11 Years Since Manchester City Were Taken Over

It is eleven years ago since Manchester City were taken over by Sheikh Mansour from Abu Dhabi and my life as a City fan changed forever.

On 1 Sep 2008 I watched the Sky Sports deadline day in the usual fog; it tended to mean nothing to Manchester City. We didn’t make big signings because we had no real money. The club had a couple of passable seasons in the Premier League where their status in the top flight had felt secure, at least by Easter.

So we all thought things were looking up. We had a great season with Sven Goran Erikkson as our manager where I actually felt we were beginning to look as good as we had in the early 1990s under Peter Reid.

Then we unravelled. Our owner Thaksin Shinawatra, the previous Thai Prime Minister was convicted of fraud and had his assets were frozen. We lost 8:1 to Middlesbrough. The traditional Cityitis- the ability to turn success into failure- had struck.

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But then on 1 Sep 2008, I sat and watched in mounting disbelief. We had signed Robinho from Real Madrid for a British Transfer fee record of £32.5 million. We had been taken over. Thaksin was gone and we had stepped into the unknown.

Other football fans may like to continually suggest we all supported Chelsea before the takeover but nothing could be further from the truth. It was more likely to be Stockport County! City fans had been through the mill whilst supporting our club.

At least 30000 fans at our lowest league position, yet Arsenal fans can’t even be bothered attending when they are fifth place in the Premier League and a little bit ‘sad’. So we had been round the block and stuck with our club. Through thin, thinner and the thinnest times.

The takeover changed my life as a City fan. Not initially it didn’t because I still viewed it with suspicion. I still figured our new owner was probably on the run and laundering cash. So like all City fans through the years of adversity I just made a joke of it.

It didn’t really matter to me who the owner was, I still went every week regardless. If the owner was Ultron, destroyer of planets, I’d still go.

I used to play those Football Manager simulation games on the PC and could never be bothered to start from scratch as some noble conference side and spend my life trying to work them into the Championship. I just used to be Man City, add Chelsea and give all of Chelsea’s money to Man City.

Then play the game as Man City – buying the best players in the World and Kim Kallstrom (you always bought Kim Kallstrom). When Man City were taken over this is what happened to the club in real life between 2008 and 2012. Our owner hadn’t run off but suddenly we were buying the best players in the world: Tevez, Toure, Silva, Aguero etc.

It’s difficult to describe the feelings inspired by the takeover as a fan. Suspicion leading to joy. Relief? But all of this has probably given way to thankfulness. I am just grateful to be experiencing what we have experienced in the last eleven years. Four league titles, four League Cups, 2 FA Cups, 3 Community Shields and a European semi final.

The problem with the investment we have had is it’s brought a lot of jealousy from other fans. Breaking into the traditional top four clubs in the English Premier league through brash new money – foreign money- has created a lot of animosity. That’s to be expected but I still find that a little surprising as a fan. In my head, the takeover is a kind of reward for all the rubbish I have suffered in the years before.

Rival fans trot out intensifying rubbish in the media about us. The more successful we get the more rubbish is written. These days, the jibe is either emptyhad suggesting we have no fans or to allege through some convoluted route our owning company is committing human rights atrocities. Neither of these appear true. And neither is likely to do much for a City fan.

So as a fan I am left feeling thankful for the Sheikh. I can see the massive changes and improvements he has wrought through East Manchester. The development, the jobs created and how despite having an owner who is based abroad, we have done really well to retain the history of our club.

So elven years in the sun so far: it’s been great! I can hardly imagine what the next decade will bring but hope it continues. Growing up I never really dreamt of City winning titles; it just didn’t seem possible.

My eight year old has seen us lift so many trophies it’s almost unfathomable to me. I hope all of our fans, young and old, continue to see the joy and thrill as our owner builds on the years we have had together so far.

The sky really is the limit. There really is a blue moon.