Standing Alone: Stories of Heroism and Heartbreak from Manchester City's 2020/21 Title-Winning Season

JULY

THE STORY OF MANCHESTER CITY’S FIVE MONTHS IN LIMBO

ADAM CRAFTON, DANIEL TAYLOR

ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS: DAVID ORNSTEIN, SAM LEE

JUL 14, 2020

Among the powerful Catalan contingent who bestride the corridors of power at Manchester City, the announcement on Monday morning brought an instant release of euphoria.

On the Instagram page belonging to Manel Estiarte, a long-serving member of Pep Guardiola’s backroom staff, a picture rapidly surfaced. In the background, the rolling coverage of Sky Sports News played out and, in front of the screen, the grinning faces of City’s leading men beamed out. Guardiola and Estiarte posed alongside the chief executive Ferran Soriano, the sporting director Txiki Begiristain and the chief operating officer Omar Berrada.

Behind the scenes, City’s handsomely-paid legal team have worked around the clock to file their ultimately successful submission to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). This week, all that expense paid lucrative dividends, eliminating a two-year Champions League ban and reducing the fine – for obstructing the original investigation – from £25 million to £9 million. Yet while the legalese secured headline-grabbing success, City’s head coach Guardiola and their Catalan executive staged a careful production of their own, managing the uncertainty pervading the dressing room and keeping a roll call of star turns on board. City’s most senior figures only discovered the verdict an hour before its public announcement and the five men pictured are understood to have taken in the news together when the call came in from Switzerland.

In the City boardroom, the news soon went global. At 9.30am, CAS published their statement and, four minutes later, an email dropped into the inboxes of the club’s staff not only at their Manchester training base but also to offices in London, Singapore, Japan and Melbourne. Soriano conceded that these have not been easy times but praised the resilience and character of those employed by City. It carried a triumphant tone, telling staff that the outcome vindicated the club’s decision to challenge the judgement taken by UEFA’s club financial control body in February. The email concluded by describing the episode as an unwelcome distraction and said the club can now push ahead with recovery from COVID-19 and our performance on and off the pitch.

In the City dressing room, confirmation of the reprieve was greeted with similar acclaim. On the outside, City have maintained a stiff upper lip and a brave face over the past five months but even the most ardent supporter may have wondered how some of the squad’s most talented players would respond to a potential two-year ban from the continent’s elite competition. Sergio Aguero is 32 and Kevin De Bruyne, now 29, would have been 31 by the time Champions League football returned to east Manchester if the worst punishment transpired.

There were red flags. Early in May, for example, De Bruyne said in an interview in his native Belgium that he would consider his future. The midfielder said: Two years would be long but in the case of one year I might see.

Equally, The Athletic reported in February how Bernardo Silva, the Portuguese playmaker, would require some major persuading to remain at the club for the two years preceding the major World Cup of his career without access to Europe’s biggest club competition.

Perhaps most curious, however, was the concern that privately gripped City over Raheem Sterling, now 25 and at the peak of his powers. Shortly before City travelled to face Real Madrid in the Champions League, Sterling afforded an interview to the Spanish AS newspaper and it is no exaggeration to say that eyebrows were raised internally over the player’s decision to pose with a Real Madrid shirt draped over one shoulder and a City shirt over the other. In Madrid, the antennae pricked up and anyone who has witnessed Real’s pursuit of star names over the years sensed it may be the beginning of a drawn-out affair. City, at the time, felt that making a big deal out of the affair may only serve to inflame a sensitive situation, although the player’s agent, Aidy Ward, had previously said publicly that Sterling would not leave the club.

Despite the Sterling reservations, however, it is also true that not one City player approached the club’s executives during this period to state an intention to leave the club due to their fears over the Champions League ban and much of this loyalty is owed to the careful management overseen by Guardiola and Soriano.

