Henry, City stand one game away from a what would be a historic and incredible Treble. Can you sum up your thoughts on their extraordinary season to date?
So, the two great teams I have seen were the Liverpool side of 1984 when they won the treble of League, League Cup and European Cup in Roma’s backyard under Bob Paisley and the Manchester United Treble winning side of 1999.
And I would put this Manchester City team alongside those two if they do the Treble in Istanbul, which I’m sure they will do, and for many reasons.
You look at Pep Guardiola on the touchline. You look at his hunger, you look at a man who you would think was trying to prove himself in his first day in the job rather than an individual who won all the trophies and got all the garlands and who is so acclaimed.
I love the way he challenges them and not in a negative way but in a positive way to make them better.
I look at a player like Kyle Walker whose career I have followed from an early age, ditto John Stones, ditto Jack Grealish.
He’s made them all better. I mean they were already such good players but you look at John Stones - he’s now in the top five defenders in the world.
Look at Kyle Walker. He has been fantastic whether it is dealing with Vinicius Jnr or Kylian Mbappe at the World Cup where Mbappe praised him after the England v France game.
Then there is Jack Grealish. A £100m player and another fantastic character. A good player at Aston Villa but now a much more intelligent player, the time he delivers the ball, his decisiveness.
He’s become a far more intelligent player and Guardiola is responsible for that.
You talk to young coaches in this country, and they all talk about how they have been inspired by Pep.
The influence he has had on this game… I can’t think that there have been many other managers down the years who have been so transformative at all levels - not simply elite levels - with the playing, the pressing, the possession, the inverted full backs.
I mean my local team play in the eighth tier of English football and when I do go and watch them I see Pep’s influence there.
They have nowhere near the same quality of player of course but actually his influence of ‘let’s build from the back’ means they don’t launch it long anymore. And most of that comes from Pep.
And another thing I think is that we’ll only fully appreciate Pep after he’s gone.
I think Manchester City will still be a great side and doubtless appoint a great manager in his stead, but I so think he is work 10/15 points to City each season.
This of course is the Club’s second Champions League final in three years, but do you detect a different mood and feel this time around compared to the 2021 final against Chelsea?
Totally. I mean obviously the game against Chelsea two years ago, you had the whole English element to it with that extra tension.
Also looking ahead to Saturday you can pretty much predict what a Pep team is likely to look like these days. He’ll probably go with Bernardo if its more defensive, Riyad Mahrez if its more attacking - just to make sure Inter don’t pull any stunts.
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And whether its Nathan Ake or Manuel Akanji at left back, they are pretty much his only selection decisions.
You know Rodrigo is going to start, you know Kevin De Bruyne is going to start even though he’s arguably got a stronger bench now and much more options than he had in Porto.
It’s all about getting the right team and you know all the City players understand what they have to do.
Look at Erling Haaland - he embodies Pep’s hunger. People say he hasn’t scored for three or four games but in the FA Cup final on Saturday he was back clearing, he was running the channels, working over centre halves, creating space for others.
That work ethic and will to win and desire which is almost visceral with Pep is now embodied with all his players.
And how big a confidence boost will beating Manchester United to win the FA Cup and domestic Double seven days out from Istanbul prove?
Absolutely huge. The United players knew, though Erik ten Hag tried to play it down, but the fact was their players were doing it to try to protect the ’99 Treble.
The City players knew what United were trying to do.
That for me, of the two finals, was always going to be arguably the trickier one. It was at Wembley with a full house, huge support for United as well as for City – and that on a train strike day too so fair play to the fans.
So that for me looked the more challenging one as Manchester United had a cause. But from that first kick-off when Ilkay Gundogan laid the ball back to Stefan Ortega, I thought City were just outstanding.
It may not have been one of City’s really best performances, but it was one of their most determined. Technically Gundogan was terrific, but it was really about grit, about closing United down particularly when Alejandro Garnacho came on.
Inter Milan will not be easy. Far from it, but City have got the United game out of the way and that will mean so much psychologically.
Do you think there is one defining quality that sets City apart from other sides. Something that give them that extra piece of magic if you like?
It’s very basic, it’s their work ethic.
You see it with Pep and how hard he works at the Etihad Campus, how committed he is on matchdays. Take a player like Kyle Walker - he’s got this thing that ‘no one will ever beat me’ and that is for work rate, will power, pace. That is endued in him, it’s endued in the team.
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You see it with Haaland tracking back, running the channels, working centre halves. Kevin De Bruyne he looks, when he comes off the pitch, like he’s been in sort of a tumble dryer for 90 minutes!
He looks absolutely drained and red in the face and that’s because of his work rate.
That should be the very basic start for any player, for any team, but I just think no one can match City’s work rate.
You touched about this earlier but I wanted to ask you specifically about Pep. How do you begin to quantify his impact on City, English football and the game in general?
I just think, when you’ve got someone with that adrenaline, that momentum, that relentlessness, that sort of tactical innovation, I think we will look at a Pep-less Manchester City in the future and go ‘Wow, we really appreciate how much he gave’.
But it’s broader than that with Pep. The impact clearly is on Manchester City and the Premier League, but I would say it’s on all four divisions, non-league and even grassroots as well.
Teams want to play out from the back, goalkeepers are expected to play out from the back, right backs are expected to step into midfield, we’ve seen it with Liverpool and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
He is a tactical visionary and his legacy will be in that.
I think he’s opened the eyes of many people in this country to what you can achieve with different tactics, with vision, with a bit more adventure.
Every level has a different level of ability of player, but they can still attempt some of these things. Whether it’s playing out from the back, whether it’s pressing, whether it’s the inverted full-back.
I think he’s been extraordinary for English football.
