Manchester City is considering embarking on a preseason tour of the United States this summer to establish itself as a global brand and to gain ground on Manchester United’s popularity overseas.

The report in The Guardian from last Tuesday says that the talks are only at a preliminary stage, but there have been talks about staging one of the preseason games (after the World Cup) in either New York or Philadelphia. Manchester City’s chief executive Garry Cook previously worked as a marketing executive at Nike headquarters in Portland, Oregon, so Cook is very familiar with the opportunities to ‘break’ the country.

Bizarrely, Guardian reporter Daniel Taylor refers to the previous tours by Chelsea and Manchester United to ‘break’ the U.S. market as failures, which is a ridiculous statement to make. Chelsea’s tour last summer was an incredible success as the team played in front of sold-out crowds across the United States. Manchester United has also done extremely well in ticket sales on previous tours. Yes, you could argue that Chelsea and Manchester United have not broken into the U.S. market, but by what measure do you define breaking a market? Soccer is increasing in popularity in this country, but overnight success can not be expected (unless the United States wins the World Cup).

Personally, I think Manchester City has an enormous opportunity to establish themselves as a brand to be reckoned with in the United States and can become increasingly more popular than they are now. There will be a large numbers of sports fans in the United States this summer who will become soccer fans and will be looking for teams to support. A tour of the States featuring a team of cosmopolitan players based in England would be an incredible success, and will be buoyed by the honeymoon period of interest after the World Cup is over.

The opportunity for Manchester City to become very popular in the United States is very attainable. Manchester United only seems to visit the States as a last resort (Asia and South Africa have been the first and second choices in recent years). Arsene Wenger is reluctant to allow his Arsenal team to tour the United States despite the fact that Arsenal supporters are clamoring for the team to visit for the first time since 1989. Chelsea is the most serious about conquering the United States, but even though they have played in front of sold-out stadiums over several years in the U.S., the club doesn’t seem to have been embraced by most Americans.

Here are 5 reasons why Manchester City can conquer America:

1. Manchester City has the money to buy success. It always helps put butts on the seats when football clubs can buy some of the most exciting talent that’s available. And with the practically unlimited funds that Manchester City possesses due to its mega-rich owners, being able to purchase some top level athletes will undoubtedly create a lot of interest in Manchester City, both Stateside and around the world.
2. Manchester City’s squad can do what Major League Soccer cannot. And that is fielding some of the top players in the world that represent the melting pot that is America. A Manchester City tour of the United States would appeal to ethnic groups represented by the following countries: Argentina (because of Carlos Tevez and Pablo Zabaleta), Paraguay (Roque Santa Cruz), Ireland (Shay Given and Stephen Ireland), Brazil (Sylvinho), Ivory Coast (Kolo Toure), France (Patrick Vieira), Bulgaria (Martin Petrov), Wales (Craig Bellamy), Italy (Roberto Mancini) and, of course England (Gareth Barry, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Micah Richards, Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge).
3. Americans love underdogs who play attractive football. It’s a bit strange to call the richest soccer club in the world an underdog, but Manchester City is an underdog when you consider where they rank in the Premier League. In previous seasons, we’ve seen how teams such as Wigan Athletic, Fulham and Hull City have become popular in the States because the clubs have played attractive football and have been underdogs. And in the case of Fulham and Hull City have recruited Americans. Now if City could sign an American star such as Landon Donovan or Clint Dempsey, the proposed summer tour to the States would be an even greater success.
4. Manchester City has a history of playing friendlies in the States. In 1968, they visited the States on a tour and played against the Atlanta Chiefs and Oakland Clippers. Manchester City returned to the States after their regular season ended in 1980 to play in the Trans-Atlantic Cup where they played against the New York Cosmos and Vancouver Whitecaps. They returned the following summer, this time to play in Canada, against the Vancouver Whitecaps. In 1983, they traveled to Florida and played in the Sunshine International Series against the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Fort Lauderdale Strikers.
5. Manchester City has been a part of the American soccer fabric since the 1970s. It’s been almost 30 years since the NASL shut its doors, but many City players from the 70s and 80s played in the NASL. The soccer fans who grew up on the NASL will remember Manchester City legends such as Brian Kidd, Rodney Marsh, Dennis Tueart, Dave Watson, Alan Ball, Colin Bell, Joe Corrigan, Kaz Deyna and many others. Soccer fans that followed the NASL in this country, who I believe are the foundation of soccer in this country, will have a deep appreciation for Manchester City.

Those five important ingredients can help Manchester City become more popular in the United States if the club is able to tour the country this summer, and is able to continue coming back and having the patience necessary to keep pushing to make City a household name in the USA.

Photo credit: Dullhunk.

Press conferences in England are hardly ever tame experiences (ask Joe Kinnear), but Monday’s unveiling of Roberto Mancini as the new manager of Manchester City didn’t go particularly well for City chief executive Garry Cook.

The City chief executive, who is not a fan favorite, stepped in to answer questions from journalists about the sequence of events in previous weeks that led to the removal of Mark Hughes and the appointment of Mancini. The topic become more heated when Mancini revealed he had met with the City executives as early as the first week of December, which was earlier than City’s official announcement had indicated.

Watch the above video to see how uncomfortable Cook is as he leans forward to try to take control of the situation and then begins banging the table before he’s rescued by his publicity director  who tries to get the press conference back on topic.

What do you think? Did chief executive Garry Cook lie to the fans of Manchester City?

If at first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh you don’t succeed, try and try again.

This seems to be Manchester City’s mantra ahead of next month’s UEFA Cup quarterfinal tie with Hamburg, made apparent by the fact that the club has slashed ticket prices through this Sunday for Apr. 16’s home leg to just £5 for adults and £1 for kids.

