1. “We’re Sheikhing up baby now”. September 2008
Mansour and the Abu Dhabi group seize control of City on a brilliant day for the blue half of Manchester. It felt like all of City’s Christmases had come at once. The embarrassment of the Shinawatra era had come to an end and all of a sudden the possibilities were endless. No debt, unbelievable resources, the financial backing to achieve the unthinkable. In a statement made shortly afterwards, whilst talking of others at the club he said “.They reflect our shared aim of seeing Manchester City Football Club evolve to become a significant force in the world of football”.
City’s new owners immediately announced their intentions by signing Robihnio from Real Madrid.
2. Robinho, September 2008
Straight from left field this deal was literally out of the blue. The new petro dollars had been secured and City were linked with every player under the sun from Berbatov to David Villa.
It appeared that Robinho was on his way to Chelsea when Andy Burton appeared on Sky Sports News saying similar to “Here we go, sweaty fingers time.....Robihno has signed for Manchester City”. Unfortunately for Robinho it appeared the next day he thought he had signed for Chelsea.
Despite what went on afterwards he was our first ‘superstar’ signing at £32 million and paved the way for the rest of the big deals.
3. Benjani, January 2008
Prior to the big money investment our transfer policy was somewhat average. Rolando Bianchi take a bow. Benjani had looked a decent player at Portsmouth and City were lacking a proven goal scorer at that time (Emile Mpenza anyone?). The deal dragged on all day and amongst rumours of private jets, medical complications and fee problems it appeared the clock was going to run out. Big Ben chimed midnight on Sky Sports News and City fans were left wondering if the deal had been completed. It was not until the early hours when most of the freezing reporters had gone home that we learned the deal had been completed.
4. Adam Johnson, February 2010
Mancini had only recently taken the hot seat at City, Johnson was the much hyped player of the moment and was also linked with a potential move to Stamford Bridge (déjà vu – see above).
After a string of impressive performances for Middlesbrough, City shelled out a fee rumoured to be around £5 million for the left footed winger and became Mancini’s second signing following the capture of Patrik Viera.
5. Majita Nastastic, September 2012
Despite a flurry of transfer activity in the most recent transfer window none of the new purchases have really impressed me so far. I also feel its possible these five new players were bought just to appease Mancini following his public complaints and the majority of them were players we did not need.
The one exception so far is Nastastic who has impressed me the most. Aged only nineteen he looks composed on the ball and good in the tackle. He could go on to be a great player and the fee of £12 million could be a bargain. The other bonus was that we got to send Stefan Savic in the other direction.
Grant Mills
@mancinismarvels
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