Former Manchester City chairman John Wardle is confident the club's new owners will get it right at Eastlands.

"I'm not interested in returning into football as an investor. Manchester City was, and remains, the club I support," Wardle told the Manchester Evening News.

"It is true I have had approaches from other clubs but there has only been one club I wanted to put my money in and that was City. I look forward to going to watch City and I think they will come good, in fact, I'm convinced they will do well under the new owners and team manager Mark Hughes. They have to be patient because success doesn't happen overnight."

Wardle, who is reputed to have lost up to £10m when he sold the club, added: "We've got to give City time to settle down under the new owners.

"I'm not going to start making statements like we will one day be better than Manchester United. What I do believe is that in two or three seasons we will be challenging for a top four place.

"It's always possible and you should never say never but United will always be challenging for the top honours so it would not be right for me to say City are going to overtake them. It would be great, however, for us to at least be challenging United."