Forever Blue With Ian Cheeseman

I would describe Manchester City’s Premier League title triumph as the most perfect season on the pitch while also being in the worst season off it.

A campaign played behind closed doors felt empty. Winning the title while not even playing a game, seemed strangely appropriate. Pep Guardiola deserves most of the credit for the way the squad has performed in this most challenging of times for humanity. He has kept his focus when the rest of us have struggled with poor mental health, loss of loved ones and financial instability. 

Early in the pandemic Pep lost his mother, Dolors Sala Carrio, to Covid19. I lost my father last year, so I know how deeply a bereavement can impact a person. I wasn’t in favour of football carrying on in the midst of a health crisis, but it carried on and Pep carried on. He rebuilt the team in a way that perfectly suited the conditions we’re living in. He made it about the team. He brilliantly balanced the egos and talents in such a way that they could cope with playing every three days win over and over again. 

The signing of Ruben Dias, a leader at the back, was clearly a masterstroke. He’s brave and a focussed defender but he’s also a leader. I’ve been lucky enough to have attended half a dozen City games this season and seeing him, or more accurately hearing him, confirmed what an important role he has played. I’ve a feeling he will win individual honours for his performances, but if it were up to me there would be no individual player-of-the-year at City this season, it would be a collective award. 

I’ve seen many great players at City, down the years and some great individual players, including the legend Colin Bell who became a close friend during the writing of his autobiography. We lost Colin this year too. 

There are still games and players I would rate higher than the class of 2020/21 but collectively this season’s performances have been the best I’ve seen. If City go on and win the Champions League, at the end of the month, they’ll be lauded as the best City team ever. As a team, as a squad, I agree. 

I certainly believe that Pep Guardiola and his backroom staff are the greatest in the club’s history. I’ve only met Pep a couple of times. Those meetings have been brief, but everything I see and hear about the man smacks of integrity both on the football field and away from it. He was at pains to thank the previous generations of City players and staff in the speeches he’s made in the aftermath of recent successes. He spoke out against Superleague right in the middle of the days when sport battled with it’s own conscience. 

He knows, just like we all do, that money buys success and he’s never denied that he couldn’t have the trophy haul he’s enjoyed at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City without the cash to spend on players. He gives all the credit to those on the pitch, but it still takes a very special man to manage a squad full of millionaires through a season with so much uncertainty and grief, while also managing his own mental health so brilliantly. 

If I had to pick a man to receive the individual award as “person-of-the-season” for 2020/2021 it would be one man – arise Sir Pep Guardiola.