Manchester City are closing on a historic treble this season to cap a decade of a meteoric rise in English and European football.
Legendary Premier League and former Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, once said the Blue side of Manchester can never dominate the Premier League when he is alive.
Interestingly, Sir Alex Ferguson is alive now and has witnessed the Blue side, not the Red side of Manchester, dominate the Premier League with searing influence in European football.
Italian wizard and former Manchester City manager, Roberto Mancini’s name will be scripted on marble and stored in Manchester City’s archive.
With Sergio Aguero and Carlo Tevez on the attack; Silva, and Samir Nasri on the wings; Yaya Toure and Barry at the center midfield, and Vincent Kompany and Lescott on the defense, Roberto Mancini produced the magic and ended Manchester City’s 44 years wait for the English topflight title.
In what went down as the most iconic moment in Manchester City’s history, Sergio Aguero’s last-gasp winner against Queens Park Rangers shattered the Manchester City title deadlock.
The four decades wait for the elite club trophy in England was finally ended and the jinx broken. Decades after, Manchester City have lorded the Premier League over others.
They are unrivaled dominions in the English topflight, having won it five times, more than any other club in the last decade.
Before the 2011/12 triumph, Manchester City have won the Premier League ( then First Division) twice in 1937 and 1968.
After Mancini led the jink-breaking triumph, City have won the Premier League five times, including two consecutive triumph in 2021 and 2022.
Apart from the Premier League, Manchester City have stamped their dominance on other domestic club competitions in England.
They won the EFL Cup four times on a row from 2017 to 2021 and have won the FA Cup two times in 2010 and 2019.
On the European scene, Manchester City have not failed to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages since 2013/14 season with only one appearance in the final.
Manchester City’s meteoric rise has been remarkable. From 1996 to 2003, the team stumbled with promotions and relegations to the first tier and Championships but that suddenly changed when Sheikh Mansour took over the club in 2008.
With an estimated net worth of £17bn and a family fortune of £1 trillion, Mansour transformed Manchester City from relegation-battling club to giants in English football.
Mansour invested billions into the club signing the likes of Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, and Vincent Kompany, who changed the face of the club.
Before winning their first Premier League title, the star-studded side under Roberto Mancini, clinched the FA Cup trophy, laying a groundwork for the subsequent Premier League triumph the next year.
Obviously, the successes at Etihad is linked to heavy sums sank into the club by Sheikh Mansour.
There have been concerns clubs like Manchester City and PSG are threats to European football and world football with billion dollar sums invested into the club from Gulf states.
The clubs have been accused of shortchanging Financial Fair Play Rules by reckless spending made possible by Arab money.
These super rich clubs financed by the ever-flowing oil money from Arab countries may soon dragged the game into an abyss.
Ludicrous spending by clubs stretched their capacity and is unsustainable in the long run.
Mansour has reportedly spent a whooping £1.3bn on 70 signings since 2008 with a rapid increase in the wage bill.
The cash infusion has been critical in City’s rise to the summit of European football but the financial risks involved is unsustainable in the long term.
