2 days ago
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When the 23 Manchester City players involved in winning the Champions League for the first time in the club's history lined up to receive their medals on the Ataturk Stadium pitch in Istanbul two years ago, the future at the Etihad looked bright for almost all of them.
Nobody could have expected the extent of the change since that wonderful June night in 2023, when City finally got their hands on the trophy Pep Guardiola desired most, winning a historic treble in the process.
Yes, there were players in that squad closer to the end than the beginning, but having finally won the Champions League, it looked like they were set for a period of dominance, and a fourth league title in a row duly followed.
But the end for that team has come quickly, and City's ruthless axing of some of the heroes of that season has highlighted very clearly that this is a new era now, with Guardiola one of the few constants remaining.
At the end of last season, that treble-winning starting XI against Inter Milan remained untouched, but now almost half of it has been ripped out. That began with Kevin De Bruyne being told there was no contract forthcoming, and Jack Grealish being left out of the Club World Cup squad and informed he should find a new club.
It didn't stop there. In the final couple of weeks of the window, it has been clear that Ederson, Manuel Akanji and Ilkay Gundogan are now yesterday's men. All three moved on because they were no longer held in the same regard as they were during the run-in to the 2022/23 season.
Then there is the bench. Eight of the 12 players who were among the subs in Istanbul have now left: Scott Carson, Kyle Walker, Aymeric Laporte, Sergio Gomez, Maximo Perrone, Cole Palmer, Julian Alvarez, and Riyad Mahrez. Two others on the bench, Stefan Ortega and Kalvin Phillips, were expected to leave this summer and don’t appear to have a future at the Etihad.
So essentially, only seven of the 23 players in the matchday squad that night are still involved in the first-team picture at the Etihad. That is a remarkable turnaround in just two seasons. By contrast, eight of Inter's starting XI in the Champions League final are still at the San Siro.
That is more surprising because Inter's starting XI was a year older than City's on average in that final, yet the winning side moved on quicker.
It's hard to escape the feeling of a new era dawning at the Etihad. Spending £350million in a year is going to have that effect and when City line up in this season's Champions League group stage, their XI will look very different.
The remarkable thing about City's triumph in 2022/23 was how settled the team was. Ten players started both legs of the quarter-final, semi-final and final, with Nathan Ake and Kyle Walker swapping for the other position.
That continuity has gone now, but when the team is selected to face another Serie A side this month, when Napoli visit the Etihad, it will be quite a contrast. Five of the treble winners, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, and Erling Haaland, could start, but that is not a guarantee.
Of that quintet, Stones and Silva are out of contract next summer, and both could leave. Then there is, of course, Guardiola, who is, at the very least, having trouble getting a new City team to gel. There has been a lot of change at the Etihad this summer, and even more could be on the way.
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