Kieran Trippier has been a Blue since joining the Academy as a nine-year-old and now over a decade later he can barely believe the standard of player he gets to work alongside every day.
The defender first trained with City’s senior squad when Sven-Goran Eriksson was in charge of the Blues, and he’s convinced that changes made since are making him a better player.
“It’s so good to see the level of player that we have coming in now, it’s exciting for me just to meet them but training with players as good as Stevie, Adam and Lescott is a dream come true for me. Training alongside them every day like this in pre-season is great and I’m learning from them all the time.
It’s a great experience to come away with the squad, train with the kind of players we have now and to use the facilities at Nike in Portland, which are superb.
...Keiran Trippier
“I’m learning the most from Craig Bellamy. He’s fast, he’s clever, he’s very experienced and there’s so much I can take from training with and against him. He’s always helping me, if I make a mistake he shows me what to do and he gets on my case like you might expect! But it’s all positive and you can’t help but pick things up from him.”
Kieran and the rest of the players have yet to meet up with David Silva, Yaya Toure and Jerome Boateng given their World Cup exertions, so which of the new signings is Keiran most excited about meeting up with?
“All of them!” he smiles. “Seeing them in the World Cup and the Champions League is one thing, and it will be great to see them here. I would never have thought it could happen here, or that I would even meet the sort of players we have here now. I’ve been here over 10 years now and it’s a fantastic thing for Manchester City that the club can bring such good players in.”
But far from being intimidated by the prospect, Keiran is prepared to roll up his sleeves and take an early chance to force his way into Roberto Mancini’s thinking.
“I’m hoping to get a few games in pre-season and if I’m given the chance, I’m going to grab it. I want to try to catch the Manager’s eye, but even if I go out on loan again I’ll show him what I can do that way.”
