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“Do you really want to see this team destroyed?” says Mike, a Manchester City fan, after the brilliance of Rayan Cherki’s touch had produced the third, killer goal at Anfield.

We are talking in the most fervently City pub Manchester has to offer. The Mary D has the badge everywhere. One wall, on the way to the gents, has a huge image of Sergio Aguero, shirt off, celebrating that goal. It serves Blue Moon lager, and, slightly off topic, there is a statue of Marilyn Monroe, her dress up replicating the scene in The Seven Year Itch.

Seven years, from 2011-2018, is the time Manchester City are accused of fraudulently exaggerating their income. Or put another way, the way Liverpool would like to put it, cheating. Over the way from the Mary D is the Etihad Stadium, the inflated £400m sponsorship deal for which is exhibit A in the case against the club.

Even before kick-off, the mood inside the Mary D is relaxed. “What did you expect? Did you think we’d be ready to smash the place up?” said Mike, who as someone who appreciates theatre – particularly the film of Richard Burton’s Hamlet – knows how drama flows. By the finish they were embracing each other, some were even chanting for Sheikh Mansour.

The Liverpool fans who gathered in the Arkles pub on Anfield Road for a pre-match pint may consider themselves the principal victims of the fraud and false accounting. The claim is that Manchester City denied them three titles.

All this is counter-factual history and counter-factual history is a dangerous thing. If you wonder what Europe would have looked like without the First World War, it does not necessarily follow that Liverpool and Manchester City would each have won the Champions League in a city called Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

And if Liverpool had beaten Manchester City win the Premier League in 2014, then there would have been no Jurgen Klopp, because Brendan Rodgers would have become the first man since Kenny Dalglish to steer Liverpool to the title. Liverpool were not then the kind of club that sacked its manager nine months after winning a championship. Perhaps there would have been no Champions League triumph in 2019 because Rodgers’s record in European football was always shaky.

The only question those in the Mary D had was whether, caught beneath the landslide of allegations, their players would fold. They could yet force their way out if the “irrefutable evidence” promised by beleaguered chief executive, Ferran Soriano is, er, refuted.

Some fans are wearing the green-and-black striped shirts Manchester City wore when winning promotion from the third tier of English football. They know what players do if relegation comes calling. They call their agents. After an international break that must have seemed interminable and faced by the fiercest arena they will encounter this season, their men won with panache.

In a way, those in the Mary D are as much victims of this scandal as those in the Arkles. Erling Harland and Soriano can leave They cannot.

Their memories are about to be ripped from them. The Mary D used to be the Labour Club for the nearby Bradford Colliery which closed in 1968, which may well be recorded as the last time Manchester City were legitimate champions of England.

Dave Wallace, who edited City’s most famous fanzine, The King of the Kippax, reflected: “I am surprised by the amount of vitriol that has been thrown our way but I think the only thing to do now is take it on the chin and see what happens.

Read more

• Mark Douglas: Gary Neville is out of touch on the Man City scandal
• The Score: Man City’s giant two-fingers, Spurs’ question mark and Forest furious

“For [my wife] Sue and me this was going to be our last season because we’re into our eighties. We were going to give up our season tickets, but we can’t do that now. We have to stick with the club, come what may.”

For football people of my generation the phrase “Typical City” meant defeats plucked from the gaping jaws of victory singing “Are you watching Macclesfield?” as they scored five past Stoke and were still relegated to the old Third Division; of blowing the championship in 1972 after buying Rodney Marsh just to make sure of the title. Supporting a club that won the league in 1937 and was relegated a year later, while scoring more goals (80) than any other team in the First Division.

For my children’s generation “Typical City” meant a club that won everything remorselessly and with some style. Now, they could become champions of England and still find themselves in the National League, preparing to play Altrincham, Fylde and Barrow. “And that,” said Dave Wallace “would be the most ‘Typical City’ thing of all.”

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ANFIELD — Bill Shankly called it a shrine rather than a football ground. Steven Gerrard is adamant he wants to die there rather than in hospital and Jurgen Klopp insisted if you Google “European nights”, Anfield should be the first thing that comes up.

Few grounds in world football have the same allure. Labelling it a fortress is an understatement; Arsene Wenger believed the famous old stadium won games on its own at times.

Slowly but surely, however, Anfield is losing its grandeur. Other venues have grown bigger and bolder, while the fear factor has gone, at the most inopportune moment for a new manager desperate to make his mark in the big job.

Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City means Liverpool have now won four of their 13 league matches at Anfield this calendar year, amid a mediocre start to the season that has perhaps flown under the radar, given Manchester United and Tottenham’s crises have garnered all the headlines.

Having not faced particularly elite opponents, a nine-point return from six matches thus far, having again invested heavily in the transfer market in the summer, is a below-par return.

“We had a massive advantage today,” Andoni Iraola said after the match. “The stadium did its part but it was not enough.”

Liverpool had the backing of the entirety of the Premier League, who feel so wronged by City’s systemic breaches of the financial rules, on Sunday.

Anfield Road was packed to the rafters with supporters ready to hurl insults, or worse, at the City bus as it entered the stadium. But, after being outflanked by their reviled opponents, who took a back entrance, Liverpool started the day as they meant to go on – having missed a trick.

Klopp’s heavy-metal football got pulses racing, and chests beating. Liverpool once won 24 games in a row at Anfield – the red half of Merseyside at the time felt like the epicentre of something seismic.

Now, after two relatively unflattering transfer windows, and results continuing on a downward curve, that spark has been extinguished.

What vitriol the City supporters got, they lapped up. The atmosphere threatened to become menacing upon kick off, as the whistles from the home support verged on the deafening.

Yet, as a poor first half wore on, where Liverpool failed to create anything of note and big-name players like Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola remained on the periphery of the action, City supporters started to feel like it was them who had the upper hand.

You cannot have imagined such tepid intensity from the terraces had Klopp been bouncing up and down his technical area.

More on Liverpool vs Man City

Pete Hall: Man City thrashing Liverpool was football at its most dystopian

Mark Douglas: Gary Neville is out of touch on the Man City scandal

The Score: Man City’s giant two fingers, Spurs’ dilemma and Forest controversy

Liverpool, like many of their big-name rivals, have angered much of their own fanbase with ticket-price rises and a palpable push to favour day-tripping tourist supporters over regular season-ticket holders. Something supporters feel may only get worse after a consortium including Jeff Bezos acquired a large stake in the club. 

That, coupled with such uninspiring play in front of their eyes, only adds to the feeling that intimidation is the last thing on opponents’ minds as they pass underneath the “This is Anfield” sign.

Getting the joie de vivre back will be a monumental task for a rookie coach with so much to prove at the highest level. Yet, restoring Anfield’s mojo, when it represented a daunting proposition under famous managerial luminaries before, will define how successful Iraola’s red revolution will be.

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Hello and welcome back to The Score, a weekly column on the biggest talking points of the Premier League weekend. For the new season, we’ve given it a little revamp – with a new structure and some shiny bells and whistles at the end. This week, football news editor Kat Lucas is writing in place of Daniel Storey.

A good day for fans of banners and bananas. Maybe the football was never going to live up to all the rest of it – maybe it had to end with Manchester City gaining an unfair advantage.

It took Ryan Gravenberch’s incredibly harsh sending-off to change the tone at Anfield. Two soft yellow cards, two quick-fire goals and a giant two-fingers to the rest of the Premier League.

City’s three goals that steamrolled Liverpool were aesthetically sensational, if difficult to properly enjoy. If there was one overriding emotion on the day, it was powerlessness. Liverpool were impotent up against the trident of Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki, unable to do anything but scream into the void. It was not even possible to assess what any of it would actually mean in the long run.

In Liverpool’s proxy war on behalf of the rest of English football, they came armed with Oasis puns, boos and whatever projectiles they planned to throw at the City bus before it diverted through a secret entrance to avoid the crowds.

That was never going to be enough, because the title will ultimately be decided by the kind of quality Doku shows when running at defences and by Haaland’s finishing. In fact, judging by Enzo Maresca’s celebrations in front of the away end with his players at full-time, City’s siege mentality may only make them more formidable.

A word, too, on those City supporters, who will keep turning up week after week to bear the brunt of the animosity. What are they supposed to do? Not go? Interrupt the rhythm of their lives, or dull it by switching off the technicolour of their team? The potency of this City side makes this case all the more pressing, because there is a very real prospect of them brushing aside the rest of the division this season.

No excuses for Forest

Exactly the performance Oliver Glasner would have hoped for on his return to Crystal Palace – and the worst possible result. Palace’s second was farcical, given to Jefferson Lerma, then briefly to Anan Khalaili, before deciding it had come off his elbow and back to Lerma. Forest have every right to be furious, but it does not excuse how they managed this game, especially after falling behind.

