Guardiola prizes energy in bid to make City soar again

In December, Real Madrid won the inaugural Intercontinental Cup. The implications for Manchester City were indirect but it does mean that, on a technicality, they enter the Club World Cup as defending champions.

- RICHARD JOLLY SENIOR FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT

An expanded competition can seem a new one: under the old format, the last final officially, anyway, given Real’s win over Pachuca came in a rebranded competition – was City’s 4-0 walloping of Fluminense in Saudi Arabia.

It was City’s fifth trophy of 2023. It is not the only reason it feels like a different time. One of the goals came from Phil Foden, then on fire. Julian Alvarez bookended the scoring with a brace, but he now leads the line for Atletico Madrid. The silverware was lifted by Kyle Walker, but the captain isn’t even part of the squad City are taking to the United States after spending the second half of the season on loan at AC Milan. Jack Grealish, who started against Fluminense, didn’t make the plane this summer either.

Whatever the competition is called, there was the sense that, 18 months ago, City were entitled to call themselves the world’s best. Hindsight shows it was one of the last triumphs of a team; they won that season’s Premier League but even men as perceptive as Pep Guardiola and Txiki Begiristain failed to notice the evidence of decline until it was too late.