Robinho to Guardiola: Manchester City celebrate decade with the Abu Dhabi royal family

In summer 2008 on transfer deadline day, the new Manchester City announced themselves, becoming the first team in years to surpass Roman Abramovich's Chelsea in the transfer market by signing Robinho from Real Madrid for 41 million euros.

It was the first building block of a new squad at the Etihad Stadium after the royal family of Abu Dhabi bought the club for 240 million euros.

A decade later, the club is barely recognisable.

"The papers were finalised ten minutes before midnight, fans were outside, driving up to the gates of the stadium," explained Bernard Halford, then president of the club, to The Guardian.

"For City, spending 41 million was unusual, a year before the whole squad had cost that much."

Since then, the club has won three Premier League titles, an FA Cup and three League Cups.

The current captain, Vincent Kompany, signed ten days before Sheikh Mansour purchased the Citizens and he has noted the change.

"There were no doors on the toilets of the dressing rooms, there was no coffee machine at the training ground, we were only offered tea," he reflects.

"Then all of a sudden, we went on an international break and everything changed.

"I don't know how they did it so quickly, the next thing we saw was a huge Nespresso coffee machine and we used it so much that they had to repair it after two weeks."

Kompany is the only one to remain at the club from those days after the departures of Pablo Zabaleta and Joe Hart, whilst other pillars of the side to have formed part of the transformation remain, such as David Silva and Sergio Aguero.

As the team improved, so did the club, building a new training ground next to the stadium and abandoning Platt Lane.

"It's like Alice in Wonderland, it's not just a football team, it's what the Sheikh has created in the city of Manchester," Halford explained.

"We are the best at everything: job creation, jobs for the community, something that is unusual in this area, a new training ground, it's a long term plan."

The City Football Academy, the name of the training ground, has one phrase highlighted above reception.

"We are building a structure for the future, not only a team of stars," said Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, current president, when speaking to ESPN.

"Sooner rather than later we will win the Champions League."

The biggest win of all has been to convince Pep Guardiola to take the job of coach, joining from Bayern Munich and now with a contract until 2021, which would make them the club he has spent the most time at if he sees out his deal.

"What were we selling ten years ago? We sold hope, but there was nothing," Al-Mubarak adds.

"In the first stage, until 2013, there was a period of growth, then two things happened: we started winning, which is an incredible formula to attract players, and we built the training ground.

"Now, we are the most successful team in the Premier League and contenders for everything.

"We have the best coach, the best organisation and the best structures in the world."