Manchester United legend Andy Cole says Manchester City are heading in the right direction under Sheikh Mansour.

Cole, in his column for the National in Abu Dhabi, is convinced City are getting the important decisions right.

He wrote: "The step up from where City have been placed in recent years is massive.

"The top four is such a hard group of teams to break into yet they have already beaten Arsenal, the team playing the best football in England at the moment. And while City have dropped points by drawing, they have only lost one of their 11 league games this season

"City are sixth in the table, with a game in hand on most of the teams above them. They were 13th this time last season. The club have undergone a big change and there have been a lot of player movements, but City are moving forward in the right direction.

"I see that every week when I watch my son play for City's Under 15s. The club's new resources are not just being lavished on first-team players, but on the infrastructure. There were bound to be some growing pains, because City have gone from a club who went for the second tier of players and now they go for the first.

"When I played there, the big signing was the Greek striker Georgios Samaras for £6million (Dh30m). With respect to him, now City sign world-class players."