5 reasons why Manchester City will dominate English football for a long time

Manchester City had for long been a club that was noted for calamitous developments that saw the club struggle for a long time through the 1980s. In fact, they even suffered the ignominy of crashing down to the 3rd tier of English football back in 1998. Those days are no longer of any consequence for the club and ever since the club was taken over by Abu Dhabi City Group back in 2008 from former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for £210 million, City have become one of the Premier League's leading lights.

The hyper spending from Sheikh Mansour eclipsed anything Chelsea's Roman Abramovich did for the London club but there was a method to the madness. Since then, have City won the Premier League in 2012 for the first time since 1968 and followed it up with another title 2 years later.

They are well placed to win the league next year as well. However, it has not only been about the massive investments. The new owners have created an infrastructure that could see the club dominate the Premier League for years and here are the 5 primary reasons why they are well placed to do so.

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#5 The Appointment of Pep Guardiola

Despite the fact that Manchester City had once been a successful club in the past, its recent history was that of a club which was trying to bring success through massive investment and there was this impression that it was not a prestigious enough destination for elite professionals, despite the high wages on offer.

The managers like Mancini and Pellegrini might have been successful during their respective reigns but they were not really among the world's best when City appointed them.

However, it all changed with the appointment of Pep Guardiola in 2016 and it was the first real indication that the club was a destination of choice for the best professionals in the business. Guardiola is arguably the world's best manager and plenty of clubs, including city rivals Manchester United were in for him but City's dogged pursuit of the Catalan proved decisive.

It was a big statement and needless to say, it opened the doors for truly world-class talents like Bernardo Silva, Leroy Sane and Benjamin Mendy among others to join the project. Better players will surely join in the years to come and once Guardiola leaves, the world's best coaches will also by queueing up for the top job. The Guardiola appointment is perhaps one of the biggest breakthroughs in the club's history and will pave the way for long-term domination of the English top flight.

#4 An ideal corporate structure

Txiki Begiristain (background left) and Ferran Soriano (centre)

Former owner Thaksin Shinawatra left behind an autocratic mess when the Sheikh Mansour backed Abu Dhabi City Group bought the club in 2008 and there was widespread belief that they would simply throw money instead of creating a corporate model commensurate with the ambitions of a super club. In that regard, the powers that be in Abu Dhabi have conducted themselves perfectly and installed a corporate structure that has made City one of England's best run clubs over the past 9 years or so.

The City hierarchy did not try anything special but simply copied the corporate structure of the most successful club in Europe over the last decade, FC Barcelona. They not only copied the 'Barcelona Model' but also poached two of their executives and installed them in the same roles as before.

Ferran Soriano was made the chief executive officer while Txiki Begiristain was appointed as the director of football. Five other non-executive directors have also been added but the two appointments from Barcelona have proven to be masterstrokes. In fact, the pursuit of Pep Guardiola ended up being a successful one due to the combined efforts of Begiristain and Soriano. The executives will eventually go but the structure is in place to propel the club towards a prosperous future.

#3 The Youth Academy

Foden in action against Feyenoord

When the news emerged that then Manchester United player Robin van Persie and former United legend Phil Neville had sent their children to Manchester City's Etihad Campus for learning the ropes of the game, it came as a startling piece of news.

United are the gold standard as far as youth academies in England is concerned but over the past few years, Manchester City's youth academy has upstaged them somewhat and it seems that it will continue to do so in the years to come. For instance, United's Under 15s were beaten 9-0 on two occasions by City's Under 15s in 2016 and 2017.

The reasons behind this surge are quite simple. First of all, City have invested heavily in the state of the art academy and in addition to that, there are incentives that are not offered by any other youth academy in England. Scholars are enrolled at some of the leading schools in the city and even if they do not eventually make the cut, the club takes care of the expenses till they finish their school education.

Some of the leading players from the academy include Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho and Brahim Diaz among others. However, it remains to be seen how City make use of these talented youngsters. It can either turn into their own La Masia, along the lines of Barcelona's legendary academy or a factory with the help of which the club can finance further hyper-investment in their first team squad. Whatever they choose, the youth academy is going to be one of Manchester City's strongest suits in the years to come.

#2 Network of clubs

The Etihad Stadium

The UEFA Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations have proven to be a thorn in the flesh for Manchester City and considering the sort of investment that is needed to ensure that the club continues to be competitive in the near future, City will have to keep outspending their rivals for the foreseeable future.

Enter City Football Group, the parent company that owns not only Manchester City but also New York City FC in the MLS, Melbourne City FC in the A-League, Yokohama S Marinos in the J1 League in Japan, Club Atletico Torque in the Uruguayan second division and lastly, the La Liga club Girona FC.

This network of clubs could allow Manchester City and their owners to circumvent the FFP rules for many years to come, as legally nothing can stop players from any of these clubs to play for the other (except for Girona and City, in which case it would have to be a loan deal). For instance, David Villa played for New York City FC and the swiftly switched over to Melbourne City FC when the A-League was underway.

City had already shown what it could do with such an arrangement when New York City FC bought Frank Lampard from Chelsea and then loaned him back to Manchester City. Theoretically, the club can do this for far bigger deals. If FFP rules prohibit them from completing a £200 million deal, they can structure a deal with one of the other clubs and then loan the player back to City.

That way, the club can continue to spend heavily without worrying about falling foul of the mandarins at UEFA. This is yet another instance of City creating a structure that is probably going to help the club dominate English football for years to come.

#1 The Owners' will

The power behind City's surge

There are other rich owners, like Arsenal's Stan Kroenke for instance, who has stated on record that, “If you want to win championships then you would never get involved.” In fact, Manchester United, one of the world's richest clubs, do not sanction deals that they feel might be over their valuation.

However, the same hasn't been the case with Manchester City and over the years, as they have hardly ever had to let go of one of their targets due to a refusal to meet the financial demands of the selling club. That boils down to the immense wealth of the club's owners and their willingness to back the club completely when it comes to player acquisitions.

Other clubs will obviously judge whether a club backed by the immense riches of a nation state is ethical or not, but the reality remains that Manchester City's riches will almost always see them competing for the best players and get their way more often than not, through the sheer power of their seemingly bottomless pockets.

In addition to that, one can expect that spending will eventually be scaled back a lot once the club's finances and revenues are on an equal footing with the rest of the footballing elite. A self-sustaining future might be on the horizon a decade into the future and once that happens, the other factors cited here will make Manchester City a club that will be unmatched in England. Their period of dominance may just have begun already.