The 2007–08 season was Manchester City Football Club's sixth consecutive season playing in the Premier League, the top division of English football, and its 11th season since the Premier League was first created, with Manchester City as one of its original 22 founding member clubs. Overall, it was the team's 116th season playing in a division of English football, most of which have been spent in the top flight.
Season review The season started with a new owner in Thaksin Shinawatra and his newly appointed manager, Sven-Göran Eriksson. After spending three of the four previous Premier League seasons finishing in low mid-table positions (i.e., two to four places above the relegation zone), the Manchester City team was badly in need of an influx of new blood if it was to avoid a similar fate, or worse, in the upcoming season. Consequently, the newly infused funds from the club's wealthy Thai owner came at quite a fortuitous time for the team, and Eriksson was very active in the summer transfer market as he spent approximately £30 million adding eight relatively high-profile players to the City first team squad.
As a consequence of this mini spending spree Manchester City started the new season strongly and spent a large portion of it occupying one of the top five positions in the Premier League table. Unfortunately, the strong results of the first two-thirds of the season were not sustained in the final third and the team ultimately slipped down the rankings to finish the season in ninth place. This loss of form in the final months also led to Shinawatra summarily sacking Eriksson, a decision that was received with mixed emotions by the Manchester City supporters since both characters had achieved the status of "white knights" in their eyes for their respective financial and managerial contributions to the transformation of the club. Two days after his end-of-season dismissal, on 2 June 2008 Eriksson was replaced by Mark Hughes.
This season also saw Manchester City gain entry into the next season's UEFA Cup competition by finishing sixth in the English "Fair Play" rankings (with the five teams ranked above City having already qualified for European competition).
Team kit Supplier: Le Coq Sportif / Sponsor: Thomas Cook
Kit description The start of the 2007–08 Premier League campaign saw a number of changes for Manchester City, the most notable being the hiring of former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, while a somewhat less prominent change for the club saw the termination of Reebok as the team's kit supplier (for the four previous seasons) with the French sportswear manufacturer, Le Coq Sportif, now resuming this role once again. The shirt sponsor continued to be Thomas Cook, although the travel company had undergone a name change during the close season after its announced merger with MyTravel Group in June 2007, with the newly merged company now being called Thomas Cook Group.
The switch to a new kit supplier resulted in three new team kits for this season. The new home kit consisted of a return to a full sky blue shirt, but now with vertical white pin stripes on the body (but not the sleeves and shoulders) together with matching solid sky blue socks and the traditional all white shorts. The shirt sported a Le Coq Sportif logo on the upper portion of both sleeves with the Manchester City crest in the centre of the chest above the Thomas Cook logo, while the City crest was also repeated at the base of the right leg on the shorts.
The new away kit – a striking solid purple colour but sporting the same vertical white pin stripes on the body of the shirt as the home kit plus all the same kit supplier, sponsorship and club crest logos – was possibly a throwback to the classic maroon and thin white striped shirts that had been the club's one-time strip created for its appearance at Wembley in the 1956 FA Cup Final against Birmingham City. In comparison to the new home and away kits, the new third kit consisted of a relatively conservative all white shirt and socks with solid sky blue shorts, with the white shirt sporting a thin sky blue diagonal sash across the front of the left shoulder.
New goalkeeper strips – a two-tone green (solid light green shirt plus solid dark green shorts and socks), an all-grey change and a yellow third with purple shorts and socks, were introduced for this season.
On 10 February 2008, during the club's local derby game against Manchester United, the City team played in a one-off special kit to mark the 50-year memorial of the Munich air disaster. This kit was devoid of the pinstripes, contained no kit supplier or sponsorship logos and had a black ribbon on the right shoulder bearing "1958–2008", with "Manchester remembers" written underneath.
Historical league performance Prior to this season, the history of Manchester City's performance in the English football league hierarchy since the creation of the Premier League in 1992 is summarised by the following timeline chart – which commences with the last season (1991–92) of the old Football League First Division (from which the Premier League was formed).
