Manchester City 10 Years Ago This Week

Back in the 2009/10 season Manchester City were just at the beginning of their journey under the new owner Sheik Mansour.

In August 2009 Manchester City were around 12 months into their new ownership and Mark Hughes started the season as the team manager, tasked with marshalling the combination of established players and expensive acquisitions into a Premier League force.

Although it seems hard to remember now, much of the narrative which accompanied the season viewed the Manchester City investment by Sheik Mansour as a positive change. The media ran continual stories citing the Manchester City dream was to break into the established Top Four of the Premier League and stake a claim for glory.

Ultimately this season ended in disappointment as City missed out on that elusive Top Four spot on the last day of the season, losing to Tottenham Hotspur who claimed the cherished pathway to Champions League action instead.

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Yet, this was the season when as fans we realised the ambitions of the owner and the investment in the Club were real, rather than another vanity project. City turned the tide and reached the semi finals of their first major competition since 1981. City remained competitive in the League right until the end, ultimately just falling short.

Incredible really when you consider in the Premier League, City became draw specialists – notching up 13 draws in the season. In fact there was an amazing run of 7 consecutive League draws between September and November which placed manager Mark Hughes under pressure and eventually contributed to him losing his job in December 2009.

City replaced Hughes with Roberto Mancini and the promise of our squad and the owner’s investment began to be realised.

But 10 years ago today on 30 August 2009, City were still basking in the early season sunshine and won 1:0 away at Portsmouth in the Premier League to keep up their 100% start to the campaign under Hughes.

Emmanuel Adebayor scored the solitary goal, a header from a Gareth Barry corner in thumping style. Adebayor was on a fantastic run of form which would culminate two weeks later with the goals and iconic celebratory knee slide against Arsenal.

Ten years ago Manchester City stood on the cusp, looking for the inspiration of a final push to tip them towards a new dawn. Every result was greeted with glee by the long suffering fans who actually started to really believe that long wait for a major honour was to end soon.

The Manchester City Starting side on 30 August 2009 v Portsmouth:

Goalkeeper: Shay Given

Defence: Micah Richards, Yaya Toure, Joleon Lescott, Michael Bridge

Midfield: Shaun Wright-Phillips, Steven Ireland, Gareth Barry, Craig Bellamy

Attack: Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor

Periodically this campaign Man City Square will look back at the side of 10 years ago and pick out the key moments from this pivotal moment in the Club’s history.