How have City caught up with United over the past 15 years?

In 2011, Manchester United had won 19 league titles and Manchester City had won two, the second of them back in 1968.

15 years later, City have eight Premier League titles to United’s none in that span, and the Man U vs Man City odds for a derby usually make City the shorter price wherever the game is played.

That reversal took more than an owner with money.

The takeover came first, the structure came second

Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group bought City in September 2008, and the first return arrived in 2011 with the FA Cup.

A year later came the club’s first league title in 44 years, settled by Sergio Aguero’s goal deep in stoppage time against QPR on the final day of 2011-12.

The spending bought a squad.

What made it last was what City built around it. Ferran Soriano became chief executive in 2012 and Txiki Begiristain arrived as director of football the same year, both from Barcelona.

Begiristain held that job for 13 years before handing over to Hugo Viana in 2025, and Soriano is still there.

The City Football Academy opened beside the Etihad in December 2014 at a cost of around £200m.

City Football Group, formed in 2013, now owns or holds stakes in more than ten clubs worldwide, giving City a scouting and development network no English rival has matched at that scale.

Guardiola turned money into a method

Pep Guardiola arrived in 2016 and stayed until he left at the end of last season.

In 2017-18 his side became the only English top-flight team to reach 100 points, winning 32 of 38 matches.

The next season brought a domestic treble and 98 points.

In 2022-23 City won the Premier League, the FA Cup and the Champions League, beating Inter in Istanbul to complete the treble.

Between 2020-21 and 2023-24 they won four consecutive titles, which no men’s club in English football had managed before.

Guardiola’s last trophy was the 2026 FA Cup, secured with a 1-0 win over Chelsea, the perfect end to a decade that saw him bring 20 trophies to the club.

United changed managers, not systems

Sir Alex Ferguson retired in May 2013 having just won a 13th league title.

Seven permanent managers have followed him: David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Erik ten Hag, Ruben Amorim and now Michael Carrick, with caretaker spells in between.

Each wanted a different shape.

Players signed for one plan were asked to carry out another and then sold at a loss.

Recruitment answered to whoever held the manager’s job rather than to a settled football department, which is the reverse of how City work.

United’s trophies came in the cups: the FA Cup in 2016 and 2024, the League Cup in 2017 and 2023, and the Europa League in 2017.

Second place in 2017-18 and 2020-21 is the closest they have come to a title.

Debt on one side, investment on the other

The Glazer family bought United in 2005 through a leveraged buyout that loaded debt onto the club, and interest payments have taken hundreds of millions out of it since.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS bought a minority stake in February 2024 and took control of football operations, inheriting a squad and a wage bill assembled by several previous regimes.

United have not been outspent. They have spent well over £1bn on transfers since 2013.

The difference is what came back, and that depends on knowing what a player is being bought to do.

The derby is not a formality

City won 6-1 at Old Trafford in October 2011 and 6-3 at the Etihad in October 2022, with hat-tricks for Erling Haaland and Phil Foden.

United still beat them 2-1 in the 2024 FA Cup final, which is worth remembering for anyone reading a football betting market on this fixture.

A one-off derby rewards form and motivation more than it reflects the league table.

What 15 years actually bought

City’s edge is continuity in the roles that choose players and set the style of play.

United’s difficulty has been the churn in those same roles, which no level of transfer spending has covered for.

Betting is for over-18s only.