The playmaker, now in his eighth season in Manchester, was Pep Guardiola’s choice as captain for the job having regularly been praised by the boss for his attitude on and off the pitch.
Since arriving in 2017, no player has played more for City than Bernardo, with the Portuguese international integral to an astonishing 18 major honours won in that period.
After a difficult campaign last year, City are again showing signs of competing at the very top table.
City’s travelling squad confirmed
Speaking in a press conference in Monaco on Tuesday ahead of facing his former club, Bernardo insisted he’s trying to pass on all of his title-winning experience to the younger members of the new-look squad.
“City was really successful in the last eight years because everybody had a responsibility,” he said.
“Obviously as captain you need to help to create that type of environment but what we saw in the past was a group of great characters.
“We need to bring that back as a group of captains to arrive on time, take good care of themselves and in terms of responsibility you need more than two, three or four - you need 15 players that behave as a captain.
“I have eight years of knowing exactly what Pep wants from his team and I try to pass that on to the team and set an example.
“It’s a great honour and I am trying my best to put the team as close as possible to get the team back to the level it deserves to be.”
Bernardo also revealed that he received a text from legendary former City captain Vincent Kompany after being selected for the role this summer.
Kompany once stated that the No.20 was ‘50% clown, 50% leader’ and would become a captain when he was ‘25% clown, 75% leader’.
“Vincent actually sent me that quote when Pep appointed me captain and he said I knew I was right all along,” said Bernardo.
“It feels good. It’s a big honour and a big responsibility at the same time.”
Asked in the press conference how long Bernardo felt it would take for City to return to our very best, the captain wasn’t drawn on providing a specific timeline.
“It’s difficult to say and I would like to give you an answer, but the reality is in the last six months a lot of things have changed,” he said.
“We need time to adapt and learn. What we want is to improve every day and get back to the level we need to be.
“I hope we can this season and I truly believe it can be this season.”
Monaco v City App coverage
Our official app allows you to follow all of the action from our latest Champions League tie in one place.
Minute-by-minute text updates will begin in our Matchday Centre two hours before kick-off, while our Matchday Live show will begin at around 18:45 (UK).
FG and Chris Ingram will be out in Monaco, with Fabian Delph and Michael Brown back in Manchester with Liam Loftus as the panel discuss all the action before, during and after the full-time whistle.
We will also provide live audio commentary from Chris Sharples and Clive Allen while our text commentary continues.
Make sure to have push notifications turned on as well, so you can be alerted to key moments in the action, including goals, red cards and the team news.
We’ll have a quick-hit 2-minute highlights package available at Midnight (UK) on Wednesday and 23:00 (Global) on Thursday, while you can sign-in to watch a free 8-minute edit from 23:00 (Global) on Thursday, too.
On CITY+ meanwhile, there’ll be our popular full-match replay as well as our new extended highlights offering which features the best 20 minutes of action from the game. Both are also available at Midnight (UK) on Wednesday and 23:00 (Global) on Thursday.
