Manchester City are a club on a mission to conquer world football - both on and off the field.
They are already champions of the Premier League and have lifted the trophy three times in seven seasons. Their next target is to become the Kings of Europe by winning the Champions League.
Off the pitch, the club eagerly wants to be commercial superpower, with a passionate global fanbase and worldwide streams of revenue.
But who are the personalities driving this quest for supremacy? We take a closer look at the City hierarchy.
Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Age: 47 Born: Abu Dhabi Position: Owner of City Football Group
Sheikh Mansour is the owner of City Football Group, which consists of Manchester City, Australian A-League club Melbourne City and Major League Soccer outfit New York City FC.
It was on September 1, 2008 that the Abu Dhabi United Group Investment and Development Limited, a private equity company owned by Sheikh Mansour, changed the landscape of English football forever by purchasing City for around £265million.
Overnight, City were transformed from Premier League strugglers to major players in the transfer market ready and willing to flex their financial muscle by signing high-profile players.
The club's latest accounts revealed earlier this year that Sheikh Mansour has directly invested £1.3billion into City over the decade since.
Sheikh Mansour, 47, also serves as the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and is a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family.
Among his other investments, he has a 32 per cent stake in Virgin Galactic and a 9.1 per cent stake in car manufacturer Daimler. He has other investments in petroleum and the media.
Khaldoon Al Mubarak
Age: 42 Born: Abu Dhabi Position: Chairman
Regarded as one of the Abu Dhabi ruling family's most trusted advisers, Al Mubarak has served as City's chairman since the takeover back in 2008.
Al Mubarak, believed to be in his early forties, is certainly a busy man. In addition to his City duties, the entrepreneur is involved in the running of several countries as managing director and group CEO of Mubadala Investment Company.
He is a board member of First Gulf Bank, Aldar Properties, the Abu Dhabi Supreme Petroleum Council, Emirates Global Aluminium, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation and the state's Executive Affairs Authority.
Al Mubarak is a more public figure than Sheikh Mansour, attending City games and speaking about them in the media.
After they won the Premier League last season, he was already setting the target of retaining it this. 'We have a manager in Pep [Guardiola] that is relentless,' he told UAE newspaper The National in May.
'There's not going to be anyone content here or relaxation I can assure you. I have no doubt that this summer we are going to come back and we're going to be hungry, more aggressive and we're going to continue to grow and improve.'
Li Ruigang
Age: 49 Born: Shanghai Position: Board member and investor
The man known as 'China's Rupert Murdoch' was involved in a private equity group that bought a 13 per cent stake in City Football Group back in December 2015, paying $400m.
That agreement valued CFG at around $3bn, roughly the same as their neighbours Manchester United, who are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Shanghai-born businessman, who cultivated an impeccable political pedigree in China, is at thye forefront in the growing trend of Chinese conglomerates to invest in foreign leisure and culture.
'The main purpose of this deal is to gain experience we could take to the Chinese sports industry,' Li said at the time. The deal came a few weeks after Chinese premier Xi Jinping visited City's academy.
Li has been a member of the City board ever since his investment in the club.
Ferran Soriano
Age: 51 Born: Barcelona Position: Chief executive officer
Soriano has been City's chief executive officer since 2012 and fulfilled a similar role for the City Football Group since 2014, having moved to the club from Barcelona.
The 51-year-old served as Barcelona's vice-president and general manager between 2003 and 2008, helping them grow into one of the most successful football clubs in the world.
It was City's intention to replicate that success - on and off the pitch - under Soriano's guidance and he helped them exceed £500m in revenue and record profits of £10.4m in their latest financial report.
Appointing former Barcelona manager Guardiola was an integral part of Soriano's masterplan, with the 51-year-old responsible for the club's long-term vision and strategy.
He said earlier this year: 'How will we compete? By positioning ourselves as the club of the future. We want to be known as the team that best plays football.
'We want City to be synonymous with a good game, with 'beautiful football' as we say in England.'
