Manchester City's new owners are already looking to expand the club.

The Daily Mail says City's new owners have opened talks with the local council with a view to buying the City of Manchester Stadium and turning the surrounding wastelands into a "City World" hotel and leisure complex.

It is understood that new City owner, Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al Nayhan, is ready to pay Manchester City Council the £50million it would take to buy the ground that was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and is leased to the club for £2m-a-year.

Sheik Mansour wants eventually to expand the 47,000-capacity stadium and take it towards the capacity of 78,000 currently enjoyed by neighbours Manchester United.

The Sheik also has plans to buy up acres of land adjacent to the stadium in East Manchester so that he can move the first-team training ground from its current Carrington base and the academy training centre from Platt Lane near the city centre.

Indeed, parents of some youngsters currently enrolled at Platt Lane have already been told of the plans. Sheik Mansour has privately outlined a vision of how he wants the stadium site to develop and it is understood that it also involves a five-star hotel and shopping complex.