Manchester City icon and former club captain Richard Dunne has opened up about the tricky circumstances surrounding his Etihad Stadium departure in the summer of 2009
Sport Harry Brent Senior Sports Writer 14:19, 25 Mar 2025
Richard Dunne claims he was effectively forced out of Manchester City following the club's financial transformation in 2008.
The Irish defender, who made over 350 appearances for City and was a key figure in the side for nearly a decade, saw his future thrown into doubt when Sheikh Mansour's Abu Dhabi United Group took over. With the club suddenly flush with cash, big-money signings soon followed, making competition for places fiercer than ever.
Article continues below
In 2009, City signed central defenders Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott, adding to the arrival of Vincent Kompany the previous summer. Despite the mounting competition, Dunne was determined to stay and fight for his place. However, the decision was ultimately taken out of his hands.
"Obviously, you want to stay," Dunne said speaking exclusively to MEN, via Betway. "The club went from strength to strength, so you'd love to be part of that and be part of the success that they had.
"But in football if a club wants to get rid of you, they want to get rid of you. They wanted to change direction and go somewhere else, so I wasn't one for sitting around in places that I wasn't particularly welcome."
City famously signed Robinho on transfer deadline day just a few hours after the takeover was completed. From there, mega bids for mega players went flying left, right and centre. The likes of Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Shay Given, Gareth Barry arrived in 2009, and over the next two years City added Yaya Toure, David Silva and Sergio Aguero to their midst.
But despite the relentless influx of players, things never got too chaotic, and Dunne says it was clear from the get-go that the new owners not only meant business, but knew exactly what it would take to turn the club into a bona fide European powerhouse.
"After the first transfer window, which was a case of trying to make a big statement, the owners' plan kicked in and they became very strategic about what they were going to do, which types of players they were going to sign," the 45-year-old said.
"The club [was] going from strength to strength, and I don't think there's ever been a period where it felt disorganised. The plan has always been followed almost since day one, they took their time – it wasn't instant success – but it wasn't very long. Then, because of the organisation and how the owners ran the whole club, it's been able to be sustained."
Unfortunately for Dunne, he wouldn't stick around long enough to get a proper taste of that success. In August 2009, a £5million offer came in from Aston Villa, and a transfer was eventually agreed, ending the defender's nine year stint at the Etihad Stadium.
"I was fortunate I got a really good move to Aston Villa, and I really enjoyed my time there and City went on and did their thing so it's just part of football," he said. "Your face fits sometimes and sometimes it doesn't, and you have to move on."
Dunne joined City from Everton in 2000 and made an immediate impact, but couldn't prevent the club from dropping into the First Division (now the Championship) at the end of his debut season. City earned promotion back to the top flight a year later, with Dunne missing just one league fixture throughout the campaign.
Article continues below
He was appointed club captain in 2006, and was named City's Player of the Year in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. The personal accolades continued at Villa, where, at the end of the first season there, he was included in the 2009/10 PFA Premier League Team of the Year.
After four years at Villa Park, Dunne moved to QPR in 2013. He would later hang up his boots in 2015 with 431 Premier League appearances under his belt - a tally just 29 men have bettered.
