After enduring three decades of glaring underachievement, Manchester City fans can be excused their new-found exhilaration, the feeling that all the disappointment of recent times will soon be forgotten as the takeover by an Abu Dhabi investment group transforms perennial also-rans into world beaters. Less than a month ago, the City faithful were in their customary preseason state of depression; a discussion at one fans' website, Blue Moon, repeated rumours of imminent financial meltdown under the heading "Administration within a fortnight".
But the acquisition of the club by the privately owned Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment (ADUG) has inspired an extraordinary feel-good spirit, its effects including a boom in replica kit and season ticket sales and even increased productivity in at least one workplace. To the delight of City fans, much of the British press has devoted substantial column inches to speculation about the stars now assumed to be within City's reach because of the expected injection of funds.
However, a note of caution is being sounded by sources close to ADUG. The group is only now beginning the process of examining the club's accounts amid concern that talk of unlimited cash for transfers could lead to crazily inflated fees being demanded. "There has been a lot of talk about which players we will sign and how much money we will spend on them," The National has been told by one figure with intimate knowledge of the takeover. "We now have to be practical, calm things down a bit and get on with the real business of running a football club."
Sources in Abu Dhabi have been at pains to counter western reports suggesting that the deal is a government initiative, pointing out that ADUG is a private equity group headed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed. The City manager, Mark Hughes, has also warned against unrealistic expectations about who will be arriving at the club's Eastlands stadium when the English Premier League's so-called transfer window opens on Jan 1. "There are exceptionally talented players around that we would bring to the club if they were made available," said Hughes.
"The difficulty will be getting the clubs to release those players. We obviously are talking about players whose clubs are involved in the Champions League. They may not be very receptive to losing those players midway through a Champions League season." Only City fans in their 30s or older were alive when the club last won a senior trophy - and even that triumph, in 1976, was in the relatively unglamorous League Cup.
But there has been an unmistakable surge of optimism in recent days as fans dream of a serious bid to break the Big Four dominance of Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and, above all, City's bitter rivals Manchester United. Boxes of unsold team shirts, left over from Christmas, have been dusted down and sold. Vicky Kloss, City's acting head of communications, said the 800 season tickets sold since the announcement of the deal was greater than sales during the whole of the previous month.
There is also enormous interest in the next Man City game, coincidentally a home match against Chelsea, the big-spending club City beat to the £32.5 million (Dh211m) signature of the Real Madrid forward Robinho. With Chelsea sponsored by Etihad Airlines, the fixture on Saturday is inevitably being billed as the "Abu Dhabi Derby". Etihad also stands to gain from the takeover. A sharp rise in bookings on its Abu Dhabi to Manchester route would not surprise airline executives.
"If it follows the typical pattern, then we would expect some boost," said Tom Clarke, a spokesman. "Any increase in the global profile of Abu Dhabi tends to encourage more visitors." One City season-ticket holder, Keith Grahams, spoke for many when he said fans had at last been given a reason to be cheerful. "I work in a factory not far from Eastlands," said Mr Grahams, 38. "There are lots of City fans and all we have been talking about is how the new owners are going to change things.
"It has been years since we have won everything and to be honest it is hard to get out of bed and go to work on a Monday morning when we have been beaten at the weekend. But now we are walking round with smiles on our faces. The boss is delighted; he has never seen us working so hard." In the UAE interest has also been strong, with the local supporters' club inundated with inquiries from people eager to watch Man City in action on television and at matches.
Karl Roe, a member of the Manchester City Supporters' Club Dubai, said interest had grown "a thousandfold". "Our website has gone from tens of hits to thousands of hits in days," he said. Mr Roe said he had also received dozens of telephone calls about the takeover - some from unexpected sources. "It's been Man United fans, Chelsea fans, and, apart from the Chelsea fans, everybody has been positive," he said.
But he echoed the view of long-suffering fans now looking for an instant turnaround in the team's fortunes. Now that it had the spending power to match the biggest clubs, he said, an improvement on last season's ninth place was a minimum demand for this season, with a top four finish the aim for 2008-2010. "The guys in Abu Dhabi have got to keep on investing," he said. "They have got to become members of the Manchester City family and culture, and we've got to accept them.
"Everybody wants to see somebody else break the mix of the big four. If it's going to be anyone, it's going to be Man City." Mark Lynch, the Dubai supporters' club chairman, said many people wanted to know where they could watch Man City games on television. Arabs, Indians, Pakistanis and westerners had all shown interest, he said. "It's been quite phenomenal for the past four or five days - it's quite exciting," he said.
Dr Sulaiman al Fahim, who will sit on the Manchester City board on behalf of the new owners, is expected to attend the Chelsea game and, on Thursday, a press conference to present Robinho as a City player. Some supporters are already suggesting possible chants in Dr Fahim's honour. They have been less enthusiastic about talk of luring Cristiano Ronaldo from their Manchester rivals, United. Subscribers to an online fan site reacted with horror to the idea of him appearing in City's sky blue colours, though one offered his own compromise, designed to stop him scoring goals for United: "Buy him and then have him selling programmes."
@email:dbardsley@thenational.ae