Manchester City last night released their new Together 4-In-A-Row documentary, allowing fans to look at what happened behind the scenes in the 2023/24 season.
The club won the Premier League title for a fourth straight season, but was far from easy and the documentary perfectly captures the rollercoaster season.
Pep Guardiola’s reaction Rodri getting a red card against Nottingham Forest makes for fascinating viewing.
There is also input from Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, who was left amazed by a wordless team meeting from Guardiola.
You can also see players like Erling Haaland react to Stefan Ortega’s big save from Heung-min Son.
It’s certainly worth watching, and here are three big takeaways in the eyes of Manchester City News.
Pep Guardiola is intimidating
Perhaps this won’t come across as too much of a surprise to fans, but in the documentary you really see how intimidating Pep Guardiola can be.
Everyone knows he’s a perfectionist, and when something hasn’t gone right he will let his players know about it.
There are a few scenes where he’s in the dressing room and he’s very angry. And you can see the faces of the players – they daren’t speak, as they digest his messages.
He totally commands the room, and it’s crystal clear that what he says, goes.
Guardiola admits at one stage ‘I cannot control myself’.
That all said though, Guardiola is also a big empath and can be very soft. He understands people, and there’s a scene where he gets extremely emotional as he informs his players of a staff member’s cancer diagnosis, which is truly heartbreaking.
Strong backroom figures
The documentary features City executives such as director of football Txiki Begiristain, CEO Ferran Soriano and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
While it’s clear that City are incredibly successful because of the work of Guardiola and his players, these people are crucial in ensuring City remain on that path to success.
There’s also a great clip of Guardiola’s assistant Juanma Lillo making a passionate speech in the dressing room. This was when Guardiola was away recovering from back surgery.
The documentary features a brilliant line from Soriano, who says: “The only way to win, and to win again, is to be relentless. Everybody at the club, from the chairman and the board, to everybody who works in the club thinking ahead and asking ‘What else?’, ‘What more can we do?’, ‘What can we do better?’
That mentality just sums everything up, and perfectly explains why City are the dominant force in English football.
Rodri and Dias are future club captains
Between the footage of the dressing room and the interviews given, it’s clear that one of Rodri or Ruben Dias will be the next club captain once Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne leave.
Both of them are incredibly qualified to sport the armband, and it’s difficult to see the players choosing someone other than one of those two to be the next skipper.
We see several times where Dias is motivating his teammates, and Rodri does the same.
At one point, as City are 1-0 down at half-time to Everton, Guardiola questions his players and suggests they don’t believe enough. After he’s done talking, Rodri says: “Not just words! We have to show on the pitch. Vamos!” City go on to win the game.
Rodri and Dias are both big personalities, and it’s very clear they are held in high regard by their teammates. Regarding who should be the actual next club captain, it really feels like it’ll be a toss of a coin between the two.
