The Premier League’s greatest ever manager was wrong.
“Sir Alex Ferguson was asked in 2009 if City could ever go into a derby as favourites,” commentator Guy Mowbray recalled as he watched Manchester United butchered 6-3 at the hands of their rivals last month. “He said, ‘Not in my lifetime’ … now it’s every time.”
As he spoke, the camera focused on a desolate Ferguson in the stands. His helpless expression betrayed the reality that Manchester City have become English football’s elite force.
A dejected Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill react during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Manchester United at Etihad Stadium on October 2, 2022 in Manchester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Matthew Ashton – AMA/Getty Images)
Having been under the Scotsman’s heel during his reign, the rise of City began when Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group bought the club in 2008.
The cash injection meant City had the resources to compete but still needed the focused vision to fight for the summit.
Immediate signings, such as Robinho and Jo, felt impulsive and smacked of buying for the sake of it. After finishing 10th in the 2008-09 season, nobody considered the sky-blue part of Manchester a threat to what was known as the top four — Man United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.
But in 2009 City began to make marquee signings that would be mainstays in their first Premier League title in 2012. One of them was English defender Joleon Lescott, who signed from Everton for a fee in the region of £22-million.
City began to chip away at the top by finishing fifth in 2010 and then third in 2011. They also won the FA Cup in 2011 — the club’s first trophy for 42 years. They felt the tide was turning but Lescott pinpoints it to one game in particular that season, which he feels set the tone for what is happening in English football now.
“For me, it was the FA Cup semifinal in 2011. The FA Cup win on a whole was a massive thing for the club, breaking their duck of decades without a major trophy.
“But the semifinal against that United squad and the stage they were at, the squad they had and the manager that they had … I think Sir Alex Ferguson was 13 out of 13 in semifinals, so to beat them at that stage of the competition was a huge turning point. Having now spoken to fans, they also see it that way.”
The turning point: Manchester City celebrate the winning goal against Manchester United in the 2011 FA Cup semi final. (Getty Images)
Lescott was also part of the maiden league-winning team in 2012. That season, they went to Old Trafford and ripped United apart to win 6-1, which alerted the world that City would at least be title contenders for that year.
Lescott still insists the FA Cup semifinal was what changed his belief.
“That day [at Old Trafford] was symbolic in the sense that it allowed us to go on and win the league and it played into the goal-difference factor. But once we won that FA Cup, we now had a taste of silverware and we quietened down everyone who questioned how the money was being spent,” he says.
The drama did not end there that season. City won the title in white-knuckle fashion by beating Queens Park Rangers, thanks to two stoppage-time goals from Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero. No one could ever forget that Aguero goal, thanks to the commentary.
Martin Tyler’s voice broke into the next season with the way he screamed Aguero’s name as he fired the ball into the Queens Park Rangers’s goal. Although Lescott enjoyed that moment — he finds it difficult to put into words — he would not want to do it all again.
Sergio Aguero scores the winning goal on the final day of the 2012 season to hand Man City their first Premier League title. (Getty Images)
“I would much rather win the league with four or five games to go but it was a historic moment for the Premier League and the club. It’s been voted the greatest moment in the Premier League, so it just goes to show how big it was for English football.”
That could have been a once-off for City, especially after United regained the throne in 2013. But Lescott says there is always motivation to win, even though it is not always guaranteed, and the culture of the club allows players and staff to remain strong mentally every season.
“As a club, and for me as an individual, we positioned ourselves to be at that level and we were expecting to win the title at some point. So, as much as it was a huge achievement, it was not a surprise, because it was something that we had set out to do,” he says.
“That’s one credit to the club, because they haven’t become complacent since the new owners have taken charge. They see it as building something that is sustainable forever and it certainly looks that way.”
Joleon Lescott holds the Premier League trophy on City’s trophy tour to South Africa. (Supplied)
City have gone on to win five more league titles, one FA Cup and six League Cups. The one trophy that has eluded them is the Uefa Champions League, the world’s most prestigious.
They were runners-up in 2021 to Chelsea and looked certain to reach the final again this year until Real Madrid summoned a miracle to eliminate them.
City controlled both of those games but Lescott believes they have lacked luck in the competition.
“That level of football, in the champions league, especially in the latter stages, is unique. I don’t think it gives anyone any divine right to win it. There are so many factors that play into winning it and one of them is luck.
“I think the club is so close, though. Year after year, they have progressed to get better in the competition and more dominant. I think you gain the best experiences from defeat and, when you taste it in the latter stages of the competition, you go out the next year thinking, ‘I remember what last year felt like.’”
Agony: Man City are knocked out of the 2022 Uefa Champions League semi final by Real Madrid. (Getty Images)
But more than luck, City missed a recognised striker last season after Aguero left the club. It was evident in that Champions League semifinal second leg as they failed to kill that game off, even though they had 10 shots on target that night.
A certain Erling Haaland leads the line now and there’s no doubt that his ruthless nature up front boosts City’s chances in this year’s competition. Lescott is glad to have Haaland at the club but also believes City manager Pep Guardiola has built the team in such a way that it doesn’t become reliant on a single player.
“I got to enjoy him [Haaland] in the pre-season. He’s very humble, very nice and likeable. It was brief but he was very excited about what was coming. He was aware of the pressure he would be under but he seems like he enjoys that side of it as well.
“Who knows what would have happened if he had played in that Real Madrid game? But, like I said before, there’s no divine right for anyone to win the Champions League. Real Madrid are more experienced than anyone there, so it’s easy to say that if Haaland was there last season, City would have won the Champions League, but there’s no guarantee about that.
“I also don’t think it’s fair to put all that pressure on him, even if he enjoys it. We can’t say City should win the Champions League now that they have Erling Haaland, because if that was the case, it means Man City would win the Champions League for every year that Haaland was there.”
Erling Haaland has already broken ridiculous records at Man City. (Getty Images)
Guardiola’s contract runs out at City in 2023, and with no evidence to suggest that he will stay on, this season might be his last chance to bring the Champions League to the blue side of Manchester.
The failure to do so is an easy and rare criticism to level at the Spanish manager — despite winning multiple domestic league titles and cups.
But Lescott is not worried about noise when it comes to Guardiola’s management. He understands that Guardiola wants to win it, the fans want him to win it and the players also want to win it. And he believes what Guardiola has done for the club and the league is enough to cement his legacy in English football.
“He is going to go down as the greatest, so if he doesn’t win it, he’s still going to be the greatest,” he says.
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish