City have riches at their disposal and winger Shaun Wright-Phillips has seen a significant change in the landscape.

He returned to the club for a second stint last August following a brief spell at Chelsea.

Wright-Phillips told the club's official website: "On the day I came back we stayed in the UEFA Cup through a last-minute own goal against Midtjylland, then won a dramatic penalty shoot-out.

"That made me smile. I've been here that long that I'm used to that being the way with City.

"It was always like that when I was coming through the ranks. We always liked to do the things the hard way, but hopefully the boss is slowly but surely getting that out of us now and this is a club geared for sustained success."

Wright-Phillips, now free from the knee injury that threatened to force him on to an operating table this summer, has set his sights on a place in England's World Cup squad in South Africa.

He admits that losing his berth in the 2006 party under Sven-Goran Eriksson, who put the then untried 17-year-old Theo Walcott ahead of him, was one of the low points of his career.

"I was gutted," he recalled. "I played a major part in the qualifying rounds because David Beckham was injured, and so to be left out was pretty confusing, but you learn something from those times in your career."