The news of a potential two-year ban dropped on City on the evening of Valentine’s Day, just as the club returned from their winter break on a Friday night. Guardiola rapidly called his players in for a meeting on the Saturday. In a conference room at the club’s training ground, Guardiola reassured his players he would remain at the club next season, regardless of the result of any appeal, and he rallied the troops. The tone was us-against-the-world and, ahead of their Champions League fixture against Real Madrid, he urged his players to show Europe we are not money, we are talent. Indeed, on the Friday evening that preceded the meeting, City’s executives took a proactive approach, reaching out to their players’ agents to give reassurances that the club would overturn the punishment upon appeal. While De Bruyne teased an exit in public, his agent did, however, reassure City, while representatives of Phil Foden made it abundantly clear he wished to remain at the club.

City’s players were further comforted when, shortly after the club returned to training after lockdown, Guardiola roused his group with a speech. In the address, he told his players that Soriano had reassured him that the club would be successful upon appeal and, in the immediate aftermath, both Sterling and De Bruyne confided in team-mates that they would remain at the club.

During the pandemic, most clubs broached the possibility of wage deferrals or reductions with their playing squad. City advocated a pay cut of around 10 per cent for the playing squad but the players were only willing to take a deferral of roughly five per cent. With neither side inclined to change their stance, the talks reached an impasse and have seemingly been put on the back burner since then. City’s hierarchy ultimately agreed to carry on paying the squad’s full wages.

Perhaps most interestingly, those most closely familiar with these City players felt the major sticking point in the group could ultimately hinge upon how their successes in recent times would be framed in the event the ban stood. Yet City did fear their players may feel their achievements to be tainted due to the UEFA judgment, or an asterisk placed against the trophies won under Guardiola’s guidance.

Not everybody, it should be said, was convinced City would succeed. While the super-agent Jorge Mendes sent a private memo of support, other agents gossiped privately, aware that the Ballon d’Or bonuses in their players’ contracts, for instance, would swiftly fade into irrelevance if their clients could not compete at the highest level. Players can receive five-figure windfalls through partnerships and sponsorships linked to European competition and some boot deals will include clauses based on the number of appearances a player makes in the Champions League.

City’s future plans, meanwhile, would clearly have been compromised by an absence from the elite. City recorded a £10.1 million profit last season but £77 million of their income came from Champions League participation. In the absence of this cash flow, it is tempting to wonder whether City may have needed to do more to balance the books than simply sell Leroy Sane in his long-trailed move to Bayern Munich.

Now, however, such concerns have dissipated. City are favourites to see off Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 and they will return to the competition next season with added sparkle. The club are determined to recruit players at centre-back, left-back, on the wing and up front this summer. At left-back, City are open to selling any of Angelino, Benjamin Mendy or Oleksandr Zinchenko. City conceived a plan to include Bayern Munich’s David Alaba in the Sane deal but the Germans could not be persuaded. Juventus’ Alex Sandro is a long-standing target who may return to the shortlist, while City have not yet abandoned all hope on Leicester’s Ben Chilwell, in a deal which may be revived if Chelsea fail to qualify for the Champions League.

Southampton’s experienced full-back Ryan Bertrand, who has excelled of late, is also on the radar after Guardiola first considered a move for him in 2017. At centre-half, Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and Bournemouth’s Nathan Ake are contenders while Valencia’s breakthrough talent Ferran Torres is running down his contract and impressing suitors in the wide position. Bayern’s Kingsley Coman and Bayer Leverkusen’s Leon Bailey are alternatives.

While the targets are varied, the nub is clear: City want to recruit and Guardiola wants it done with conviction. Previous summers have irritated the City coach, particularly in the way the club were beaten to transfers by Chelsea and Manchester United for Jorginho and Harry Maguire, despite subsequent protestations that the club will not pay over the odds for players.

While City go on the attack, both on and off the field, the reaction elsewhere has been shock and bewilderment. One senior Premier League club executive described himself as flabbergasted on Monday. Meanwhile, a WhatsApp group of leading European club directors rapidly exchanged messages to discuss the next steps for financial fair play within an hour of the news breaking. Soon enough, they were consulting external advisers and deliberating whether to lobby UEFA to take City to a Swiss federal court.

