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Saturday, 22 November, 2008 01:31 pm
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| Make Way, The Citizens Are Coming Through |
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| Written by Adeleke Afolayan | ||||||
| Friday, 05 September 2008 | ||||||
     The frontman of the ADUG, Al-Fahim has a PhD in Real Estate investment and a one trillion MBA in Finance and Real Estate; and is CEO of Hydra Properties, a United Arab Emirates real estate company he founded in 2005. He has been awarded the Visionary Award as the Middle East 2007 CEO Awards. Al-Fahim is building a new football academy in Abu Dhabi with Italian football giants Internazionale. If you are reluctant to believe what Manchester City is about turning to, here goes. Hours after completing the takeover of the Citizens from controversial former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Sinawatra, the ADUG through its "face" Al-Fahim completed the hijack of Brazilian striker Robinho from Real Madrid for a club record fee of £32m. The move was a hijack as Robinho was previously on his way to Stamford Bridge and Chelsea; as even his hurriedly arranged press conference hours before Real Madrid's loss to Deportivo in the first game of the La Liga season showed, but when City came calling, they beat off the Blues' offer of £28m. That certainly did not go down well with Chelsea boss Luis Felipe Scolari, who blasted the club hierarchy (note, not Mr. Abramovic) for allowing a club like City to beat them to his man by "a mere £4m". However, from the utterances of Al-Fahim soon after Robinho's capture, "a mere £4m" would be the least the new Rithcie Rich of the English Premier League would be beating off opponents for the best football legs on the planet. The Arab Sheikh has gone on to mention Fernando Torres of Liverpool, Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas and city rival Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo as some of the names he plans to bring to the Blue side of Manchester...Dimitar Berbatov could have joined the new reign but "it was not about the money...Manchester United is the biggest club in the world". Al-Fahim may have "lost" Berbatov but he will not stop there. According to him, what he wants is for City to challenge for the title, not next season but this season and then go on to win the Champions League next season. The Champions League is not a priority this season simply because the club is in the UEFA Cup. Now that brings up something ironic. City was seconds away from an humiliating exit from the UEFA Cup when an own goal against FC Midtjylland in Denmark presented a life line which was duly utilised in the penalty shootouts that ensued. From nearly also-rans, the Citizens have probably become title contenders in the UEFA Cup and a new era in Europe begins away at Omonia Nicosia of Cyprus. Before then though, a bigger irony comes in the Premier League when Chelsea come visiting the City Stadium on the weekend of September 13 with Chelsea leading the table with seven points and City one point behind in third place. However, does Al-Fahim and the ADUG's investment money; reportedly 10 times more than the worth of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovic, make Manchester City a contender for this season's Premier League title or does it hurt football in general as some quarters described the spending of Abramovic when he first arrived? All that would be reviewed in the second part of this write-up.  Quote this article on your site | Views: 243 | Print | E-mail
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