Winning The Right Way: Behind the scenes on Manchester City’s quest for the Champions League with those who were there

Former Manchester City staff working behind the scenes at the football club detail the mentality within the organisation regarding the quest for Champions League success.

This article aims to delve deeper into Manchester City Football Club’s struggles at winning their ‘holy grail’, the UEFA Champions League.

During a series of articles ahead of Saturday’s showpiece event, the aim is to get closer to the club’s core for answers, by speaking with former staff members, the external media and the soul of the club, its fanbase.

There are few better professionals in a football club to give an insightful fly on the wall account of day to day proceedings than the official club photographer and Manchester City is no different in this respect.

Sharon Latham was City’s official photographer from 2007 to 2016 and had access to all areas during her time at the club, snapping each day in the life of a top tier club.

I spoke to Sharon on the phone during the culmination of the 2021/22 campaign.

“I had the best 10 years of my life there, it was amazing. To actually work for the club you support is just epic,” recalled Sharon.

“It was an exhausting job. I worked at City for 10 years and I worked seven days a week. I did every home game, every away game, every training session, every PR shoot, every clothing shoot and every kit shoot. It was a seven day a week job and if there had have been an eighth day, I’d have worked that too.”

Lovingly known as ‘Big Shaz’ to players and fans alike, Sharon’s lively and warm personality ensured that she was welcomed as a key member of the team, meaning she was always present on European trips in the Champions League to photograph games.

“The noise in the European stadiums was nothing like I had ever experienced in England,” she remembered.

Sharon with her camera on a typically cold Manchester day at the Etihad Stadium (Credit: Manchester City Football Club)

In her final season at the club, Sharon was once again on board with the team as they aimed to conquer the previously unthinkable and, until as recently as 2021, this was the furthest that City had got to realising that dream.

After finally advancing past the last 16 knockout round, City found themselves facing the champions of France, Paris Saint-Germain, in a two-legged quarter-final tie with a place in the Champions League semi-finals up for grabs.

“I know how hard the boys worked and how much they wanted to get as far as they could as well,” said Sharon.

“My biggest memory of it all was the passion and that drive. When they realised in 2016 that they were getting to semi-finals, there was a lot of drive and want behind it.”

City defeated the Parisians with goals from star player Kevin De Bruyne and advanced to the semi-finals where they narrowly lost over two-legs by eventual champions Real Madrid with a 1-0 score on aggregate, courtesy of a cruel deflected own goal.

Despite defeat at the penultimate hurdle, this is when beliefs about their chances of winning the competition in the future started to change around the club externally and, according to Sharon, this was the case inside the dressing room as well.

“2016 was the start of it being real and the start of City actually being a force to be reckoned with in the Champions League. The belief was there, it wasn’t a fantasy in the players’ heads, they believed,” she remembered.

Alongside the photographer, there are few better insights into the workings of a football club than the medical staff and head physicians which, at a high profile club like City, are as vital as anyone in keeping the players ready for battle both at home and in Europe.

I was lucky enough to chat on the phone with Grant Downie OBE who was Head of Performance at City’s academy from 2011 to 2018.

Grant saw the Cityzens led by three different managers with the coaching eras of Roberto Mancini, Manuel Pellegrini and current manager Pep Guardiola all occurring while Grant was working in Manchester.

“All three first team managers took a great interest in the academy because they wanted to see what players could come through the system,” he said.

Grant at City during the 2012/13 season during which he was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list (Credit: Manchester City Football Club)

The academy cannot be forgotten when fighting on all four fronts like City do season upon season with the challenges of the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup all existing alongside the illusive Champions League.

Many academy players were handed their European debuts at City as part of their development including English attacking trio Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and James McAtee who are all born and bred Mancunians, hailing from Stockport and Salford respectively.

“You need a mixture of both academy players and transferred players. Phil Foden is a Stockport boy, representing his local club. Your academy must aspire to produce players to that high standard,” said Grant.

“Some will need to be loaned but some such as Foden have gone straight into the first team, thanks to being nurtured by the wonderful training that Pep has given him.”

Foden is a true success story when it comes to City performing well in Europe with the midfielder proving instrumental in City’s journey to a first ever Champions League final in 2021 at the age of just 20 years old.

Having already scored two goals at the quarter-final stage versus Borussia Dortmund, Foden provided a crucial assist in the second leg of the semi-final against Paris St Germain to seal City’s place in the final.

