Khaldoon al-Mubarak has demanded that Manchester City’s on-field performances match their off-field success after the club recorded a profit for the first time under Sheikh Mansour’s ownership.
Having posted losses of £197 million just four years ago, City announced a £10.7 million profit for 2014-15 yesterday in what Ferran Soriano, the chief executive, described as a “historic step” for the club.
City’s turnover increased to £351.8 million for the year ending May 31, 2015, meaning that revenues have more than quadrupled since Mansour bought the club seven years ago. Only Manchester United, whose income for 2014-15 fell from £433 million to £395.2 million after their failure to qualify for last season’s Champions League, have a bigger turnover in British football than their local rivals.
Yet there was a warning from al-Mubarak, the City chairman, that results on the pitch would have to improve after Manuel Pellegrini’s team failed to deliver silverware last season, when they finished eight points behind Chelsea in the title race, were eliminated prematurely from both domestic cup competitions and beaten by Barcelona in the Champions League round of 16.
City spent about £150 million this summer on Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Nicolás Otamendi, Fabian Delph and Patrick Roberts as part of an overhaul of the squad in their bid to atone for last term’s disappointment.
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“No team can expect to win every year but competing to win in England’s domestic competitions and improving our performance in the Champions League are entirely reasonable goals,” al-Mubarak said.
“The desire for silverware has always been a critical element of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed’s strategy for the reinvigoration of Manchester City, both on and off the pitch. It is a strategy predicated on long-term sustainability and the ongoing development of momentum year after year.
“The fact that we consider last season to be below par for Manchester City is a testament to how far we have come in the last seven years. This is a level of ambition that we should not shirk or shy away from.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Soriano and will have left Pellegrini, who signed a contract extension in August to tie him to the club until the end of next season, under no illusions about the club’s expectations.
“These consistent results indicate we are doing a lot of things right, but they are not enough,” Soriano said. “We will never be happy about a season without trophies. The priority and the focus of our work is to convert more of these opportunities into titles in the years ahead.”
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In a significant development, City’s wage bill has fallen from £205 million to £193.5 million, which is only slightly higher than that of Arsenal (£192.2 million) and Chelsea (£192.7 million) but less as a proportion of turnover.City’s wage/turnover ratio is 55 per cent, compared with 55.8 per cent at Arsenal and 60 per cent at Chelsea. Liverpool’s ratio is also higher at 56.2 per cent. United’s wage bill accounts for 51.3 per cent of total revenues.
It represents a marked drop for City, whose wages-to-turnover ratio was 113 per cent in 2010-11 and whose wage bill hit £233 million at its peak in 2012-13, and will serve as a riposte to Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal man-ager, who has accused City of “financial doping” in the past.
Officials from City and United will meet Greater Manchester Police (GMP) tomorrow to discuss security arrangements for the derby at Old Trafford a week on Sunday and the Capital Cup ties three days later, with both clubs playing at home on the same night.
Pellegrini and Louis van Gaal, his United counterpart, will be requested not to stoke the fires before the derby, with GMP hopeful the game will pass off without incident and avert the threat of any lingering bad blood come the League Cup matches.
City face Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium at 7.45pm on October 28, with United kicking off 15 minutes later against Middlesbrough. United and City last played at home on the same night in September 2009.