City earned their first recognition through winning their first trophy in the Second Division in 1899; this led to their advancement to the highest league in English football that is called the First Division. They then won their first major award on the 23rd April 1904 defeating Bolton Wanderers 1-0 at Crystal Palace to claim the FA Cup; City narrowly missed the chance to complete winning a League as well as a Cup double that year following their finish as runners-up in League however City was the first team in Manchester to be awarded a major distinction. Following their FA Cup triumph, the club was plagued by accusations of financial irregularities that culminated with the expulsion of 17 players in 1906 and the captain Billy Meredith, who subsequently relocated over the town for Manchester United. The fire that erupted at Hyde Road destroyed the main stadium in 1920. Then in 1923, the club relocated to a new purpose-built stadium located at Maine Road in Moss Side.
The 1930s saw Manchester City reached two consecutive FA Cup finals, losing to Everton in 1933 before winning the Cup with a win over Portsmouth the following year in. During the 1934 cup campaign, Manchester City broke the record for the most attendance at home of any team ever in English football history. 84,569 people flocked to Maine Road for a sixth-round FA Cup tie against Stoke City in 1934. This was the record was in place until the year 2016. The club took home their first First Division title for the first time in 1937 but they were then relegated following the season, even though they scored greater goals than other teams in the division. Twenty years after the City team that was influenced by a system of tactical play referred to in Revie Plan Revie Plan reached consecutive FA Cup finals, this time between 1955 and 1956. similar to 1930, they fell in the first final, which was against Newcastle United, and won the next one. The final of 1956, the final in which Manchester City beat Birmingham City 3-1, featured City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann continuing to play in the final despite breaking his neck.
After being dropped into the Second Division in 1963, the future looked grim. the lowest attendance at home at 8,015 for Swindon Town in January 1965. At the end of the season, the team of management comprised of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison was chosen. In the initial year with Mercer, City won the Second Division title and made significant signings with Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell. In 1967-68 Manchester City claimed the League Championship for the second time, securing victory on the last game of the year, with the score of 4-3 against Newcastle United and beating their closest rivals Manchester United into second place. Other trophy wins were awarded: City won the FA Cup in 1969, and then achieved European success when they won the European Cup Winners' Cup in the year 1970 by defeating Gornik Zabrze by a score of 2-1 in Vienna. City also was awarded the League Cup that season, becoming the first English team to be awarded a European trophy as well as a domestic trophy during the same season.
Manchester City continued to fight for honors through the 1970s, falling one point in the gap to the champions of the league on two occasions and making it to in the semi-finals of 1974's League Cup. One of the matches of the period that will be loved by fans who are supporters of Manchester City is the final match of the 1973-74 campaign against their arch-rivals Manchester United, who needed to win in order to have any chance of staying out of being relegated. A former United teammate Denis Law scored with a backheel, giving City the win 1-0 against Old Trafford and confirm the demotion of their arch-rivals. The trophy that ended the club's most successful season up to now was won in 1976, as Newcastle United were beaten 2-1 in the League Cup final.
A period of declining decline followed the successes of the 1960s and the 1970s. Malcolm Allison rejoined the club to be manager again in 1979, but then squandered massive sums of cash on a number of unsuccessful signings including Steve Daley. The succession of coaches was appointed - seven during the 1980s all by themselves. In the time of John Bond, City reached the 1981 FA Cup final but lost in replay against Tottenham Hotspur. The club was twice deported from the top tier in the early 1980s (in the years 1983 and 1987) however, they was able to return to top league again in 1989 , and was 5th in the 1991-92 seasons under direction under the direction of Peter Reid. But this was only a brief period of respite and after Reid's departure, Manchester City's fortunes declined. City were the co-founders of the Premier League upon its creation in 1992. However, after being ninth in the inaugural season, they went through three years of struggles before being cut off in 1996. Following two years playing in division One, City fell to the lowest stage of their history, becoming the first European trophy winner to be sent to their nation's third league level, following 1. FC Magdeburg of Germany.
