Man City the meltdown begins

Manchester City reveal financial losses of £121m

Manchester City have announced losses of £121m for the 12 months leading up to 31 May this year, having spent more on wages than their entire turnover.

The financial losses, up from £92.5m for the previous year, represent one of the heaviest in Premier League history.

Wage costs of £133m exceeded a turnover of £125m, which in the vast majority of businesses would be unsustainable.

But City are owned by wealthy Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, who wants to see the club competing at the very top.

He has spent more than £300m on players since buying City - who have not won a trophy for 34 years - from the former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in late 2008.

World-renowned stars such as Carlos Tevez, James Milner, David Silva and Yaya Toure have joined the club on big weekly wages as Roberto Mancini's squad bid to break into the top four of the English Premier League, having just missed out in fifth place last season.

"Two years ago I was fortunate enough to become part of the Manchester City story and I remain grateful for the warmth of the welcome that you have given me," Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a letter posted on the club's official website.

"The ownership of a club like Manchester City, with such a rich heritage and diverse community of stakeholders, carries a unique set of obligations to the fans, staff and broader Manchester community.

"This is something I do not take lightly."

"Therefore the challenge I set my board and executive leadership team is to develop City so that it is one of the most successful clubs both on and off the pitch, but to do so without losing any of the characteristics that make it so special."

The highest financial Premier League loss was Chelsea's in 2004-2005, with the London club losing £141m at the end of the first full year following the takeover by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

Though City's wage bill rose from £83m to £133m following Sheikh Mansour's first full year of ownership, the club has appointed a further 106 non-playing staff during the period in question.

It also increased earnings from £87m in 2008-2009 to £125m, with all 35,000 season tickets sold for the season and "partnership income" - chiefly sponsorship deals - rising by almost 400% to £32.4m.

As with Chelsea, Manchester City have stressed that they intend for their business to eventually become far more financially sustainable.

European football's governing body Uefa is set to introduce new financial fair play rulings from next year, with sanctions such as exclusion from European competition if they are not met fully.

Manchester City Striker Mario Balotelli Questioned For Driving Into Women's Prison Without Permission -

By Subhankar Mondal
Oct 1, 2010 10:05:00 PM

Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli was detained on Friday for having driven into a women's prison in Brescia without proper authorization, according to reports.

La Gazzetta dello Sport claims that the 20-year-old and his brother Enock, 17, tried to enter the prison at around 16:00 CET and were questioned by the prison officers. They were eventually released after half an hour of questioning.

Explaining the situation, a prison officer Calogero Lo Presti explained, "It was 1600 when we saw a high-powered Mercedes come through the gate. Inside were two boys, after a few minutes we realised one of them was Balotelli.

"Physically we recognised him, but that is not enough, so we proceeded with official procedure. At the end they both appeared a bit frightened. They said they saw the gate opened and never imagined they would need a special permit to visit the prison. The two were particularly intrigued by the fact it was a women's prison.　

"Balotelli has apologised. He spoke in a low voice, he was a little embarrassed."

However, Balotelli's agent, Mino Raiola, played down the incident and said, "Mario has done nothing wrong. Indeed, the officers have praised him for his initiative. Certainly they explained this could have been avoided, but it ended there.

"What I find strange is that a public official rushed to say what had happened. Nothing happened. It was only emphasised because it's Mario."

Carlos Tevez's volatile relationship with Roberto Mancini has descended into open hostility after a furious row between the Manchester City manager and captain at half-time of Sunday's 2-1 defeat of Newcastle United.

The argument began when Mancini overheard Tevez making a derogatory comment in Spanish and challenged him about it. The argument quick escalated while other team-mates watched in silence as the two men lost their temper. Tevez blamed Mancini for a poor first-half performance, complaining about his tactics and saying the Italian was getting it wrong by being too negative. Tevez has been playing as the lone attacker in a side featuring three holding midfielders and, despite scoring five times, the striker is believed to be increasingly frustrated about the lack of chances coming his way.

Mancini, who has shown an increasingly tough edge this season, saw it as his authority being undermined and responded aggressively, reminding Tevez that he was under orders to follow team instructions and should not be questioning his manager in such a way.

Mancini had installed Tevez as captain at the start of the season, taking the honour away from Kolo Touré in a demonstration of his belief in the Argentinian, but their relationship has never been close and this row ends what has been an uneasy truce between the pair.

They clashed several times last season, most notably over a newspaper interview in which Tevez said Mark Hughes should not have been sacked and criticised Mancini's training methods, accusing him of over-working the players by holding occasional double training sessions. Mancini responded by summoning his player to the office to inform him that he was unhappy about the remarks.

City's win moved them to second in the Premier League table but Mancini's occasionally abrasive style has caused a number of issues behind the scenes. The former Internazionale manager has already moved on Craig Bellamy because he did not like his attitude and, in the past few weeks, he has also had a row with Emmanuel Adebayor as well as berating one of the club's physiotherapists, Jamie Murphy, because of what he perceives to be the slow nature of Aleksandar Kolarov's return from injury.

Manchester City assistant boss Brian Kidd has played down talk of a bust-up between Roberto Mancini and Carlos Tevez.

Several of Tuesday's newspapers reported the City boss and his captain exchanged words at half-time in Sunday's clash with Newcastle.

Mancini apparently walked in to the dressing room to find Tevez addressing the rest of the players and is said to have taken issue with one point.

The City boss then reportedly told the striker to get changed as he was going to be substituted but the pair then resolved the issue in the manager's office and Tevez went out for the second half, with the Blues going on to win 2-1.

But assistant boss Kidd has played down talk of a spat, believing the lively atmosphere in the dressing room was down to a desire to win at the club.

He said: "There was an awful lot said between the group at half-time, but the lads showed a great response in the second half.

"It showed how badly they wanted to win."

fcb wrote:Another fight...Toure vs. Adebayor this time

http://football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_6634866,00.html

Sgoater1 wrote:

fcb wrote:Another fight...Toure vs. Adebayor this time

http://football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_6634866,00.html

Oh my god our club is in ruins im currently considering hanging myself....it was a bit of a scrap and Ade is leaving anyway so not a big deal really.

While Edin Dzeko gets visa and work permit issues cleared up as he looks to finalize his move from Wolfsburg to Man City, his agent is helping Edin get off on the right foot with his new club by talking about how he really wanted to play for Juve and would've done so for far less money. Hooray!

From The Mirror:

Dzeko’s agent, Giacomo Petralito, said the 24-year-old striker was so desperate to leave Wolfsburg immediately he accepted City’s offer, even though they were not his first choice.

“Juventus could have signed Dzeko, but he didn’t want to wait until June,” said Petralito. “The clubs had already reached an agreement that Edin would be allowed to move in January.

“But the absurd rules of the Italian FA prevented the move from happening. Edin would have preferred Juventus, so much so that he would have been prepared to accept less money."

The "absurd rules" Dzeko's agent refers to is the rule that prevents Italian clubs from signing more than one non-EU player per season. And since Juve signed Milos Krasic over the summer, they would have to wait until next summer to sign Dzeko. But enough of that. Lets hear more about how Edin would play at Juve for less money and argues with management.

“Edin was prepared to reduce his salary by £500,000 to play in Italy. But he had to leave Wolfsburg immediately, in January, and he couldn’t wait until June, especially after having had an argument with the management."

Lovely. So Man City are paying more than Juve for a guy who wants to play for them less and needed to leave his old club immediately because he fought with the management. This sounds like the start of a beautiful friendship.