London - Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim, who is poised to become the new owner of Manchester City, believes he can make City as big as Chelsea, according to press reports Tuesday.

Al-Fahim heads the Abu Dhabi United Group, which, subject to due diligence, will take over Cty from the former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after signing a memorandum of understanding for the change of ownership.

Abramovich spent over 150 million pounds (268 million dollars) in his first year at Chelsea, making them one of English football's two most successful clubs over the past five years.

And Al-Fahim believes he can make a similar impact. "I think it will be the same," he said.

"We would like to see Manchester City fighting for trophies in every tournament.

""We don't just want Manchester City to be challenging for trophies in England, but also in the Champions League."

City's next league game is against Chelsea, and they should have in their line-up the Brazilian forward Robinho, who joined them on Monday for a British record fee of around 33 million pounds.

Al-Fahim acknowledged that the revolution will take time for a club who finished only ninth last season.

"A place in the Champions League is quite a jump from last season, but we are ready to sit down with the manager, find out the players he would like, and bring the right players into the club," he said.

"This season we would like to be a lot better than last season, and we are eager for trophies next season." (dpa)