All or Nothing, Man City’s show of power
A new documentary series on Manchester City is a striking show of power — with some important lessons for their legendary neighbours, writes Dhruv Munjal
Money cannot buy you class” was Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho’s terse assessment of rival English football club Manchester City and their ambitious new documentary series project, Allor Nothing. Only, Mourinho, who was sn ar ki ly dismiss ive of a female journalist following his team’ s meek defeat to Brighton last weekend, is perhaps the last person on earth you would want to take lessons on “class” from.
“You must be fantastic in your job to have the ability to speak about chemistry between players,” hesaid, in response to be IN Sports reporter Carrie Brown’ s question about the absence of cohesion and communication between United players.
Brown’s query was perfectly legitimate, for United were a colossal mess against Brighton— a catastrophic performance that seemed all the more grim when juxtaposed with City’s 6-1 dismantling of Huddersfield just hours earlier. And while Mourinho’s ire has mainly drawn from the film’s peppery portrayal of him as a visionless abandoner of special talent and a surly “anti-football” man, Allor Nothing is not exactly a take on the United-City rivalry. Yet, anything that even remotely presents City in a glowing light invariably does invite mention of United— despite the vastly different trajectories their football has taken over the years, the fortunes of the two clubs have forever been intertwined.
Mourinho has vowed not to watch the film— not in its entirety, at least. But given these times of strife, where both his employers and his best player, Paul Pogba, seem disillusioned with him, Allor
Nothing— eight engrossing episodes that chronicle City’s record-breaking 2017-18 Premier League season, during which it became the first team to amass 100 points — may have some urgent lessons for the United boss.
The film’ s unique selling proposition was always going to bean opportunity to get inside the brain of City manager Pep Guard io la, one of the prophets of football’ s neotactical age. All fans know that his teams—Barcelona and B aye rn Munich in the past—play beautiful football, but what drives the mad, foot ball-consumed genius of Guard io la to make them play that way?
The first scene is a fair indicator: a fiery Guard io la is stood in the middle of the We mb le yd res sing room during half-time of last season’ s League Cup final, haranguing and inspiring in turns, belting out words almost too swift ly for his players to even comprehend .“I know it’ s difficult, guys. But you must learn to play football with courage,” hesays. In another scene, he explain show “great teams score lots of f***ing goals”. Other times, he talk sabout going short and finding space—a C ruy ff ian trope of which now Guard io la is undeniably the modern-day master.
More than anything else, Guardiola’s de mean our perfectly illustrate show difficult and demanding it must be for anyone to play for him .“Detailed” is how City midfielder Kevin De B ruy ne likes to describe him. This is exactly the kind of excruciating detail that impelled B aye rn Munich’ s X ab i A lon so, as narrated by the ever-perceptive Michael Cox in The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, to spend entire training sessions just trying to win second balls.
While a lot of this Amazon Prime Original is steered by Guard io la’ s raging charisma and cuss-word-inflected erudition, the series is equally remarkable for the unprecedented access the crew manages to get. Youare welcomed into City’ s gymnasiums, medical rooms, recovery chamber sand laundry baskets— quite an achievement considering that official match broadcasters aren’ t even allowed a glimpse into the tunnel post match, let alone sneak into dressing rooms and listen to team conversations.
There are the requisite, endearing moments from players’ personal lives thrown in: Sergio Aguero longing for hisson, Benjamin, to visit him soon, and Fern and in ho celebrating his daughter’ s birthday.
But every team has its characters, and at City, throught his film, itis Benjamin Men dy and Fabian Del ph who surprisingly emerge. Mendy, a crucial player who was ruled out long-term very early last season, is shown as the team’ s chief cheerleader and easily the most like able of all City players. And Delph, a relatively small man, is a towering presence behind the scenes. Both are portrayed as purveyor sofa joyousness that eventually proved central to the team’ s success. With frenzied singing and dancing, in the film every major victory is celebrated like a title win— a kind of back room camaraderie City’ s neighb ours would do well to inculcate.
There are other possible takeways for United, too. The role of Txiki Begiristain, director of football at City, cannot be emphasised enough. The Spaniard is Guardiola’s trusted aide who scouts players and sorts out transfers. United haven’t had someone in that position for years and their recent troubles in the transfer market are, hence, not much of a surprise.
And, apart from his tactical saga city, the one thing that shines through about Guard io lain the series is his ability to unite his players and considerably improve them—something the coaches at United haven’ t always been able to achieve.
If Mendy and Del ph are the flag bearers of delight, a Machiavellian M our in ho is expectedly painted as the villa in of the piece. First, the Manchester derby is billed as “attacking fl air versus parking the bus ”, the latter an of t-repeated reference to M our in ho’ s painful-to-watch, defensive style. Later, the Portuguese is dissed for mis handling and eventually selling De B ruy ne when he was Chelsea manager, with an old, irascible, classic-Mourinho press conference used to demonstrate his shocking lack of foresight.
While the sale of De Bruyne, who is now rated as one of the best players in the world, may well have been a mistake, the “parking the bus” insinuation comes across as a churlish jibe at someone who has won so muchroutinely counted among the great coaches of the modern era.
The somewhat dumbed down narration— understand able given that City are looking at a global audience—by Ben Kingsley, and the all-too-familiar sight of Noel Gallagher( the former Oasis guitarist and his brother, Liam, are lifelong City fans) are slight dampeners, but the series otherwise succeed sin putting forth a sparkling rendition of a sparkling season.
And while it maybe easy for some to dismiss All or Nothing as nothing but propaganda peddled by the club’ s Arab owners, that would really be missing the point. City have been winning trophies for the past few years, so why the documentary now? By giving cameras unimpeded access to their world-class training facilities and coaches, and by showing off Guard io la’ s genius, Allor Nothing is as triking show of power, a declaration of their conviction of being the bigger club in Manchester. Unfortunately, for the red half of the city, the times are no longer changing. They may have already changed.
GUARDIOLA’S DEMEANOUR PERFECTLY ILLUSTRATES HOW DEMANDING IT MUST BE FOR ANYONE TO PLAY FOR HIM