2008–09 Manchester City F.C. season

Manchester City

2008–09 season
Owner	Abu Dhabi United Group
Chairman	Thaksin Shinawatra until the sale of club on 1 September 2008 Khaldoon Al Mubarak from 1 September 2008
Manager	Mark Hughes
Stadium	City of Manchester Stadium
Premier League	10th
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	Second round
UEFA Cup	Quarter-finals
Top goalscorer	League: Robinho (14) All: Robinho (15)
Highest home attendance	47,331 vs Chelsea 13 September 2008
Lowest home attendance	7,334 vs EB Streymur 31 July 2008
Average home league attendance	42,900 approx.
Home colours Away colours Third colours
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

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 its original 22 founding member clubs. Overall, it was the team's 117th season playing in a division of English football, the majority of which have been spent in the top-flight.

Changes in ownership[edit]

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 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.^[1]

The last-minute takeover of the club on transfer "deadline-day" was further capped, mere minutes before the summer transfer window closed, with the news that the club had beaten Chelsea to the signing of Robinho from Real Madrid for a British record transfer fee of £32.5 million.^[2]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (November 2010)

Kits[edit]

Supplier: Le Coq Sportif / Sponsor: Thomas Cook

Kit information[edit]

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.^[3] A striking new "blaze orange"/navy third kit completed the collection of kits, while the team's main home strip shed the previous season's thin white vertical stripes from the shirts and returned 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 two-tone green goalkeeper strip was also replaced with two new strips for the goalkeepers. The main goalkeeper 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 the second mint-green strip, with the shirts similarly trimmed in black, was introduced to supplement it on both home and away fixtures.

Historical league performance[edit]

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).

Friendly games[edit]

Pre-season[edit]

Thomas Cook Trophy[edit]

Competitive games[edit]

Premier League[edit]

Position in final standings[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
8	Tottenham Hotspur	38	14	9	15	45	45	0	51
9	West Ham United	38	14	9	15	42	45	−3	51
10	Manchester City	38	15	5	18	58	50	+8	50
11	Wigan Athletic	38	12	9	17	34	45	−11	45
12	Stoke City	38	12	9	17	38	55	−17	45

Results summary[edit]

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
38	15	5	18	58	50	+8	50	13	0	6	40	18	+22	2	5	12	18	32	−14

Results by round[edit]

Individual match reports[edit]

UEFA Cup[edit]

Qualifying phase[edit]

First qualifying round[edit]

Second qualifying round[edit]

First round[edit]

Group phase[edit]

Final phase[edit]

Round of 32[edit]

Round of 16[edit]

Quarter-final[edit]

League Cup[edit]

Second round[edit]