People don’t understand how important domestic dominance is for most clubs, especially the ones that want to establish themselves as elite and/or the top team in the country. That’s the base on which great clubs are built on.

When Man City hired Hughes, his mandate was “get us Top 4 so we can build on that for the next phase”. It wasn’t “win us CL”. That wasn’t even on the table at all. Man City spent a lot of money to establish City as a top 4 team. Tevez, Adebayor, Barry, etc. £132m spent. In 2009!

When Mancini was hired, his mandate was the same - Establish City as a Top 4 team. He came close to it in 09/10 but blew it at home against Spurs & they went to the EL. The City hierarchy were encouraged & splashed the cash again that summer. Yaya, Silva, etc. £165m spent.

Those signings formed the core of the City team for the next 5 years. In 2010/2011, City finally made Top 4, qualified for CL & won the FA Cup (their first Sheikh era trophy). Their first CL adventure was, expectedly, average. Finished 3rd & went to EL. Signs were good.

The goal for 11/12 was to strengthen their position as a Top 4 team and *maybe* challenge for the title. They spent £81m this time. The 6-1 win at Old Trafford was an important moment. It must have been the first time that City really looked at themselves as a Top PL team.

That season, they found themselves top of the table with a good lead. Naturally, they could not hold onto it for long and Man United took over. Yet, somehow, they rallied round to sneak it towards the end. Mancini has to swallow his pride & bring back Tevez after the debacle.

If Mancini hadn’t won the league that season, it would still have been a success. They strengthened their position as a Top 4 team and challenged for the title. Back-to-back CL qualification achieved. That was the goal. But, they won the league. Their 2nd Sheikh-era trophy.

City probably felt they didn’t need to spend too much anymore because they had the core they needed & a solid enough squad. What followed? Disaster. The goal was to mount another title challenge now that they were a Top 4 team, make it out of their CL group & probably win a cup.

Last in their CL group. Straightforward title win for Utd although City did challenge. FA Cup final defeat to Wigan was the height of the humiliation. Mancini had overseen a chaotic season where City were largely inconsistent & stagnated. He won them 3 trophies in his time.

Pellegrini was hired. His mandate was different. Man City were now a Top 4 team, and expected to be title challengers. They had finished 2nd the previous year and 1st the year before that. They had a solid core of stars all in their primes. Agüero, Kompany, Silva, Yaya. Solid.

Pellegrini’s mandate: Challenge for the title, get out of the damn CL group stage, try to win a trophy even though that wasn’t a must. The City hierarchy backed him fully. Even with the peaking core they had, he spent £104m. This was the first time they had spent 100+ in 3 years.

He signed Fernandinho, Negredo, Navas, etc. The season didn’t start well. Man City were struggling away but battering everyone at home. Eventually, they gained some stability towards December. Arsenal were table-toppers entering the new year & Liverpool started looking dangerous.

But Pellegrini delivered on one of his tasks. City made it out of their CL group. It helped that their regular CL participation had helped them get a good CL group. They were now 2nd seed not 3rd & they just had to do the business against CSKA and Plzen. They did.

City faced Barcelona in the next round and that was that. Lost home & away. They won the League Cup and then snuck the League title in the final few weeks when Gerra...Liverpool slipped. They also scored a shit ton of goals that season. Negredo + Agüero + Dzeko were .

So Pellegrini’s first season was an overwhelming success. He delivered on his CL mandate. He delivered on his league mandate. He delivered on his trophy mandate. These were the 4th & 5th trophies of the Sheikh era. Now, it was time to build on this excellent season.

The goal for 14/15 was to strengthen their position as the top team in the country. Basically, establish domestic dominance and get out of the CL groups again. They spent £79m to strengthen the team in certain positions. Signed Mangala, Fernando, Bony, Sagna, Lampard, etc.

