Manchester City must win titles says chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak
Thursday 15 October 2015 11:18, UK
Manchester City must match their commercial accomplishments with success on the pitch, manager Manuel Pellegrini has been warned.
Club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said City's failure to win a trophy last season did not satisfy the ambitions of a club which finally posted a profit for the first time since Abu Dhabi billionaire Sheikh Mansour purchased the team seven years ago.
Making his annual report on Wednesday, Khaldoon said: "The desire for silverware has always been a critical element of Sheikh Mansour's strategy for the reinvigoration of Manchester City both on and off the pitch.
"It's a strategy predicated on long-term sustainability and the ongoing development of momentum year-after-year.
"The fact that we consider last season to be below par for Manchester City is a testament to how far we have come in the last seven years. This is a level of ambition that we should not shirk or shy away from.
It is right to have high expectations for this great club and the talented group of players chosen to represent it.
"No team can expect to win every year, but competing to win in England's domestic competitions and improving our performance in the UEFA Champions League are entirely reasonable goals for Manchester City.
"It is right to have high expectations for this great club and the talented group of players chosen to represent it.
"To put things in their simplest terms, we are now a profitable business with no debt and no outstanding restrictions."
Chief executive Ferran Soriano agreed that City expected to return to the winners' circle sooner rather than later.
"We are doing a lot of things right but they are not enough," he said.
"We will never be happy about a season without trophies the priority and the focus of our work is to convert more of these opportunities into titles in the years ahead."
City, who won the Premier League title in 2012 and 2014, finished runners-up to Chelsea in May of this year, having also lifted the FA Cup and League Cup once each during the past five seasons.
