Abu Dhabi: Manchester City went from a club “surviving on mediocrity” to tasting FA Cup and Premiership success in the last two seasons and the English giants are keen to build on that success.

Brian Marwood, the Club’s Academy Managing Director, who was here for a Technical Development Workshop, told Gulf News that they had raised the bar once again.

“We were a club that was surviving on mediocrity. Now we are a club which is very ambitious and rightly so,” said Marwood, who took up his new role last year after being the club’s Chief Football Operations Officer for four years.

“We make no secret about that. We have shown our ambition. We have enjoyed the success achieved over the last two or three years and we want more of that.”

Marwood and Mark Allen, Head of the Academy, shared their experiences with officials from the UAE FA and various clubs. They discussed aspects of administration, transfers, players’ contracts, player transactions, methodology and playing styles.

Commenting on their success after a number of top players joined the club, Marwood said: “There has been a very quick evolution of the team. We got some very, very good players and this has allowed us to compete in the Premier League as well as get us into the Champions League. It has given us a very strong foundation now. We just have to build and develop on it, which is the next phase in our progression.”

When asked to comment on the financial losses suffered by the club and the Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules that come into full effect in 2013-14, Marwood said the club would not face any problem on this front.

In December last year, the club announced a pre-tax loss of £93.4m for 2011-12, a figure that was half of the previous year’s losses. Revenues increased by 51 per cent to £231.1m (Dh1.27 billion), with the club’s first appearance in the Uefa Champions League contributing more than £22m in new revenue.

“Everybody is aware that we recorded losses over the last two years. But they are decreasing because we have a much stronger grip on the operations and our commercial income is growing enormously due to the performances on the field,” Marwood said.

“We are pretty much sold out for every home game this season. We believe the new TV deal, which begins next year, will have a major impact. We are now attracting a lot of interest as a commercial proposition, so we are not far away [from our goals],” the City official said.