Guardiola’s glorious record has allowed City to obscure darker reality
Manager who’s transformed English football was beautiful tool for his club, says Rory Smith Rory Smith 24 May 2026 - THE OBSERVER / Sport The many and varied individual prizes on offer in English football tend not to cause the clubs of the Premier League to lose a vast amount of sleep. Having the players’ or fans’ or even Football Writers’ player of the year in the ranks is worth celebrating, but the awards are treated as somewhere between bonus and afterthought. Nice to have, rather than must-win. On more than one occasion in recent years, though, they have caused genuine irritation inside Manchester City. Plenty inside the club were annoyed when Mohamed Salah swept the board in 2018, the year that City accumulated 100 points. There was indignation the following season, too, when Virgil van Dijk claimed the Premier League award, and in 2022, when Salah picked up a hat-trick of honours. City had won the title in both of those campaigns. To many of the club’s executives, this was concre...