Sportblog | The Guardian — Sheikh Mansour RSS



Manchester City’s history shows there never was a golden age of ownership | Nicholas Blincoe

Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia have different visions of future in football with aims and models not interchangeableIt’s an exhilarating time to be a Manchester City fan, though I am muting my optimism with a selection of the most miserabilist chants ever heard in a football stadium. “We’re not really here”; “Empty seats at home”; and “Spent all my money on drugs and City”. City’s rise has been so rapid that the fans are still very Mancunian, and perhaps less familiar than followers of other big teams. Yet they resemble other fans in their obsessive scrutiny of every aspect of the team, from the pitch, to the training field, to the corporate decisions. The idea that City fans ignore...

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How Sheikh Mansour’s decade-long spree made Manchester City aristocrats | David Conn

As the club prepare to lift the Premier League trophy with the most expensive squad in football, the vision is coming to fruitionWhen Liverpool went to the Etihad Stadium for their smash-and-grab victory over Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-final second leg it was odd to hear their fans sing the straight version of We Shall Not Be Moved – “just like a team that’s going to win the European Cup”.City fans’ version of that anthem was lyrically adjusted 19 years ago, when supporters who grew up on a team of internationals in the early 1970s found themselves trailing around League One while Manchester United were on their way to the treble. Watching in disbelief defeats that 1998-99 season...

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