Manchester City’s latest behind-the-scenes documentary may not get the same fanfare as the story, snapped up by Netflix, of the club’s treble victory — but the glimpses into Pep Guardiola’s realm mean it is possibly the best of the bunch.
The trailer, once more, leans on Guardiola to capture the attention, showing him shouting about how difficult it is to win four Premier League titles in a row in the aftermath of a negative result, and there is plenty more of where that came from throughout the 90 minutes.
And with its release coinciding with the expected announcement that Guardiola will extend his contract once more and stay at City for at least a decade, but also at a time when the team have been struggling on the pitch, it is a timely reminder of how he tends to get the best of his players, and the methods he uses to do so.
City have been producing in-house documentaries for the past four seasons, starting with the pandemic-hit 2020-21 campaign, and although the story of the treble season had glamour and provided nice insights into the players’ relationships, there was always a heavy focus on the matches themselves, which fans would have seen and remembered anyway.
This time, it feels like the match highlights take a backseat to interviews with Guardiola, CEO Ferran Soriano, outgoing director of football Txiki Begiristain, and players Kyle Walker and Rodri, and particularly footage from the dressing room.
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There are the usual peeks into the dynamics of the squad — Erling Haaland and Jack Grealish embracing on their first day of training, and even footage of Ruben Dias seemingly being knocked out in training after colliding with Ederson — but the moments that stand out revolve, almost inevitably, around Guardiola.
The manager could easily be the sole focus of a behind-the-scenes documentary, given the massive intrigue around him and his methods, and hopefully City have been keeping stuff back for a feature film once he leaves Manchester.
His team talks have usually been the selling point for City’s documentaries, going back to the Amazon show that charted their 100-point season six years ago. His dressing-down of the squad following a Carabao Cup defeat by Southampton during the treble season was also a highlight of the Netflix documentary but the club have generally tried to avoid focusing on him, or his tactics, too much, to help tell other stories.
There is no focus on his tactical plans but the standout moments of the film are all about how he sees the sport and motivates and challenges his players, insisting that they think positively, and reminding them that their biggest obstacle to success last season, having won the treble, was themselves.
Notably, he is seen telling star midfielder Rodri that he has to learn his lesson following a red card against Nottingham Forest, and there is a fierce telling-off for Phil Foden after he conceded a last-minute penalty against Crystal Palace.
“Phil, in the f***ing 18-yard box, you do not punch the opponent,” he roars. “It’s unacceptable, Phil Foden, unacceptable.
“You are not boys, you are not teenagers. Did I say something when you dropped points against Tottenham and Liverpool, did I blame you?” The end of his message is basically inaudible due to the beeps to mask the swearing and the manager’s English falling apart in anger.
During the interview that he recorded for this film, which was conducted in July, Guardiola said he can let his emotions get the better of him after matches and says he does not like his behaviour.
Naturally, those clips did serve a narrative purpose — Rodri and Foden went on to have stellar seasons and win individual awards — and while there can be a suspicion with these things that the juiciest stuff has been cut out, it feels like we have been offered a bigger look behind the curtain than before.
Surely the most memorable part of the 90 minutes comes after March’s Manchester derby, when Guardiola is seen crying in the dressing room as he tells his players and staff that an important member of club staff has been diagnosed with cancer. It is a genuinely moving scene and it reminds you that these are real people.
Despite Guardiola’s obvious role as protagonist, the interview with Begiristain, the director of football who will leave at the end of the season, is probably the most that fans will have heard from him during his 12 years at the club.
“The transfer window was a bit awful,” he says at one point, recalling the post-treble dealings. “At least for me, because after winning the treble, everyone was confused. The ones who were the protagonists of those trophies were thinking that they should get more, new contracts. And the other ones who were not playing finals, they were pissed off, and they were trying to get out.”
There is footage of Guardiola’s assistant, Juanma Lillo, playing padel alongside the chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, while one of Lillo’s animated team talks, delivered in his native Spanish with another coach translating as he goes, helps add another dimension to the City operation.
It is striking how quickly football moves on; highlights of Julian Alvarez scoring already feel like a distant memory, and even the sight of the sun and some smiling faces feels unusual right now, with City having lost their past four matches before the international break.
But this story of another season when City overcame uncertainty to win the Premier League provides important context. There is a point in this documentary when Gary Lineker, one of the talking heads brought on board to effectively narrate the season, discusses how unheard of it was for City to lose three games in a row, as they did last September.
Soundbites from a host of television and radio pundits discuss whether City had dropped their guard and suggest that Arsenal and Liverpool will have been sensing an opportunity to win the title. We know now, of course, that City went on to win the league.
These documentaries can feel a little too good to be true at times — of the five that City have done, in-house or via Amazon, they have won the title (at least) at the end of it — but it is real life, and this latest edition may tell us more about the characters involved than anything that has gone before it.
Alongside Guardiola’s new contract, the timing could not be better.
(Top photo: Gonzalo Arroyo/UEFA via Getty Images)
