Manchester City supporters flooded on to the pitch at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday following the club’s 5-0 thrashing of Swansea City to celebrate winning their third Premier League title in seven years.

With four games still to play, Manchester City sits 16 points ahead of closest challengers Manchester United. With just 12 points remaining, it’s mathematically impossible for Pep Guardiola’s runaway side to be caught.

As a result, Manchester City ends its tenth season under club owner Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan as the champions of English football.

Prior to winning the 2011/12 title, Manchester City had won the English top flight twice in its 118-year history.

However, since the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates paid £210 million to purchase the club in 2008, Manchester City has been transformed into one of England’s biggest football clubs.

Have Manchester City bought their success?

Buying success is a touchy subject in the football world. Nobody wants to hear that their team’s success is solely down to the riches of one person, but the numbers speak for themselves.

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Mansour’s appointed chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, said in 2008 that the club wasn’t “going to do crazy stuff”, but City’s spending since suggests otherwise.

Manchester City has spent over £1.4 billion to acquire 74 players since the takeover, including a £286 million outlay this season. The average Premier League club has spent approximately £490 million in the same period.

In the last ten seasons, not once has Manchester City’s transfer spending been below the Premier League average. The closest they came was in 2014/15 season, when spending was just 44.8% higher than the average. The club spent £79.5 million, with other clubs spending £54.9 million on average.

In the same decade, the club has been the highest spending club in six seasons. Likewise, they have paid the most on average per player in five of those seasons.

Only Chelsea comes anywhere close to challenging them on those fronts. Chelsea has spent more than any other club in two of those seasons, as well as the most per player in two seasons.

Of course, Manchester City isn’t alone in this. Billionaire Russian businessman Roman Abramovich performed a similar turnaround at Chelsea, using his money to sanction transfers for star players and ultimately buy his way to the top.

Chelsea, when they first took their place among the Premier League’s top competitors in the 2004/05 season, saw transfer spending increase drastically. The club spent £149.8 million that season to secure their first top-flight title in 50 years, followed by another £82.35 the following summer in order to retain their crown.

During those two years, the second highest spending club was Manchester United, who splashed out £83.8 million over the two seasons.

Manchester City wages

The club’s wage bill soared by 52% following Sheikh Mansour’s takeover from £54 million in the 2007/08 season to £83 million in the 2008/09 season.

By the 2012/13 season, that number had climbed to a peak of £233 million per season. That fell below £200 million in the two seasons that followed.

However, recapturing the Premier League title this season came at a cost.

An increase in transfer spending saw the club’s wage bill climb to £244 million in the 2016-17 season. Figures for 2017-18 haven’t yet been released, but given how much has been spent on players in the last 12 months, it has likely increased again.

Total spent on wages: £1.67 billion

Has it been worth it?

Given how rapidly the prizes on offer in football are rising, with television broadcasting rights payments increasing and the value of players rocketing, Mansour’s spending can be viewed as an investment.

Despite spending close to £1.5 billion on players, according to Transfermarkt, these players have largely held their value. The website estimated the Manchester City squad’s value at £222.1 million in 2008/09. The team is now worth £770.1 million, while a further £368 million has been generated from player sales.

However, player wages have added another £1.7 billion to the costs that the club can’t recover by selling players on.

How much has Manchester City made?

2010/11 FA Cup – £3.4 million

2011/12 Premier League – £60.6 million

2013/14 Premier League – £96.6 million

2013/14 League Cup – N/A

2015/16 League Cup – N/A

2017/18 Premier League – £156 million

2017/18 League Cup – £100,000

Total: £316.7 million

Manchester City has made more than £300 million in prize money over the last decade. This total includes the equal share of the multi-billion pound Premier League broadcasting rights deal, which is worth upwards of £80 million a season.

However, adding in the money that the club has made from qualifying for the Champions League competition in each of the last seven seasons, Manchester City’s total earnings come to £662.9 million. As reported on the UEFA website, Manchester City has earned €295.5 million from competing in the Champions League over the last decade.

Having established itself as a dominant force in English football, Manchester City has also started to generate a considerable amount of revenue from sponsorship deals.

According to data provided by sports intelligence company Sportcal, Manchester City has made $474.17 million from sponsorships since Sheikh Mansour purchased the club.

This brings Manchester City’s total earnings to an approximate sum of more than £1 billion.

This covers some of the £3.1 billion that has been invested over the past decade. However, Manchester City will need to achieve a lot more Premier League and Champions League successes before Mansour sees a return on that investment.

Manchester City’s biggest sponsorship deals

Spend per player: £16.51m

Total (2008-2018)

Transfer spend: £1433.4m

Number of players bought: 74

Average spend per player: £19.37m

Number of trophies won: 7

Cost per trophy: £204.77m

Note: Data used has been taken from football statistics website Transfermarkt, the official UEFA website and Sportcal.

How Sheikh Mansour bought Manchester City Premier League success

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