From this morning's Times, written by Paul Hirst:
Just before 8 o’clock every morning, a slim middle-aged man steps out of his apartment block in Salford, hops on his bike and begins his three-mile cycle to work.
The cyclist, decked out in Puma sports gear, crosses the bridge over the River Irwell, briskly pedals through the busy streets of Ancoats in Manchester city centre and jumps on the ring road before arriving at his place of work 20 minutes later.
Because of the helmet on his head and the mask that covers his face, the other commuters have no idea that the man they are sharing the cycle lanes of Manchester with is Pep Guardiola.
A couple of months ago, the Manchester City manager was becoming increasingly bored by lockdown. The golf courses around Manchester and Cheshire that he usually frequents were shut due to the pandemic, so Guardiola decided that he needed a new hobby.
He therefore invested in a road bike. The Nissan Leaf electric car which he used to drive to City’s training ground now mainly lies dormant in his garage.
The 50-year-old has taken to cycling so much that he has already started talking to his staff about organising a bike ride in the Peak District over the coming weeks.
Right now, the Pep Guardiola that turns up for work every day at the City Football Academy (CFA) is almost unrecognisable from the fidgety character who arrived in Manchester five years ago wondering whether he could conquer England. He is completely zen, and has every reason to be.
Last night City won the third Premier League title of his five-year reign after Manchester United lost to Leicester. They are already looking forward to their first Champions League final having knocked out Paris Saint-Germain 4-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals.
With the Carabao Cup already in the trophy cabinet at the Etihad Stadium, few would bet against City completing another treble this season, so no wonder Guardiola and his players were in a good mood last night as they celebrated.
It has not always been that way this season. Rewind eight months and the mood was much less optimistic at the CFA. Some players openly talked amongst themselves about this potentially being a “transition season.”
Three new players, Rúben Dias, Nathan Aké and Ferran Torres had arrived. David Silva, Nicolás Otamendi and Leroy Sané, who had 19 years’ Premier League experience behind them, had left.
One player admitted that by the time he reported for training in September, his anger about the tame nature of City’s Champions League exit to Lyons the previous month was still prevalent in his mind. So quick was the turnaround between seasons that City only had time for one intra-squad friendly.
To make matters worse, a Covid outbreak had hit the squad. Ilkay Gündogan suffered worse than any of his team-mates. The 30-year-old German was laid up in bed for almost a week, unable to move his aching limbs.
The uncertainty surrounding Guardiola’s future was casting a shadow over the CFA too. It was widely accepted among staff that this year would be Guardiola’s last. His contract was due to expire on June 30, 2021, and there had been no suggestion that he would extend his deal.
Then there were the Covid restrictions, which infuriated the Catalan. Guardiola understood the seriousness of the pandemic, but the rules placed upon him by the Premier League at the start of the season disrupted his management techniques and he did not like them one bit.
Because large groups of people were not allowed to gather together, Guardiola had to split his squad into three groups and speak to them separately prior to games, which effectively meant that he was giving three team talks. Players were only allowed 15 minutes’ treatment with physios, and at lunch time, only two people were allowed to sit at a table in the dining room.
The players also had to change for training in the individual bedrooms at the CFA which they used to use before match days.
Then, just before the Premier League season began, Guardiola was hit with a bolt from the blue from Iceland. Phil Foden, the jewel in City’s academy, had been thrown out of the England squad after he and Mason Greenwood, the Manchester United forward, broke Covid rules by inviting two women to the team hotel in Reykjavik. Foden, 20, was crestfallen. He had been so excited about making his international debut that on the morning of the Iceland game, he proudly took a picture of his England shirt laid out on his bed and sent it to his close friends and family. Now, he and Greenwood were heading home.
The media reaction to the episode was overwhelming for the young midfielder, but rather than castigate Foden, Guardiola put his arm around the player and assured him everything would be ok.
"At the time Pep was very personable with Phil about it and he really appreciated it,” one source said. Guardiola’s handling of the situation proved to be a masterstroke and is one of the reasons why Foden would enjoy such a stellar season.
