Guardiola’s lucky roll-neck and the vital team-bonding trip packed with quizzes and volleyball
ASOLEMN place, the Luton Town directors’ box. Manchester City were in December and six points behind the leaders. Pep Guardiola remonstrated with referee Craig Pawson as they went in at half-time a goal down.
Kevin De Bruyne was absent and Erling Haaland had a foot injury which would keep him out for two months. Another slipup could have been terminal and staff knew it, staring straight into the distance or pacing around the corporate area. It appeared as if City were on the precipice.
An hour later, wild celebrations in front of the away end. It felt like a big 2-1 win. Yet only a week later, as Phil Foden conceded a stoppage-time penalty, a two-goal lead was blown at home to Crystal Palace. Back to square one. In fourth, five points adrift of Arsenal.
City had won once in six matches. They have since won 18 of 21 in a show of endurance that only this extraordinary man in charge can engineer year on year. Guardiola has worn the same blue knitwear for every domestic game since Palace, even when baking hot at Fulham a week ago. Geniuses are allowed their superstitions too.
Guardiola would disagree that City’s season turned at the Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia just before Christmas, having claimed at the time that their faltering title defence was down to the concession of late goals and moments of madness rather than any major flaws. The players say different, pointing to a lack of control and dipping displays.
Guardiola may be right, but a lot can be said for a change of scenery in what was effectively a week-long team building exercise. Volleyball, Kyle Walker organising parlour games, quizzes and the bizarre morning when players having recovery massages gazed out over the Red Sea while festive songs chosen by staff blared out in the background.
A day off was spent by the pool or finding themselves mobbed by locals. That trip felt like a pre-season, games they ought to win in searing heat, away from Manchester’s gloom.
Saudi represented a reset. Foden, chastised after Palace, had inspired them to become champions of the world. He, like City, have rarely checked the rearview after boarding that flight back from Jeddah. Thirty-five unbeaten in all competitions is a club record and gave City a chance of repeating the Treble.
Now, they are the first English club ever to win four consecutive top-flight titles. Bettered Herbert Chapman’s Huddersfield, 1930s Arsenal, Liverpool’s Boot Room, Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. This achievement will define Guardiola’s legacy.
BEFORE a ball had even been kicked, Guardiola was concerned. Privately, a potential Treble hangover was being discussed. He wasn’t sure what would greet him when the squad went off to Asia in pre-season. Added angst came after his back had been giving him real problems and it became clear an operation was necessary, Guardiola hobbling around Tokyo and Seoul.
But he put off the idea of going under the knife for the opening weeks. Things needed sorting. Bayern Munich were coming for Walker, his future in the balance ahead of the Community Shield defeat by Arsenal on penalties. Guardiola rode his Pinarello bike to his preferred Japanese restaurant, MUSU, for a meeting with the veteran to impress upon him how much City needed him. Walker ended up with the captaincy ahead of De Bruyne and has been almost ever-present.
Keeping Walker was massive. It ate away at Guardiola, having lost Riyad Mahrez, Aymeric Laporte and, most importantly, Ilkay Gundogan to Barcelona. ‘Kyle’s a calm and commanding voice in the dressing room,’ one source said. Even with embarrassment off the field laid bare on the front pages he has led this team in exemplary fashion.
Guardiola wouldn’t know how his players were reacting to making history in Istanbul until a few months into the season and has constantly used that night as a motivational tool. That, for him and his squad, must have been the hardest aspect of this season.
One reminder of what lay in front of City resided on a wall of the training ground’s boot room. ‘No team has ever won four consecutive Premier League titles... yet.’ Nobody could walk out for sessions without seeing that message. The squad glanced at that for the final time on Saturday.
In the Etihad tunnel, several players were pulled into a huddle at half-time of their first home win, against Newcastle, where Guardiola jabbed at a picture of them celebrating June’s FA Cup success over Manchester United.
‘We were strong here,’ he said, pointing to his head. He allowed himself a brief minute to stare at a huge canvas of the Champions League trophy lift, hung up in the Karaiskakis Stadium on the eve of the UEFA Super Cup, but those reflections have been fleeting.