The irony is that both players were being run ragged by Forest, but they failed to capitalise and Glasner’s side missed seven – yes, seven – big chances. Liam Delap’s was the worst of them, just from yards out. Forest somehow turned what should have been a routine victory into a comprehensive defeat.

Credit for De Zerbi

The glass-half-empty version is that Tottenham produced their best performance of the season at Old Trafford but only snatched a draw through a peculiar late equaliser. That is a little unfair. Roberto De Zerbi’s starting XI looked just as odd but he got it right.

Conor Gallagher in the No 10 role was superb, aided, you have to admit, by an atrociously unbalanced Manchester United midfield. Archie Gray did his job at right-back and it is only a pity that Mateus Fernandes does not seem to be fit enough to play 90 minutes.

The one dilemma is whether Omar Marmoush would have buried the chances Dominic Solanke missed. On his showings so far, the answer has to be not necessarily. Spurs have to stop doing this – they were the better side for such long spells against Newcastle, Everton and Aston Villa, too, and won none of those matches.

Gameweek 6 highlights

Goal of the weekend – Abdoul Ouattara (Ipswich) vs Fulham

Let’s park Fulham’s latest self-immolation and throwing away a very good three points with two minutes of ordinary time remaining. Ipswich knew how to hurt them from set pieces but there Ouattara’s hit from 25 yards had two wonderful ingredients – the initial touch and the finish.

Statistic of the weekend

Tottenham have not won any of their opening six games. They have made such an awful start only twice in their history, with the previous occasion coming under Juande Ramos in 2008. He was sacked after the eighth match.

Villain of the weekend – Luke Shaw (Man Utd)

There is absolutely no contesting Rodrigo Bentancur’s red card, which bizarrely earned him a kiss from Roberto De Zerbi in the dressing room. That tells you everything about the lack of fight which has frustrated the Tottenham boss all season, but he will be less delighted about the fact Shaw escaped a red having started the altercation.

Player of the weekend – Jordan Henderson (Chelsea)

Among the list of qualities for which Chelsea signed Jordan Henderson, pace and urgencies were probably not ranked all that high. Yet it was he who set the tone against Bournemouth with a goal and assist in the first three minutes, before adding another of his own – and it could have been a hat-trick. Most importantly we have been waiting to see how effective he is alongside Moises Caicedo – it won’t always be as easy as it was against Bournemouth but the link-ups with Morgan Rogers were very promising indeed.

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Liverpool 0-3 Man City (Gravenberch red card 62′ | Haaland 65′, Doku 68′, Cherki 78′)

ANFIELD — It was like a dystopian episode of Black Mirror. All that bluster. All that angst. All those eyes watching in hundreds of countries around the world. For a game that was effectively meaningless.

Until Manchester City are sanctioned, that is the dark reality of Premier League football. Every success, every last-minute winner, every monumental upset could be deemed irrelevant in a few months if City are relegated, demoted or wiped from existence, as the most vociferous naysayers insist must happen as a result of their systemic breaching of the financial rules.

At Anfield on Sunday, we got our first taste of this new existence. The travelling supporters waved inflatable bananas to laugh in the face of their impending doom. They purchased “Cheats” merchandise and displayed it with gusto in the Merseyside sunshine. The team bus came in via a secret entrance.

Nobody wins in all of this. We can only hope all of the exhibition matches between now and the end of the season are as breathless as Sunday’s fraught encounter.

Erling Haaland gives Manchester City the lead against Liverpool pic.twitter.com/cELo5y60Fk

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) October 11, 2026

City’s first opponents since the guilty verdict could only have been Liverpool. The Premier League’s socialist enclave, where winning the right way is as important as the victories themselves. The club who feel most wronged, whose favourite German’s legacy could have been dramatically different had it not been for City’s financial doping.

Supporters lined Anfield Road in anticipation of being the first supporters in the angry land to voice their vitriol towards a busload of players, coaches and support staff, all of whom are completely innocent.

“What’s the story, tainted glory”, read one banner. Others demanded more medals for Jurgen Klopp and his perennial runners-up to City. Their message failed to get across, however, as the coach came from the opposite way and entered under the stadium.

Inside the ground, there appeared to be more yellow fruit than away supporters initially. It is a nod to the less problematic 1980s, when ecstatic revellers went straight from the Hacienda to City matches, waving inflatable bananas in homage to Imre Varadi, and a mispronunciation of his name that went viral, before viral was even a thing.

