Dubai: Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has thanked former manager Manuel Pellegrini for his achievements at the Abu Dhabi-owned club, despite admitting the 2015/16 campaign had been “disappointing.”
Speaking to Manchester City’s website he said: “Over three years we won our second Premier League title in the history of the club.
“We’ve won two League Cups under Manuel, we’ve gone to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time, we’ve scored – I think – an incredible amount of goals.
“At one point, I think in our first season, we scored 151 goals in total, which was a club record and I think a league record.
“So there’s a lot of achievements that have been made in those three years that I think we all have to recognise.
However, despite the gratitude, Mubarak could not hide his disappointment. “Manuel and the team around him, we should thank them and be grateful for these achievements” he said.
“At the same time, I think we also can’t hide the disappointment, particularly this year.
“All of us came with high expectations for this season, and I think at the end of the day I cannot hide the disappointment of myself, obviously Sheikh Mansour, I know the fans of the club, and I’m sure the entire team.”
"It's extremely disappointing. You'll see me jumping between being objective and the emotional side, which we all have.
"We won the league cup, we went all the way to the semi-finals in the Champions League and it took us unfortunately to the last game of the season to achieve what I would categorise as the bare minimum.
"So a mixed bag and quite disappointing.
When asked where the problem sat, Mubarak pointed to a lack of consistency, saying: "I think our performances particularly in the Premier League have been inconsistent.
"I felt this year we just weren't ourselves. A lot of things weren't clicking; our home performances have been the worst in many years.
"We're used to [what to expect at home] now - we're solid, we tough to beat and we don't lose too many games.
"Then particularly against the top five, or the top eight now with the quality the Premier League is becoming, our record also was quite poor.
"This year, we slightly went off track."
Mubarak was asked what Manchester City could learn from new Premier League champions Leicester City. The chairman was quick to praise the Foxes’ achievement. "I think as a football fan it's an incredible achievement and I'm delighted for Leicester and their fans” he said.
"I take a lot from the passion they've shown. This was a team that from the first game of the season to the last game of the season one thing you know is they gave it all every game.
"Sometimes passion and commitment doesn't win you trophies but it certainly pushes you to limits. What Leicester did this year was while they did not have the resources of many other clubs in the Premier League, they had in abundance passion and commitment and that won them the league."
