Glory Days for the Waifs and the Strays

On 12 May 2019, Manchester City became the first team to retain the Premier League title for a decade. Twenty years earlier, the same club was slogging its way out of Division Two, having sunk ignominiously to the third tier, its glory days well behind it.

Ordinarily, the tale of a sleeping giant awaking to stomp over the competition would be celebrated far beyond the core fan base. But City's success is tied inextricably to its takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008, an event that altered the club's horizons beyond any plausible recognition. The injection of billions of pounds into the club amid accusations that Abu Dhabi is 'sportswashing' its reputation tarnished City's treble-winning season in 2022/23, as have serious charges of financial impropriety from the Premier League.

Glory Days for the Waifs and Strays charts this route from noble rags to uncomfortable riches and unpacks what it means when a team's lowest lows and highest highs occur improbably within a generation. It amounts to a story like no other in modern football: the distance travelled from there to here, the greats on either side of the white line and the uniquely divisive means by which this has been achieved.

Manchester City have defined an era in English football. This is the tale of how that happened and why it matters.

Dom Farrell is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK, having previously worked for the Press Association, Stats Perform and Reach plc. Over the course of more than a decade and a half as a sports journalist, Dom has covered numerous elite-level events, from domestic, European and international football finals to major boxing world title fights. Dom's passion for football began when his parents bought him a Manchester City season ticket in 1993, granting him a front-row seat for the bad old days. When work commitments allow, he still attends matches at the Etihad Stadium with his family as a fan.