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Ilkay Gundogan was the creator who became captain. Now he is the confidant who could become a coach. Pep Guardiola rarely re-signs players but he broke a personal rule to be reunited with the German. They are the neighbours who may be found side by side in a dugout in the future.
Gundogan was Guardiola’s first signing for Manchester City; should the manager leave when his contract expires next summer, he may prove his last, as well. But even then, their alliance could be renewed. They were separated for a year when Gundogan joined Barcelona. Perhaps it gave Guardiola a mole in the Catalan camp. Certainly each had a sounding board. And it meant that, when Gundogan mooted the idea of the summer’s most sensational comeback, he was confident of the answer.
“We were in touch throughout last year,” Gundogan said. “We had more than a couple of phone calls. I went to his childhood club and he’s still a big fan of FC Barcelona, he doesn’t make a secret out of it because he’s from there and it’s the club he loves. He rang me up a couple of times, I rang him, we spoke a little bit so the contact was never really gone. So when you have such a good relationship, you can be honest and direct and this is exactly what I said to him. And when I put it out there, the idea, he loved it, and he said, ‘let’s try to do it’. From there, everything happened very quickly.”
His second debut came as a substitute against Ipswich, a day after his transfer was ratified. It seemed a seamless affair. “It honestly felt like I’ve never been away,” Gundogan added. “It’s always the people that make a place as well and in the football club and outside the football club, we’ve met amazing people in Manchester during the seven years I was here.”
It helped that, serendipitously, he still had the apartment next to Guardiola’s. “I didn’t really have much time and much energy to spend on trying to rent or sell it so I just thought, ‘OK, keep it for now, Manchester is also growing, it is not a bad place to be’,” he explained. An investment property then became a home again. “It looks like it was meant to be because when I arrived a couple of days ago, it was so easy to just step back through the doors.”
And to step back on to the pitch. The initial glimpse of Gundogan came as he reprised his role as an attacking midfielder, reviving his relationship with Erling Haaland. “He is also enjoying playing with me, close to each other, because there is a certain understanding between us,” said the 33-year-old.
It helped that, as Gundogan said: “Not so much has changed. There are a few new faces inside the team.” But when he came on, only Josko Gvardiol of his 10 teammates on the pitch was not at City in his first spell. Guardiola, of course, will always tinker in his bid to be one step ahead of everyone else. “I spoke with Pep and he showed me a few images, a few sequences, a few videos. But I love the challenge,” Gundogan added.
He has long seemed a smiling figure but seemed particularly content on Saturday. Gundogan said: “I think there’s no better team in world football, in my opinion, that has so many players on such a high level.” And if that made Barcelona a frustration, a year at a historic superpower was enough to persuade him to pick up the phone to Guardiola.
There was no discussion of the captaincy, the treble-winning skipper insisted. And yet he has the footballing intelligence to implement the manager’s ideas on the pitch and a character Guardiola likes. City’s players have yet to vote for their leadership group for the season and Gundogan said: “In the way I behave inside the dressing room or outside, in front of fans or in front of staff, I always try to lead also by example with good behaviour and that is my main target in life. I believe that when you do good and behave good then good will come back to you.”
Those good things may extend to working alongside Guardiola as a coach. “There is so much to learn from him and it is something I will definitely consider for the future,” said Gundogan. “That is why I also did my B Licence badges a couple of years ago. It is not something we have actually spoke about yet but I think everyone who could be on his backroom staff would feel privileged and would want to and so would I. But I am not done yet, I still want to play a few years because I feel physically top and mentally on an amazing level.” But as the second act of Guardiola and Gundogan begins, there could be a third.
