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

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]

Kits

Supplier: Le Coq Sportif / Sponsor: Thomas Cook

Kit information

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

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

Pre-season

Thomas Cook Trophy

Competitive games

Premier League

Position in final standings

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

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

Individual match reports

UEFA Cup

Qualifying phase

First qualifying round

Second qualifying round

First round

Group phase

Final phase

Round of 32

Round of 16

Quarter-final

League Cup

Second round

FA Cup

Third round

Playing statistics

Starting XI

Last updated: 21 August 2011
Source: Appearance and Starting Formations.
Only competitive matches.
Using the most used Starting Formation.
Sorted by position on pitch (from back right to front left).

Appearances (Apps.) numbers are for appearances in competitive games only
Apps. numbers denote: "Total no. of games played (No. of games played as a substitute)"
Red card numbers denote: "No. of second yellow cards / No. of straight red cards"
Yellow and red cards for the 2 domestic cups only accounted for in the TOTALS columns
*** indicates 3-match ban for violent conduct towards Rory Delap in PL game against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium on 31 January 2009

No.	Pos.	Player	Premier League				UEFA Cup				FA Cup		League Cup		TOTALS All Competitions
			Apps.				Apps.				Apps.		Apps.		Apps.
1	GK	Joe Hart	230(0)				090(0)				010(0)				330(0)
2	DF	Micah Richards	340(1)	1	2		150(0)		3		010(0)				500(1)	1	5
3	DF	Michael Ball	080(0)				040(1)				010(0)		010(0)		140(1)
4	DF	Nedum Onuoha	230(3)	1	1		070(0)	1							300(3)	2	1
Sold	DF	Vedran Ćorluka	030(0)	1			030(0)		1						060(0)	1	1
5	DF	Pablo Zabaleta	290(3)	1	3	-/1	110(0)		2		010(0)		010(0)		420(3)	1	5	-/1
6	MF	Michael Johnson	030(0)				040(0)		1				010(0)		080(0)		1
7	MF	Stephen Ireland	350(1)	9	8		140(1)	3	1				010(0)	1	500(2)	13	9
8	MF	Shaun Wright-Phillips	270(0)	5	3		090(0)	3	1		010(0)				370(0)	8	4	***
9	FW	Valeri Bojinov	080(6)	1	1		010(1)								090(7)	1	1
10	FW	Robinho	310(1)	14	3		100(0)	1	1						410(1)	15	4
11	MF	Elano	280(7)	6	3		120(3)	2	3		010(0)		010(1)		42 (11)	8	6
12	FW	Darius Vassell	080(2)		1		060(0)	1			010(1)				150(3)	1	1
14	FW	Jô	090(3)	1			070(1)	2			010(1)		010(0)		180(5)	3
15	DF	Javier Garrido	130(2)	1	1		080(2)		1						210(4)	1	2
16	GK	Kasper Schmeichel	010(1)				010(0)						010(0)		030(1)
17	MF	Martin Petrov	090(5)				050(1)	2							140(6)	2
19	MF	Gelson Fernandes	17 (14)	1	3	1/-	080(4)		1		010(0)		010(0)	1	27 (18)	2	4	1/-
20	FW	Felipe Caicedo	170(7)	5	2		060(3)	3			010(0)		010(1)		25 (11)	8	2
21	MF	Dietmar Hamann	090(4)				080(5)	1	1		010(1)				18 (10)	1	1
22	DF	Richard Dunne (c)	310(0)	1	4	-/2	140(0)		1	1/-	010(0)		010(0)		470(0)	1	6	1/2
24	FW	Ched Evans	16 (13)	1	1		080(6)						010(1)		25 (20)	1	1
25	DF	Wayne Bridge	160(0)				060(0)								220(0)
26	DF	Tal Ben Haim	090(1)		2		050(0)		3				010(0)		150(1)		5
27	FW	Benjani	080(1)	1			040(3)	2							120(4)	3
28	FW	Daniel Sturridge	160(13)	4			080(3)				010(0)		010(0)		26 (16)	4
29	MF	Kelvin Etuhu	040(2)				030(3)								070(5)
30	DF	Shaleum Logan	010(0)												010(0)
33	MF	Vincent Kompany	340(0)	1	8		090(1)		3		010(0)		010(0)		450(1)	1	11
34	MF	Nigel de Jong	160(0)		3										160(0)		3
36	DF	Gláuber	010(1)												010(1)
37	GK	Shay Given	150(0)				060(0)		1						210(0)		1
39	FW	Craig Bellamy	080(1)	3	1		030(0)	2	2						110(1)	5	3
40	MF	Vladimír Weiss	010(1)												010(1)
TOTALS				58	50	1/3		23	26	1/-				2		83	77	2/3

Information current as of 24 May 2009 (end of season)

Goal scorers

Information current as of 24 May 2009 (end of season)

Awards

Thomas Cook Player of the Month awards

Awarded to the player in each category that receives the most votes in a poll conducted each month on the MCFC OWS

Month	First Team	Reserve Team	Academy
August[5]	Stephen Ireland	Adam Clayton	Andrew Tutte
September[6]	Shaun Wright-Phillips	Clayton McDonald	Alex Tchuimeni-Nimely
October[6]	Robinho	Clayton McDonald	Dedryck Boyata
November[7]	Stephen Ireland	Donal McDermott	Andrew Tutte
December[7]	Vincent Kompany	Paul Marshall	not announced
January[8]	Pablo Zabaleta	Ryan McGivern
February[8]	Craig Bellamy	David Ball
March[9][10]	Nedum Onuoha	Ben Mee	Dedryck Boyata
April[9]	Elano	Vladimír Weiss	Greg Cunningham
May[9]	Nedum Onuoha	Vladimír Weiss	Kieran Trippier

Official Supporters Club awards

Player	Season 2008–09 awards[11]
Stephen Ireland	Player of the Year
Daniel Sturridge	Young Player of the Year

Transfers and loans

Transfers in

Transfers out

Loans in

Loans out

References