Grant, who still consults for the City Football Group now, was quick to highlight the importance of fitness and injuries when challenging in a high stakes and quality competition which runs to the end of the season.

“By the time these teams are playing in April, having played two games a week throughout the year without a mid-season break, the players must be very tired and that is evident in the number of injuries picked up,” he remarked.

“Pep Guardiola knows who his best team is but the problem is that by the time you get to the final stages of the Champions League, it is very rare that this best team is fully fit and available.”

The fitness issues have caused City problems in the later stages of the Champions League on several occasions with the most recent campaign in 2022 being a glowing example of this against Real Madrid at the semi-final stage.

City were without starting right back Kyle Walker for large periods of the tie and conceded crucial goals because of this in both legs. This resulted in an eventual 6-5 aggregate defeat to Los Blancos, who had a full strength squad themselves.

“In other leagues such as Spain, Barcelona and Real Madrid have some tough games but they also have some relatively easy games. There is no easy game in the Premier League,” stated Grant.

“It is very difficult for any English team to win the Champions League, not just Manchester City. Maybe the price of having the best league in the world is that it is very difficult, not impossible, to win the Champions League.”

Grant with his team at Manchester City during the latter years at the club following the appointment of manager Pep Guardiola (Credit: Grant Downie)

City have found themselves on the verge of advancing to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final itself, only for a decision, goal or dramatic moment to snatch their dream from them and this cannot be ignored given the nature of the Champions League.

“It isn’t that they are doing anything wrong, it’s far from it. They have got a lot of good structures and systems in place with fantastic medical, science and psychology departments,” said Grant.

“At the end of the day it is a game played by human beings who have to travel the world and play in different time zones and the 90 minutes dictate that. That’s the nature of the game.”

“It is decided on the night, it is not decided over periods of time. There can be reasons why some players just can’t perform as well as they can on the night.”

This mindset is evidently prevalent throughout the club, with Sharon sharing the same assessment of the uncertainty of a one off tie.

“If you look at one game it is difficult to assess. You have to look at the whole build-up to it and how we got there. Taking one game into isolation sometimes isn’t helpful as you can just have one unlucky game on the day,” she added.

Yet the key question remains, do the owners of the club instil a pressure within the club to win this final jewel in the crown which filters down to the club’s staff? Is the desperation to win the Champions League tangible among the Sky Blue ranks?

“I think at the club, everyone puts pressure on themselves anyway but I didn’t feel as though there was any pressure from above,” Sharon revealed.

“Individuals did put pressure on themselves with regards to the Champions League as they wanted to win. They felt they had the skills to win the competition and as a team they believed.”

Alongside thinking that European glory was and still is attainable at the Etihad Stadium, there exists a mindset there that this success should be attained by doing things the right way and not cutting corners.

Sharon embraces City goalkeeper Joe Hart following the culmination of her last match working for Manchester City, an away trip to Swansea City on the final day of the 2015/16 season (Credit: Sharon Latham)

“The club are ambitious to win it but you can’t force the situation and the more intense you get about it, the less likely you are to win it,” asserted Grant.

“When you work in sport there is always pressure and there should be. I think the pressure was on to win but win in the correct way.”

The notion of winning in the right way is not lost on the staff at City with the notion of building the club correctly being placed in higher regard than attaining individual trophies such as the Champions League.

“Yes, you want to aspire to be the best you can be but it was done by building a training ground and by investing that money in Manchester. It was a community project first and foremost,” concluded Grant.

So how far have the club come in the time since both Sharon and Grant left and will this new City side finally break the duck and win the Champions League, putting to bed the demons of old? Both of the former staff members provide a refreshing take on the matter.

“I have seen since leaving how much experience we have got. The team are very tight now and they work together as a team so well it’s a little bit like the old 2016 team. They know each other really well and there is no division,” Sharon observed.

“Under Pep they now have the European experience, far more than they had before. They’re becoming seasoned European players now.”

“They have reached the semi-finals three times so it is very likely to happen at some stage and of course the club wants that but who knows when that will be exactly but it will happen,” added Grant.

The belief in what City are doing is clearly there amongst the staff and there is also a clear importance placed on getting to that fabled European success the right way.

All involved at City evidently believe that the team will eventually claim their ‘holy grail’ and in the not-so-distant future too, but it must be won in the right way and that is the ultimate priority, setting an example for others to follow.