Aymeric Laporte will soon have been at Manchester City for half a decade, and it's fair to say he has been integral to the club's success during that time.
Since Laporte became City's (then) record signing in January 2018 with a £57.2m move from Athletic Bilbao, the central defender has helped the Blues to win four Premier League titles over the past five seasons.
Regarded as one of the - if not the - best ball-playing centre-backs in world football, Laporte is a crucial cog in Pep Guardiola's team. That has been made even clearer by Pep's eagerness to get Laporte involved straight from the off, as revealed in City Studios' new documentary ' Laporte ABC '.
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Laporte arrived in Manchester on Tuesday 30th January and headed straight to the Etihad Stadium to sign his contract. He put pen to paper in the company of his family, Guardiola and City's director of football Txiki Begiristain, before Guardiola immediately threw his new recruit in at the deep end.
"He [Guardiola] said 'have you got the boots with you?' And I said 'no, I just arrived now, I don’t have the boots'" Laporte recalled of one of his first conversations with Pep.
"He said 'in two hours we have to train'. I said 'in the last two weeks I didn’t train and you’re asking me to train now in two hours and I have not my boots, we have to try and find a solution'.
"They came back with boots and I trained on the afternoon, two hours after I arrived here and, after the training session, he said to go up to his office. He asked me if I was prepared to play the game the day after. The day after was amazing, unbelievable."
Within 24 hours of meeting his new coaches and teammates for the very first time, Laporte was named in the starting XI for City's Premier League meeting with West Brom at the Etihad Stadium on 31st January.
City cruised to a comfortable 3-0 win, with Laporte impressing with two spectacular cross-field passes in particular. The result put City 15 points clear at the top of the Premier League, and they ended up winning the title with a record 100 points.
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