On 12 May 2019, Manchester City became the first team to retain the Premier League title for a decade. Twenty years earlier, the same club was slogging its way 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 stomp over the competition would be celebrated far beyond the core fan base. But City’s success is tied inextricably to its takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008, an event that altered the club’s horizons beyond any plausible recognition. The injection of billions of pounds into the club amid accusations that Abu Dhabi is ‘sportswashing’ its reputation tarnished City’s treble-winning season in 2022/23, as have serious charges of financial impropriety from the Premier League.
Glory Days for the Waifs and Strays charts this route from noble rags to uncomfortable riches and unpacks what it means when a team’s lowest lows and highest highs occur improbably within a generation. It amounts to a story like no other in modern football: the distance travelled from there to here, the greats on either side of the white line and the uniquely divisive means by which this has been achieved.
Manchester City have defined an era in English football. This is the tale of how that happened and why it matters.
Publisher : Biteback Publishing
Publication date : 21 Oct. 2025
Language : English
Print length : 400 pages
ISBN-10 : 1785909681
ISBN-13 : 978-1785909689
Item weight : 524 g
Dimensions : 23.4 x 15.6 x 3 cm
Best Sellers Rank: 19,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) 8 in Manchester City 97 in Football Biographies (Books)
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