How Manchester City's Abu Dhabi Takeover Reshaped the Premier League — SkimNews
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- Manchester City won 8 Premier League titles in 12 years after the 2008 Abu Dhabi United Group takeover, plus a Champions League and multiple domestic cups, transforming a club that hadn't won a major honor since the 1970s
- Aston Villa were 'outsiders ready to break in' to the top four in 2008 under Martin O'Neill with a young squad featuring Gareth Barry, Ashley Young and James Milner, but lost Barry in 2009 and Milner in 2010 to City before eventually dropping to the Championship
- Everton were similarly positioned as potential Champions League qualifiers before the takeover; David Moyes later compared facing City's spending to 'going into a gunfight with a knife,' and the club was docked 6 points for PSR breaches during the subsequent Moshiri spending era
- Arsenal sold Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy to City for a combined £72 million while funding the Emirates Stadium move, with Arsene Wenger calling City's spending 'financial doping'
- Before the takeover, the 'Big Four' of Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal had locked down positions 1-4 in all but one campaign since Chelsea's 2003 Russian takeover, with no other club breaking through
Why it matters: The clubs arguing loudest for strict financial rules against City now — Everton (6-point deduction) and Aston Villa (repeated spending-limit clashes under Nassef Sawiris) — are precisely those whose Champions League ambitions were first crushed by the price floor the Abu Dhabi takeover introduced. Randy Lerner spent over £300 million at Villa between 2006-2016 without breaking through, roughly half of what City was found to have spent topping up declared sponsor income alone.
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