Guardiola, for his part, is expected to be robust in his next press appearance and he has privately been unimpressed by the moves made by the European elite to circle on City. Earlier this year, Guardiola turned on his former club Barcelona, telling them not to talk too loud after the club’s president praised the decision to ban City. Guardiola may take aim at certain clubs, for City have been equally unimpressed by representations made by Juventus and Bayern over the years, as well as what they see as a concerted bid to cut the club’s representatives out of key positions on European Club Association and UEFA committees.

There are no shortage of contenders for a Guardiola riposte but, deep down, the coach will be most content to know his City team will now be able to do their talking on the pitch.

SEPTEMBER

WHAT MESSI’S U-TURN MEANS FOR HIM, BARCELONA AND MANCHESTER CITY

DERMOT CORRIGAN, SAM LEE

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: ED MALYON AND ADAM CRAFTON

SEPT 4, 2020

Ten days after Lionel Messi asked to leave Barcelona, sparking a bitter, public legal row with the club at which he has played for almost two decades and its president Josep Maria Bartomeu, the six-time Ballon d’Or winner has reversed his position, saying that he is to stay.

The move will be seen as a blow to Manchester City, who have strongly distanced themselves from a move but who multiple sources said were making efforts to finally sign the 33-year-old, and to all those who hoped to see him in the Premier League.

In a saga that has dominated the past week, Messi first communicated his desire to leave in a Burofax to the club, who insisted a clause allowing him to depart for free at the end of the season just gone had expired, a stance supported publicly by La Liga.

The player’s father and agent, Jorge, then travelled to Barcelona for talks, following which the first formal statement came on Friday afternoon, with Jorge writing to La Liga president Javier Tebas, criticising the league’s position and reaffirming his son’s right to leave Barcelona.

Yet within a few hours an interview had been broadcast in which Messi spoke of his decision to stay at the club he loves and his commitment to their cause.

So what’s really been going on?

What did Messi say?

The most important message from Lionel Messi’s interview with Goal.com was that he was taking back his decision to leave Barcelona this summer. I could never take the club of my life to court, that is why I am going to stay at Barcelona, Messi said.

It was not because he had changed his mind but because he had realised it would be impossible to force his way out without taking the club he loved through a painful court battle. So he was going to stay and play for Ronald Koeman’s team next season.

I told the president I wanted to go, that my time was over at Barca, Messi said. I always wanted to finish my career at this club, but I suffered a lot through a very difficult year. I wanted to look for new objectives, a new atmosphere, new challenges. The exit from the Champions League hurt a lot, but that did not make up my mind. It came from many things which had been happening. I had been thinking about it all year.

Why has he decided to make this U-turn?

Messi has not changed his mind about wanting out, but has decided that he could not force his exit, as that would have required a damaging and lengthy legal battle. He still believes that he had the legal right to leave for free this summer, but the club were only prepared to let him leave if another club came to pay his €700 million release clause. So that left taking Barca to court, and he said he could not bring himself to do that to the club he has been at since the age of 13.

How long is Messi really likely to stay at Barcelona? Could he stay beyond next season or is he now likely to leave on a free next summer?

Barca sources have maintained to The Athletic all through the last fortnight that there is an offer of a two-year contract extension on the table for Messi to sign whenever he wants. Whoever is president next summer will also surely try their hardest to make sure that Messi does not leave then and walk away for free.

The Argentine avoided saying how long he intended to stay at the club during the interview, sticking instead to saying he would fulfil the final 12 months of his current deal, and give his all under new coach Ronald Koeman.

The truth is I don’t know what will happen, he said. There is a new coach and a new idea. That is good, but then we will have to see how the team responds, and if it is enough for us to compete or not. All I can say is that I am staying, and I will always give everything.

