Behind scenes as Blues celebrated winning the title
ONE player was “jumped” by celebrating City team-mates, another got a bizarre head massage, and two international stars had to run back to the dressing room after someone forgot the champagne!
They were some of the unseen scenes from the tunnel area as the Blues celebrated their Premier League title win in front of their ecstatic fans.
Security guards looked after the Premier League trophy – and the Carabao Cup – as City players donned their “Champions 18” commemorative shirts.
They were preceded out of the tunnel by people from City in the Community, specially chosen to form a guard of honour as Pep Guardiola and his players made their way to the podium.
There was one poignant moment as Guardiola waited to emerge into the sunshine, when – standing with Claudio Bravo – he spotted the trophy, standing on the floor of the tunnel.
For a few moments, he gazed at the gleaming silverware, and then gave it a nod of the head and a cluck of the tongue, in apparent appreciation of a job well done.
The players queued behind him and, understandably, were in high spirits.
Yaya Toure, who is expected to play his final home game for the club against Brighton tomorrow night, was mobbed by the younger players, who jokingly call him “Uncle”.
They leapt on the midfielder, who took it all in good heart.
One strange moment saw Aleks Zinchenko – who later knocked the trophy off its pedestal as the players celebrated – give Fabian Delph a head massage.
Skipper Vincent Kompany had to return to the dressing room to roust out a giddy Leroy Sane, who was busy dancing to the dressing room music.
Guardiola’s assistant Manel Estiarte and first-team ‘manager’ Marc Boixasa were sent to fetch Sane but were too busy laughing at his antics until Kompany applied a bit of authority to the situation.
Raheem Sterling serenaded some of his team-mates with a pretty tuneless ‘This Is The Moment We’ve Been Waiting For’ as they waited in the tunnel, before heading out onto the pitch for more fun and shenanigans.
And there was a comedy moment when the celebrating players realised that the expensive bottles of champagne they had been given to celebrate the moment had been left in the dressing room.
Benjamin Mendy and Leroy Sane headed back down the deserted tunnel to retrieve the booze, and the France international was hastily uncorking one of them as he made his way back to join the throng.
Mendy almost sent the strict security into meltdown by trying to get some of his French friends onto the pitch from the Tunnel Club area, even though they did not have the right accreditation.