain have been key to driving this club forward. The owners also helped create an amazing part of Manchester.
We’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting, now we are enjoying the benefits.
KEVIN PARKER (General Secretary of the City Supporters’ Club)
If I ever met Sheikh Mansour I’d just say ‘Thank you’ — just like the banner in the stands says. There’s nothing I could ask him for that we haven’t already had.
Before the takeover I hoped if we could go to Wembley once in my lifetime — or even the lifetime of my sons — I’d be happy.
It’s been incredible. If someone took the rug from under our feet today, we’d take that.
There will be a 20-year period after I pop my clogs I’ll still want to be about.
I’ll be forever grateful to Roberto Mancini for winning the FA Cup to drag that banner down at Old Trafford, which was counting the years since our last trophy.
VINCENT KOMPANY (Captain who has been at the club since just before the takeover)
There was no info to say the takeover might happen. When you’ve just signed for a club it was the furthest thing from my mind.
The manager was going to be there, the transfer window was almost shut. They bought back Shaun Wright-Phillips from Chelsea who was a City legend, and they signed Pablo Zabaleta.
I thought we were making good moves. Then they signed Robinho. That’s when I understood it was changing. We had a lot of Thai staff. They were the ones who welcomed me when I signed.
From one day to the next, they were all gone and Robinho was in the dressing-room.
You’re thinking ‘OK he’s extraterrestrial.’ Then you start measuring yourself up against one of the best in the world and you think, ‘You know what, I can do it’.
TXIKI BEGIRISTAIN (Director of football since 2012 — and influential in bringing his friend Pep Guardiola to the Etihad)
We believe there’s a lot more to come. We can build on what we already achieved.
Going close to winning the Champions League is a target — the semis and finals — but there are others.
Back-to-back Premier Leagues — we’ve never done that at this club.
One target was to win playing a different style of football. Under Manuel Pellegrini we did that.
Here the owners are happy to let us do our work but they are absolutely professional. At Barcelona there were so many politics.
We have to continue to win trophies. The project is growing.
BRIAN KIDD (First-team coach and part of the backroom staff since 2009)
Khaldoon often comes to watch training — but he doesn’t talk tactics so much. He’s good like that.
Over the years the chairman has come in and given little pep talks. He’s been wonderful, right to the point, not cosmetic.
Maybe only four or five times over that period but spot on. He hits the nail on the head. He gives everybody a lift.
I don’t think anybody foresaw the way it has turned out — the facilities. They’ve got everything off the field and on it it’s all there. It’s transformed the area as well.
That’s a big thing. With City, community has always been a big thing. With all the money that has come in they’ve not lost sight of that. It’s still the people’s club.
I was born a mile away in Collyhurst — it’s been fantastic.
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