Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini said his side were entering the international break dissatisfied with their start to the season following a surprise 1-0 home defeat by Stoke City.
City were well short of the form that delivered the Premier League title to the Etihad Stadium last season, falling to a fine second-half goal from former Manchester United forward Mame Biram Diouf in Saturday’s game.
Pellegrini confessed his target had been to reach the international break with a maximum return from City’s opening three games; an aim that seemed well within their grasp following an impressive win over Liverpool on their last home outing.
“It is always serious to lose three points at home,” he said. “It was very important for our team to try and win nine points before the international break.
“It is not good to start this break with a defeat, but these types of game happen once a year and it has happened to our team. We will continue playing and working the same way we are doing now. Exactly the same.”
While goalkeeper Joe Hart appeared to allow Diouf’s shot to pass between his legs too easily, Pellegrini refused to blame the England international, but he did admit that his team had lacked their usual creative spark.
“I don’t analyse players in particular,” said the Chilean when asked about Hart’s attempt to save Diouf’s effort.
“I analyse as a team and, as a team, they all could have done more. We were very patient and tried to create space, but Stoke defended very well. We couldn’t create space and had a bad day in our creative play.
“I don’t think we could lose this game 1-0. It was too easy, the way they scored their goal: a counter-attack from a corner in their own box, and (Diouf) ran 70 metres to score the goal.
“In these games you have to be patient and try to create space until the last minute.”
Diouf struck just before the hour with an extraordinary solo goal that saw him sprint from deep within his own half into the City area, where he beat Hart.
It was Stoke’s first victory at City in 34 years and only the second time in the last 71 home Premier League games that the defending champions had failed to score.
However, City felt they should have had a late penalty after Yaya Toure went down under a challenge from Erik Pieters, only to be booked for diving.
“What I think doesn’t matter. I don’t talk about the referee,” Pellegrini told journalists.
“All of you know it was clearly a penalty, but that doesn’t matter. I don’t want to analyse the game just on one play, but it was a clear penalty.”
Former City manager Mark Hughes paid tribute to Diouf, who was brought to English football by then Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson five years ago, but failed to make a mark at Old Trafford.
“I’m really pleased for Mam,” Hughes said. “He’s come to the club and we’ve been delighted with what he’s shown us in games and in training.
“He’s a striker and he wants to make an impression as quickly as possible and obviously that means scoring goals. He’s probably been a little bit hard on himself the couple of games he’s played for us, but you can see he gives us something we didn’t have last year: pace and power on the break.”
Hughes said the victory had no added meaning for him personally despite the controversial manner in which he was sacked by City in 2009 and replaced by Pellegrini’s predecessor, Roberto Mancini.
“I’m just delighted for my team, my club, and the fans here today,” said the Welshman.
“I have no axe to grind. I was here as manager and enjoyed that time. It didn’t last as long as I thought it could have done, but you move onto the next challenge.”
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Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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