Sir Alex Ferguson is not wrong about much, but he was wrong about Manchester City. He laughed in 2008 when he heard the threats of an uprising on the other side of town. He reminded people how Sunderland had been the “Bank of England club” back in the 1950s — and ended up relegated. He dismissed City as “noisy neighbours” and “a small club with a small mentality”. Ferguson was shocked when City, even with Sheikh Mansour’s vast wealth behind them, beat his Manchester United team to the Premier League title in 2012.

Source: The Times May 13, 2019 16:05 UTC