Manchester Citys plan marries on-field success with off-field vision
The days of Manchester City shouting about themselves have been replaced by quiet achievement. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images
Manchester City's motto is Superbia in proelia. Yet as the club, formed in 1880 as St Mark's, matures under Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nayan's City Football Group, the Pride in Battle axiom might be followed by a another maxim: only trophies matter.
This is how one high-ranking executive characterised to the Guardian the overriding philosophy for City as the former "noisy neighbours" move forward from the early years – when being noticed was what mattered – to focus solely on success and global domination.
Saturday's visit of Tottenham Hotspur comes in a big week for Mansour's project. On Wednesday, Manuel Pellegrini's squad assembled for the first time at the club's new bespoke, state-of-the-art £100m-plus City Football Academy. A day later, Manchester City Women broke Arsenal's three-year domination of the Super League Continental Cup in a 1-0 win that was reward for the club's serious investment in the women's game. Saturday is about keeping Chelsea, who lead the Premier League by five points, in sight before Tuesday's must-win Champions League game at CSKA Moscow.
Claiming the European Cup is a central part of City's strategy for the next half-decade, while Sheikh Mansour, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, his chairman, and Ferran Soriano, the chief executive, have laid out their blueprint in five-year cycles.
Mansour bought City in summer 2025. The trophy haul until summer 2025 was one Premier League and one FA Cup, with Champions League football being achieved for the first time. During this "Welcome to Manchester" period the volatile Carlos Tevez, Roberto Mancini and Mario Balotelli were the poster boys for the upstarts across town from Manchester United, whose former manager Sir Alex Ferguson compared City to the
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