MAN CITY v WEST HAM LEGS
How megabucks City hosted bingo nights to help fund youth academy
MANCHESTER CITY hit the jackpot when billionaire Sheikh Mansour pumped millions into the project to make them a world football force.
But 20 years ago City were struggling for cash so badly club staff were funding the Academy by putting on bingo and running raffles.
With Pep Guardiola leading his mega-stars on a swashbuckling rampage at home and abroad and England Under- 17 World Cup winner Phil Foden in the vanguard of a rich seam of youth talent, it’s never been so good for the blue half of Manchester.
But before the Sheikhdown – and pre- 2007 when former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra relaunched Manchester City in an £81.6million takeover – the club was miles behind its rivals on and off the pitch.
Instead of a billionaire benefactor, City relied on fundraising sportsmen’s dinners, hand-outs from wealthy fans – and calling the bingo.
“It wasn’t all that long ago but they were different days and a world away from what’s happening at City’s youth Academy now,” recalled former star and club director Dennis Tueart, who helped prop up the youth system for almost a decade along with star-maker Jim Cassell.
Miraculous
For City fans, the emergence of Stockport-born Foden, 17, and Spanish 18- year- old attacking midfielder Brahim Diaz is a return to the days when the club regularly brought through top teenagers.
For 10 years from 1997 Cassell and Tueart helped City funnel 40 players from the youth system to the first team.
Stars like Shaun Wright-Phillips, Daniel Sturridge, Micah Richards, Kieran Trippier and Joey Barton all won England caps after coming through the City youth squads.
“What we achieved in those days was miraculous given we had to beg, steal and borrow to make sure the Acadamy punched above its weight,” Tueart said.
“There was a time when Manchester United had recruitment scouts in nearly every European country.
“In those days City just couldn’t compete with that – we were miles behind them, Liverpool and Everton.
“I remember one of the scouts came to me about a kid we were chasing along with Middlesbrough, Blackburn and United. They all had state of the art new training grounds – we had Platt Lane. I said to him, ‘Don’t bring them to our training ground in the middle of Moss Side, take them to the new stadium – we’ll sell them the future’.
“We had a budget from the club and they backed us – but only to a limit. It wasn’t enough, so we set up a fundraising committee with die-hard fans who were desperate to help.
“There were some good people like Tudor Thomas and Keith Pinner, real fans who wanted to make a difference and they dug deep with their time and money.
“We’d hold five big functions a year including a golf day, a lunch with the manager, and an end of season gala dinner.
“We’d play stand-up bingo, have raffles and try to raise as much as we could. We basically pleaded with people for cash.
“In my time we raised around £ 500 500,000 000 – pocket change for the Sheikh I know – but it paid for floodlights for the Acadamy pitch at Platt Lane where we trained.
“We bought computers, training weights for the conditioning coach, paid for all the summer tours and pre- season conditioning camps at Alsager and even Christmas presents for the kids.”
Mansour has invested £200m in the City Football Academy where the