Following the relegation, the team went through a period of turmoil off the field as the the new Chairman David Bernstein introducing greater fiscal discipline. Under the direction of manager Joe Royle, City were promoted on the first try which was achieved with a flurry of speed during a play-off with Gillingham. Another promotion followed, which was followed by City returning in the premier division however, this proved to be been too much for the struggling club in 2001, and City were again relegated. Kevin Keegan replaced Royle as manager at the end of the season and made the immediate rise to top of the league as City won their 2001-02 Division One championship, breaking club records in terms of the number of goals and points achieved during the course of the season. The 2002-03 season marked the end of the era on Maine Road, and included the 3-1 victory in the derby against opponents Manchester United, ending a streak of 13 years without an derby victory. City also made it to European tournament for the first time after the last 25 years. In the 2003 season's close seasonof the 2003-2004 campaign, City relocated to the brand new City of Manchester Stadium. The initial four seasons at the stadium ended with mid-table results. A former England director Sven-Goran Eriksson became the club's first manager who was from abroad when named in 2007. After a good beginning, performance faltered during the second half of the season. Eriksson was fired on June 8, 2008. Eriksson got replaced Mark Hughes two days later on June 4, 2008.
In 2008 the club was in a financial strait. Thaksin Shinawatra was in charge of the club in the year prior however, his political machinations resulted in his assets being be frozen. In August 2008 the club was acquired from the Abu Dhabi United Group. The purchase was immediately followed by a flood of requests for players with a high profile The club beat record after record. British transfer record when they signed Brazilian International Robinho of Real Madrid for PS32.5 million. There was no significant increase in the performance of the previous year despite the huge sum of cash, however the team finishing in the tenth spot, however they were able to make it to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup. In this summer, FC Barcelona pushed the cost of transfers to a record extent, spending an amount of more than PS100 million for the likes of Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez and Joleon Lescott. As of December 9, Mark Hughes - who was hired just prior to the change in ownership , but was initially kept under the newly formed board and was later replaced as manager with Roberto Mancini. City ended the season fifth within the Premier League, narrowly missing the chance to be in the Champions League, and competed in the UEFA Europa League in season 2010-2011.
The continued investment in players came with successive seasons and the results started to increase in player's quality. City were able to reach in the 11th FA Cup Final, their first major final in nearly 30 years. They defeated the derby opponents Manchester United in the semi-final and for the first time that they defeated their opponent in an event in the cup since 1975. They beat Stoke City 1-0 in the final, winning five consecutive FA Cup, the club's first major trophy since in 1976 the League Cup. The following week, City qualified to play in the UEFA Champions League for the first time since 1968. It was an 1-1 Premier League win over Tottenham Hotspur. On the final day of the campaign, City defeated Arsenal to third spot at the Premier League, thereby securing entry directly to the Champions League group stage.
The strong performances continued throughout the 2011-12 season which saw the club begin the season with a strong performance, including a win over Tottenham 5-1 White Hart Lane and humbling Manchester United by a 6-1 score in the final game at Old Trafford. However, the form began to fade at the halfway point of the season and City in one instance was eight points in the lead over United with just six games remaining A slump from United caused their blue-colored side Manchester to get back to the same level in the final two games which set the stage for an epic finale to the season. Both teams heading into the final day with equal points (City had a lead of eight goals in goal differential). Despite City having only needed an away win over Queens Park Rangers, a team that is in the bottom of the relegation table, they were one point behind by the end of the normal time, which led several United players to complete their match with winning 1-0 against Sunderland and rejoicing believing they were the winners of the league. Two goals in the final minute The second goal was scored goal scored by Sergio Aguero in the fourth added minute - brought about an almost-literal final-minute 3-2 title win for City, their first in 44 years, and with which they became five teams to take home this title in Premier League since its creation in 1992. After the game the game was described by media outlets from the UK and across the globe as the most significant time to occur in Premier League history. The match was also notable due to the former City player Joey Barton's sent off, after committing three separate red cards on three players in the span just a few seconds, leading to the suspension of 12 games.
The next season City was unable to capitalize on gains that were made in the first two seasons under Mancini's leadership. Although City never seemed to fall below second place in the league but they were unable to mount a threat to the title throughout the season. Then, in the Champions League, the club was eliminated in an early stage, for the second consecutive season, and the two-time FA Cup final in three seasons was decided by an 1-0 loss to the being relegated Wigan Athletic. Mancini was fired just two days later, apparently because he failed to achieve his goals for the season. BBC Sports Editor David Bond informed him that he had been fired because of his ineffective communications and relations with executives and players. Mancini was replaced by the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini was named City's new manager.
