Target: Mancini (above) is under pressure to
overhaul city rival Ferguson
Manchester United
vs Manchester City
Channel 115 mio Tv (Star
Sports)
Time: 9:30 pm (Live)
Sunday 7 August
2011
Community Shield
Roberto Mancini is cautious when the
question is put to him.
Another season looms and, it is suggested, he
will again be expected to deliver silverware or be
sacked.
'It is a different situation because last year we
won the FA Cup and got into the Champions League,' he responds, as
well might a manager who has delivered Manchester City's first
trophy in 35 years.
'This year will be different, but we want to
improve on last year. We had our targets then and maybe we could
have done better in the league because we were in first position
[at one point]. But the players were together last year and that's
why we will be better this time.'
Mancini knows, though, that, as Sunday's
showpiece Community Shield encounter with Manchester United at
Wembley launches the new season, this is the year he is expected to
deliver the Premier League title.
Sergio Aguero, the £38million arrival, starts on
the bench today to complement the likes of Gael Clichy (£5m),
Stefan Savic (£6m), Adam Johnson (£7m), James Milner (£26m), David
Silva (£26m), Yaya Toure (£24m), Mario Balotelli (£24m) and Edin
Dzeko (£27m).
And those are just the signings Mancini has
overseen since joining 20 months ago.
Some of the club's transformation had already
begun when Garry Cook became chief executive under the old regime
in 2008 and arrived to discover there was no personnel department
and that information on players to be signed was retained in the
memory of the club scouts.
However, many believe that the most decisive
changes came about shortly after Sheik Mansour's takeover and were
instigated not by the Sheik himself, a relatively minor member of
the Abu Dhabi Royal family, but by the current City chairman,
Khaldoon al Mubarak, just 35, educated at Tufts University in
Boston and the shining star of the Abu Dhabi government.
Power brokers: Khaldoon Al-Mubarak and Garry Cook
Strong interest: Sheikh Mansuor bin Zayed
According to some Abu Dhabi
experts, Mubarak's installation as City chairman indicates the real
power behind the throne at the club: not Sheik Mansour but the
Crown Prince of the country and second most-important man in the
state, Sheik Mohammed.
'I think in the beginning City were bought
unilaterally by Sheik Mansour as a prestige project,' said Durham
University's Professor Christopher Davidson, author of Abu Dhabi:
Oil and Beyond.
'He is quite young and relatively low down the
list of the 19 sons of the original ruler, Sheik Zayed, who died in
2004.
'But very shortly after the purchase we have lots
of clues that the Crown Prince, Sheik Mohammed, and the government
itself started to take a strong interest, which is why you have
guys like Mubarak, the right-hand man of the Crown Prince, taking
decisions. Whenever he is involved it means Abu Dhabi's national
reputation is at stake.
'I think they've realised City will probably
never turn a profit and they're probably going to have to sink a
lot of money into it, but it buys a lot of status with one of their
key trading partners and tourism providers. And there are a lot
worse things they could spend their money on. In the past it would
have gone almost exclusively on weapons.'
It is, however, of concern to UEFA, Europe's
governing body for football who are attempting to impose Financial
Fair Play, to avoid teams such as City distorting the football
market with their unlimited funds.
Just how they will regulate a state sitting on
nine per cent of the world's oil reserves is a moot
point.
And there is, says Davidson, a dark side to the
transformation of City from running joke to title
contenders.
'Abu Dhabi is an autocracy,' he says. 'Any
parliament or democracy that appears to exist is purely window
dressing. Abu Dhabi is a dictatorship and a very rich
one.'
The reality is, though, that not many at the
Etihad Stadium are likely to care this season.
For City are title contenders and, in the Premier
League, that is what matters.
