City chairman vows to ‘push the envelope’ post European Super League blip

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak vowed on Wednesday to keep “pushing the envelope” after admitting he regretted the Premier League champions’ involvement in the failed European Super League plan.

City were one of 12 clubs who agreed to join the proposed breakaway competition in April.

But a furious backlash from fans, football authorities and the British government prompted City to pull out within 48 hours of the tournament’s unveiling.

A new set of measures put in place by the Premier League in May includes an owners’ charter which all club owners will be required to sign to avoid any future breakaway plots.

But Al Mubarak insisted City will always look to improve, within the rules.

“We will continue to push the envelope in everything we do. We want to be the best club in the world and to do so we have to disrupt and we will disrupt,” Al Mubarak told City’s website.

“In being disruptive sometimes you make mistakes. We have made mistakes in the past, we will make mistakes in the future, but we will do more right than wrong.

“We will be better, stronger and more successful. What I tell the fans on this is, to get to where we are today we have done a lot of things right and we have made a lot of mistakes. It’s part of growing and improving.

“You need to have the courage to make mistakes and to own up to these mistakes to go forward.

“If you go back 12 years ago where we started, to where we are today, we couldn’t have done the leaps we have made over the years without taking risks and without making mistakes, learning and coming back and constantly improving.”

Al Mubarak conceded it was a mistake to get involved in the Super League, which strained their relationships with fans and the English top-flight.

“Regret, yes, a big learning experience. We go on and we will continue,” he said.

“It was a decision based on a view, which was a mistaken view, this will improve and strengthen our position as a club. What it missed was an important aspect which is how the fans felt about it.

“We will learn from it, I have no doubt. Our fans appreciate the heart and spirit of everything we do.

“Our fans, I hope, will understand when we make such a mistake like this our heart was in the right place. Our assessment was wrong.

“We took a decision, I took a decision on this and I take full responsibility, it was a mistake.”

Meanwhile,  a devastated, Oleksandr Zinchenko laid face down on the pitch of the Estadio do Dragao in Porto, where his club, Manchester City, on Saturday lost the Champions League final to Chelsea.

An hour earlier, the defender had been partly culpable for allowing Chelsea midfielder Kai Havertz to score what would prove to be the winning goal in the all-English final.

It was not only the 24-year-old left-back at fault, but rather the entire City defence, as the club blew their chance to win the Champions League for the first time.

“Impossible to describe my feelings right now,” Zinchenko wrote on Instagram on Monday.

“We tried to give everything on the pitch. During all season we were working hard like animals but it wasn’t enough. We will be back stronger!”

On Saturday, the frustrated Zinchenko could hardly hold back tears while receiving a runners-up medal as City fell agonisingly short of European glory.

But now the occasionally hot-headed but diligent and tireless worker will have to quickly switch his attention to the Ukrainian national team, where he typically plays in midfield.

Agencies