‘Sheikh Mansour very unhappy and embarrassed by £50m Man City blow’
Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour will be “embarrassed” after the club missed out on a potential £50million in revenue.
Pep Guardiola’s side were dumped out of the Club World Cup on Monday (1 July) morning, losing 4-3 to Saudi Arabia side Al Hilal after extra time.
Exiting at the round of 16 stage means that City earn around £44m from the competition.
However, if they had reached the final and gone on to win the tournament, they would’ve picked up a prize fund of over £100m.
Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that the Manchester side’s exit will not be pleasant for owner Mansour.
‘Club World Cup exit a blow for Man City’, says Wyness
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness revealed that he’d thought City had turned a corner, but the defeat to Al Hilal is a “big blow”.
So far this summer, Pep Guardiola has added a number of players to his ranks in an attempt to close the gap to Premier League title winners Liverpool.
Wyness added that Mansour will be disappointed to lose to a Saudi side, due to the politics in the Middle East.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “I’ve been thinking Man City were turning the corner. I’ve been preaching about Pep having a rejuvenation and the second coming of Pep, and yet, Al Hilal have beaten Man City.
“I think it is a blow for City. In terms of finances, they’ll have done okay. I mean they’ve got about £45m out of it so they’re not going to be crying, but certainly I think they thought they would go all the way to the final and could have been looking at double that amount of money
“Money isn’t going to be the major issue. It’s whether Pep has learned anything about the new squad and the way that he’s playing, which of course you’d hope he has done and they now get a chance to get that extra bit of rest and come back, hopefully mentally fresher for the Premier League.
“Overall it may not have been the worst thing for City to make an early exit. What will be embarrassing and hasn’t been really talked about, is the situation in Abu Dhabi where Sheikh Mansour will be very unhappy with a Saudi club beating Man City and the politics down there in the Middle East.
“You’ll see Saudi crowing about that big time, and that will not be a pleasant situation for Sheikh Mansour, who thought they could dominate Al-Hilal. So it’s an interesting subplot.”
McAtee to leave Man City permanently
Meanwhile, Football Insider exclusively revealed that James McAtee is planning to quit Manchester City on a permanent basis.
The recent arrivals of Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki have pushed the 22-year-old down the pecking order at the Etihad Stadium.
Sources say that both Newcastle and Nottingham Forest are keen on the Englishman and are weighing up moves this summer.
McAtee wants to leave City for the good of his development with first-team football a priority.
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