As those inside the China deal were quick to point out, the latest development at Manchester City is not about buying Lionel Messi or even attracting Pep Guardiola. It is bigger than that. Seriously. Much bigger. This is the game changer.

To relay the simple exclamation of one of the leading figures behind the deal: we’re in. Inside China, inside a new way of doing football business, inside the world’s biggest emerging market, inside and making their rivals nervous.

It was only last September that David Gill, the former chief executive at Manchester United and now a leading figure on football’s world stage, was pontificating with confidence about where the power in the game resided.

Sergio Aguero poses for a selfie with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister David Cameron

Manchester City's owners, including Khaldoon Al Mubarak (left) and Sheikh Mansour (centre) have sold a 13 per cent stake in the club's parent company to Chinese investors

Ex-Manchester United chief executive David Gill said last year that City would never be as them big in Asia

Kevin De Bruyne (right) scored twice as City beat Hull 4-1 in the League Cup quarter-final on Tuesday

‘I’m not being arrogant,’ he said, ‘but Manchester City will never be as big as Manchester United in Asia and certain markets.’

That statement seems very naive this morning. At the precise moment he was speaking, City were already in advanced talks with a government-backed Chinese investment group, China Media Capital Holdings.

The conversations were the culmination of a three-year strategic plan to link with the region. Not in ways that now seem rather ham-fisted and guileless. Not by signing a player from the Japanese league and thinking that was Asia sorted. Not by playing the odd friendly, getting ripped off by agents and promising to return again in two years’ time (because next summer was America’s turn). Not by dipping a toe in the market, opening the odd superstore, or making Wahaha the official soft drink partner for China.

City targeted a substantial, long-term investment and allowed it to play out at government level. It is the only way to do business, real business, in China. They were thinking far bigger than their rivals, and were already putting the pieces in place to strike a unique arrangement.

Manchester City, New York City, Melbourne City and Japanese side Yokohama F. Marinos all belong to CFG

CMC chairman Ruigang Li will represent the consortium at CFG by becoming its seventh board member

WHAT IS CITY FOOTBALL GROUP? An Anglo-Arab holding company founded in 2014 which oversees the network of clubs linked to Manchester City as well as dealing with other footballing operations. Manchester City, New York City, Melbourne City and Japanese side Yokohama F. Marinos all belong to CFG. CFG runs under parent company the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) and recorded a revenue of over £300m last year. The ADUG was set-up in order to facilitate the purchase of the Premier League club. City chief executive Ferran Soriano and club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak oversee the day-to-day running of the CFG. Under Sheik Mansour's leadership, City have won the FA Cup, Capital One Cup, two Premier League titles and the Community Shield. Advertisement

CMC have bought 13 per cent of the City Football Group, but that is not the same as buying into Manchester City. The new investors will have a presence on the board of the holding company, but no say in the running of the individual clubs.

Were Guardiola to come to City next summer, he would still be in charge of his football team, in conjunction with his Barcelona allies Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain. CFG comprises a worldwide network of clubs including New York City, Melbourne City and Yokohama Marinos. Through them, China will branch into football, with the ultimate aim of hosting the World Cup.

Further down the line a Chinese arm for CFG is certain to be sought, perhaps in Beijing or Shanghai, or by creating an entirely new team for the Chinese Super League, maybe based in Hong Kong.

A lot of options are being thrown at China’s new partners, including the possibility of starting up in burgeoning holiday-resort cities to the south, such as Sanya. There is much still to be decided.

CFG chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak (centre) claimed the new agreement is 'hugely exciting'

Prime Minister Cameron (centre) with Chinese President Jinping (centre right) and Manchester City chairman Al Mubarak (fourth right) during a visit to the City Football Academy

Yet what was plain as City announced the arrangement on Tuesday morning is that their rivals have been left in the traps. Of course, Manchester United are huge in China and could easily court similar investment. They do not, however, have the structure that would keep the club off-limits.

Manchester United could sell 13 per cent to China tomorrow, but it would give the investors direct involvement in the football. There is no network of clubs, no global arrangement of development and expansion that can be fed straight into China. A new investor at United would be sitting down discussing whether to sell Wayne Rooney, or bid for Cristiano Ronaldo. That is not what China is looking for.

Xi Jinping, China’s president and party to this deal, has unveiled a 50-point plan aimed at making China a ‘soccer powerhouse’. The sport has recently become compulsory in schools, for instance. China recognises football’s influence and prestige, it sees the status of the World Cup, it wants in on it all.

As for City, what is now incontrovertible is that this is not some vanity project, some rich man’s toy. The reason Sheik Mansour is not at every home game ligging with Liam Gallagher is that he is not some dotty playboy, who is bored and fancies a little excitement. He is a serious financial player, and investor, who sits in the rooms where power resides, discussing foreign policy and the economic outlook of the planet. And he intends securing the financial future of his country long after the natural resources have run out.

His rivals have underestimated that. Gill thought Asia was all about league titles. ‘Look at Liverpool,’ he said. ‘The club haven’t won the league for so many years but they are very popular in Asia. The big teams with history and heritage — Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Real Madrid — have that.’

Cameron and President Xi are introduced to Aguero and City women's star Toni Duggan

Former Manchester City star Sun Jihai was inducted into the National Football Museum's hall of fame

Manuel Pellegrini's Manchester City side are currently top of the Premier League table after 14 games

WHO ARE THE INVESTORS? State-backed China Media Capital was founded by Li Ruigang, an influential Shanghai Communist Party member who has deftly mixed business and politics. During Xi's state visit to Britain, the Chinese president and the Prince William looked on as Li inked a deal with a British attraction operator to build a new Lego theme park in Shanghai. Li was present during Xi's visit to the US weeks earlier, when CMC announced a tie-up with Warner Brothers to produce and distribute films. Aside from his film and entertainment concerns Li splashed $1.3bn last year to win broadcast rights for five years to the Chinese football league, in the latest sign of growing interest in football among China's business elite. In 2014, Jack Ma, chairman of Internet giant Alibaba, purchased half of Guangzhou Evergrande, the reigning Asian Champions League winners. Advertisement

And City don’t, was the underlying message. But he ignored what they do have. An owner who talks to Xi, to Cameron, to Obama, who sees legacy projects and geopolitics from a government perspective. Abu Dhabi now moves into China selling its clubs as brands and using its expertise to facilitate the ambitions of the Chinese government.

If this results, long term, in a Chinese World Cup, then City are in at the ground floor as partners. City academies, City infrastructure. It is an echo of what they have done here, but from a more firmly established base. Sheik Mansour took a club that was a punchline and turned it into a force in world football. City barely had a human resources department when he arrived.

Now it is an exemplary business. The academy has been seven years in the making; the City Football Group is three years old. The value of the company was $3billion — and then the Chinese bought in. What might it be in several years’ time, with the rewards of this alliance? So when those inside Abu Dhabi dismiss the idea that this deal is merely a shrewd way of affording Messi’s £400,000 a week, football would do well to listen. They have been thinking far bigger than any imagined all along.