Joleon Lescott says two of his Manchester City teammates were so different during training from how they were in games.
The centre-back was at the Manchester club for five years from 2009 to 2014, lifting four trophies and playing alongside numerous other players along the way.
Now though, the pundit has shared some behind-the-scenes details about his former teammates, with two, in particular, getting a mention regarding how they performed in training compared to matches.
Lescott says former City duo were so different in training
Speaking in the latest episode of Football’s Greatest, Lescott had this to say on the topic of how the personalities at City during his time at the club worked together on the training pitch and in the dressing room, highlighting two figures who showed different styles from training to real matches.
He said: “Whether it was me, [James] Milner, Edin [Dzeko], [Aleksandar] Kolarov, that just continued to train the way we played and just set that standard because the likes of Yaya [Toure] and Sergio [Aguero] didn’t train the way they played.
“They were able to turn up on a Saturday and be the best players and win the games.
“They just didn’t train the way they played on a Saturday, which is understandable because if you’re at that level, it’s probably hard to do that six, seven times a week, but the level they set on a Saturday allowed them to do that.
“So, we just understood how important we were at different times and said we were in a team over the course of all of our times there and we knew that we just wanted the best for the players that were playing.
“So, it wasn’t a case of everyone downed tools or everyone’s kind of disregarded if you’re not in a team, it was like, no, you still have a voice and you’re still important.”
Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero were so important for Man City
During their time together at the Manchester club, Toure and Aguero made a combined total of 706 appearances, with the midfielder making 316 and the striker making 390.
In terms of their goals and assists, Toure scored 79 goals and delivered 49 assists, whereas Aguero found the back of the net 260 times and supplied 72 assists.
With the pair both having major impacts at the club and winning a lot of trophies, this shows that two players of such quality don’t always need to show their best in training as long as they set an example to others on the pitch and deliver for the team when it matters.
