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

#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.