Friendly games
Pre-season
Thomas Cook Trophy
Post-season
Competitive games
Premier League
Position in final standings
Results summary
Points breakdown
Points at home: 37 Points away from home: 18
Points against "Big Four" teams: 7 Points against promoted teams: 13
6 points: Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sunderland 4 points: Aston Villa, Bolton Wand., Derby County, Portsmouth, West Ham Utd. 3 points: Birmingham City, Middlesbrough, Reading, Tottenham Hotspur 2 points: Wigan Athletic 1 point: Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Liverpool 0 points: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton
Biggest & smallest Biggest home wins: 4–2 vs. Bolton Wanderers, 15 December 2007 3–1 vs. Middlesbrough, 7 October 2007 & vs. Portsmouth, 20 April 2008 & vs. Newcastle United, 29 September 2007 Biggest home defeats: 1–3 vs. Arsenal, 2 February 2008 0–2 vs. Everton, 25 February 2008 & vs. Chelsea, 5 April 2008 Biggest away wins: 0–2 vs. West Ham, 11 Aug. 2007 & vs. Newcastle Utd., 2 Jan. 2008 Biggest away defeat: 8–1 vs. Middlesbrough, 11 May 2008
Biggest home attendance: 47,321 vs. Liverpool, 30 December 2007 Smallest home attendance: 38,261 vs. Wigan Athletic, 1 March 2008 Biggest away attendance: 75,970 vs. Manchester United, 10 February 2008 Smallest away attendance: 18,614 vs. Wigan Athletic, 1 December 2007
Results per matchday
Individual match reports
League Cup
FA Cup
Playing statistics
No. Pos. Player League FA Cup League Cup Total DisciplineApps.GoalsApps.GoalsApps.GoalsApps.Goals1GK Andreas Isaksson5 1 6 2DF Micah Richards (vc)25 2 2 29 4 3DF Michael Ball28 (9) 3 4 (1) 35 (10) 2 4DF Nedum Onuoha16 (3)12 3 (1) 21 (4)1 SoldMF Ousmane Dabo 1 (1) 1 (1) 6MF Michael Johnson232 2 2524 7MF Stephen Ireland33 (1)43 (1) 3 39 (2)42- / 18MF Geovanni19 (17)31 (1) 3 (1) 23 (19)34 9FW Émile Mpenza15 (7)21 2 (1)118 (8)3 10FW Rolando Bianchi19 (12)42 (2) 3124 (14)5 11MF Elano34 (5)8212138 (5)105 12FW Darius Vassell27 (6)63 2 (1) 32 (7)63 14FW Paul Dickov 1 (1) 1 (1) 15MF Martin Petrov3453 1 3852- / 116DF Vedran Ćorluka37 (1) 3 3 43 (1) 5 17DF Sun Jihai14 (7) 2 16 (7) 2 19GK Kasper Schmeichel7 7 20FW Georgios Samaras5 (3) 217 (3)1 21MF Dietmar Hamann29 (3) 3 2 34 (3) 10 22DF Richard Dunne (c)36 3 3 42 4- / 224DF Javier Garrido27 (5) 2 29 (5) 4 25GK Joe Hart26 3 3 32 27FW Benjani13 (1)3 13 (1)3 28MF Gélson Fernandes26 (5)23 (2) 3 (1) 32 (8)26 29FW Valeri Bojinov3 (2) 3 (2) 30MF Nery Castillo10 (8) 2 12 (8) 33FW Ched Evans 1 (1) 1 (1) 34DF Sam Williamson1 (1) 1 (1) 1 36FW Daniel Sturridge3 (1)11 (1)1 4 (2)2 37MF Kelvin Etuhu6 (4)11 (1) 1 (1) 8 (6)11 38DF Shaleum Logan 2 2 20FW Felipe Caicedo7 (7) 7 (7) 1 TOTALS42244860- / 4 Information current as of 11 May 2008 (end of season)
Goal scorers
All competitions ScorerGoals Elano10 Darius Vassell6 Rolando Bianchi5 Martin Petrov Stephen Ireland4 Geovanni3 Émile Mpenza Benjani Mwaruwari Gélson Fernandes2 Michael Johnson Daniel Sturridge Kelvin Etuhu1 Nedum Onuoha Georgios Samaras
Premier League ScorerGoals Elano8 Darius Vassell6 Martin Petrov5 Rolando Bianchi4 Stephen Ireland Geovanni3 Benjani Mwaruwari Gélson Fernandes2 Michael Johnson Émile Mpenza Kelvin Etuhu1 Nedum Onuoha Daniel Sturridge
