Hello and welcome to the official Man City Podcast. I'm your host Rob Pollard, and on this episode we are going to be hearing from the Man City chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak. Khaldoon sits down at the end of every season with Editor in Chief Chris Bailey, and it's one of the interviews I look forward to the most. Chris Bailey doesn't pull any punches with his questions, and Khaldoon never shies from an issue. The chairman speaks with such clarity and passion, I always come away really infused about the season to come. So we thought it'd be a good idea to put the full interview in podcast form. So here it is, the Chairman's interview 2020.
Chairman, thanks for joining us. One of the more complicated interviews that we've done, but I'm sure we'll get through it. I'm sure we'll have as much fun as we normally do. It's great to see you anyway, even from this distance. Can we start with an overview of the season? How do you assess the season on the pitch? Was the Carabao Cup enough of a return for you?
Well, you know Chris, it's been a very long season. We started last August, it's been a year. Over the years we've had many ups and downs and very many challenging seasons, but I think this one is unique in its nature. Starting first with winning the Community Shield, then the number of very important injuries that we've had to deal with. Then you talk about dealing with the UEFA situation, a very challenging situation that the club had to deal with throughout the season. We've had some management changes mid-year which were disruptive. And then we've had COVID, unprecedented in the nature of that challenge, and then the period where we had to stop and then come back and then restart. When I look back in terms of results now, are the results satisfying? The answer is of course not. We always look for finishing the season with success in as many competitions as possible, the Premier League obviously being the primary one, but of course also the Champions League and of course both Cup competitions. Winning the Carabao Cup in addition to the Community Shield that we started with is, I think, very good. Making it to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, okay, but not good enough. And now to the two big ones. First, the Premier League, no doubt second is not what we look for. We always like to win the competition, that is our objective, that is our target every year, and we came short. Credit to the Champions, they are well-deserved Champions, but from our perspective, finishing second and finishing with the number of points between us is not something that will satisfy us and of course will make us hungrier. And in the Champions League, again, our objective is to win that competition. It's very simple, that is what we try to do every year. So I think overall, given everything I've described and given the nature of the season, the challenges across the board, which by the way most teams have faced if not all teams have faced challenges, I think for us it leaves us with some disappointment but also a lot of positives to build on.
Pep in an interview not long ago said, and I think I'm quoting here, 'The chairman isn't happy with me over the results in the Champions League.' One, is that correct? And two, how do you explain not getting past the quarter-finals in four tries?
You know, me and Pep have something very important in common: we both hate losing and don't take it lightly. And I think on this, both of us share the same level of disappointment. We had a great opportunity this year, and the same as the last couple of years. I think when it comes to the Champions League, in a cup competition, it's always challenging because you're playing at these stages, quarter-finals, round of 16, and it boils down to two games. And in this case, it boiled down to one game given the nature of the Champions League this year, and you have to deliver. Unfortunately, this year we missed it. We're equally upset with that result because we knew this was a great opportunity for us to go to the semi-finals and a great opportunity this past season to actually win this competition. And we have to be able to look back at that experience, take the learnings, go back to the drawing board, and make sure we're ready next year to give it another shot and go on to try to win it.
I was going to say, there's no danger the quest to win in Europe becomes something of an all-encompassing quest to the detriment of other competitions? The priorities will lie in the same places this season?
Absolutely, absolutely. I think we've been very consistent on that. The domestic league comes first, that is the foundation for everything. The success in winning the Premier League is what breeds success in every other competition, so that is always going to be the foundation. And we've been, I think, very successful in the domestic Cup competitions. We have not been able yet to crack the Champions League, but we'll crack it. We will crack it, we'll find a way. And I have the highest confidence really in everyone in our club and our ability to learn and continue to improve.
I know you don't like talking about individuals too much, but how much pleasure did the emergence of Phil Foden give you as a regular starter this season?
You know Chris, with Phil it's always special for me because I remember very well back in 2010, I was at the Academy and I was speaking to Brian Marwood back then. I was asking him about the talent, I always like to know how the Academy is doing and how the different age groups are doing and where is the talent and who to look out for. So I remember distinctly this conversation with Brian, and he pointed out a player, he was nine years old back then, from Stockport, Phil Foden. And he pointed it out to me, we had a nice discussion, and then that's it, it stayed in my head. And I remember over the years, whenever I'm in the Academy, I'm always asking the question, 'How's he doing? How's he developing?' Brian had a very clear, almost prophetic view of how Phil was going to evolve and what he was going to become over the years given the talent that he saw. And watching it actually play out over the last almost 10 years is very fulfilling, and certainly I'm very proud of what Phil has accomplished so far. Many coaches have helped him through this journey, Brian of course in the beginning, and Txiki on the football direction side, but most importantly on the coaching side, and now over the last couple of years under the stewardship of Pep, he has really blossomed. It's very promising. I think we have a very special player here, and more importantly, he's got the right mentality. And I think this is what's going to make him, hopefully, what we all expect him to be: a very important player for this club.
