Premier League three-peat: Why Manchester City's hegemony is not only about the money
Manchester City's failure to clinch the Champions League has often undermined their domestic success, especially since the arrival of Pep Guardiola. The Catalan was hired at the Etihad to make City the biggest club in Europe. But no Champions League title in Guardiola's six seasons in charge has always raised questions regarding City being the best in Europe.
However, their domestic dominance under Pep is something that is not likely to be repeated soon. Five Premier League titles in the last six season and three successive titles in the toughest league in the world speaks volumes about CIty's remarkable progress under the Spaniard.
In an era when football has never been more competitive, Manchester City's ability to win the English top flight while setting up records for goals scored, clean sheets, and total points won is stuff made of dreams.
Although Manchester City have had the advantage of the Abu Dhabi United Group, they are not the only club benefitting from wealthy owners. Roman Abramovich was Chelsea's owner long before the Abu Dhabi Group came into the picture and Manchester United have always been the biggest brand in English football.
Now that Machester City have won the Premier League title this season, let's have a look at factors that made them a force to reckon with in the last decade:
The arrival of Ferran Soriano
Although City's first league title came in 2012 on the back of a sensational comeback win over Queen Park Rangers, their first step towards local domination turned out to be the arrival of Ferran Soriano as their Chief Executive.
Ferran worked at Barcelona between 2003 and 2008 and the Blaugrana's enormous growth during that time prompted City to make the move for the Spaniard. And since then, the visionary businessman has taken the club to new heights.
Soriano's first order of business was to hire former Barcelona director of football Txiki Begiristain in the same capacity at the Eithad. The club also waited patiently for Pep Guardiola to leave Bayern Munich. Manchester City had no second thoughts about hiring Pep as their manager and the club even finished fourth in the 2015-16 season as Leicester City won the Premier League title.
Soriano's arrival has seen Manchester City become the second most valuable club in the world as per Brand Finance. And as per Detroit Money League, the club was the highest revenue generating club in the world as of the 2021-22 season.
Strategic recruitment & tactical innovations
The Citizens knew what Guardiola could achieve with them. The Catalan was never afraid to leave out players who never fit in his plans. His axing of Joe Hart, City’s first-choice goalkeeper back then, is a prime example of Guardiola being ruthless in his approach.
Manchester City always planned their targets way before the closure of the summer transfer window and the likes of Jack Grealish, Erling Haaland, Rodri, etc. arrived way ahead of the pre-season training to acclimatize themselves at the new club.
The club always looked to strengthen key areas of the pitch as soon as chinks appeared in their armor. In the 2019-20 season, after their campaign was derailed by Aymeric Laporte's season-ending injury, Manchester City swiftly wrapped up Ruben Diaz's transfer and he is now their leader in defense.
The club was looking for a perfect replacement for Sergio Aguero since his departure in the 2020-21 season. But they never panicked into making a deal for an unsuitable candidate even though the club had to spend a season without a striker.
Besides, various tactical tweaks from Guardiola have also helped City's cause. Manchester City coped the 2021-22 season without a striker on the back of a strong goal-scoring output from their midfielders and wingers. Kevin De Bryune, Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling all reached double figures in goal-scoing charts in the 2021-22 season.
Guardiola's use of Joao Cancelo as an inverted winger and his utilization of John Stones in midfield are just some of the examples of tactical brilliance shown by the Catalan.
Moving towards a sustainable business model
In the last decade, City's squad planning has been so meticulous that the club was able to turn a profit from transfers last season. After spending over €1 billion in transfers following Guardiola's arrival, City's squad has reached such levels that they can even offload a few important players and turn profits without suffering any loss of form on the pitch.
Last season, the club achieved a net spend of -£8.3 even after signing Haaland and Kelvin Phillips. The departure of Raheem Sterling, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Gabriel Jesus brought £124m alone, while they made a further £15m by moving on another four fringe players.
Manchester City have not just spent big on transfers. Continuous investments in City's academy has seen the rise of Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, and Rico Lewis whereas the club has also turned profits from the sale of Jadon Sancho, Brahim Diaz, and Romeo Lavia.
Besides, the Etihad Stadium was also renovated to increase the seating capacity to 53,000 in 2014. And according to Guardian, the club is looking to expand the seating capacity to 60,000 while also adding a hotel and a museum to open up more revenue-generating opportunities.
In a nutshell, Manchester City's success is not just down to the players and the coaches alone. The Abu Dhabi United Group has done a tremendous job of bringing together a strong team to oversee its on and off-pitch development.
And even if the club gets penalized for breaching Premier League's financial rules between 2009 and 2018, no one can discredit their on-field dominance and the off-field strategies they employed to achieve the same.