That was far from a ringing endorsement of Koeman’s appointment or the team’s chances of success in 2020/21. The problems with Barca’s ‘sporting project’ are unlikely to be fixed before next summer, especially given its financial situation. But a year is an eternity in football, and by June 10 next year the club will have a new president, who will likely bring back some of Messi’s former team-mates to the Camp Nou, so there would be time then to change his mind again.

How big a blow is this for Manchester City?

When Messi first signalled his intention to leave, City strongly distanced themselves from any deal and that position has not changed but sources told The Athletic that the club were interested in bringing him to Manchester. Messi’s comments would seem to have ended that prospect but there is one school of thought around City as of Friday evening that this may not be over.

The same sources that confirmed to The Athletic that City were firmly in the race to sign Messi last Tuesday have suggested that Bartomeu might still need to sell Messi (to balance the books and leave the club without being personally liable for any losses) and that that may still be an option in the coming weeks.

It’s easy to believe that there is an element of clinging to a dream about this, or that it is even something of a conspiracy theory. But if you were to work on the basis that Bartomeu does want to sell Messi after all, and that Messi does want to leave and join City, but that neither of them want to be seen as the bad guys, this interview could simply be Messi putting the ball in Bartomeu’s court, calling his bluff and ‘threatening’ to stay. Of course, it would only be a threat if Bartomeu does indeed need and want to sell Messi, despite his public stance to the opposite.

So is this interview really the end of the saga or just an elaborate negotiating tactic? It would certainly push the limits of credibility to imagine Messi leaving the club after sitting down and giving an interview like this, but there are those at City that believe this chapter is not entirely closed. They always knew it would be extremely difficult to sign him, even after putting themselves in pole position, and few would suggest their chances are any better right now, but it’s one to bear in mind, at least.

Did City really believe they could sign him?

Yes. In the two weeks leading up to Messi sending that Burofax informing Barcelona that he would leave, sources told The Athletic that City had been in contact with him and his people had worked out the required figures and put themselves into a position where they were ready to sign him if he could get himself out of Barcelona.

As of Sunday, they were content with how things were progressing, and sources have told The Athletic that he even reiterated his desire to join the club on Friday morning. If that is indeed the case, given Messi either filmed his interview the same day or even Thursday, then clearly there are legs to the idea that Messi is calling Bartomeu’s bluff. But leaving that to one side, City were ready to try and do a deal if Messi could get out of Barca, it’s just that he hasn’t been able to.

How will this change what they do in the transfer market this summer?

Not a lot. City have been pressing ahead with attempts to sign Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli even while waiting to see what happened with Messi, and our information was that they would have been able to sign them both, and possibly even another target. Sources also indicated at the start of the week, when City were content with how the Messi saga was playing out, that there was an alternative forward in the plans just in case. If the Messi dream really is over, they can press ahead with those, but there can be no doubt that they are still well placed to strengthen their squad this summer, although now they have to close the deals they have in place.

Is this likely to have any impact on Pep Guardiola’s future at the club?

The assumption/hope among fans after City got their Champions League ban overturned was that it would boost the chances of Guardiola signing a new deal. Obviously, it didn’t make it any less likely but the main factor in whether he stays or not will be the strength of the squad next season, and whether he sees enough motivation and desire inside the dressing room to keep listening to his messages for another couple of years.

Had Messi arrived, with the boost he would surely have brought to the team, the chances of Guardiola signing a new contract would have only increased. It would be easy to imagine Messi staying for two, maybe three years, and Guardiola staying for that long as well. But even without Messi, City are still working on strengthening the squad so there is still an opportunity to give Guardiola the squad he needs and wants. So although Messi would surely have made it more likely that Guardiola would extend his contract, the fact Messi is probably not signing doesn’t really make it any less likely.