In his first season, City won the League Cup[49] and then regained their Premier League title on the final day during the campaign. But, City's league performance declined over the subsequent years, and by 2016, they were in the lowest position since. The time of Pellegrini's rule was over despite an additional League Cup win and the greatest ever performance of the club at the Champions League.
Pep Guardiola, the former director at Barcelona as well as Bayern Munich, is the manager in charge at present, and is on the job since the resignation of Pellegrini in the year 2016. In the time of Guardiola's management, Manchester City won the 2017-18 Premier League title with the most points of all time in Premier League history and broke several clubs as well as English league records in the process. Manchester City also came home with the EFL Cup that year and Sergio Aguero became the club's greatest goal scorer of all time.
Guardiola was the manager of the club in 2018-19 to keep the Premier League and EFL Cup title; it was this was for the very first time within the history of Manchester City that the club was able to complete an effective title defense. The team was able to win the FA Cup and so complete the unheard-of triple of English domestic male titles.
The year 2020 was the first time UEFA barred the team from European tournaments for two seasons due to alleged violations of the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations The Club appealed this decision before the Court of Arbitration for Sport and was able to overturn the ban in a matter of months, determining that certain accusations were over the five-year threshold for UEFA investigations, whereas the other allegations were not proven. It also ruled that the CAS also reduced UEFA's penalty by EUR30 up to EUR10 million.
On April 20, 2021 City was informed that City had signed up to the planned European Super League as one of the 12 founding members, along with five additional "Big Six" English football clubs. The announcement was widely condemned by The Football Association, the Premier League, UEFA and FIFA and from the United Kingdom's Conservative government and the Prime Premier Boris Johnson. Within 48 hours of the announcement, on the 20th of April, City had announced that they were withdrawing out of the Super League to be followed shortly by the remaining five English clubs. On the next day it was clear that just three clubs from the initial founding teams, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus remain committed and it appeared that the idea had been discarded.
In the COVID-19-affected the 2020-21 Premier League season, City returned to its title from Liverpool and became champions three times in the span of four years. They finished the season 12 points clear over second placed Manchester United, winning the title with just three games left. They also took home the EFL Cup for a record-equalling fourth straight season, and eighth time all-time they beat Tottenham by a score of 1-0 at the end of the competition. Their league win is the 10th league as well as cup trophy during Guardiola's five-year tenure and makes the manager with the highest success in the history of the club. The season was marked by City winning their first UEFA Champions League final, in which they faced Chelsea and made it the third final that was all English in the history of the competition. However the Citizens were defeated 1-0 by Chelsea at the Estadio do Dragao in Porto thanks to an Kai Havertz goal. But, the City's triumph was the club's greatest success European game to date.
Another report in Der Spiegel in April 2022 said, based upon leaks of internal documents, that Abu Dhabi owners had previously made payments to Abu Dhabi owners had previously paid the team disguised as sponsorships from Emirati companies such as Etihad as well as Etisalat (the same claims which the club successfully to defend at CAS in the year 2020) and that Heikh Mansour's Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) was alleged to have indirectly provided underage players with money to join the club. Additionally, the club had used an alleged deal with Roberto Mancini and Mansour's Al Jazira Club to pay substantial compensation payments towards the previous manager, in along with his compensation. The report also stated that the three cases were being investigated through the Premier League for the last three years. The club, in response, denied these claims as false and a further attempt to damage the integrity and reputation of the club.
City retained their title as league champions in 2021-22 after another close title battle with Liverpool which gave them four titles in the span of five seasons. In a different instance that was "typical City", needing four points from their previous two matches, City had fallen behind by two goals in each game but then fought back to draw 2-2 with West Ham away, and to win 3-2 at home against Aston Villa in the season final. The three goals that came in the final game were scored in the span of five minutes between the 76th and 81st minutes with a full-house crowd at Etihad Stadium, in a moment that would be compared to the famous wins in that 1999 final of the play-offs with Gillingham in the play-off final against Gillingham and also the Premier League finale against QPR.