Before we leave the football side of it per se, I mean we touched on this before in conversation, and finally last weekend in the wake of the disappointment of the Champions League, it was great to see Kevin De Bruyne become Premier League Player of the Season. It was lost a little bit in the noise of the Lyon game, but how much of a leader for the team has he become, and how pleased were you for Kevin that he got that individual award?
I was very pleased, Chris, very, very pleased because it is so well-deserved. It was a combination of being pleased but also relieved. I was worried because we've seen it in the past unfortunately with some of the City players being overlooked for this very important award, and I was worried that Kevin would be overlooked this year. Because in my view, it was unquestionable. My vote was clear. Obviously it's subjective given who he plays for, but Kevin is the best player in the league this year. He's become an important leader of this group. He is really the future of Manchester City.
I guess leaders in football, as in business, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, don't they? There are some inspired by the way they do, some inspired by what they say. I mean, Kevin's quite a shy and quite a quiet lad, but I guess leads by example. Is that how you see him?
Absolutely. He's what you see on the pitch: the work ethic, the discipline, the hard work, and then the quality. Everything you see on the pitch is Kevin. But at the same time, he's understated. He's a leader, and all the players look up to him and see him as that. So I think we're very lucky to have Kevin.
The transfer window is a bit different this year, and we've already done two pieces of business in Ake and Torres. Has the pandemic caused a rethink on how much business we'll do this summer?
I mean, you have to take that into consideration, and that's part of that sensibility that we have, approach that we have to take. But at the same time, my comment and my position is clear: we don't take a one-year view, we take a three, five, ten-year view. And when you look at what changes or improvements we have to make to the squad, we're going to make them. When it comes to the two acquisitions we've made, Ake and Ferran Torres, we moved quickly. Clearly these were our targets, and when the opportunity came, we were able to come in very quickly and swiftly and do that business. There are additional players that we will be bringing in, and we will stick to the plan within the realities of the market that we live in today.
I mean, that's interesting news for the fans that there'll be more people coming in. But is it a rebuild or is it a recalibration of the squad?
You know, I don't like to use these words. At the end of the day, every year we will see ultimately what the manager needs. The work of the summer doesn't start now, we've been working for months in terms of clearly identifying the areas of weakness, the areas that we need to improve and strengthen, and that's an iterative process.
I know you're not going to tell me any names, but what type of player, well you can if you want, but what type of player in terms of age and profile are we looking for?
Well, listen Chris, if you look at the acquisitions we've made over the last couple of years, there's a consistency in terms of the type of player that we have targeted, the age and quality. So we will continue down that road. And for the first team, in that 20 to 25-year-old category, that's kind of the spot that we like. But at the same time, I always, the reason why I don't like to box myself with this answer, because sometimes opportunities come up that fit within what the manager wants and with what we need for the squad that might be out of that box. So nothing is set in stone. We have clearly a set of targets that are well-defined, but at the same time we're pragmatic enough to take the opportunity if that opportunity comes up.
And this is the bit I think of the interview where the fans are probably looking forward to the most, is the result from the UEFA charge and the CAS appeal. It's obviously the big question, Chairman. The UEFA fine and the subsequent CAS appeal, how do you feel now it's over successfully? And what's your general take on the whole situation now it's over?
Well, you know Chris, we've talked about this last year, and I've always been relaxed about it because I'm confident in obviously what we've done, and I'm confident that in a good process, a fair process, the truth will prevail. But what I was most concerned about was the distraction that this was putting upon all of us and the team specifically. Because at the end of the day, all I really care about is going back to what we do best, which is playing football. That's the focus. It's about playing football, it's about running our business, it's about pushing forward and really having that focused approach on that and not having any distractions. And that's really the most important thing that I'm happy with right now, is we can keep the distraction now behind us and go back to focusing on what we do best.
Even so though, have you been disappointed by the reaction I guess to the verdict from certain people? I'm not going to name them, I know you're not going to do, but people listening to this interview will make their own minds up. I mean, there's certainly been some whispering going on in some quarters and in others some rather louder criticism. So what's your response to that?