Initially, it seemed any pre-season concerns were misplaced. In their first match of the campaign, City blitzed Wolverhampton Wanderers with a superb first half display. Foden and De Bruyne ran the game, Raheem Sterling looked sharp and Aké made an encouraging debut in a 3-1 win.
Two months later, however, City were 11th. There were murmurings of discontent within the squad. Some players felt others were being greedy with the ball. Riyad Mahrez was picked out as one of the main offenders.
A title tilt seemed out of the question, but that all changed in the third week of November for two key reasons.
That week ended with a chastening 2-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur. Guardiola dislikes losing, especially to José Mourinho, but this defeat proved to be the birth of the Dias-John Stones defensive partnership.
That day in north London, Guardiola was furious with Aymeric Laporte for following Harry Kane, rather than sticking with Heung-min Son, for Tottenham’s first goal. Guardiola felt he had to drop Laporte, and with Aké injured, Stones was given a chance and he took it with gusto.
The previous year had not been the easiest for Stones. The 26-year-old had been involved in a messy break-up with his long-term partner. Guardiola’s staff felt that they could not trust Stones to keep his concentration in games. City were willing to listen to offers for Stones last summer, but he decided to stay and the move has paid off for him and the club. His form has been revelatory.
He has resolved his personal problems and is in a settled relationship with his new partner. Lockdown gave Stones a chance to re-evaluate his life. Friends of the centre-back say he is in a better place mentally because he has routine in his life again and has started consulting a dietician about how to get in the best shape.
Stones hit it off immediately with Dias. In their first six matches together, City kept six clean sheets. City have conceded just seven goals in the 24 matches they have started together.
Dias was the third choice on City’s centre-back shortlist behind Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and Seville’s Jules Koundé, but has proven an outstanding purchase. The 23-year-old has made a big impression on his team-mates, who were taken aback by his self-belief in the first training sessions that followed his £65 million transfer from Benfica.
The other key event in November that breathed life into City’s season was Guardiola’s decision to extend his contract until the summer of 2023.
The Maldives has been Guardiola’s holiday destination of choice during his five years in charge of City. In years gone by, when the international breaks have arrived he and his wife Cristina have jetted off to the Indian Ocean to spend time on one of the country’s many remote and idyllic islands.
Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the City chairman, knows the area well too because Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund that he heads, built a stunning hotel on one of the islands just over a decade ago.
It was in this stunning location that Guardiola met Al Mubarak last Autumn. Both men’s families came along for the trip, which was not subject to quarantine rules, but Al Mubarak’s main motive was not pleasure, but business. He wanted to know if Guardiola wanted to carry on as City manager.
Earlier in the campaign, some City officials were so convinced that Guardiola would leave that they openly discussed who might succeed the Catalan. Mauricio Pochettino, then out of work, and Brendan Rodgers, the Leicester City manager, were seen as two strong candidates. Julian Nagelsmann, the 33-year-old in charge of RB Leipzig, was another under consideration.
But they would have to wait their turn. Guardiola decided to stay.
The role that Al Mubarak played in persuading Guardiola to extend should not be underplayed. The two have an excellent relationship. They are both intelligent quick-thinking individuals and Guardiola respects the fact that Al Mubarak is always at his beck and call.
A couple of months ago, for example, when Guardiola was becoming annoyed at the bobbly surface at the Etihad Stadium, he called Al Mubarak and within days the club had hired two turf consultancies to help the groundsman improve the pitch.
When Guardiola and his staff arrived in Manchester five years ago, he already knew director of football Txiki Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano from their time together at Barcelona. They had never worked with Al Mubarak before, but the 46-year-old has exceeded their expectations.
“Pep came to Manchester for Txiki and Ferran, but stayed because of Khaldoon,” one source said.
The news that Guardiola had committed his future went down well with the players. A cloud of uncertainty had lifted.
It still took a while for City to click into gear, however. When City drew 1-1 against West Bromwich Albion on December 15, Guardiola was on the phone to Al Mubarak again, pouring his heart out.
His players were wasteful and not on the same wavelength. Defensively they looked vulnerable.
“Playing like this we are not going to win anything,” Guardiola told his chairman.
