Khaldoon Al-Mubarak delivered his words calmly and clinically. He had been Manchester City Chairman for two years and, in the summer of 2010, wanted to spell out his aims.
‘We want to play in a Champions League final,’ he told me. ‘This is where we want to be.’
Things were moving quickly at my club but, even still, I couldn’t quite take this on board. I’d joined City as a 14-year-old. I remembered being told stories about how, when it rained heavily at our Carrington training ground, a certain part of it used to flood allowing old players to have impromptu swims.