EPL Talk » ADUG

Hughes the wrong man for the Abu Dhabi United Group?

Josh Allen — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:09:34 +0000

One point off the relegation zone is the last place Sheikh Mansour would have expected Manchester City to be when he took over at Eastlands in September. Now with the club verging on a relegation battle rather than one for a Champions League place must have the ADUG questioning whether Mark Hughes is the right man for Man City.

Hughes is apparently flying to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday to discuss potential transfer targets for January but with the club languishing at the wrong end of the table who do they think they will attract? The Arab owners may believe that the only thing that will attract the big names they want to Eastlands will be a renown manager in charge at the club.

Rumors have been rife that the likes of Jose Mourinho or Roberto Mancini could be in line to takeover on the touch line and with the start City have made to the season Hughes is doing himself no favours in establishing himself as the man to take the club forward.

The football odds where against City to make a European place this season and I hope that the ADUG realised that before taking over the club. The January transfer window would always be the period when City were expected to drop the big bucks on some big names. The likes of Lionel Messi, Fernando Torres and David Villa have all been banded around as possible targets.

Now there is no doubt Hughes is a good manager, the job he did with Blackburn was a brilliant one and many had expected him to do the same with City under then owner Thaksin Shinawatra, but his aims where a little lower than Premier League winners in two years.

City have a tough month to come as well with unpredictable Hull away next week followed by games with Arsenal and then Manchester United in the league. The football odds would suggest that Hughes’ men would be lucky to take between four and five points from those games.

Sheikh Mansour will have to make a tough call because if he does want to appoint a new manager then he will have to do it quickly so he can assess the squad before deciding who they believe the team needs. After so many years of instability at the club though it would seem a silly move to unsettle the squad halfway through the season. My hope is that ADUG give Hughes until the end of the season before deciding the former Manchester United forwards fate.

However if they do take the sensible option of keeping on Hughes until the summer it remains to be seen if he will last any longer than that. Sparky just doesn’t seem to suit the look and style ADUG are going for and I would very much doubt that he will enjoy a reign as long as Sir Alex Ferguson at City’s deadliest rivals. So even if Hughes turns things around I would expect to see him at another club in the not so distant future with City appointing a European manager, the likes of which have brought so much success to the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Is Today The Day The Premiership Changed Forever?

Paul Bestall — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:17:57 +0000

I got up this morning expecting another tense, dull day to be spattered with the occasional factual transfer as the transfer window creaked shut getting excited about nothing much in particular. A day spent scouring the BBC and Sky Sports transfer vidi-printers and tutting at bored 14 year old’s just texting and e-mailing rubbish to fill the gaps as the frustration grew as the day shortened, the last couple of transfer windows have been very dull affairs, so I was not expecting much. Silly me.

What I didn’t expect was that Manchester City would, as of 9.30am, became the richest football club in the world with the end of Thaksin Shinawatra’s short reign as owner and start throing money around like water. I never expected the Royal Family of the United Arab Emirates to buy any club, never mind Manchester City and immediately tell manager Mark Hughes to spend, spend, spend in an unprecedented scenario. The new owners, Abu Dhabi United Group are the investment & financial arm of the Royal Family and have almost 1 trillion pounds available to them, or 10 Roman Abramovichs. This is football investment on an unbelievable level and has completely changed the entire landscape of world football in a few short hours.

If that wasn’t enough, they then offered a British record transfer fee of £35 million pounds for Dimitar Berbatov, which Tottenham accepted, then announced they’d bid £30 million for David Villa and a further £25 million for Mario Gomes. As I type this, Marca in Spain is reporting that they’ve also bid for Robinho and several other high profile signings but other than the 3 strikers that ADUG spokesperson Sulaiman Al-Fahim confirmed earlier today, nothing is concrete fact. Manchester City can now afford to buy anyone at any club with no worries at all, but the one thing that holds them back is the lack of Champions League football, a key point that will probably see Berbatov choose the red side of Manchester over the blue. Ferguson will be determined to finalise the transfer he sees as vital to enabling United to try and become the first club to win back to back Champions League titles and I expect Berbatov to be a United player by midnight.

The majority of players they need to push on to go for a top four spot would seem to be loathe to swap Champions League for a season of UEFA Cup football so they may not get the players they need by the time the window shuts at midnight but don’t rule out some massive deals being prepared for the next transfer window. Also key to their forward recruitment though is that City are in a position to attract these players in January when they’ll need them, so Hughes knows he needs to keep City in and around the top 8 come the turn of the year. Additionally, the due to Manchester City deal, I expect this to push DIC forward to purchase Liverpool, now that their royal rivals have trumped them to buying a Premiership club first, something that will not be going unnoticed back in the U.A.E.

One man who won’t be a Manchester City anymore is Vedran Corluka who confirmed his protracted move to Tottenham, originally completed on August 10th, this morning to join Pavlyuchenko at Spurs Lodge. It’s been probably the worst kept transfer in football so no surprises that he now joins up with his best friend, Luka Modric. A canny pair of signing for Ramos to add a bit more depth to the squad. All in all, today could be the most important day in the history of the Premiership so far and with 3 hours to go until the window closes, who knows who else is going to switch sides and which football club is going to be bought next by midnight.

Breaking News: Middle East Company Buys Manchester City

The Gaffer — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:26:38 +0000

Manchester City officials have confirmed that a Middle East company is in the process of taking over the club from Thai owner Thaksin Shinawatra.

A memorandum of understanding (i.e. a statement of intent) has been signed between between the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) and Manchester City Football Club Limited.

“A period of due diligence for all parties, including the FA Premier League has now been entered,” according to a statement made by Manchester City.

ADUG reportedly paid £200 million to buy Manchester City.