CFG's managing director of City Football Services flew into Melbourne this week as the Australian arm of the global network heads into the finals, with City finishing in third spot for the season and battling Brisbane Roar for a semi-final spot tonight..

CFG managed to recoup the cost of buying the A-League licence from Melbourne Heart with the $10m sale of former player Aaron Mooy to Huddersfield last year.

And Marwood admits the business plan for City rests on the development of young talent and taking them to the world, both through direct sales and their expanding network of clubs worldwide.

"The irony here is that when you get success in Manchester, there are big financial gains to be had, " said Marwood. "The difference between finishing bottom of the Premier League – although we'd never do that– and the top of the Premier League is quite huge.

"That doesn't apply here. If you look at where it is right now – and that's all we can talk about – someone like Sydney is being incredibly successful but yet their crowds are down.

"I'm guessing that's going to impact on their revenues. It's then about the investment the owners will make."

He added: "We've got to get the right balance and that has to be a sustainable football club and to do that there has to be a mixture of the business – clearly, attracting new fans... as we know, we clearly haven't got a huge fan base and we have to try to grow that."

City are unconvinced marquees are the way to grow their club after the backlash over David Villa's short stay and the limited success Tim Cahill brought in terms of bigger crowds.

"Clearly we want to win here so you should never lose sight of that," said Marwood. "But I also think that this is a really good development opportunity in terms of young players.

"The league is a good league – we see it with the number of young players here and at other clubs – so there's no reason why this couldn't be a platform in terms of a place to get good first team experience and development.

"Can we develop young players? Aaron showed that there is a pathway there and clearly he generated good revenues."

He added: "I think right now, where we are for the next three years, is a mixture of the two.

"We don't want to lose sight of being successful but at the same time, we have to develop and grow the business.

"So to pay for all of the academy programs and everything else we have to do, we have to generate revenue."