THE surgery — described as an ‘emergency’ — couldn’t wait, Guardiola returning to Catalonia and missing wins over Fulham and Sheffield United. He watched on the couch at home with his son, Marius, and kept in contact with new assistant coach
Inigo Dominguez, who had replaced Enzo Maresca.
By the time Guardiola returned, he was bouncing. In the tunnel, he was showing his fitted back brace — or corset, as one observer laughed — holding him together.
What kept staff together was the attitude. One player faced disciplinary action on several occasions but the majority have been switched on, alive to history. ‘Look at them, they still want to f****** run,’ a source said in October. ‘After eight years, they are still f****** running.’
Still running but giving up late equalisers to Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool. Losing at Wolves without Rodri, then at Arsenal with the Spanish fulcrum again suspended. Guardiola defended the team but delivered a sevenminute sermon on how the whole club needed ‘a shake’.
The idea of repeating the scenes at Mayfield Depot a few months prior, at an end-of-season bash when all three trophies left slightly damaged, felt distant.
That evening, Rico Lewis saw Foden losing control of his silverware, intervened to catch it, only to then drop his own. They will have four trophies to juggle this time if United are dealt with in Saturday’s FA Cup final.
WEST HAM, the crowning day, was Rodri’s 50th unbeaten league game on the trot. With 56, only Sol Campbell has recorded a longer run. If Foden doesn’t claim City’s Player of the Year award, it will either be top scorer Haaland or the man who makes City tick.
It was noticeable that when Rodri was afforded a 16-minute breather in March at the end of what seemed a comfortable victory at Palace, City fell to pieces. Although ending 4-2, there were a few puffs of the cheeks by staff in the dressing room.
Days later, Rodri came out after the Champions League quarterfinal classic against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, a 3-3 draw, saying he really needed a rest. Guardiola listened, giving him the day off in smashing Luton 5-1.
Talk of fatigue crept in across March and April. Guardiola told his players after the tired goalless draw with Arsenal that they had performed well to nullify them, emphasising the defensive effort from the front, privately knowing their play was too risk-averse.
City appeared to be working solely on adrenaline. Then, the morning following the penalty heartache at the hands of Madrid, Walker went in to see Guardiola with the five-man captain’s group. A switched was flicked.
Guardiola listened as they made their representations. If a player declares himself fit from now until the season’s climax, he is available without question. Do not ease up in training. ‘Push us to the limit,’ was the message. The boss didn’t need a second invitation.
Thirty-three goals in nine league games since beating Aston Villa on April 3. It really did click at the end of a season where sources have remarked on City’s stubbornness in refusing to lose as paramount over that usual fluency, evidenced by the fact they recovered 18 points from losing positions away from home.
Six crowns in seven years, eight in 12. There is a lot to be said of the 115 charges for alleged financial breaches hanging over the club and how they are viewed if any of those stick. Even if City are exonerated completely, the whispering and suspicion will not cease. Those inside the club will have to make peace with that.
If it transpires that all of this was built on sand, then Guardiola has done a splendid job with his bucket and spade. That leadership group — Walker, De Bruyne, Ruben Dias, Rodri, Bernardo Silva — are his signings, mentalities moulded over years.
INJURIES have taken hold. Guardiola bristled at suggestions that the fitness problems were heightened this year but the reality is they are up, a couple significantly longer than initially diagnosed. As a result, the side hasn’t been as settled.
Some believe individualism has had a larger say than ever. Especially when De Bruyne was out, travelling the world with his family after surgery. Only recently, as Mateo Kovacic has grown next to Rodri, have City located that renowned pure control.
De Bruyne’s return in January provoked an explosion. Losing 21 at Newcastle, he scored within five minutes and then assisted young Oscar Bobb for the winner. The King was back and he has posted better numbers than ever. With a full season, he would have broken his own assists record.
Another of those, Haaland, ends as Golden Boot winner again, and No 2 goalkeeper Stefan Ortega has been excellent when coming on for Ederson four times. He’s saved them a few times, even before that showstopper to deny Son Heung-min at Tottenham.
Four in a row. It brings to mind something Walker said in Jeddah. Asked if that would see them eclipse the old United or Liverpool teams, he replied: ‘They did it year in, year out for a number of years. To be recognised as one of the top clubs in the world we have to do it for a bit longer.’
Perhaps he thought this would finally be the year they broke, too. Nope. Maybe next time.