Back when as many people referred to Pep Guardiola as a bald fraud as those who recognised his genius, John Stones was very much viewed as one the Catalan had got badly wrong.
The man Guardiola had told the Manchester City hierarchy should be a priority signing before he had even left Bayern Munich for England, with the club making the Everton centre-back the world’s second most expensive defender in 2016, just could not hold down a spot in the title-chasing side.
Four years after joining, Stones was so far down the pecking order he could barely guarantee a seat on the team coach to games. Against Lyon in their Champions League quarter-final defeat in 2020, Guardiola went with three central defenders, but Stones was not even one of them, overlooked for midfielder Fernandinho, the inexperienced Eric Garcia and Aymeric Laporte. The end, with one year left on his contract and suitors circling, seemed nigh.
The naysayers finally had their stick with which to beat Guardiola. What this supposed coaching mastermind had seen was a figment of his wild imagination.
As ever when it comes to those Guardiola puts all his faith in, how wrong those doubters were.
“It was probably one of the hardest times in my career,” Stones says, as he and his club prepare for their date with immortality in Istanbul on Saturday night. “It’s not just that [Lyon] game. Any player when they don’t play, especially here because we’ve got an incredible team, it’s always difficult.
“I never thought about leaving. As soon as you accept that or have that mindset then you have killed yourself. I always wanted to stay, I have stayed and I absolutely love it.
“I didn’t say to anyone ‘it was because I want to prove to you’. You have to prove to yourself first and foremost that you deserve to be here, you are good enough to be here, and what you bring to the team. Everyone’s so unique here and that’s why we’ve been so successful.”
To do what the former Barnsley defender has done takes something that very few sportspeople possess, a facet that Guardiola insists upon in his superior sides he has created in three countries.
It would have been so easy for Stones to seek pastures new, especially after two further central defenders came in at City in the summer of 2020 – Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake.
But, as Stones told his manager back then, and he reiterates every time you are fortunate to be in his company, such thoughts really do never cross his mind. It is this mindset that makes the great that bit more special at City, and why they have achieved what they have already and are even hungrier to become the second English team to complete the Treble.
“I know I am repeating myself to you but I literally went back to firstly looking at myself, being super-critical of myself and what I could do better on the football pitch, and then looking into every fine detail, down to food, what training, what extras,” he continues.
“Doing extra at training and even late at night at home and all these kinds of specific things, finding these small margins to then put them all together to kind of break where I was at. It was such a big learning curve for me and maybe has made me who I am today.”
For Stones, it was not just enough to earn his spot back in his recognised position in one of the greatest teams in footballing history.
Starting a seventh season at City as a centre-back this term, he has been utilised as an inverted full-back – a Pep-ism that others are trying to replicate the world over – before now being deployed as a ball-carrying central midfielder.
The results have astounded team-mates, with Jack Grealish admitting to being in awe of Stones’ performance in last weekend’s FA Cup final victory over Manchester United. Experts and supporters have been perplexed as to how a player who will turn 30 next year can still excel in a new role and somehow make the near perfect City that bit more imperious.
Only two men knew such a move would be a success.
“From a young age people have said to me that they can see me playing in midfield,” Stones adds. “I always have and still do love playing as a centre-half and I’ve absolutely loved this role as well.
“I have showed myself that I’m able to do it. Maybe showing some attributes that I didn’t know that I had, but the manager has seen [something] in me and ultimately I’m just trying to show what I can do, prove the manager right and be able to help the team win.”
And there is no bigger stage for Stones to complete his full circle journey from City outcast to being nicknamed Barnsley Beckenbauer than the Ataturk Stadium tomorrow, where a winner’s medal will cap a remarkable tale of transformation, that still has some way to go.
“I don’t really think about where I have come from to be here,” Stones concludes. “I hopefully look back after Saturday, with a winner’s medal. Yeah, it will be super-sweet, I suppose.
“But ask me after that.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/kbFPz3G
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