This will be one long, immersive piece expanding the content you gave me about Sheikh Mansour’s embarrassment, Manchester City’s Club World Cup exit, the £50m lost, the politics with Saudi Arabia, and McAtee leaving.
Manchester City are one of the richest and most powerful football clubs in the world. Everyone knows them as a team that wins trophies, breaks records, and signs some of the best players on the planet. But even the biggest clubs can have bad days. And recently they had a very bad day that has caused embarrassment at the very top, all the way to their owner Sheikh Mansour in Abu Dhabi.
This happened at the FIFA Club World Cup, a tournament that is supposed to show which club is the best in the world. City went into it full of confidence. After all, they are European champions. They won the treble. They have Pep Guardiola, the man many people call the greatest coach of his generation. They have Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, and so many other stars. Everyone expected them to at least reach the final, maybe even win it easily. But football is not that simple.
In the round of 16, they faced Al Hilal, a team from Saudi Arabia. On paper, Manchester City should have been much stronger. They have the bigger budget, the more famous players, the better facilities. But matches aren’t played on paper. On the pitch, it was a battle. And after extra time, it was Al Hilal who won 4-3, knocking City out of the competition much earlier than anyone expected.
That defeat didn’t just hurt City’s pride. It also cost them a huge amount of money. By going out so early, they only made around £44m from the tournament. If they had gone on to win it, they could have earned over £100m. That’s a difference of more than £50m in potential revenue lost. And even though City are rich, £50m is not pocket change. That kind of money can buy a very good player, pay salaries for months, or invest in facilities and staff.
Keith Wyness, who used to be CEO at Everton and now runs a consultancy advising top football clubs, spoke about this situation in an interview. He said Sheikh Mansour would be embarrassed by this result. And he didn’t just mean because of the money. There’s a deeper reason.
You see, Manchester City are owned by Abu Dhabi, while Al Hilal are from Saudi Arabia. These two places have a complex relationship. There’s a lot of competition and rivalry between them, both in business and in politics. For Abu Dhabi to see their pride and joy—their big football investment, Manchester City—lose to a Saudi team is humiliating. It’s not just about football bragging rights. It’s about national prestige. When City lost, Saudi fans and media celebrated loudly. They saw it as proof that Saudi football is rising and can challenge anyone. And for Sheikh Mansour and the Abu Dhabi leadership, that’s a bitter pill to swallow.
Wyness put it this way: He said Mansour would be very unhappy that a Saudi club beat City, and that in the Middle East this kind of result has extra meaning. You can bet that Al Hilal and their supporters will be talking about it for a long time. It’s a big win for them, not just on the field but in the headlines and in the politics of football.
For Pep Guardiola, the loss is also a personal blow. He is known as a perfectionist. He hates losing. He prepares his teams in detail. He wins trophies everywhere he goes. This tournament was supposed to be another trophy to add to City’s collection. Instead, it turned into a lesson. Wyness said he had been talking about Guardiola going through a kind of rejuvenation—a second coming—where he’d refresh his ideas and lead City to more glory. But this result suggests there’s still work to do.
Some people might say “Well, City still made £44m, that’s not so bad.” And Wyness acknowledged that they’ll be okay financially. But the point is, they could have made double that. And for a club that always wants to win, missing out on that chance is painful.
There’s also the sporting side of it. City wanted to show they were the best in the world. That’s the whole point of the Club World Cup. They wanted to prove that their style of football, their expensive squad, their famous coach, could beat anyone, anywhere. Losing to Al Hilal messes with that image. It makes them look vulnerable. It gives confidence to their rivals.
And this loss might have consequences beyond just the money and pride. Wyness said that City will have to look at themselves and learn. Guardiola will need to think about what went wrong. Did he rotate the squad too much? Did he underestimate Al Hilal? Did the players lose focus? And there’s another factor: rest. Because they went out early, City now have more time to recover before the Premier League and Champions League games. That could be a silver lining. They can regroup, rest their stars, train more carefully, and hit the second half of the season with extra energy.
But that doesn’t erase the embarrassment. In Abu Dhabi, where the owners take immense pride in City’s success, losing to a Saudi club is not something they’ll just forget. It will be talked about in boardrooms. It will be analyzed. And you can be sure there will be pressure on Guardiola and the players to make up for it by winning other trophies.
While all this drama was unfolding, there was other news coming out of Manchester City. James McAtee, one of their promising young talents, is set to leave the club permanently. He’s 22 now, and for years he’s been seen as one of the most gifted players from City’s academy. But breaking into City’s first team is incredibly difficult. When you’re competing with Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, and others, you don’t get many chances.
This summer, City have signed Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki, pushing McAtee even further down the pecking order. He knows that staying at City probably means spending most of his time on the bench or playing with the reserves. That’s not what he wants. He’s at the age where he needs to play regularly. He needs to test himself in real matches every week.
So he’s looking to leave. Newcastle and Nottingham Forest are both interested. They want to sign him and give him the chance to be a first-team player. For City, it’s a bit of a loss because they’ve invested time and resources in developing him. But it’s also part of the cycle. Not every academy player can make it to the top of the first team. Selling players like McAtee can also bring in money that City can reinvest in new talent.
For McAtee himself, it’s probably the right move. He wants to grow, to prove himself, to show everyone what he can do. And sometimes you have to leave home to do that. It’s never easy leaving the club where you grew up. But it can be the best thing for your career. Look at players like Jadon Sancho, who left City to go to Dortmund and became a star.
These two stories—City’s Club World Cup exit and McAtee’s departure—show different sides of what life is like at a super-club. On one hand, you have the massive pressure to win every trophy, to represent your owners on the world stage, to maintain your reputation. On the other hand, you have the challenge of managing all the talent in your squad, keeping everyone happy, and making sure young players have a path to grow.
For the fans, the Club World Cup loss is disappointing. They wanted to see their team beat the best from other continents, lift another trophy, and prove City really are the kings of world football. Instead they got a shock. Al Hilal played bravely. They took their chances. And they sent City home early.
For Sheikh Mansour, it’s more than just a football loss. It’s a reminder that no matter how much money you spend, football always has surprises. It’s also a geopolitical embarrassment. In the Middle East, where football is now a huge part of national pride and global branding, losing to a Saudi team is a big deal. You can be sure there will be discussions about what went wrong and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Meanwhile, the Premier League season doesn’t stop. City still have to chase Liverpool, who won the title last year. They need to fight in the Champions League, where every year the expectations grow. And they need to deal with the pressure of being the team everyone wants to beat. Guardiola will need to rally his players. He will need to fix the mistakes exposed in that Al Hilal match.
And for the owners, the message is clear: winning is everything. Prestige, reputation, revenue—it all depends on lifting trophies. Losing to a Saudi club might just be the wake-up call City needed. It shows there’s no room for complacency. Even the richest club with the best coach can lose if they’re not fully focused.
For McAtee, the journey is personal. He needs to think about his own career, not just City’s success. Finding a club where he can play, grow, and maybe even become a star is the goal. And for City’s recruitment team, it’s about finding the next McAtee, the next Phil Foden, the next big thing who can help keep the team at the top.
In the end, this summer is a turning point for Manchester City in many ways. The Club World Cup loss is a setback, a moment of humility. McAtee leaving is a reminder of the human side of football, the dreams of young players who want their chance. And for Sheikh Mansour and the City board, it’s a moment to take stock, regroup, and plan the next move.
Football is always about the next game, the next season, the next signing. City have the money and the brains to bounce back. But they’ll need to work hard to turn embarrassment into triumph, to show everyone that one bad result doesn’t change who they are. And you can bet they’ll be even more determined to do just that.