As numbers filled the stands, home supporters could finally boo and hiss to their heart’s content as City players made their way out for the warm-up. City fans, just prior to kick-off, did a “Poznan”. Bananas in hand. The whole spectacle was just downright bizarre.

A cauldron-like atmosphere, which started with whistles on par with anything Galatasaray followers could muster, soon fizzled out, as the action on the pitch wasn’t quite as intense as the feeling in the stands.

Other than a few long-range efforts for both, neither side could create any meaningful first-half openings. Anfield fell silent by the interval.

The game exploded into action early in the second half, Gianluigi Donnarumma was forced into two fine saves, before Iliman Ndiaye failed to connect from close range, as did Victor Munoz down the other end moments later.

After Ryan Gravenberch was sent off for two bookable offences early in the second half, the stage was set for the man whose astronomical wages would not have been possible without years of cheating to have the decisive and, of course, most controversial say.

Erling Haaland had only just passed up one glaring opportunity to break the deadlock before reacting quickest to the loose ball to fire the visitors in front, before a stunning Jeremy Doku strike – what has become a trademark curler – sent the away end into delirium.

Alfe Inge Haaland beat the air in among the travelling City fans. Noel Gallagher, strategically placed right at the front, in line with the cameras, looked like he was standing on the shoulder of giants, such was the euphoria. Liverpool simply didn’t possess the quality to issue a response of any kind.

City’s third was the pick of the bunch, and sent home supporters filing for the exits, feeling more cheated than ever. Rayan Cherki sashayed one way, slalomed the next, and slotted home to seal the most acrimonious victory the Premier League has ever produced.

Read more

• Analysis: How relegation could cost Man City over £500m
• Special report: Man City in League Two? Here’s why EFL clubs are divided

City supporters trust their club. What choice do they have? Pep Guardiola is preparing to return on Wednesday to lend his support. Chief executive Ferran Soriano was blinking away in the directors’ box. For now, the City juggernaut, three points clear at the summit, will keep rumbling on.

As Enzo Maresca insisted on Friday, these twenty-something players will go about their business regardless. They know only of what goes on during 90 minutes a couple of times a week.

It is for the greater powers to decide whether a City title success would be a distorted truth or not. And that fact makes the rest of this season feel more Orwellian than we have ever had to endure.

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Manchester United 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Mbeumo 73’ | Solanke 90+2′)

OLD TRAFFORD – Lisandro Martinez has long been a cult hero in Manchester. The Butcher takes no prisoners but conducts himself with a finesse that belies his ruthless reputation.

Yet, as Manchester United slumped to their worst start to a season in 40 years, Martinez epitomises why this sleeping giant of world football will likely remain in its slumber for a long while yet.

Even the longest international break in history has not changed United one bit.

Michael Carrick did so much right last season and got supporters believing again. Yet, the start to the current campaign has been just like the majority of those that came before in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson wilderness years.

A regroup was needed. A chance to remember what breathed life into United again last term. Instead, what occurred was, of course, their worst 45 minutes of the season upon the Premier League’s return against Tottenham.

A remotely competent attack would have buried United by half time. Instead, Carrick was left to fight another day.

Fortunately for the disgruntled masses inside Old Trafford, it appeared the hosts had done what they have so often while flattering to deceive in terms of overall performance – snatch victory from the jaws of defeat through Bryan Mbeumo’s fine finish. United in fact looked home and dry after Rodrigo Bentancur lost his head and was sent off late on.

There can never be such security where United are concerned.

Against the depleted Spurs, who looked destined to suffer another defeat from a showing that promised so much more, United retreated. A team that has not kept a clean sheet all season, and only three in their last 17 league games, was always going to crumble under the mere suggestion of any pressure.

Instead of competing with Dominic Solanke for Sandro Tonali’s stoppage-time cross, Martinez chose a more unconventional path – leaning backwards and hoping the Spurs skipper would fluff his lines, a tactic that had been successful during regulation time.

On this rare occasion, however, Solanke got a deadly touch to deny United victory against 10 men for a second successive home match. Six points from six matches and yet another nadir.

The back four who finished the match were Diogo Dalot, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw. Look familiar? It is the same quartet that started the opening day defeat to Brighton four years previously.

All four have their own merits, and Martinez especially could have been considered elite in his prime, when fully fit. Both junctures he is now well past. As a unit, that rearguard was not good enough four years ago. And it certainly isn’t now.

A midfield rebuild was a must in the summer. A sensible revamp took place, three fresh faces coming in without breaking the bank – or getting many pulses racing.

