The Netflix series takes you off the pitch into what made Pep Guardiola’s staff and players tick on the way to Treble success in 2022/23.
Each episode will take us further and further into the campaign, with the series eventually culminating in that historic night in Istanbul.
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As part of the production process, City Studios spoke to many of the first team players who were at the heart of the triumph.
To coincide with each episode, we’ll let the key figures tell you their memories of those events the show covers in their own words.
The show picks up where last season’s documentary ended, with Erling Haaland’s arrival following the celebration of our 2021/22 Premier League title.
The Norwegian was joined through the door by Julian Alvarez, Stefan Ortega Moreno and Kalvin Phillips before Manuel Akanji was added on transfer deadline day.
First up, they discuss meeting up for the first time ahead of pre-season training.
Erling Haaland: It was a bit unreal of course and you know because I know the Club really well, I know all the players because I’ve been watching every single game. I kind of felt that I knew the players a little bit already because yeah as I said I’ve been watching them a lot and so on.
So it was really easy for me to come in the Club and to just be myself from the first second and I think that’s also been a part of my success here so far and I’m really happy that it’s been easy coming into the group and the Club and everything.
Rodrigo: This is like our second family. You always miss the people you spend 24 hours and all the year with. And of course with the things we live last year that makes you connect more with the lads and of course always good to have them back. Some of them left, some of them are coming but the structure is there and we been quite a lot of years together and that’s why it feels like it’s a family.
Ilkay Gundogan: With players like Julian we don’t really speak the same language. His language was not good enough when he just joined. My Spanish is very bad so there is not really the same language. There is a little barrier but sometimes you don’t need to speak a lot, it’s the little gestures on the training pitch like putting your arm around him, giving him a smile or a simple comment he would understand.
I think these kind of things can make you feel already welcome as a new player and then off the pitch I think we have all the help from everyone in the building. Stefan joined from Germany and speaks German, obviously there is much more that we can talk about and joke about as well. It’s just different. So these are maybe two extremes but you always try to find a balance you know and a good way of communicating whether it’s with words or with gestures or whatever with everyone.
As well as the new signings, there was a change amongst the more senior players in the squad. Fernandinho had left the Club and Ilkay Gundogan was the new captain.
Ruben Dias, Rodrigo, Kevin De Bruyne and Kyle Walker were also selected as the rest of the captaincy group after a vote amongst the squad.
Ilkay Gundogan: Obviously Fernandinho left so there had to be a new captain but it was not something that I was looking to. If it happens it happens and you take a different kind of responsibility. I wouldn’t say it’s more or less it’s just probably a little bit different. But I felt like that also in the past years you know as someone who has been here probably the longest in the last couple of years with a handful of other players. I think there’s always responsibility to help and guide the other players and that’s just the same thing for that season too.
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I had great captains during my career like Fernandinho and Vincent Kompany but I’m different. I am the way I am, I am maybe not as loud as them or I don’t know as forward as them, as aggressive as them, but I’m someone who always speaks the truth.. I think it’s always important to be honest first of all with yourself and then with your team-mates. If you are genuine and the other ones feel it, it’s very rewarding. I see myself like that with my team-mates and that’s probably a big reason why they wanted me for the captain.
Ruben Dias: It means a lot. It’s special and will always be special to be part of that group.
Essentially because it always kind of depends on the way you get there, but the way we do it here and knowing that it’s the voice of everyone. I think it has even an extra feeling, because you know it’s your people voting and it’s your people deciding.
It’s a tremendous honour to be part of that group. I’m proud in a way to share being a captain with the other captains as well. You’re always learning, but then in this moment to be part of this group it’s just another level of learning as well.
After returning from the US, the next challenge was the Community Shield. We lost 3-1 to Liverpool, with Julian Alvarez scoring his first goal for the Club.
Ilkay Gundogan: I had two training sessions in me and we went straight back into that game that was in recent years probably always the case. You know that we had majority of players coming back for a few days in training and some players were not even there yet. So obviously that makes it always a little bit difficult, because of that the outcomes are not so easy to predict. We played Liverpool so a tough and physical team with a very strong mentality. So I think all that together gave us at the end the result and yeah that day we were just not good enough.
In the closing stages, Erling Haaland missed a chance, attracting a lot of attention in the stadium and across social media.
