Manchester City are set up to serve their manager, and close contact with key club figures is pivotal to his happiness
This is the story of a Manchester City title triumph that is about trust, faith, mutual respect, working in concert and, most of all, excellence. It is a tale of how Pep Guardiola oversaw what those close to the manager view as his team’s finest season, better even than the record-breaking 100-point first title triumph of 2017-18 or last season’s, when he had to reset the side after an insipid 1-1 draw at home to West Brom.
It could not have had Sunday’s happiest of endings without Guardiola’s close relationship with Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the chairman, with whom he speaks before and after every match. Nor without the daily breakfasts at the training campus in an area of the cafeteria across from the players where in attendance are Guardiola, his No 2 Juanma Lillo, the director of football Txiki Begiristain, the CEO Ferran Soriano and Manuel Estiarte, the manager’s closest adviser.