Unfortunately, the team did anything but establish domestic dominance in 14/15. Kicked out early in the 2 cups, didn’t even win the Community Shield (losing woefully 3-0 to Arsenal), & never really threatening Chelsea’s stroll to the title. They had regressed.

In the CL, they got out of their group again - thankfully - despite winning only 2 of their 6 games. Again, they met Barcelona and again they lost home and away. The season was not a success & City had again failed to follow up a good season with another. Still no dominance.

In Summer ‘15, the City hierarchy backed Pellegrini strongly in the transfer market. They spent £187m. The likes of Raheem, KDB and Otamendi arrived. City wanted to reclaim the league title while getting past the second round of the CL for once. That was now Pellegrini’s mandate.

Despite all that, City finished 4th with their worst points tally in 8 years - the Robinho season when they were still a midtable side. Somehow, they scraped through to CL qualification despite finishing level on points with 5th-placed Man United. But they won the League Cup.

More importantly, they did very well in CL. For the first time ever, they won their CL group so they avoided teams like Barcelona. They did a professional job against Dynamo Kyiv in the second round & knocked out PSG in the quarter finals. They lost narrowly in the semis to Real.

Despite the largely underwhelming season domestically, the CL performance was a bright spot. They had surpassed expectations and gotten past the second round and then the quarter finals, both the first time ever. Pellegrini delivered on his CL mandate emphatically.

Domestically though, Manchester City were not the top dogs. Their team were largely inconsistent all season. Likes of Silva, Yaya and co looked a shadow of themselves week in week out. Their squad now had 17 players who were 28+ years old, 14 of whom were 30+ years old.

The blame largely lay at the feet of Txiki and some of it was shared by Pellegrini. Pep had been hired so he was coming in. The club needed to reboot. Unfortunately, instead of being ruthless, Pep & Txiki went to sign TWO 30+ year old players for a combined £28m. Braindead move.

They failed to address the obvious issues in the team, with all the team’s fullbacks 30+ years old. For a manager whose tactics rely heavily on competent fullbacks, it was a foolish move by Pep not to address it. Man City spent £192m, 5m more than the previous summer.

City always splash the cash after a bad season, especially with new managers. Pep’s mandate: take City back to where they were in 13/14 with Pellegrini then sustain the domestic dominance, something they had always failed to do. Also have another fine CL campaign. 16/17? Failure.

A horrible season ended with no trophies, no title challenge, the formerly usual 2nd round CL exit and no domestic final. It was a complete disaster. All their signings had also been underwhelming, especially Bravo. Only Sané & Jesus showed anything but not for long.

Everyone at City could see where the problems were and knew they had to be ruthless. The team needed some rebuilding & they spent £285m to do it. From having a team with 14 players who were 30+ and 16 players who were 29+ to having a team with just 6 players over 29.

The mandate was the same. This time around? Success. A wonderful league campaign led to their 3rd league title in the 10-year Sheikh era along with their 3rd League Cup trophy in the same time. They exited CL in the quarters to Liverpool. FA Cup was the only real black spot.

The team broke so many records in the league and hit 100 points, the first time in PL history that a team had ever hit that many. They hadn’t just gone back to the 13/14 team, they had outdone them by a mile - winning the league with 5 games to spare.

Worth noting that the £285m and the £192m figures include signings made by the City Football Group which weren’t for the club. Purely for business. Players like Marlos Moreno, Rulli, Mari, Jack Harrison, Douglas Luiz, Kayode & Ilic.

Like previous times when the team had a fantastic season - 11/12 and 13/14 - the summer activity was minimal. As in 12/13 and 14/15, City spent little. £61m was spent on just Mahrez. The mandate was: Sustain the domestic dominance and do well in Europe. By May, we will review.

The most important thing about City now - which they never really had before - is that teams respect them enough domestically to fear them. Almost all the teams in the league have an L at the back of their minds when about to face City. The only real exception is Liverpool.

That’s the kind of fear that elite teams strike into opponents. It matters.