Like what many people say, Manchester City is not a team that is rich in history. Their great journey in the world of football has only been recognized recently. There is no need to go all the way to European competition, even in local competition City is still being branded as an instant team, which only relies on big funds. Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea are the teams that still receive higher respect than City.
But is it true that Manchester City’s image as one of the elite clubs at the moment is nothing more than a collection of people who only think about money? Even though at first glance the answer might be yes, in fact the owner named Sheikh Mansour has something that will counteract it all.
He believes that City is not just a football club that only focuses on collecting big stars. There are many plans that have been prepared, there are many flocks that are ready to give their all, and there are many big ambitions that want to be realized soon.
Before the Middle East money came, Manchester City was a club that really wasn’t interesting to watch. They often fall to the lower divisions, and even when they appear in England’s highest competition, the bottom position often becomes the throne.
But the big hopes came in 2007, when wealthy Thai businessman Thaksin Shinawatra arrived with the acquisition of a 75% stake in the club, for a value of over £80 million. At that time, Thaksin Shinawatra immediately asked Sven Goran Eriksson to coach the Citizens. Despite playing quite attractive football with the name Elano as a star, City failed to advance to the top of the rankings.
What’s worse, the large amount of money that had been disbursed by businessmen from Thailand turned out to be the result of corruption. When Thaksin Shinawatra’s assets were frozen, the club’s CEO at the time, Garry Cook, traveled the world looking for new investments, and he met the figure of Sheikh Mansour.
Right on September 1, 2008, Sheikh Mansour officially completed the purchase of Manchester City for 210 million pounds. They then appointed Mark Hughes as coach, as well as put funds of more than 200 million pounds to overhaul the team. One of City’s moves at that time was to bring in Real Madrid star Robinho for a fee of £32.8 million.
However, after 18 months in charge, Hughes was considered a failure because he only brought City to sit in 10th place even though he was equipped with very large funds. Hughes’ career as City manager has even been called a spectacular failure. Because there are only a few managers who will enjoy such an abundance of transfer funds, but he instead squanders it by only recording a winning ratio of 47 percent.
Even though City failed in the first season of the Sheikh Mansour era and fans began to bemoan his reign, the Middle Eastern man remained patient. In the 2009/10 season, City brought in Carlos Tevez and appointed Roberto Mancini to replace Mark Hughes at the end of 2009. At the end of the season, City was able to occupy fifth place.
However, once again, fans continued to grumble, and asked management to fire Mancini for failing to bring City to the English Premier League title. Here, Sheikh Mansour’s attitude is again in the spotlight. He responded casually to the disappointment of the fans by continuing to put faith in Mancini. The reason, he thinks when Mancini is the right coach to bring City to glory.
This attitude also received a lot of praise because Sheikh Mansour has a very different character from Roman Abramovich. As is known, the Russian businessman did not hesitate to fire the coach when he made the slightest mistake. Can’t believe it? Just ask a Chelsea fan.
In August 2010, Sheikh Mansour again invested in a number of talented players, such as Yaya Toure, David Silva and Mario Balotelli. When Toure and Tevez were in the same team, the two players said that Sheikh Mansour was a very good man. Even Tevez said that one of his strong reasons for joining City was because Sheikh Mansour often took the time to talk to the players.
Yaya Toure felt the same way. The former FC Barcelona star acknowledged the great influence the club owner had on the team. Sheikh Mansour is said to always build a pleasant atmosphere to create positive results. More than that, he also fully entrusted the club’s image to Khaldoon Al Mubarak as chairman and Roberto Mancini as coach at that time.
According to a review written by Mohamed Al-Hendy on the BR Football website, the positive image shown by Sheikh Mansour does not only build good relationships within the club. But the man has always refused to discuss the club’s day-to-day problems with the media. Another interesting story about how Sheikh Mansour really committed to building Manchester City is when Mark Hughes’ former assistant, Mark Bowen, spoke about how bad City’s training facilities were.
Quoting the story written by Jonathan Smith on the goal website, when there were many new players coming to City, Bowen said that they always complained about the bad training ground, inadequate environment, and the standard of some of the facilities which were considered terrible. Then when Sheikh Mansour arrived, the wealthy businessman immediately asked all City players to fly to Abu Dhabi to take four days of rest.
Surprisingly, when everyone returned to Manchester four days later, all the training facilities had been upgraded. The environment is made as comfortable as possible, and it is said that the equipment in the gym has undergone many changes.
Apparently, or right when everyone returned to headquarters, someone said that for four days there were lots of builders who were employed to build a two-story training ground, as well as prepare the best equipment in the gym arena to support the development of all players. It was then that Mark Bowen and the others realized that Sheikh Mansour was serious about making a difference.
It should also be noted that in 2014, Manchester City officially opened the City Football Academy. Built on a land area of 32.2 hectares, the construction cost between 150 million and 200 million pounds. The academy has supporting facilities such as a gym, auditorium, education center, swimming pool, and others.
The academy project also proves that Sheikh Mansour does not want to always depend on the star players who are brought in. But he also has a mission to be able to develop young talent who will have the potential to become a mainstay of the club.
Some well-known players who are the result of City academy training are Jadon Sancho, Angelino, to Brahim Diaz. Then, one popular and quality name who is playing for Manchester City’s main team at the moment is Phil Foden.
Once the star players had been brought in, the training facilities improved, and the internal relations were extremely harmonious, there would be no more excuses for not achieving. Sure enough, on May 14 2011, Manchester City won their first major trophy after 35 years by winning the FA Cup. Through Yaya Toure’s goal, Manchester City narrowly won one zero over Stoke City.
When one trophy was won, Manchester City’s faucet of achievement seemed to start to open. The recruitment of Sergio Aguero on 28 July 2011 also made the Citizens appear stronger. In the 2011/12 season, there were a number of historic moments, one of which was when Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United were beaten 6-1 at Old Trafford.
Then at the end of the season, Manchester City successfully claimed their first league title since 1968. The title felt even more special when City managed to close it so dramatically. Of course, all football fans still remember when the screams of the commentators about Aguero’s goal in the match against QPR were very loud.
“You probably won’t believe how Manchester City won the 2012 Premier League title unless you see it for yourself. Millions of spectators, including the lucky commentators, have that privilege,” said one commentator on the historic match, Martin Tyler.
After winning this legendary title, Manchester City regularly won the league, where so far its achievements have touched 8. Not only in local competitions, Manchester City is currently consistently appearing in the European Champions League. In fact, every year, they become one of the most worthy title contenders.
Manchester City, which continues to improve, is now handled by a great coach like Pep Guardiola, and has recruited top players such as Kevin de Bruyne, Joao Cancelo, ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, Kyle Walker, to the latest Erling Haaland.
As much as money has played a role in Manchester City’s success, it means nothing without good communication between the club’s executives and coaching staff. Apart from that, Sheikh Mansour’s patience in overseeing the progress of the club was also one of the determining factors.
ASL