The temporary markdown makes for a 75% cheaper adult ticket than City’s season ticket holders purchased for the Blues’ home round-of-16 encounter with Danish side Aalborg this month.  On a personal level, as a City fan living overseas, I’m wishing right about now that transatlantic flights were that cheap, but never mind.

With the cheaper ticket prices – Which, as we’ve all discovered, you can do when you’re also able to bid £100 million for one player; Hi, Garry! – the Eastlands outfit are banking on getting a much-improved atmosphere for Hamburg than there was for the Danes’ visit, when only 24,596 bothered to turn up at a stadium that seats almost twice that.

Up to now, City have yet to even reach the 30,000 plateau in this season’s UEFA Cup, but it would appear that they won’t have much trouble there this time around, with the Manchester Evening News reporting massive queues both at the City of Manchester Stadium box office as well as City’s shop in the Arndale Centre, combining with online customers for 15,000 tickets sold before the club had to temporarily suspend sales.

It’s certainly a good sign that that so many tickets have already gone with another four days and change left before the ‘sale’ expires, but getting tickets in supporters’ hands is at best only half the battle.  The club is (so far) holding up its end of the bargain – The rest is going to be up to the fans, and they will need to make their voices well and truly heard.

Though I find it a bit disgraceful in a way – Of course there’s a hierarchy there, but a major trophy is a major trophy is a major trophy – the UEFA Cup is commonly seen as a sort of ‘best of the rest’ competition, as indicated a lot of the time by attendance figures, and City fans have been just as guilty as anyone this season in that regard, but City’s win over Aalborg on penalties has given Blues supporters a golden opportunity to redeem themselves.

While City are sure to pass the attendance numbers of their first seven UEFA Cup home matches this season with ease for the Hamburg game, the fans know that it will be up to them to create the kind of atmosphere that the circumstances demand.  As Manchester United supporters enjoy reminding their City counterparts, the Blues have not won a major trophy since around the time that John Simm experienced Life on Mars, and rarely has the first team been this close to grabbing any silverware worth grabbing.

City have a tough road to hoe if they’re going to make it to the final in Istanbul, with Hamburg standing in their way and then presumably Werder Bremen after that should their compatriots go down, but if the fans finally prove themselves able to answer the call for the first time in this competition, what sometimes seems like the impossible dream might become that little bit less thus.

When the financial and managerial reins to Manchester City Football Club changed hands early on this season for the second time in fairly quick succession on both fronts, this time with the Blues having instantly catapulted to the top of the world football rich list, everyone’s attention immediately turned to the January transfer window. What already looked a fairly competent side on paper, it was thought, was mere months away from becoming a sure-fire threat to retain its UEFA Cup spot – and not via the Fair Play rule this time.

Fast-forward to the past 30-odd days, and the verdict? Yeah, not so much.

While City did make a handful of sensible moves – Nigel de Jong in from Hamburg and only putting Jo out on loan to Everton being probably the best among them – it appeared at times that the Blues, a club with suddenly more money than they’d know what do with…well, didn’t.

Several bids for Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz, one of first-year City manager Mark Hughes’ former charges, were turned down by the Ewood Park club, and who could forget the audacious (and ultimately fruitless) bid in excess of £100 million for AC Milan midfielder Kaká, which Hughes seemed particularly gung-ho about until the very end and which club executive chairman Garry Cook had the gall to accuse the Italian giants of “bottling it” on a deal that would have paid Kaká the obscene sum of £500,000 a week at Eastlands and in turn set a potentially dangerous precedence where footballers’ pay, especially in a global recession, is concerned.

The Kaká narrative is what the January window should (and will) be most remembered by in the blue half of Manchester, especially as, much like with City’s successful bid for Newcastle and Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given, it was one that would have sent the wrong message to those players in the Blues’ current lineup. Throwing the two transfer targets together for the sake of argument, bringing in both Kaká and Given would have been seen as replacements for Stephen Ireland and Joe Hart, arguably City’s two best players so far this season.

The transfer window has left Hart especially unlucky. The 21-year-old keeper has been a rock for City since coming back from loan spells in 2007 at Tranmere Rovers and Blackpool, rarely if ever putting a foot wrong since taking over the starting job at Eastlands. What’s more, Hart is arguably the reason City are still alive in Europe, having made two saves in a penalty shoot-out at the end of the club’s UEFA Cup qualifier at FC Midtjylland back in August, a shoot-out that City really only made it into by accident after a late own-goal from the Danish side gifted City what at the time was a largely undeserved shot at reaching the competition’s first round proper.

Bearing that in mind, while City are bringing in another reliable goalkeeper for what is believed to be in the vicinity of £8 million, something will invariably have to give there. Hart will likely not remain a candidate for a regular spot in the full England squad any time soon if he’s playing the understudy at his club team, and it therefore seems inevitable that either he or third-stringer Kasper Schmeichel – who at one stage looked a solid prospect for an international call-up for Denmark or possibly even England as the Danes haven’t yet capped him – will be on their way out in the summer.

With what we know about what has transpired over the last month and change, then, it’s hard to look at City’s dealings in the transfer window as anything much better than one step forward and one step back. The Blues did manage to shore up a couple of their shortcomings so far this season, but at what cost? City stand to lose one if not two solid goalkeepers come the end of the season on account of lack of first-team playing time, and they’ve loaned out for more or less the same reason a player they had spent a reportedly estimated £19 million on to another Premiership side that’s still in with a shout to be back in the fold for European football again next season.

Then again, if the new signings fail to help steady the ship, how other clubs in the Premier League’s top half are getting on will be the least of City’s worries.