As Manchester City stand in front of their own greatness, breath steaming up the window as they look at their one true prize, there is a sense of inevitability about all this. This is what Abu Dhabi came for: uber-dominance, inarguable sovereignty over the competition, the rest coughing on the fumes from their wheelspin; if anything, it’s taken longer than we thought it might. Still, they came to conquer worlds and win awards labelling them the most valuable football club in the world, and awards season is over baby.
Inevitability is a construct best viewed several paces away from reality. In early February, Manchester City were five points behind Arsenal in the Premier League. The Champions League draw put them on the same side as Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Chelsea, the last nine winners who were still left in the competition. They were drawn against Arsenal and Chelsea in the first two rounds of the FA Cup. If Manchester City can ever be tasked with doing something the hard way (given, y’know, everything), that is the way they have done it this season.
We do not often think of Manchester City as great survivors. Perhaps that is related to their wealth and their ownership, but then Real Madrid certainly gained the same reputation. Certainly, City’s greatest asset this season was simply keeping on keeping on. City won 13 straight league games and six in the FA Cup, but also ground out three away draws in the Champions League knockouts. Then comes the flair: 14 home goals in three stupendous knockout home legs.
How to best describe this particular team? In the aftermath of City’s 2008 takeover, the impact of which was not fully appreciated by those who failed to foresee its wider ramifications, Sheikh Mansour spoke at length about his plans. One line stuck out: “We are building a structure for the future, not just a team of all-stars.”
Well, yes and no. There was vast wealth to be used, and football’s rapid acceleration towards mass superstardom means you have to narrow the original definition a little. Erling Haaland was Europe’s premier centre-forward when joining. Jack Grealish was Britain’s first £100m footballer. There is little done on a shoestring here.
But if there is a defining element of this team (the off-pitch assessment is far more complicated, given what we know and what we don’t yet know the full extent of), it is that this zenith is being achieved by improving as well as buying, or improving what you have bought. If this is indeed a team of all-stars now, many were made that way here.
Nathan Ake was an expensive buy from Bournemouth that was derided in some quarters; he has been virtually impeccable this season. Few anticipated John Stones becoming a central midfielder at 28. There were 19 defenders who were signed by Premier League clubs for a higher transfer fee than Manuel Akanji this season; few slotted in as easily.
And look at those who came before them. City did not face extreme competition when signing Bernardo Silva from Monaco. The same is true of Ederson and, when Ilkay Gundogan joined from Borussia Dortmund for £21m, there was little fanfare. If Kevin De Bruyne is now the best creative midfielder in the game, his arrival was headlined by one UK newspaper as “The £60m Reject”. Do not be tricked into thinking all this was inevitable.
The difference, of course, is Pep Guardiola. We see the micro-management that frequently slips into parody: the waving arms, the stern conversations, the hands over his face like Kevin McCallister has realised his negligent parents have sodded off somewhere else without him. The tactical nuance often, ironically, hits you square in the face and so does the demeanour. “So good, so good.”
But this group of players has been honed according to the commandments to which every Guardiola disciple must monastically commit: specificity of instructions, dedication to match preparation, defensive work, the ability to detect the perfect tempo for the moment and the match. See how many players have improved immeasurably in their second seasons; it takes some getting used to. Guardiola has not reinvented the wheel, but boy does he make them spin.
Whatever the very reasonable opprobrium about state ownership and the 115 charges (which loom like a storm cloud until due process is completed), it is undoubted that you could give the same budgets to a different manager at another high-end club and see it wasted. Paris Saint-Germain became transfer market magpies. Chelsea have spent £600m in 12 months. Others cycle through head coaches in search of Mr Right or Mr Right Now. Manchester City built the house for Pep to live in and have been repaid handsomely in return. Saturday is the potential pinnacle of that construction, a new cathedral to be maintained a long way from La Masia and home.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/HcF9hrP
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