Some of that £150m outlay, if that was all Ineos could conjure, had to be funnelled into the backline. Neglecting to do so leaves an ageing, ill-equipped defensive unit acting as the anchor to any United progress.

One United source this week questioned much of the negativity that had come the club’s way this term. Had Ainsley Maitland-Niles not arrowed a stoppage-time thunderbolt into the top corner, Carrick’s side would have picked up two more points at Everton. Had VAR been remotely capable in the Manchester derby, they may have not slumped to defeat to City.

More on Man Utd

Kevin Garside: It’s time for Man Utd to press the nuclear button

Pete Hall: ‘Toxic’ Man Utd fan rift forces supporters’ group founder to step down

The reality is that in terms of performance, United are exactly where they deserve to be. Other than one half against Ipswich, having benefitted from a rather fortunate refereeing call, Carrick’s side have been beyond bad, as far from their former glories as they ever have been.

There were positives in the Spurs anguish. Carlos Baleba looked especially impressive when stepping off the bench for his debut, while Mbeumo offered intensity beyond the levels he has reached in a red shirt so far.

But with that backline as it is now, exactly the same as it was four years ago, United are never going to get anywhere anytime soon.

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David Bernstein is telling a story about the advice his future father-in-law gave him before he
married his daughter. “He told me: ‘You can lose your wealth and win it back but you can only lose your reputation once.’”

The man who as chairman steered Manchester City from the third tier of English football to the Premier League, from Maine Road into what is now the Etihad Stadium, has no doubt the club will recover from the scandals that have enveloped it.

If City are relegated, they will come back. If players like Erling Haaland are forced to leave, there will be fresh heroes. If the owners from Abu Dhabi quit, new ones will be attracted by the club’s history and fanbase. However, whether Manchester City will ever regain its reputation is another question entirely. Pending an appeal, they stand condemned of blatantly subverting financial rules that were designed to ensure some semblance of fair play.

“We all believe in redemption and the chances of Manchester City winning back their reputation depend on how they handle things now and once the appeal is done,” Bernstein tells The i Paper.

“If they hold their hands up and apologise, if the people who oversaw this debacle go and are replaced by others who will work within the rules, then they have a chance.”

The signs are not encouraging. In a leaked video to staff after the club was found guilty of inflating its revenue by more than £850m, City’s chief executive, Ferran Soriano, who is accused of presiding over six years of dummy contracts, fake sponsorship deals and hidden payments, insisted they would use all legal avenues to protect the club and seek compensation from what he termed a “Premier League conspiracy”.

“These are people who don’t resign easily,” says Bernstein. “They are going to fight it out. They come from the Donald Trump school of never back off, always strike back harder, never admit anything and drag it out for as long as possible. To use the word ‘conspiracy’ is desperate and Trumpian stuff.

“I knew there would be things coming out but when I read the report I was shocked by the extent of it. The case is subject to appeal, but these verdicts are damning in the extreme. The allegations could not be more serious with falsified documentation and falsified accounts on a massive scale. I am shocked by the cold-blooded premeditation of it all.

“Once they have been designated by the independent regulator as not being fit and proper people to run a football club, people have to resign. You can hardly be ‘fit and proper’ if, after the appeal, you’re convicted of calculated misdemeanours.

“My feeling is that City should have their titles taken away from them. The success they have had after the period that’s been investigated has been built on what has gone before. Our total record is tarnished and I include what was achieved after 2018 [which falls outside the Premier League inquiry].

“And it is our record. I have been a City fan for 70 years; 5 May, 1956 was one of the great days of my life. Manchester City won the FA Cup on the day of my bar mitzvah.

“When we play Liverpool on Sunday, I want us to win. I will always support the team but I cannot any longer support the club until the consequences of this are dealt with.”

Two years ago Bernstein published We Were Really There, about City’s rise from the humiliation of relegation to the third division of English football.

“It is almost the complete reverse of 1998 because then you had a club that had for many years been neglected, which suffered from under-investment, appeared to be 50 years behind Manchester United, played in a run-down old stadium and did not have a proper training ground. It was failing badly on the pitch.

“This is everything in reverse; a club that has enjoyed success beyond belief and created wonderful facilities, owned by people who have invested not just in the club but in east Manchester.”

In Bernstein’s living room is a photograph of Queen Elizabeth examining a model of how the City of Manchester Stadium would be converted into a football venue after the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Nine years later, Etihad Airways bought the naming rights to the stadium for £400m, which was 45 times their annual profit. The Liverpool owner, John W Henry, asked which bid had come second.

