Welcome to Manchester City website!
We'll give you a brief history of the club.
Manchester City was founded in the 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), it became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894. The club's home ground is the City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester, to which it moved in 2003, having played at Maine Road since 1923.
City gained their first honours by winning the Second Division in 1899; with it came promotion to the highest level in English football, the First Division. They went on to claim their first major honour on 23 April 1904, beating Bolton Wanderers 1-0 at Crystal Palace to win the FA Cup; City narrowly missed out on a League and Cup double that season after finishing runners-up in the League but City became the first club in Manchester to win a major honour.
After relegation, the club underwent off-the-field upheaval, with new chairman David Bernstein introducing greater fiscal discipline. Under manager Joe Royle, City were promoted at the first attempt, achieved in dramatic fashion in a play-off against Gillingham. A second successive promotion saw City return to the top division, but this proved to have been a step too far for the recovering club, and in 2001 City were relegated once more. Kevin Keegan replaced Royle as manager in the close season, and achieved an immediate return to the top division as the club won the 2001-02 Division One championship, breaking club records for the number of points gained and goals scored in a season in the process. The 2002-03 season was the last at Maine Road, and included a 3-1 derby victory over rivals Manchester United, ending a run of 13 years without a derby win. City also qualified for European competition for the first time in 25 years. In the 2003 close season, the club moved to the new City of Manchester Stadium. The first four seasons at the stadium all resulted in mid-table finishes. Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson became the club's first manager from overseas when appointed in 2007. After a bright start, performances faded in the second half of the season, and Eriksson was sacked in June 2008. Eriksson was replaced by Mark Hughes two days later on 4 June 2008
By 2008, the club was in a financially precarious position. Thaksin Shinawatra had taken control of the club a year before, but his political travails saw his assets frozen. Then, in August 2008, the club was purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group. The takeover was immediately followed by a flurry of bids for high-profile players; the club broke the British transfer record by signing Brazilian international Robinho from Real Madrid for €32.5 million. There wasn't a huge improvement in performance compared to the previous season despite the influx of money however, with the team finishing tenth, although they did well to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. During the summer of 2009, the club took transfer spending to an unprecedented level, with an outlay of over €100 million on players Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez and Joleon Lescott. In December 2009, Mark Hughes - who had been hired shortly before the change in ownership but was originally retained by the new board - was replaced as manager by Roberto Mancini. City finished the season in fifth position in the Premier League, narrowly missing out on a place in the Champions League, and competed in the UEFA Europa League in season 2010-11.
Strong performances continued to follow in the 2011-2012 season, with the club beginning the following season in commanding form, including beating Tottenham 5-1 at White Hart Lane and humbling Manchester United by a 6-1 scoreline in United's own stadium. Although the strong form waned halfway through the season, and City at one point fell eight points behind their arch rivals with only six games left to play, a slump by United allowed the blue side of Manchester to draw back level with two games to go, setting up a thrilling finale to the season with both teams going into the last day equal on points. Despite City only needing a home win against a team in the relegation zone, they fell a goal behind by the end of normal time, leading some of United's players to finish their game celebrating in the belief that they had won the league. Two goals in injury time - including one scored almost five minutes after normal time had elapsed - resulted in an almost-literal last-minute title victory, City's first in 44 years, and became only the fifth team to win the Premier League since its creation in 1992.
The following season City failed to capitalise on the gains made in the first two full seasons of Mancini's reign. While City rarely seemed likely to drop below second in the table, they posed little title challenge all season. In the Champions League, the club was eliminated at the group stage for a second successive season, while a second FA Cup final in three seasons ended in a 1-0 defeat to relegated Wigan Athletic. Mancini was dismissed two days later, ostensibly as he had failed to reach his targets for the season, but BBC Sports Editor David Bond reported he had been sacked for his poor communication and relationships with players and executives. In his place was appointed the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini. In Pellegrini's first season, City won the League Cup and regained the Premier League title on the last day of the season.
Manchester City won the 2017-18 Premier League title. The club had the highest point total in Premier League history with 100 points and broke numerous Club and English league records in that season. That season, they also won the EFL Cup, and won it the season after, which was the first time in Manchester City history that the club retained a major trophy. Pep Guardiola, former manager of Barcelona and Bayern Munich, is the current manager, who has been in charge since the dismissal of Pellegrini in 2016.