da betano casino： The Cityzens' total domination of English football is the fruit of years of preparation behind the scenes, combined with ruthless ambition

da bwin： Five Premier League titles in the last six years is a truly stunning feat from Manchester City, a level of dominance not seen since Manchester United’s iron grip on the title between 1996 and 2001. United’s hegemony then was not purely down to having great players and a great manager. The club were ahead of the curve off the pitch too, expanding Old Trafford every few years, building a new training ground, investing in their youth academy and growing their brand around the world through innovative commercial moves.

That is exactly what City have done over the last decade. But there is one difference: United got ahead of their rivals in an era when clubs were still adapting to football’s new level of popularity thanks to the Premier League, while City are putting their rivals in the shade in an era when football has never been more competitive.

City do have the advantage of the backing of the Abu Dhabi United Group, but they are far from the only club in recent Premier League history to have wealthy benefactors. They have not just thrown money at the club and acted out their Football Manager dreams. They have carefully constructed a project for global domination, hiring the best minds as well as the best players and the best coach.

And they have done that without the historical legacy of many of their rivals such as Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea, who were getting rich off the popularity of the early Premier League years when City were yo-yoing between the top flight and second tier – and even third tier – of English football.

In an era when football clubs are effectively multinational corporations, City are the best run company in the most competitive league in the world. Don’t hate them for being better than everyone else.

Getty ImagesSoriano's dream

Although City won their first Premier League title in May 2012 thanks to Sergio Aguero’s 94th-minute winner against Queens Park Rangers, the real foundations for City’s current dominance were laid just a few months later, when they hired Ferran Soriano as chief executive. Soriano, the son of a hairdresser and whose first job in business was marketing detergents, had overseen Barcelona’s enormous growth as a brand in five years as the club’s economic vice-president, tripling their revenues between 2003 and 2008.

He resigned from Barca just before Guardiola was hired as coach, and missed out on the three successive league titles and two Champions League wins, but he was well regarded in the industry for his vision. In a 2006 lecture at Birkbeck College, Soriano said clubs should view themselves as multinational corporations like Disney and become global franchises. He has been able to enact that dream at City through the creation of the City Football Group’s vast network of clubs around the world, in Uruguay, the United States, India, Japan, Australia, France, Belgium, Spain and Brazil.

The idea behind creating this network of clubs has been termed ‘glocalisation’, taking a global product and adapting it to local markets. While each club gains more supporters locally, it too generates more brand recognition for Manchester City, increasing their global base of supporters. As well as gaining commercial revenue, City’s network of clubs has also allowed them to do a roaring trade in transfers.

Under Soriano’s tutelage, City have become the club with the highest revenues in world football, earning €713 million, according to the Detroit Money League. Last year, Brand Finance ranked them as the second-most valuable club in the world – only trailing Real Madrid – worth an estimated $1.539 billion (£1.2 billion).

AdvertisementGetty Waiting patiently for Pep

Soriano’s first act was to recruit his old Barcelona colleague, Txiki Begiristain, who had overseen transfers such as Ronaldinho, Deco and Thierry Henry, as City’s sporting director. They wanted to complete the old line up at Barcelona by hiring Guardiola as early as 2012 while he was on his sabbatical after leaving Camp Nou.

When Guardiola instead opted to take over at Bayern Munich in 2013, City were not perturbed, instead promising they would wait until the Catalan had completed his stay in Bavaria. For a top-level club, three years is a long time to wait to get your first choice as coach.

City’s insistence on holding out for Guardiola may have led to the team stagnating under Manuel Pellegrini, finishing fourth in the Chilean’s third campaign while Leicester City won the title. But Guardiola’s sustained success with City has proved he was worth waiting for. Just as he had at Barcelona and Bayern, the Catalan has won a third successive league title, the 12th of his career.

Guardiola has also made a host of tactical innovations such as playing with inverted full-backs and a sweeper-keeper which have been copied around Europe. And he has managed to be ultra-demanding of his players – just witness his run-ins with Kevin De Bruyne – without alienating them.

GettyTargeted recruitment and no panic buys

While Chelsea have sought to sign every promising player in the world with no thought about where they will play and United have made a series of panic buys each summer, City have an exceptional recruitment plan.

As soon as Guardiola was appointed, City started building a squad the coach needed to get his team to play how he wanted. One of his first moves was to axe Joe Hart, England’s No.1 goalkeeper and a fan favourite who had played his part in two title successes. The decision caused shockwaves in English football, but Hart’s limited ability with the ball at his feet meant he was ill-equipped to play for the new coach.

City got their first goalkeeping signing wrong when they bought Claudio Bravo, who had a nightmare debut season, but the diagnosis was correct and Ederson, their goalkeeper since 2017, has been key to their five title wins under Guardiola.

Eyebrows were raised when City spent a further £130 million on three full-backs that summer, Danilo, Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker. But full-back has proven to be one of the most important positions in football recently, as seen in Liverpool’s success thanks to Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson.

City are always looking several moves ahead, analysing which areas of the squad need attention. In 2020, it was central defence and they picked up Ruben Dias, who has become of their biggest leaders and most consistent performers. Last year it was centre-forward, signing the best striker in the world in Erling Haaland, as well as a hugely talented back-up in Julian Alvarez, who cost them only £14 million.

GettyLower net spend than Palace & Leeds

City’s long-term squad planning has been so successful that, despite signing Haaland and Kalvin Phillips last summer, they were still able to turn a profit on transfers. The sales of Raheem Sterling, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus brought in £124m alone, while they made a further £15m moving on four players, including Pedro Porro, who had never played for the first team.

City ended the transfer window with a net spend of -£8.3m, the fourth-lowest in the Premier League, lower than the likes of Crystal Palace and Leeds and only higher than Brighton, Leicester City and Everton. Contrast that with Chelsea’s net spend of £480m, Manchester United’s £203m or Newcastle’s £161m. City are so well run that they do not even need to dip into their enormous wealth to make signings, they are self-sustaining.

Their wage bill is also only the third-highest in the league. City's squad costs a reported £182m this season, behind Manchester United (£211m) and Chelsea (£212m).