“We are building a structure for the future not just a team of all-stars.”
The message, written in bold in the open-plan reception and meeting area of the new Etihad Campus’s main building speaks volumes.
Those words from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE deputy prime minister and minister of presidential affairs, came six years and three months ago after he bought Manchester City and brought Abu Dhabi into the footballing spotlight.
They also provided a far greater insight into his long-term ambition for the Premier League club than the £32.5 million (Dh187m) record purchase of Robinho days earlier.
There’s no disguising the fact City have spent heavily to transform them into champions.
Annual accounts for 2013/14 revealed a £23m (Dh132m) loss – including a £16m (Dh92m) penalty for breaching UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules – but their income of £347m (Dh2 billion) was a £76m (Dh438m) increase on the previous year.
The figures also showed Sheikh Mansour had invested £1.15bn (Dh6.63bn) during his tenure, but big-money signings were allied to their project to create training facilities to develop youth, support a men’s and women’s team, and help regenerate the local community.
As he watched the official unveiling of the £200m (Dh1.15bn) campus – a 190-metre walk over a bridge from the Etihad Stadium – and featuring Etihad Avenue as its central street to emphasise the primary sponsorship of the UAE airline, Academy director Brian Marwood said he had to keep pinching himself at how the dream had become a reality.
He witnessed City’s rise since joining in 2009, and believes Sheikh Mansour deserves respect for breathing life into the club as well as the previously neglected suburbs of Gorton and Beswick.
“We made a statement of intent six years ago with our owners and people perhaps disrespected them in terms of what they were going to do,” he told Sport360°.
“But now people have seen they can create a winning team on the pitch and they can create something unique off the pitch with these facilities. It’s gone beyond money and I hope people now begin to give Sheikh Mansour a lot more credit.
“Not only has he regenerated a football club, he has regenerated a huge part of Manchester and should rightly get the credit he deserves.”
The proof is in the product, which has left many in awe. Even Lionel Messi, according to his Argentina team-mate and City full-back Pablo Zabaleta after a visit for their friendly with Portugal.
With 16 pitches, a 7,000-seater stadium for the juniors and women’s team, an accommodation block, a sixth-form College to serve its local community and scholars, it is a significant step above their old Carrington base.
“They have everything here to be a good professional, and we can’t ask for more; we have everything here,” said Zabaleta.
Women’s team captain and England international Steph Houghton added: “To be able to come in here and call it home, you are going to be inspired.”
City looked at 70 different sports facilities worldwide, including the Australia Institute for Sport, the LA Lakers and Barcelona, and had 19 different designs before choosing the current one.
But Marwood added: “It would be wrong to say we just cut and paste. We did a lot of research, we found some things that were good and some things that were bad.
“But we have a lot of very talented people within the building who came up with a lot of really good ideas that we wanted to integrate and that’s the blueprint of all of those things.”
Chief Infrastructure Officer Jon Stemp helped put it all together and said: “It feels like six-year maternity and it’s special to see it complete. It’s going to leave a legacy. The connection to Abu Dhabi is deep rooted, but we have also learnt so much from how they want to do things.
“Their way of being respectful, their way of being understated and developing our club under those same values has been incredible. It’s given us a clear direction about how to do things.”
City have a clear direction for the future too. With two league titles in three seasons, they have not only challenged neighbours United’s standing as the No1 club in Manchester, but also the No1 attraction for the area’s most promising youngsters and beyond.
That has not gone unnoticed among past heroes of both clubs either.
Colin Bell, the revered City midfielder, said: “Who wouldn’t want to come to train and play at this place? There can’t be anything like this in the world.
“To have the money to buy players and then to look at the best youngsters and get them when they are young, that’s the best of both worlds and that’s what City are trying to do. Of course it will help them become the best.”
Paul Scholes, who came through the ranks at United as part of the famous ‘Class of 92’ side along with David Beckham, Ryan Giggs,Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers , Gary and Phil, too was impressed with what he saw.
He said City have now raised the stakes to an extent where his former club should be concerned. While current United chief Louis van Gaal disagreed and said the quality of coaching will prove key, it is the future that will determine who’s right.
There will no doubt be pressure on City to deliver. Yet it is something they accept and welcome, even if the success is not instant.
Marwood said: “We keep challenging ourselves every day. It’s like the Champions League. People say you must be disappointed at not doing as well as you hoped and yes we are, but it’s not stopping us.
“It would be great to have four or five players who have come through this system playing in our first team. It’s a challenge but that’s the challenge we set ourselves.”
One person relishing that challenge is Patrick Vieira, City’s head of the Elite Development Squad (EDS) and no stranger to success himself during his playing career with clubs such as Arsenal, Internazionale and City.
A World Cup and European Championship winner with France too, he knows what it takes to get to the very top.
Describing the City Football Academy as being on a “different level” to other training centres, he said: “The gap is massive from under-21 to first team, and we need to find the way to bridge the gap.
“Now we have one of the best, if not the best, facilities in the world. We have a clear idea about how we want to play at this club, and everything is there.
“All we need now is time, which you always need with young players. We have to get our heads down and keep working harder.”
The sight of 18-year-old Jose Pozo, part of his EDS team, starting in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Leicester will offer hope to players such as Manchester-born midfielder Kean Bryan.
“It’s a lot of pride when you get to the top, especially when you are a local boy,” said the England Under-19 international. “People look at City as a money club and always spending, but you need to be good to be at that top level. You need to work hard and it’s not a given that it will happen.”
Bell agreed with that attitude, adding: “You can’t just click your fingers and get the best team in the world. It takes time.
“But, with the money [backing] and the players, I now expect City to win the title every year. Is that pressure? No. It’s just a question of time – and it will happen.”
