Men With Silver Tresses

While many continue to hate Sheikh Mansour and the number of fans his new look Manchester City has stolen from Manchester United worldwide, one does have to give the man some credit. He bought a club which was on the brink of turning into a Portsmouth, given their financial troubles. (Portsmouth is now in League 2 of English football, and their finances have been taken over by the fans.)

Like every other oil tycoon, the Sheikh pumped in a lot of money into the club in order to add some ‘bling’ to his cabinet. Having bought the majority stake in the club from disgraced ex- prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, the sky blues brought in reinforcements in the form of Robinho for a British transfer record at that time, only to be eclipsed the transfer fees of two other ‘legends’ of the modern game Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres (you have to be called a ‘legend’ if you manage to score as many goals as these 2 have in the past few years).

Since the transition in owners, the club has gone through one of the most extreme make-overs, just like the ones Oprah used to give on her show. The Sheikh has single- handedly managed to transform Manchester City from being nobodies to a more hated club than Chelsea (everyone at CTP does not share this view).

The Sky Blues owner seems to have an affinity towards men in silver tresses (a very platonic affinity might we add), these men have  traveled from different shores where they coincidentally managed clubs that adorned blue jerseys as well only to take charge at a place that would guarantee their children a trust fund but cannot guarantee them job security.

Sheikh Mansour and his minions are like little children who always want something different; they first got Mark Hughes known for his direct style of play and gave him a new set of dolls to play with. When Mansour didn't like the design of his barbies, he opted for a less attractive form of football in the form of a more charismatic man though, Roberto Mancini.

Mancini had his own set of dolls, they were more like GI Joes, unattractive but effective. Marred by controversy, his team did manage to upstage the red devils in what was an interesting finish to the season they won.

Like Roman Abramovich, his compatriot in the oil business, the Sheikh has identified the Champions League Trophy as the that one piece of silverware that would surely make his cupboard gleam, and those who fail shall feel the wrath of the Sheikh, something that Mancini figured out when he got sheiked (see what we did there?) for producing poor performances in Europe. Add the misery of not being able to add any shine to the club, and you are as good as kabab to the Arabic tycoon.

New manager Manuel Pellegrini has vowed to bring in a trophy this season; such claims have been made prior to his first season in English football because apparently it’s a clause in his contract. One wonders whether the Chilean suffers from fits of overconfidence as he signed a contract which guaranteed him a death-wish should he fail to deliver.

Only time will tell whether there is any spice in the Chilean’s words, as of right now, they have managed to get rid of the problem children in to successive transfer periods, and have bought a Brazilian who is second choice to a player who recently moved to spurs, and a man known to suffer from bouts of homesickness (Fernandinho and Jesus Navas respectively). Didn’t they learn anything from the Balotelli and Tevez sagas?