Manchester City target quadruple next season as chairman plots major transfers

Posted Thursday, June 01, 2017 by Express.co.uk

Manchester City target quadruple next season as chairman plots major transfers
Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak (left) thinks Pep Guardiola can do the Quadruple

MANCHESTER CITY chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak wants Pep Guardiola to pull off an unprecedented "quadruple" of major trophies next season.

Guardiola was left empty-handed after his first season in charge of Manchester City but Khaldoon has piled on the pressure for next season by saying the club's Abu Dhabi owner Sheikh Mansour "drives" him to win every piece of silverware – the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup.

And City have given Guardiola a £300million transfer war chest to build a squad capable of achieving the daunting task in what he has vowed will be a "massive" season for the club.

Guardiola is expected to take his summer spending to £76m by completing the £33m signing of Benfica goalkeeper Ederson Moraes today to follow last week's £43m swoop for Monaco midfielder Bernando Silva.

Khaldoon said: "The dream of doing the Treble, yes. You mentioned the Double, no I want to do the treble, or else let's go for the quadruple! Why not?

"We should have that aspiration. I have it, no doubt. Sheikh Mansour drives me for it every day, but you look at the organisation, you see it in Pep's eyes in everybody within our group.

"Pep wants to win it all and that's what I love most about him because that's how I feel, we want to win it all.

"We might not be able to achieve it, but I can assure you, we're going to try to do that."

He added: "My hunger for winning, it's amazing. When we first won the league, I thought this is it, the greatest feeling you can get in football, you can't beat this feeling.

"When we won it the second time, and you want to win it more, you get hungry, hungrier and hungrier.

"I can tell you today, because I've tasted it, because I've felt it, when I look at the future, it's about successfully executing this plan that we constantly develop every year to try to win, winning it in the right way and achieving history for this club forever, that excites me.

"It excites me trying to win the Champions League and winning the Champions League. That ambition of winning the Champions League and hopefully doing it. That dream excites me very day and knowing we can do it.

"We're on the right track. We have a great manager, we're all working behind him, supporting him. We are going to do our work this summer. The trajectory is right and I'm very optimistic. I want the fans to share my optimism, support us, we can't do it without you.

"Next year is going to be a massive year for us. Expectations are high, ambitions are high. I have a lot of hope that we're going to come back next season very strong and I hope we can deliver to our fans an incredible season next year."

Despite their huge spending in the transfer market, Al Mubarak says Manchester City are no longer reliant on the Sheikh's personal fortune, insisting they now have a sustainable financial strategy.

He added: "Financial stability is still very important. It's very important because this club has to have a sustainable development strategy and that's what we have built over the years and that's what we have today.

"We've posted a profit of approximately £21m. We've hit record years in terms of revenue of about £392m. We are financially very strong.

"We continue to be profitable, we will continue to be profitable and to grow our top and bottom line and that is important.

"It is important because to maintain the legacy of that we have to maintain for this club is financial sustainability and stability.

"And that's been achieved and I would say today more than ever I know we have laid the right foundation and we are on a highway that's going in one direction and that's in the positive direction."