Txiki Begiristain
Age: 54 Born: Olaberria, Spain Position: Director of football
Another important off-field signing from Barcelona in the autumn of 2012, Begiristain has served as the club's director of football since then.
The 54-year-old former Spain international winger replaced Brian Marwood as the man responsible for player recruitment.
Having brought the likes of Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o, Thierry Henry and David Villa to the Nou Camp during his time there, Begiristain's mission was to help City fulfil all their objectives in the transfer market.
Given that City's Abu Dhabi owners have spent approximately £1.4billion over their 10-year reign, there really isn't any limit to their ambitions.
'It is true that we have spent a lot of money - that is because we want to move fast,' he told BBC Sport last month.
'We want to win this race. We need to do it fast. We need to spend the money.'
Brian Marwood
Age: 58 Born: Seaham, County Durham Position: Football Administration Officer
The former winger serves as City's Football Administration Officer with a broad brief overseeing aspects of the club's academy and women's team as well as their role in the community.
Formerly a marketing manager for Nike, Marwood has been involved throughout almost all of the Abu Dhabi decade at the Etihad Stadium.
In his remit for City Football Group, Marwood is also responsible for the development of City's sister clubs in Australia and the United States, not to mention possible expansion to other countries in the future.
Speaking to The National recently, Marwood said: 'If someone had been able to project what is happening now nine or 10 years ago, I would have said yes, we are happy.
'I think we are very much in a good place.'
Jason Wilcox
Age: 47 Born: Farnworth, Greater Manchester Position: Academy director
The former England international and Premier League winner with Blackburn was appointed City's Academy Director in October last year having done the job in an interim capacity for four months.
Prior to that, he was under-18 coach and then head of academy coaching, meaning he is firmly embedded in the club and their ambitions to create a conveyor belt of talent.
As Sheikh Mansour declared when he took over in 2008: 'We are building a structure for the future, not just a team of all-stars.'
Not too many players have cracked the City first-team yet, though 18-year-old starlet Phil Foden could well buck that trend.
The biggest change during Wilcox's time with City was when they opened their £200m City Football Academy in 2014.
The state-of-the-art complex, connected to the Etihad Stadium by a bridge, boasts 16 football pitches, six swimming pools, three gyms, a performance centre, cryotherapy room and 7,000-capacity academy stadium.
Pep Guardiola
Age: 47 Born: Santpedor, Catalonia Position: First-team manager
City's manager really requires no introduction. Guardiola is one of the most successful coaches in football history and one of the sport's great tactical innovators.
He has successfully brought his possession-based, high-pressing brand of football to the Premier League, winning the title in his second season with City.
After a stellar playing career with Barcelona, he elevated them to new heights as their manager, winning three league titles, two Spanish Cups and two Champions League crowns in the space of four glorious seasons.
He won five domestic honours in three seasons with Bayern Munich, but wasn't quite able to break the final frontier of winning in Europe despite three consecutive semi-finals appearances.
Re-uniting with Soriano and Begiristain at City in 2016, Guardiola was hired to deliver the Champions League to the blue side of Manchester and they are certainly drawing closer to that aim.
Manel Estiarte
Age: 57 Born: Manresa, Catalonia Position: Head of Player Support and Protocol
Perhaps the man with the most curious back story at City, Estiarte, who is the club's Head of Player Support and Protocol, is one of Guardiola's trusted confidantes.
But his background isn't in football but water polo, for Estiarte represented Spain 578 times in the sport and at six Olympic Games, winning the gold medal in 1996.
Estiarte and Guardiola have known one another since the early 1990s, with the water polo player also a passionate Barcelona supporter.
The pair have worked together closely ever since, Guardiola saying: 'he helped me a lot in terms of the significance of understanding sport by seeing it from above.'
Guardiola also wrote in the foreword to Estiarte's autobiography All My Siblings: 'I don't know if angels exist and, if they do, if they help us.
'Much less if Guardian angels exist. But, if they do exist, I believe you are one of them.'
This cross-sport insight allows Guardiola to bring fresh insights to his coaching.