More on Man City

Tim Rich: English football owes Arsene Wenger an apology

Pete Hall: Yes, Man City broke the rules. But the rules are also a nonsense

“A lot of people went along with this, closing their eyes, happy not to think too hard about how this was happening or how it was being funded.”

But hold on. City have not been accused of bribing referees like Barcelona. They have not bribed opposition players to throw games as Marseille did in the 1990s. Their money has helped transform east Manchester. The men from Abu Dhabi delivered in everything they said they would do. They were merely dishonest about how they would do it.

“I am afraid this is the road to perdition,” says Bernstein. “It means might and money are always right and, just because it has achieved some good things, you should allow the wealthy and powerful to get away with anything.

“Once that happens then society, let alone football, is finished.”

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My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness. Ten years on from Leicester City’s stunning Premier League title win, Danny Simpson reflects on the season that changed his life for ever.

I thought I’d made it when I assisted Wayne Rooney

I probably acted like I did as well. You know, you start going out drinking and doing all sorts. I was a local lad from Manchester, and people started to notice who I was, and so I’d go out and enjoy myself, and yeah, probably liked it a bit too much.

Sir Alex Ferguson had to pull me into his office a couple of times. He gave me a few bollockings for sure. I look back now and think there’s no way I should’ve been doing that.

At the time, you think you know what’s best. What I know now, especially training with that calibre of player and the intensity of it every day, and I was sometimes enjoying it a bit too much off the field, I would’ve done things differently if I had my time again. But I know I’m not the first, I’m not the last and it’s an experience that I can pass onto younger players as well.

We used to laugh at Cristiano Ronaldo for having a private chef

Look who’s laughing now! He copped a fair bit of stick at Manchester United for that. Rio [Ferdinand] and the rest used to tease him relentlessly.

But he knew how to look after himself. That’s why he’s had the career he’s had. He’s the most complete player I’ve ever seen.

He would spend hours in the gym after training. Back then, we all knew how good he was. He was just obsessed with being the best.

James McClean gave me a good kicking

We used to get into a lot of fights. You can’t fight now, but you could back then. We’ve had a bit of banter since about fighting each other, because he’s a good boxer. He was a tough guy. He liked it, I liked it.

That was more of a direct competition, but in terms of someone that would pull onto my shoulder, Didier Drogba was a nightmare. I was really young at that point, early 20s I think.

He was so big and strong. I know he was a striker, but he’d still come onto me at right-back and try and pin me and stuff. So yeah, I always knew I was in for a battle with them two on the pitch.

I’m still in a group chat with the Leicester City boys

It was called “Reunion 2026,” which has happened now, so we probably need to rename it. Maybe 2031, a 15-year reunion. We all meet up when we can.

Jamie Vardy still loves winding everyone up. I cried that night we won the league at Vardy’s house. I’m close to Wes Morgan, Riyad Mahrez as well. We get a game of padel in whenever he’s over here.

When you go through something like that, you’re bonded for life. But I always want to beat him. He’s the most competitive person you’ll ever meet in your life.

I cried when I thought my career was over

I got told I’d be out for about seven months. I didn’t have a club, and I tore a tendon off my hip bone training at Leicester. I had a free transfer lined up and ready to go.

I was probably a week away from going to a new club, and then played in that practice match, and it was nothing, a bit of a lazy tackle as well. The way I did it was actually technically wrong. I went in with the wrong foot for a tackle and then it pinged.

And yeah, I was out for about seven months, and then obviously you’re not going to get signed, so for seven months there was no contract. I wasn’t getting paid. There was no club to rehab me. Leicester helped as much as they could because I wasn’t their player, and the physios have got a lot to do. St George’s Park and the PFA helped, and I came back.

Claudio Ranieri and I didn’t see eye to eye at first

It wasn’t a great start, I’ll be honest. We didn’t have the greatest of first meetings. He told me I could leave, which obviously I didn’t agree with, and I said I wanted to fight for my place at least until January.

So he put me in the reserves for pre-season and the first six weeks of the season, I’d get to train some times with the first team, and I just kept my head down and worked hard. The next meeting we had was him saying he got it wrong and that he thought I could help the team and help him. So I made him eat his words a little bit.

Fortunately for me, the next game I started and I never looked back. But for him to apologise, it takes a bigger person to do that in life, to admit he got that call wrong. Then I went from strength to strength with him and learned tactically a lot from him.

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