Within hours of the announcement that former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was selling City to an Abu Dhabi group for £210m, its new owner-elect announced a record-breaking four-year deal to buy Real Madrid forward Robinho for a reported £32.5m.
Sulaiman Al-Fahim has been ranked as one of the 20 most powerful Arabs by the region's business press and is said to have a personal wealth that dwarves even that of Roman Abramovich, the Russian multi-billionaire who bought Chelsea in 2003.
Chelsea, which was very close to signing Robinho before Madrid changed their mind, directly lost out due to City's new wealth.
Al-Fahim has said he hopes his takeover of the club will have the same impact on football as Roman Abramovich's purchase of Chelsea.
He told reporters today: "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. We want them to be in for every trophy available."
Thomas Cook has sponsored the club for five years for a reported £1.5m per year, and renewed this summer for a sixth consecutive season, in a deal brokered by the Thomas Cook UK chief executive, Manny Fontenla-Novoa and the new City executive chairman, Garry Cook.
However, the club's new ambition may well lead it to review its partnership with its sponsor, as Chelsea did with kit partner Umbro in 2005, paying off Umbro early so it could sign a ten-year deal with Adidas.
While the Thomas Cook brand operates across Europe and the shirt branding pushes its website, City's new guard may see more commercial benefit in finding a more global brand as sponsor.
Thomas Cook declined to comment on City's takeover, but a spokeswoman said the sponsorship deal "remains the same".
Garry Cook, who spent 12 years as one of Nike's most senior marketing executives before joining the club earlier this year, is reported to be eager for City -- and Premier League football as a whole -- to do more to capitalise on commercial opportunities.
In his tenure at Nike, Cook oversaw the sportswear giant's Brand Jordan partnership, working on the brand's long-running endorsement deal with American basketball star Michael Jordan.
In an interview with The Guardian last month, Cook said Premier League clubs were "10 years behind" the US when it came to merchandising, adding: "This is the most powerful sports league in the world but also the most undervalued."
Pointing to other football clubs with small local sponsors, he said: "You look at our brand and it's Thomas Cook. There's something not quite right about watching us in a bar in Beijing or Bangkok or Tokyo and seeing: 'Fred Smith's Plumbing, call 0161...'"
Under the deal, Thomas Cook's logo appears on the new club strip and around the Eastlands stadium.
The company is the official overseas travel supplier for the club's players, and also provides discount travel deals to fans under the City Travel Club scheme.
It claims more than 50,000 City fans have booked a holiday or travelled with Thomas Cook over the past five years.
At the time of the extension Manchester City said: "Thomas Cook has been a loyal and valued partner. Both Manchester City and Thomas Cook share similar values in the UK."