Gill: City can’t match United overseas

Former Manchester United chief David Gill had sympathy for David Moyes over his hard year at Old Trafford.

“Having said that, to win the league by 13 points, it was very disappointing to go down to 7th”.

However Gill did give credit to City owner Sheikh Mansour, who has helped grow the club and develop the area since his Middle East company purchased the Citizens in 2008.

United claim to have 659 million supporters across the world – which brings them the largest commercial income that any English club enjoys – and Gill warned City they can not catch up with their neighbours.

“The big teams with history and heritage – Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Real Madrid – have that”, he added.

Gill, the Football Association’s vice chairman, was asked how United reacted when news filtered through that Sheikh Mansour had taken over across town.

‘Clearly, he shook it up in terms of the investments he made.

“They made mistakes but they now have a very good team and you can’t argue with that”.

Manchester City won against Crystal Palace and they remained clean for the season and in the lead on the EPL table.

Gill hailed Sheikh Mansour’s impact and believes he has already created a lasting legacy.

‘Clearly, they have raised their game and it is a very well run club, ‘ he said.

“It is like Arsenal, you could rule them out from winning the Premier League”.

Despite United’s cross-city rival starting the season in scintillating form and wining two Premier League titles in recent years, Gill reckons United will alway trump them for global appeal. The former Manchester United winger’s last club goal came at Yeovil in an FA Cup tie in January but he ended an eight-month wait to find the net four minutes in and Edinson Cavani sewed up victory just after the hour mark.