User talk:Mancini's Sandbox/2008–09

The 2008–09 season was Manchester City Football Club's seventh consecutive season playing in the Premier League, the top division of English football, and its twelfth season since the Premier League was first created with Manchester City as one of the its original 22 founding member clubs. Overall, it was the team's 117th season playing in a division of English football, most of which have been spent in the top flight.

Season review
The club started the season under the private ownership of UK Sports Investments Limited (UKSIL), a company controlled by former Thailand prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, but it was announced on the morning of Monday 1 September 2008 (the last day of the summer transfer window) that Abu Dhabi-based Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited (ADUG) had completed a takeover of Manchester City in a deal worth a reported £200 million. This transaction made HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan the new owner of the club, although initially he kept a very low profile and Dr. Sulaiman Al-Fahim, who was the board member of ADUG that had presided over the signing of the deal at the Emirates Palace Hotel, was widely believed to be the new owner and potential chairman of the club. However, before the takeover was finally completed, wealthy backer Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan became more prominent and it was eventually made clear that Al-Fahim would not be joining the board at Manchester City, with Khaldoon Al Mubarak being appointed as the club's new chairman.

The last-minute takeover of the club on transfer "deadline-day" was then further capped, only minutes before the summer transfer window closed, with the news that the club had pipped Chelsea to the signing of Robinho from Real Madrid for a British record transfer fee of £32.5 million.

Team kit
For this season the shirt sponsor for all of the club's kits continued to be the previous season's sponsor, Thomas Cook, while the team kits were produced by the previous season's supplier, Le Coq Sportif. The home and away kits were unveiled by the club on 27 June 2008, with the new away kit representing a more modern rendition of the club's highly popular red and black striped shirts and black shorts that had first been introduced as a club kit by Malcolm Allison back in 1968 in imitation of A.C. Milan's classic colors. A striking new bright orange and dark blue kit was also introduced as the club's third colours, whilst the team's main home strip shed the previous season's thin white vertical stripes from the shirts and returned back to the solid sky blue shirts that are more traditionally associated with the team. As well as all three of the team kits being new this season, the previous season's green goalkeeper strip was also replaced with two new strips for the stoppers. The main GK strip, intended primarily for use with the home team colours, sported an all gold shirt trimmed with black on the shoulders and sides with matching all black shorts and socks, whilst a second all light green strip, with the shirts similarly trimmed in black, was introduced to supplement it on both home and away fixtures.

Kit usage
Numbers denote: "number of home games : number of away or neutral venue games" X indicates potential home fixtures where away and third team kits are usually never used * Note: UEFA Cup Qualifying Round 2nd leg game against EB/Streymur enumerated as a home game despite its not being played at CoMS

Table information current as of the end of the season

Historical league performance
Prior to this season, the history of Manchester City's performance in the English football league hierarchy since the creation of the Premier League in 1992 is summarised by the following timeline chart – which commences with the last season (1991-92) of the old Football League First Division (from which the Premier League was formed).

Points breakdown
Points at home: 39 Points away from home: 11

Points against "Big Four" teams: 4 Points against promoted teams: 10


 * 6 points: Sunderland
 * 4 points: Blackburn Rovers, Hull City, Newcastle United
 * 3 points: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers, Everton, Middlesbrough,
 * Portsmouth, Stoke City, West Brom., West Ham United, Wigan Athletic
 * 1 point: Fulham, Liverpool
 * 0 points: Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur

Biggest &amp; smallest
Biggest home win: 6–0 vs. Portsmouth, 21 September 2008 Biggest home defeats: 1–3 vs. Chelsea, 13 September 2008 & vs. Fulham, 12 April 2009 Biggest away win: 0–3 vs. Sunderland, 31 August 2008 Biggest away defeats: 4–2 vs. Aston Villa, 17 August 2008 2–0 vs. Middlesbrough, 29 October 2008 & vs. Bolton Wanderers, 2 Nov. 2008 & vs. Portsmouth, 14 February 2009 & vs. Arsenal, 4 April 2009 & vs. Manchester United, 10 May 2009 Biggest home attendance: 47,331 vs. Chelsea, 13 September 2008 Smallest home attendance: 36,635 vs. West Ham United, 24 August 2008 Biggest away attendance: 75,464 vs. Manchester United, 10 May 2009 Smallest away attendance: 18,214 vs. Wigan Athletic, 28 September 2008

Playing statistics
Appearances (Apps.) numbers are for appearances in competitive games only ''Apps. numbers denote:'' "Total no. of games played (No. of games played as a substitute)" Red card numbers denote: "No. of second yellow cards / No. of straight red cards" Yellow and red cards for the 2 domestic cups only accounted for in the TOTALS columns *** indicates 3-match ban for violent conduct towards Rory Delap in PL game against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium on 31 Jan. 2009

Information current as of 24 May 2009 (end of season)

League Cup and FA Cup
Information current as of 24 May 2009 (end of season)

Thomas Cook Player of the Month awards
Awarded to the player in each category that receives the most votes in a poll conducted each month on the MCFC OWS

Reserves &amp; Academy

 * [x] =