League Cup ScorerGoals Elano1 Rolando Bianchi Émile Mpenza Georgios Samaras
FA Cup ScorerGoals Elano1 Daniel Sturridge
Information current as of 11 May 2008 (end of season)
Awards
Premier League awards Awarded monthly to the player and manager that were chosen by a panel assembled by the Premier League's sponsor MonthManager of the MonthPlayer of the Month August 2007 Sven-Göran Eriksson Micah Richards
Thomas Cook Player of the Month awards Awarded to the player in each category that receives the most votes in a poll conducted each month on the MCFC OWS MonthFirst TeamReserve TeamAcademy August/September Dietmar Hamann Richard Martin Scott Kay October Elano Ashley Grimes Ben Mee November Vedran Ćorluka Javan Vidal Kieran Trippier December Richard Dunne Karl Moore David Ball January Michael Ball not announced Vladimír Weiss February Joe Hart Paul Marshall Greg Hartley March Gélson Fernandes Adam Clayton Andrew Tutte April Darius Vassell Sam Williamson Vladimír Weiss
Football Association of Ireland awards Player Year 2007 awards Richard Dunne International Player of the Year Stephen Ireland Young International Player of the Year
Official Supporters Club awards Player Season 2007–08 awards Richard Dunne Player of the Year Joe Hart Young Player of the Year Ben Mee Most Promising Player of the Year
Transfers and loans
Transfers in
First team Date Pos. Player From club Transfer fee 13 July 2007 FW Rolando Bianchi Reggina £8.8M 14 July 2007 MF Gélson Fernandes Sion £4.2M 17 July 2007 MF Geovanni Cruzeiro Free 26 July 2007 MF Martin Petrov Atlético Madrid £4.7M 2 Aug. 2007 DF Vedran Ćorluka Dinamo Zagreb £8M 2 Aug. 2007 MF Elano Shakhtar Donetsk £8M 2 Aug. 2007 DF Javier Garrido Real Sociedad £1.5M 3 Aug. 2007 FW Valeri Bojinov Fiorentina £5.75M 31 Jan. 2008 FW Felipe Caicedo Basel £5.2M 31 Jan. 2008Signing completed on 31 January, ratified on 5 February. FW Benjani Portsmouth £3.87M
Reserves & Academy Date Pos. Player From club Transfer fee 10 Aug. 07 GK Richard Martin Free agent / 1-month trial 16 Nov. 07 FW Teerasil Dangda Mueang Thong NongJork Free 16 Nov. 07 DF Kiatprawut Saiwaeo Chonburi Free 16 Nov. 07 DF Suree Sukha Chonburi Free
Transfers out
First team Exit date Pos. Player To club Transfer fee 15 May 2007 DF Hatem Trabelsi Al-Hilal Released 23 May 2007 DF Sylvain Distin Portsmouth Free 14 June 2007 MF Joey Barton Newcastle United £5.8M 4 July 2007 GK Nicky Weaver Charlton Athletic Free 10 July 2007 MF Trevor Sinclair Cardiff City Free 16 July 2007 DF Stephen Jordan Burnley Free 31 Jan. 2008 MF Ousmane Dabo Lazio Free 31 Jan. 2008 FW Ishmael Miller West Brom. Albion £0.9M–£1.4M
Reserves & Academy Exit date Pos. Player To club Transfer fee 15 May 2007 GK Laurence Matthewson Released 15 May 2007 MF Ashley Williams Released 4 July 2007 DF Nathan D'Laryea Rochdale Free 9 Jan. 2008 MF Marc Laird Millwall Free
Loans in
First team Start date End date Pos. Player From club 1 Jan. 2008 31 Dec. 2008 MF Nery Castillo Shakhtar Donetsk
Reserves & Academy Start date End date Pos. Player From club 31 Jan. 2008 30 June 2008 FW Filippo Mancini Inter Milan
Loans out
First team