Noel Gallagher hails 'staggering' City deal

Manchester City's most famous fan, Noel Gallagher, has offered to play a private gig for the club's new owners.

Manchester City's most famous fan, Noel Gallagher, songwriter for the group Oasis, has described the club's new owners as great for the club - and offered to play a private gig for them. The football world is still coming to terms with the surprise deal signed by Abu Dhabi United Group on Monday to buy the club, and no one more so than Gallagher, who is considered, with his brother Liam, among the most devoted of City fans.

"I was kind of laughing at first," said Gallagher, who was behind the multi-platinum selling albums Definitely, Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory? "I still can't really believe it." The intent of the new owners was made clear on the day of the takeover, when Manchester City paid a British record of Dh264 million (US$72m) for the Brazilian player Robinho, but lost out on the services of Bulgarian international Dimitar Berbatov to their rivals Manchester United, having made a higher offer.

Dr Sulaiman al Fahim, chief executive of the developer Hydra Properties, who led the takeover, said he would bid a world-record £120m (Dh882m) for the United superstar Cristiano Ronaldo in January. Gallagher said: "I like [Dr Fahim] already. He obviously has a sick sense of humour because the one place in the world Ronaldo isn't going is ours - because he is going to Real Madrid. "With the people who own United, all their wealth is built on credit, whereas with the people who have bought us out, it is all from oil.

"It is nice to think that every gallon of petrol a Man United fan buys goes into Manchester City's transfer kitty. I just hope these people are serious. And the only thing that would worry me is getting the people to go there." Gallagher said he hoped Manchester City finished the season with a trophy, but it was "too easy to throw a load of money" at a club to fix problems, and a more patient approach was better.

He added that he was ready to provide support to the new owners should it be required. "I am available for any after-show parties he wants me to play at if he's throwing that kind of money around. "I always knew 40 years of loyalty would be repaid somehow, and knew a day like this would come, where we would stagger everyone in football. But I have got to say, I expected nothing like this!" [e-mail]

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