Week Ending: Sheikh Mansour buys British again; and more

IT seems Abu Dhabi’s Royal family just can’t get enough of British goods.

Sheikh Mansour, the billionaire owner of Manchester City, who is celebrated in a fans’ song about “going to Spain in a Lamborghini” to hire manager Manuel Pellegrini – who was coaching Malaga last year; does not in fact drive the Italian marque, but instead favours a British-made Land Rover.

The revelation was made by City’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak – a close aide to Sheikh Mansour – in his annual end of season interview with the club’s website.

Asked about whether the Sheikh was aware of the song – one of the most popular at the Etihad Stadium last season – chairman Mubarak chuckles and said: “He doesn’t drive a Lamborghini, so unfortunately the song is entertaining but he actually drives a Land Rover.”

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The Mail on Sunday’s most recent expose on the Rev Paul Flowers suggested the former Co-op Bank chairman was in talks with the Manchester radio station Gaydio about presenting a show.

Gaydio, based in Manchester One, in Portland Street, describes itself as the world’s biggest gay radio station with around 100,000 listeners on FM and a further 750,000 on DAB licences across the South East.

We were wondering where the disgraced former Methodist minister would fit into the schedule.

Maybe after being fined £400 for possessing cocaine, methyl amphetamine and ketamine he could host an advice phone-in show. Or perhaps a Moneybox-style personal finance programme, or even a non-stop hits chart show.

Sadly, none of this will happen. The station’s co-founder Toby Whitehouse told us: “We only had one conversation a while ago about the possibility of running an interview and haven’t followed it up since.”

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Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese was spotted at the Night and Day Cafe on Wednesday night watching a hotly-tipped young country band called Hurray for the Riff Raff.

The band, based in New Orleans, was full of praise for Manchester.

“This is our third time here, we already have a favourite curry place and there’s a nice cake shop over there, and great record stores,” said the singer. “You’ve got something goin’ on”.

If Manchester’s new strap line is ‘Manchester – it’s got something goin’ on’, you know where it came from.