He aired the same worries in a meeting with his coaches straight after the final whistle. Those present remember Guardiola being very downbeat after the game “That’s not my team,” Guardiola said. “We have to discover our essence.”
Guardiola and his coaches decided that they should go back to basics, instruct their players to run less and play more straightforward passes.
The City manager made another change which he felt was key to his team’s revival. He agreed to wear a new grey hoodie under his coat for the away match against Southampton on December 19. The hoodie had been given to him by the Spanish NGO Open Arms, whose logo was stitched on to the front in big red lettering. Guardiola gave the charity, which rescues migrants off the south coast of Spain, a donation of around £130,000 in 2018.
With the hoodie hidden underneath his black coat, City defeated Southampton 1-0 thanks to an early goal from Sterling and Guardiola, a superstitious type, took it as a sign. He decided to wear the hoodie for every Premier League game. City won their next 14 and have only dropped six points in their last 22 matches, so one suspects the hoodie is here to stay.
Interestingly, he does not wear it for the cup competitions.
When spring arrived, City had pulled away from the pack. Gündogan, Foden, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez took their game to new levels.
But ask those in the know at City who were the key men behind that 21-match winning streak and they will point to two people who were having a considerable impact off the pitch
The first is Fernandinho. The 36-year-old Brazilian has developed a close bond with City and Manchester during his eight years in England — his children have Mancunian accents. He was incredibly proud to be voted captain by his team-mates at the start of the season. Delegation and togetherness are key themes of his captaincy style. Whenever he makes a decision on a matter, he consults the other members of the senior leadership group, which comprises the vice-captain De Bruyne, as well as Gündogan, Kyle Walker and Sterling. This means the other senior players feel involved.
Fernandinho, unlike his predecessor David Silva, is not afraid to call out his team-mates. This became clear on January 2 when he called a meeting after he felt that some players were not pulling their weight and were all too ready to hide behind the disruptions caused by the pandemic. No coaches were present. “We have to give everything,” Fernandinho yelled at his team-mates. “We are Manchester City. There are no excuses.”
Fernandinho speaks five languages (Portuguese, English, Ukrainian, Russian and Spanish) and the combative midfielder put his language skills into practice during a fiery Champions League group game against Porto, when he hurled insults at the Porto bench in Portuguese and then proceeded to shout at the Russian-speaking referee in his native tongue.
The second significant individual is Juanma Lillo, who became assistant manager last summer, filling a vacancy that had been left since Mikel Arteta’s departure to Arsenal in December 2019.
Guardiola has long been an admirer of Lillo, who is regarded as a deep thinker and tactical expert. Knowing that he wanted to go into management, Guardiola moved to Mexico at the end of his playing career to play for Lillo’s Dorados de Sinaloa team.
Lillo, 55, is a larger than life character who is at his happiest holding court in a bar or restaurant, recounting tales from the 17 clubs he has managed in five countries (Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Japan, and China). Sadly for him, this has not been possible for most of his year in England due to lockdown.
Being assistant to Guardiola is not an easy job. Guardiola can be volatile but Lillo has developed a knack of being able to calm him down and offer an alternative viewpoint that does not anger his boss.
“I think maybe you were wrong here,” the diminutive, grey-haired man will sometimes say in a soft tone.
Lillo speaks little English but that is not regarded as a problem given the multicultural makeup of the squad and backroom staff. He is described by staffers at the CFA as “the manager of the manager.”
“Lillo is one of the reasons that Pep signed his extension,” a senior City source said.
Guardiola respects Lillo’s views and his loyalty. In January, Lillo was offered the Chile manager’s position, but he turned it down as he felt he could not leave midway through the season.
Lillo has played a significant role in Joao Cancelo’s development. Guardiola had high expectations of Cancelo when he joined in the summer of 2019 from Juventus, but the Portuguese full-back had a difficult start. He was shy, struggled to learn English and did not take kindly to playing second fiddle to Walker.
When Lillo arrived, he took a shine to Cancelo and tutored him about how to become the playmaker full-back that Guardiola wanted him to be. Cancelo became a fan of Lillo’s methods and the two developed a close bond. Cancelo understands Lillo as he speaks Spanish.
