Over a billion dollars was spent, the English Premier League title was won, its neighbors' feathers were duly ruffled, but the pressure to adapt to European football proved too much for Manchester City says Carlos Tevez.
Tevez, who signed for Juventus in a $13 million deal last month, enjoyed four years at City where he helped the club win the FA Cup and a first league title in 44 years, when they pipped rivals Manchester United on the last day of the 2011/2012 season.
But it was the club's failure in European competition which left a sour taste in Tevez's mouth with City failing to in their bid to compete with the continent's biggest clubs.
City has failed to progress from the Group Stage of Europe's elite competition in each of the past two seasons and the Argentine striker says the pressure and expectation on the players proved too great for the team to handle.
"Yes, there was way too much pressure," Tevez told CNN.
"It came from everyone -- the club, the fans. I think that too much pressure just hurts the team.
"What happened was that there so much hype and pressure to be one of the giants of Europe and we didn't do it.
"We dropped out in the first round of the Champions League on both occasions."
City will now hope that new manager Manuel Pellegrini will help to turn its fortunes around following the departure of Roberto Mancini.
City's former Italian coach and Tevez endured a difficult relationship with the Argentine's apparent refusal to warm up during a Champions League tie at Bayern Munich in September 2011.
Subsequently the Italian announced that Tevez would never play for the club again before finally relenting, but the Argentine says he only has respect for his former manager.
"He's a winner," added Tevez.
"I think he's a winner because he always wants to win and he takes his team to the maximum place to be able to win. Everyone who knows Mancini knows that he's a winner from birth."
Tevez's new club, Juventus, last won the Champions League back in 1996 and reached the quarterfinals last season before losing to eventual champion Bayern Munich.
The Turin club has not reached the final since it suffered a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat by Milan in 2003 at Old Trafford.
While Antonio Conte's side have won Serie A for the past two years, it is the European crown which the club craves.
But Tevez is aware of how such pressure can be detrimental to a team's chances of success with City just one example of how players can be adversely affected.
"I think we have to be calm and make sure we don't put pressure on ourselves to win the Champions League," added the 29-year-old as he looked to ahead to the challenge of playing in Europe with Juventus.
"If we don't then that pressure will become impossible to escape from.
"We have to be calm and know that winning the Scudetto again will make us part of Italian history and then we can think about everything else.
"We all dream of winning the Champions League but our main objective is winning Serie A.
"Then we can be calm in the Champions League and everything will become a lot easier."
