If Charlie Stillitano had tried this a decade ago he would have been laughed out of the room.
Manchester United was in the middle of one of its best runs. In 2008, it won the UEFA Champions League the second of four consecutive Premier League title.
Manchester City, on the other hand, was barely in the top half of England's top division. The Citizens had done well to get out of the back-and-forth between the Premier League and the Championship, but they still had work to do if they wanted to be mentioned in the same breath as their cross-town rivals.