Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak has described the club’s 3-2 win over Aston Villa, which wrapped up a fourth Premier League title win in five years, as a special memory that he would “never forget.”
Speaking to the club’s official channel, he also described new signing from Borussia Dortmund Erling Haaland as the “best number nine in the world” and revealed that, within hours of the title win, plans for next season were already being discussed behind the scenes.
Here are some of the highlights from the interview.
On the dramatic Premier League finale:
I thought 10 years ago we would never see this again, or I thought I would never live through 90 minutes like that, 90 minutes like 10 years ago. But to be honest, this goes very, very close. This game, Aston Villa, the last 15 minutes but the whole 90 minutes stand out. The way we dealt with the challenge, suffered, but then had the personality, had the attitude to pull this incredible victory. A really, really special memory that I’ll never forget.
On signing Erling Haaland:
We have in Haaland arguably the best number nine in the world at the right age. When you look at the next 10 to 15 years in Haaland, we have invested in that striker for the future. I mean he is a very, very unique, incredibly talented striker that I think the whole world has been looking at and I would say every big team in the world wanted to join and we’re delighted, absolutely delighted that Haaland chose to join Manchester City.
On Manchester City’s academy:
It took a while to get the academy going; these things take years. We invested, we were patient, we kept at it, and now you’ve seen over the last couple of years, the academy is producing the type of talent that we, that Sheikh Mansour, envisioned on day one when he invested into the club which was investing into a team that’s sustainable and that has a very special academy that we are going to enhance and grow and improve and that ultimately we are going to have that combination of talent that we are obviously going to be bringing in from all around the world, but the talent that’s coming in locally from within the academy.
On strengthening the squad:
I can confirm that there will be more players coming in. We are looking to strengthen the team in the areas that we need strengthening. As you know, every season some players leave, and then we have to continuously refresh the team.
On planning for next season:
We won the league on Sunday. Believe me, I think all of us were happy and celebrating Sunday night after the game, but within hours, the conversation between me, Ferran, Pep, Txiki was about next year and how we can keep improving the team and how we are going to approach next year. So our mindset, while celebratory, it immediately flips to the next page, which is the future.