GUARDIOLA STEPS INTO THE UNKNOWN

DANIEL TAYLOR AND DERMOT CORRIGAN

SEPT 17, 2020

A lot has changed since The Complete History of Manchester City, written by football historian Gary James, was published in 1997. But if you would like a reminder of the differences between today’s version of the club and what City used to be like, perhaps the best place to start is by turning to page 390 and a cartoon that sums up the bad old days.

It shows two players peering nervously through an open door into the manager’s office. They look uncertain about what they might find and, true to form, the chair is empty. Another manager has just been fired. Mel Machin, in this case. Or possibly Jimmy Frizzell. I hear they’ve fitted an ejector seat, says the speech bubble.

It can certainly come as a jolt to realise that Pep Guardiola is now – no kidding – the club’s longest-serving manager since Tony Book in the 1970s. Guardiola, to put it another way, has outlasted the previous 19 City managers. Or 23, if caretaker managers are included. And if he stays until the end of March, he will overtake Book, too. Nobody will have managed the club longer since Joe Mercer, from 1965 to 1971. And, hold on a moment, wasn’t it said of Guardiola that he rarely stuck around?

This will be his fifth season in England and, to put that in context, it is the longest Guardiola has managed anywhere. OK, it is some distance behind Sir Alex Ferguson’s 26-year dynasty at Manchester United, Brian Clough’s 18-year reign at Nottingham Forest and Bill Shankly’s 15 at Liverpool. But it does make Guardiola the fourth longest-serving member of his profession in the Premier League. Sean Dyche at Burnley, Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Chris Wilder of Sheffield United are the only managers to outlast him.

In turn, Guardiola has helped the club to be seen, and to operate, as a superpower. His mere presence has given City a gravitas they never had before. Amazing success was expected and, in a way, that is exactly what he has given them: two Premier League titles, one FA Cup, three League Cups and, as he insists we should count them, two Community Shields. City have never had it so good.

At the same time, Guardiola might also have to understand why, despite everything, he will also be under more pressure this season than perhaps any time before. The bottom line, after all, is that City brought him to the club because they wanted to see their blue ribbons on the Champions League and, failing that, to have a team that either won, or went very close to winning, the Premier League every season.

Last season, City did neither. Their defence of the title ended with them as a speck in Liverpool’s wing-mirrors, 18 points behind the champions. At one stage, the gap was 25. Their Champions League quarter-final against Lyon was another ordeal, losing to the seventh-best team in France, and this season could conceivably be the last chance for Guardiola to put it right.

Tactically, Guardiola got it badly wrong against Lyon. His players knew it and so did the people running the club. It was the lowest moment of his reign and, lest it be forgotten, he is now in the final year of his contract.

Ask Brian Marwood to describe what it is like to work alongside Guardiola and it quickly becomes clear that, inside the club, they have never stopped revering the Catalan. "How do you describe one of the best managers, or the best manager, in the world?" Marwood says.

Marwood has been a key figure at City since 2009, first as director of football and then in his current role as managing director of global football. He has seen the club win the league previously, with Roberto Mancini and then Manuel Pellegrini as manager, but to hear him talk about Guardiola is to be reminded why City have always thought, unofficially, that Pep was the real Special One.

Our aim was to create an identity for the club, Marwood tells The Athletic. "What we needed was a consistent style and a framework of how we wanted to play. We wanted a certain type of football.

Manuel was probably the first one who allowed the club to appoint someone who fell into line with that style. But, with no disrespect to anybody, the one person we always thought was the high priest of that style was Pep Guardiola. Appointing him was a critical point for the club because it was style meets the teacher. That was a watershed moment for Manchester City.

Ideally, City would like Guardiola to extend his contract beyond summer 2021 and remain at the club for as long as he can be persuaded. But it is difficult to be certain at this stage whether he is open to that possibility and, in one sense, it might come as a surprise already that he has stayed this long in Manchester.

Guardiola had four seasons as Barcelona’s manager and three in charge at Bayern Munich, and something has clearly changed because, by the time he was done at the Camp Nou in 2012, he was openly admitting