Glory Days for the Waifs and the Strays

On 12 May 2019, Manchester City became the first team toretain the Premier League title for a decade.

Twenty years earlier, the same club was slogging its wayfortuitously out of Division Two, having sunk ignominiously to the third tier,its glory days well behind it.

Ordinarily, the tale of a sleeping giant awaking to stompgleefully over the competition would be celebrated far beyond the core fanbase.But City's success is tied inextricably to its takeover by the Abu Dhabi UnitedGroup in September 2008, an event that altered the club's horizons beyond anyplausible recognition. The injection of billions of pounds into the club andaccusations that Abu Dhabi is 'sports washing' its reputation have tarnishedCity's domestic treble-winning season in 2023-24, as have serious charges offinancial impropriety from the Premier League.

Glory Days for theWaifs and the Strays charts this route from noble rags to uncomfortableriches and unpacks what it means when a team's lowest lows and highest highsoccur improbably within a generation.

It amounts to a story like no other in modern football. Thedistance travelled from there to here, the iconic human moments along the way,the greats on either side of the white line and the uniquely divisive means bywhich it's been achieved. Manchester City have defined an era in Englishfootball. This is the tale of how that happened and why it matters.