Man City’s petrostate paid-for success tiringly predictable

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This article was published 17/05/2024 (868 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For a title race that’s come down to the final day of the Premier League season, very little tension surrounds a Sunday slate of matches that will end with one of Arsenal and Manchester City lifting the trophy.

No doubt the Gunners will do their bit by beating an Everton outfit that can finish no higher than 15th and no lower than 16th. Avoiding relegation was always the Toffees’ top priority, and their players will likely be thinking more about their night out in London than the 90 minutes of football preceding the summer break.

It almost certainly won’t matter.

Barring a collapse more astonishing than the prospect of their oil-rich owners pleading guilty to the hundred-odd charges of financial doping they’re alleged to have committed, City will throttle West Ham at Etihad Stadium and celebrate a fourth successive championship in front of their fans.

No club in English football history has won four titles in a row. Although, to riff off a comment made by Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, City have to claim multiple pieces of silverware to equal the accomplishment of a rival team hoisting one.

Incidentally, he was speaking in the first week of March, when the Reds were still very much a part of a Premier League run-in that promised a photo finish. It might even have been the perfect send-off for departing manager Jurgen Klopp. Only, his side won just three of their next eight games and consigned themselves to third place by mid-April.

It was right around then that Arsenal, atop the table and in control of their destiny, spun out in a big, big way, losing 2-0 at home to Aston Villa. So what if they followed the defeat by winning every match between then and this weekend. Not only had City blown out Luton the day before, but they, too, would hit the gas and take every point available.

And they’d do it by outscoring their opponents by a combined 17-1. At the most crucial stretch of the schedule. When the tension was supposed to be mounting.

Yes, these titles will eventually be secured or conceded in the courtroom some years down the road. Even so, a number of City’s key contributors are not the mega-million signings so common among all of Europe’s big clubs. They might even be the only elements remotely impressive about their team’s inevitable triumphs.

Take Phil Foden for example.

The all-action playmaker has tallied 25 goals and 10 assists in all competitions this term and was recently voted Footballer of the Year. Along with Jude Bellingham, the 23-year-old is one of the young superstars England will be counting on when they open Euro 2024 against Serbia next month.

He also joined Manchester City as a child and can be considered the club’s best ever homegrown talent if the legendary Colin Bell isn’t.

In other words, Foden arrived in the team’s starting XI for a transfer fee of £0. As did Stefan Ortega, who will once again tend the net against the Hammers on Sunday (all matches 10 a.m., FuboTV.)

Ortega, 31, joined City on a free transfer in 2022 after playing a starring, if underappreciated, role for Arminia Bielefeld, his hometown team and the city’s second-most famous institution after Dr. Oetker. On Tuesday, he replaced the injured Ederson in the 69th minute at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and made a number of vital stops — most notably on Spurs captain Son Hueng-min — to safeguard a lead that turned a likely fourth title into a near certainty.

Never capped for Germany at any level, Ortega has also started every FA Cup match during his time in England and will once again face down Manchester United in next weekend’s Wembley final.

At the opposite end of the pitch, World Cup-winning attacker Julian Alvarez has helped out with 19 goals and 11 assists so far this season. He also scored twice in City’s 4-0 win over Fluminense in the FIFA Club World Cup final back in December. His transfer fee – £14 million. About the same amount paid for Switzerland defender Manuel Akanji, who started last year’s Champions League final.

Of course, none of these players — including Foden – would have developed to their current levels, or been given the chance to play alongside high-priced, world-class teammates, were it not for manager Pep Guardiola, director of football Txiki Begiristain and CEO Ferran Soriano.

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Those figures, perhaps the best in the business, would never have come to Manchester City were it not for the resources, above board or otherwise, made available by the sovereign wealth fund of a petrostate.

In the end, and as the Premier League campaign draws to a close, two things are concurrently true: City have done some extraordinary business and continue to perform standard-setting player development; they also operate at the pleasure of owners whose interest will last about as long as the oil comes out of the ground.

It all makes for some spectacular football, as well as some tiringly predictable title races.

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