Inside the ‘Cityfication’ of football: The four-in-a-row champions are pariahs of the Premier League yet clubs around the world are littered with their talent, writes MIKE KEEGAN

On Monday, the Premier League will face a legal challenge from Manchester City, armed with statements from a dozen clubs, in support of the league’s defense.

They all support the top’s tightened rules on associate transactions, which the four-in-a-row champions say is an illegal attempt to stop them and end their era of dominance.

Many believe that City, who were also charged 115 times in November for breaching financial regulations, are guilty of cheating on their way to success.

But that hasn’t stopped large groups of rivals from looking for coaches, players and staff members.

Here, Mail Sport investigates what champions officials wryly describe as the ‘Cityfication’ of the Premier League and what chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak feels is clear evidence that they are doing things ‘the right way’.

Next month, Omar Berrada will take up what is arguably the biggest job in English football when he takes over as CEO of Manchester United.

But when the highly-rated 46-year-old walks through the doors of Old Trafford on his first day, he will be met by a host of familiar faces. Toby Craig, the newly appointed head of communications, will be one. Jason Wilcox, the former Blackburn Rovers winger and now United technical director, another. The three all have one thing in common: they worked together about four miles to the east at Manchester City.

Berrada, Craig and Wilcox are not the only ones bridging the great divide on what is now a thoroughly well-trodden path from one end of the Mancunian Way to the other. When Berrada enters United’s recruitment department, he will see no fewer than five staff members with City on their CV. And in his first meeting with marketing he will undoubtedly come face to face with Global Partnerships Manager Josh Dawkins, whose introduction to football came as an intern at the Etihad Stadium.

Some may think this is only natural. That such cases would be common in the transient football world with high turnover and especially in a city with two clubs.

But City alumni reach further than their neighbors in the Premier League and even in Europe. That is why chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak recently talked about his pride in the exodus and why some in the club are calling it the ‘Cityfication’ of the league. While the consensus among certain rivals and the league itself is that they are doing something wrong by hiring staff from across the club, Al Mubarak sees their actions and says otherwise.

In particular, Etihad officials see the influx of former city employees into Old Trafford since the arrival of new co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos as evidence of their own success.

Ratcliffe himself – a boyhood Red who grew up within walking distance of where the Etihad now stands – has hailed City’s success and even laughed when asked how they decided on the ‘blueprint’. “We have a lot to learn from our noisy neighbor,” he said (before adding that he would like to dethrone them).

As for the perch-knocking, the growing and often toxic rivalry between City and Liverpool hasn’t stopped the powers that be at Anfield from getting involved.

In May, Pedro Marques was appointed director of football development at Anfield owners Fenway Sports Group. Marques was tasked with delivering the vision of City Football Group (CFG) as they began adding clubs from around the world to their portfolio, becoming the club’s first global leader in football performance.

It is no coincidence that he now plays for Liverpool, who are looking to adopt their own multi-club model and, following City’s lead, have brought Marques on board.

Owning multiple clubs is one of the areas where City has come under scrutiny and criticism. Movements for players and staff between clubs within the same ownership group are subject to exactly the same Associated Party Transactions rules, which were tightened in February and sparked City’s legal challenge.

Elsewhere, Judge Ellis, who spent almost six years at City and rose to become head of marketing, is the Merseyside giant’s strategy director. He may not be a household name, but Lee Nobes is one of the most important people on Liverpool’s bench. Nobes has been head of physiotherapy since 2018 and is responsible for ensuring the well-being of Mo Salah, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, among others. Nobes spent 11 years at City, working with managers from Sven Goran-Eriksson to Pep Guardiola.

One of the 115 charges against City is that they wrongly inflated sponsorship deals with companies linked to their Abu Dhabi owners as a way to inject extra cash into the coffers, allowing them to sign the top players. But such accusations have not stopped a number of rivals, including Everton, from taking over staff from their commercial division.

On the football side, the list goes on. At the highest level, the managers of the two north London rivals have worked within the City Group. At Arsenal, Mikel Arteta is joined by no fewer than six ex-City employees. At Tottenham, Ange Postecoglou works with compatriot, Chief Football Officer and ex-CEO of CFG China, Scott Munn.

In west London, Chelsea co-sporting director Lawrence Stewart was City’s head of performance analysis for two years. Stewart will soon start working with new Stamford Bridge manager Enzo Maresca, who joined from Leicester, where he spent a year after leaving his role as Pep Guardiola’s assistant in east Manchester. Chelsea are among those thought to be sympathetic to City’s position.

Although they do not wish to comment publicly due to the ongoing legal situation, those at City see the above as evidence that their success has not been down to breaches of financial regulations.

That they didn’t just buy their trophies. That excellence on and off the pitch, rather than financial doping, has been at the heart of what has been a stunning era for the blue half of Manchester – and one that others are desperate to believe in.

In his end-of-season speech, Khaldoon Al Mubarak more than hinted at it. “Honestly, it makes me feel proud,” he said. “It tells you that we are very good at what we do at every level.

“When you see, and I use the word graduates, academy level players, first team level players leave and go and have successful careers. Coaching staff, medical staff, physios, senior executives that the best teams in the world are looking for. I think this is certainly proof that we are on the right track.’

His next words felt like they were of the utmost importance. “It confirms that we are doing it right,” he added. Others clearly agree – including some whose testimonies could paint Manchester City in a very different light tomorrow.