Owner Mansour almost bought a major London club

CLUB chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak reveals that the Abu Dhabi group looked at a London club before buying City; discloses why owner Sheik Mansour has been to only one match; that China is next on the club’s hit-list and admits they lost out to Bayern Munich for Pep Guardiola in 2013.

‘Sheik Mansour had a couple of people looking after that [the search for a club],’ explains Al Mubarak, ‘and every time a real option would come in, he would give me a call and say “What do you think?”

Sheik Mansour and his advisors ran the rule over at least three other Premier League clubs and a secret meeting took place in a Paris hotel with a senior figure from a major London-based club to discuss a potential deal.

‘By the beginning of that summer [2008],’ says Al Mubarak, ‘it was clear Sheik Mansour had zoomed in on Manchester City as the most attractive proposition. And then he proceeded. He did the deal.’

Sheik Mansour (below) has attended just one match since but Al Mubarak does not feel that is important. ‘He loves this club in his own way,’ says Al Mubarak. ‘And within his own environment. Ultimately, I think that going and sitting in the stands and watching it there is just not his style. I don’t know if ‘style’ is the right word to use. But you know, I’m not exaggerating. In 10 years, he hasn’t missed a single game. I can’t remember a game, be it a Premier League game, a Champions League game, an FA Cup game, a Capital One or Carabao Cup game, there isn’t one of them in the last 10 years. He’s seen every single one.’

The City Football Group has clubs in the US, Australia, Japan, Spain and Uruguay and Al Mubarak reveals: ‘The next move is China. China is an immense market. It is also a growing market in football and we have to have the edge there. In the same way that we created the vision of City Football Group, and it is now getting endorsed as we go, I want us to be the first to get a real breakthrough in China.

City appointed Pep Guardiola in 2016 but Al Mubarak reveals they first wanted him in 2013, but appointed Manuel Pellegrini when he turned them down.

City officials have never been coy about the fact that Pellegrini was not their first choice, with the club reportedly sounding out Guardiola during his 12-month sabbatical in New York, to gauge his interest in coming to England, while then manager Roberto Mancini was still in the first year of a five-year contract.

‘You have to understand, Ferran (Soriano, CEO) and Txiki (Begiristain, director of football) are obviously very close to Pep.

‘Pep was living in New York at this point, and had made himself clearly available on the market. So, Ferran and Txiki reached out to him, but Pep decided that Bayern Munich was the right option.’

Al Mubarak says Pellegrini knew about the approach. ‘It was always a transparent relationship with Manuel,’ he says. ‘Let me put it this way. Manuel always knew where we stood on things. There was no ambiguity there. And he was always a gentleman and a supreme professional, from day one.’