Cancelo is described by one staff member as “all heart” because of his commitment to the team. This season he has done everything asked of him by Guardiola. When Foden attacks down the left wing, you will often see Cancelo tucking into central midfield, often operating as a quasi-number ten. It is a tactic first adopted by Guardiola at Bayern Munich, when Rafinha, and David Alaba played as inverted full-backs. Cancelo has five assists this season, which is more than Benjamin Mendy and Oleksandr Zinchenko managed between them last year in 55 appearances.
How they shared the goal threat
In the previous two title wins under Guardiola, individual attacking players have stood out. Kevin De Bruyne’s majestic performances drove City to 100 points in 2017-18. The following year, Sterling’s 17 goals and 12 assists proved critical to City’s title triumph.
This season it has been more of a collective effort. The goals have been fewer in number and they have been shared around the squad. Nineteen players have scored this season and 16 have recorded assists.
The drop in goals is staggering. City averaged 2.1 goals per game this season, which is far less than their average of 2.7 last year. Sergio Agüero and Gabriel Jesus have either been either injured or out of favour so the onus has fallen on the false nines and the midfielders. Nobody has done that better than Gündogan, who is City’s top scorer with 16 goals.
The German midfielder came into his own at the turn of the year, scoring eight times in 11 games. It is no coincidence that Gündogan’s goal glut began shortly after Christmas when Guardiola told his players involved in the second line of attack — the central midfielders and the full-backs — to get into the area more often. Gündogan is one of the most intelligent players in the squad. He absorbed that information and followed Guardiola’s demands. Gundogan has also thrived in his role as part of the leadership team. “Ilkay is a general but he plays like a soldier,” one source said.
Knowing that City’s goal will be protected by Dias, Stones, Ederson and the vastly improved Rodri has given Gundogan more confidence to venture further upfield. This season, 35 percent of his passes have come in the final third, which is five per cent more than last year.
This has been a breakthrough season for Foden, too. He had been expected to fill the void left by David Silva, but instead found his feet on the left wing.
Foden was placed there because Guardiola considers him a goal threat who is less likely to give the ball away than his rivals for the position.
Sterling did himself no favours in March by asking Guardiola why he was dropped — and others were not — for the Southampton game, which came three days after the 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford. Guardiola did not like what Sterling had said and left him out of the squad for the 3-0 away win over Fulham the following weekend. It should be noted that some staff felt Sterling was also in need of a rest. By that point of the season, only Ederson, Dias and Rodri had played more minutes than the England winger.
Staff have been impressed by Foden’s drive. He volunteered for double sessions earlier in the season and is keen to do everything he can to make himself in top condition for a match. The night before the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain, he set up his own ice bath in his hotel room to ease the pain from his tired muscles.
De Bruyne has not gained the same recognition from outside the club as he did last season, when he won the PFA Player of the Year, but staff have been very impressed by his performances and his leadership. If Fernandinho leaves this summer, De Bruyne is almost certain to be voted as the new captain, with Walker a leading candidate to become vice-captain.
De Bruyne, 29, has created 17 of what the Premier League describes as “big chances” this season. With 19 big chances created, only Bruno Fernandes stands above him in the rankings and he has started ten more games than the Belgian.
The only hiccup in De Bruyne’s season was a hamstring injury in January that kept him out for seven matches, but City’s vice-captain used his time out to reconvene contract talks with Begiristain and Soriano. De Bruyne, who was representing himself, was angry at the club after they tabled an unacceptable first offer, but the two sides came to an agreement and he signed on until the summer of 2025.
De Bruyne’s main demand during talks was that he should become the Premier League’s top earner as he felt he was the best player in the league. Few can doubt that is the case after another outstanding season. He has provided a steady drip of goals and assists and stepped up in some of the biggest games like the win at Stamford Bridge and in both legs of the Champions League quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund.
The most worrying thing for City’s rivals is that some senior players do not think this team has yet reached its peak. They argue that the 1-0 and 2-0 wins this season would have turned into fours and fives if an established number nine had been leading the attack. It is a view shared by the club’s hierarchy, who want to sign a striker in order to give Guardiola another weapon to use in attack.
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