Crowned European champion for the first time in its history on Saturday, Manchester City finally asserted its dominance on the continent. But for the club, its coach Pep Guardiola or its Emirati owners, it is certainly only a stage, not an end. “There, right now, I have no energy to think about next season,” admitted the Catalan at the microphone of BT Sport, immediately after the match, saying to himself “tired, calm and satisfied, obviously”.
It’s a night that all Citizens have dreamed of since the club was taken over by Abu Dhabi in 2008 but which has long been denied them. In 2021, against Chelsea in the final (0-1), the blow had passed very close and the frustration grew as the domination in the Premier League – 7 titles in 11 years, including 4 in the last 5 seasons – strengthened. It’s time for jubilation, which will culminate on Monday with the bus parade through the city where the players will take the measure of this triple championship, cup and C1 that only United had achieved in England until then, in 1999.
Present in Istanbul to attend for only the second time an official match of the Citizens since he bought them, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, vice-president of the United Arab Emirates, nevertheless immediately projected himself towards the future in a message, Sunday. “Winning the 2023 Champions League is a significant achievement of our long-term ambition to become one of the world’s benchmark football clubs. This sets the measure of our future success, ”he said to those who believe that this success will blunt the ambition of City.
The Sky Blues haven’t racked up 7 league titles, three FA Cups, six League Cups, and now a ‘big-eared cup’ in 12 years without a fierce appetite for victory. On the roof of Europe at just 22 years old, author of a crazy first season in his new colors, with 52 goals in 53 matches, Erling Haaland confirmed it. “I think that in a few days, when everything drops a little (…), I would like to do it again,” said the Norwegian colossus after the match. “We are only 13 titles in the Champions League from them, only 13, so be careful, Real Madrid (record holder of C1 victories with 14 trophies) because we are launched. If you fall asleep a little bit, we’ll catch you!” Guardiola joked at a press conference.
Some observers believe that Abu Dhabi could adopt a more cautious management, especially as the club remains under threat from the 115 charges of financial offenses between 2009 and 2018 launched in February by the Premier League. Like Qatar, which seems to be taking a “much more rigorous approach” with PSG after the World Cup it hosted, City will want to “regain the treble but I think they will want to do it in a more disciplined way”, had explained Simon Chadwick, professor of sports and geopolitical economics at the Parisian business school Skema, on the economic site City AM, Thursday.
This new phase may have already begun. If the net investment – purchases minus sales of players – of the Emiratis has reached 1.5 billion euros since their arrival, over the last five years, City has posted a much more favorable balance than United, Chelsea or Arsenal, for sporting results without common measure. The stability of the squad and the ability of City to attract stars like Haaland but also to find and develop world-class players like Rodri and Ruben Dias have been the keys to its success. The future of players present for a long time like Ilkay Gündogan, at the end of the contract, Bernardo Silva, very courted, Aymeric Laporte, little used this season, or Riyad Mahrez, who received a fabulous offer from Saudi Arabia, is certainly in suspense. . And after seven years in the job and ending a 12-year wait since his last European title with Barcelona, Guardiola will certainly think about his medium-term future, while he is under contract until 2025. But if his departure would mark the end of an era without equal, it would not erase the idea around which City have been built for 15 years: to win again and again.