For you, if City were to win the Champions League and secure the Treble, where would that put Pep’s standing in the pantheon of all-time great managers for you?
I think he’s already up there anyway. In European football, the two wins with Barcelona were extraordinary.
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Brian Clough was different, what he did at Nottingham Forest in 1979 and 1980 was incredible.
As I mentioned earlier if City were to win the Treble, I would put that up with the 83/84 Liverpool team, I would put it up with the Ferguson team of the 99 Treble winning team.
It’s very difficult to compare generations because of diet, pitches, boots, sports science etc.
There are differences there, but I think you can say Pep Guardiola and this Manchester City team are walking towards giants and will join those giants if they win in Istanbul.
What are your thoughts on Inter and their progress under Simone Inzaghi?
I think they’ve surprised quite a few people! They’ve got a good goalkeeper, but you look at the forward line and you look at Edin Dzeko and you just wonder, as he’ll be absolutely stirred up to play and play well.
The temptation though for us lot in the media and fans is that we can say ‘oh the Treble is inevitable’ but they [the players] won’t be thinking that.
John Stones won’t be boarding that plane to Istanbul thinking ‘I’m absolutely guaranteed to make the return journey with a winners medal’. He won’t work like that; he’ll be absolutely driven to win.
These players know that they stand on the threshold of greatness, and they’ll want to take that step to have that medal, to reward those fans who have had some quite expensive trips this season in a time of the cost-of-living crisis.
So for them to do that - the players I know best at City, Grealish, Kyle Walker, John Stones, they’re pretty down to earth people from sensible, hard-working families - without being patronising - who just have an appreciation of what they do, an appreciation of their privileged position, that their individual gifts and work ethic has taken them to this stage.
You see Jack Grealish working with kids with disabilities, John Stones a PFA Community champion, Kyle Walker coming from a Sheffield housing estate and the challenges he has overcome. These are pretty grounded individuals.
And I’m so pleased for them. I know John’s parents having met them at the Under-21s and seen them on England trips, they are just the best people you could meet. Hardworking, committed, no airs or graces, very humble and just so delighted.
When John got his 50th appearance for England during the World Cup I spoke to him that day and I said: ‘Your parents will be so, so proud of you’ and he said ‘yeah’.
That’s the other thing. Grealish’s family, Walker’s family, Stones‘ family, they’ll be travelling to all these games so those players on the pitch know that they’re not only doing it for themselves they’re doing it for family, friends, clubs, fans.
So, if they win I will raise a glass of whatever I can find if City fans haven’t drunk it dry in the square! I’ll raise a glass to them and to all the other players.
I’ve been lucky to interview Ruben Dias and De Bruyne a few years back and these are just such dedicated individuals. They’re all proper professionals who are dedicated, like Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan.
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Gundogan, he seems to score big goals at big stages of the season, particularly this season and particularly in the Cup final and the run-in to the title.
He has stood tall. When he came to City and he had his injury in 2016, he almost sort of lost a year. But what a professional.
He’s got that intelligence, that movement for both goals in the FA Cup final but particularly the first goal, no-one at Manchester United tracked him and I know there was an inquest about that but that was because of his intelligence of movement to get onto the flick.
He reminds me slightly of Penny Mordaunt, the Lord President of the Privy Council at the Coronation, when she had to go strengthen her arm muscles before carrying the King’s ceremonial sword for two hours!
He’s been lifting trophies so often I wonder if he’s been in the gym to practise it. He doesn’t look like what you would expect a modern footballer to look like.
And yet there he is timing his runs well, he doesn’t look out of breath after a game, he just imposes himself he doesn’t get shrugged off, he’s got that control.
But most importantly, he’s got that tactical nouse - he’s almost Pep’s brains on the pitch, although they’ve all got brains - and he’s got that supreme work ethic.
In terms of the game itself, a lot of people say success on Saturday would mark the end of a quest. However, could it be that if City do it, that actually it’s the start of a period of sustained success in Europe?
When Barcelona did it under Pep in 2009, it was all about can they do it again in 2011. And he will absolutely be driven.
Pep is one of the greats of the game anyway, everyone knows that. He’s won the Champions League as a player and then won it as a manager.
So when you get people at that level, supreme people like that, they very rarely get sated.
It’s not just about the one win, the one trophy, it’s about doing it again. And to retain the Champions League or do it again in the next two or three years would be supreme.
You look at City at the moment and you look at players like Rico Lewis and Cole Palmer, when they come on, they step into a system and a culture they immediately fit in because of their work rate, because of their technical understanding.
Look at Rico Lewis, arguably he’s one of the City players who plays it best in terms of a right back stepping into midfield. Rico has just been fantastic doing it with his control and with his confidence.
So, you think about the legacy of this team which is again to tweak it, again bring in one or two of these kids who might step up and it’s great to see Manchester City developing these players - great for England’s long-term perspective.
You’ve got three or four potential real first teamers, regulars, out on loan at the moment let alone with Lewis and Palmer on the bench.
So again, from Pep’s perspective, it’s about taking that on again.
There is always a concern about if one team dominates. But actually, this team is playing such fantastic football that it’s a joy and this team is also developing good players which is great for the national team.
And as I mentioned earlier, Pep is developing a style of play which is transforming thoughts across the country.
Finally, if you had to pick a winner, what does your gut instinct tell you?
I will go 2-1 City but maybe it might take extra-time.
As long as it finishes on the right side most City fans would take that - even if they had no fingernails left!
I think City will win. Everything about them: the players, the manager, the attitude, the hunger, the feeling about the cause of doing the Treble… I think it all points to City.
The opinions published here are personal to the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of Manchester City Football Club.