Erling Haaland: I think it was good that this happened honestly. Of course I would love to win this game but that this happened I think it was a really good thing. That made me think ‘okay, I have to be a bit more focused’ and that’s what I did next game. We all remember how it went then it was a good start in the Premier League. And I silenced quite a few people then.
Haaland scored twice in the Premier League opener against West Ham before a comfortable win over Bournemouth in the first game at the Etihad.
Pep Guardiola inspired his side ahead of kick-off by showing the last few minutes of the final day win over Aston Villa to win the 2021/22 Premier League.
Ilkay Gundogan: I actually enjoyed it a lot because believe it or not I didn’t really get the chance you know to watch it over again after that day. It was nice to remember that day, to remember what has happened.
I think it was maybe also good for the new players you know who just joined us. And to see you know the emotions that we lived that day and to motivate them you to get as well at the end of the season.
Phil Foden: It was such a nice touch from the manager. To think [and] to do a video like that.
I think after the video, everyone was so motivated for the game, and it was just like ‘come on now lets start fresh, but remain what we did last year and how we performed’.
Yeah that video definitely helped people, the team and all the staff and made us hungry to win more things and start the season on a high.
Then came a trip to a much-fancied Newcastle side. An entertaining end-to-end game finished 3-3.
Ruben Dias: I remember that game very well. I had 40 degrees of fever.
I was on the bench and I just came in. The rhythm was high and they have been doing very well so far, so that moment, people still didn’t know. I guess on that day people started to realise even more how good they would be this season.
I remember it well. It was a tough game and it really was that first big test [of the season]. I came on, Nathan got injured. So I was just boiling in the bench, but I told the doctor ‘I wanted to be [there] just in case’.
Because even if I had to go inside and almost collapse on the pitch I would try my chances. In the end I ended up having to help, so.
The next game was against Crystal Palace. However, the transfer window was still open and City had one more target.
Manuel Akanji: Yeah, I spoke to Erling. He was actually the first guy who text me. Before the game, I think it was, Crystal Palace and on the weekend, Saturday, he text me before the game.
They asked about me here and he obviously only said good things about me and I still didn’t think a lot about it, about then.
These things happen a lot and then nothing happens in the end, so I was just happy in the moment and after the game [with Crystal Palace] he text me again and I got to my agent.
After going 2-0 down in 21 minutes against Palace, City recovered to win 4-2.
Ruben Dias: Every difficult test you end up having during the season, they show you where you’re good at, they show you where you’re not as good at.
Even though you’re so early and still so far away from achieving anything you need to, and we all know it in the end, we all know that those games matter a lot more than sometimes one might think.
I guess that was one of the reasons why we did it and we turned it around.
In the end they give you the answers, they give you the context you later have to read and just get better at the ones you’re not as good.
Erling Haaland: It was a bad start of the game and the first half was horrible. And then we turned it around, we got the energy back, I think we did a couple substitutions that helped us a lot and we kept on going.
In the end it was really good game, it was a great day and everything and a fantastic, fantastic feeling in a home game.
The first hat-trick as well. Amazing feeling.
Pep Guardiola called for more from his players at half-time.
John Stones: He is so clever with what he says. He knows the timings of when to say it. Sometimes you can be playing great and you expect it to be all fine and more of the same but he’ll switch it and want more from us.
Then on the other end, we can think that we’ve been playing really not good and he will be all positive and put a different spin on it and make us realise what we’ve actually done.
A busy week followed, with a thumping victory over Nottingham Forest before a draw at Aston Villa.
Akanji’s transfer was confirmed before the Villa game, but the defender was unavailable to make his debut in that one.
Manuel Akanji: It was a couple of days before the transfer window ended and it was really crazy.
My wife was pregnant and really, I think the day after I signed or two days after, my son was born. So, I was here, I had one training [session] then I went back to Switzerland.
I came back again, I flew directly to Sevilla for the Champions League game and I played immediately for 90 minutes. After two training sessions so it was a crazy start.
I was nervous to be honest. But, because I also didn’t play when I came from Dortmund. My last game was with the national team. It was maybe May or June, so it was some time ago.
We were already in September, so it was like three months that I hadn’t played a game.
I wasn’t sure if I could go for the full game, but I felt really good. We played a good game. I obviously played Champions League before, so I knew the competition, I also knew the opponent. I played them with Dortmund before in the Champions League.
I knew the stadium, the surroundings and everything. In the beginning I was a little bit nervous but as soon as you get into the game, you forget about those things and you’re just in the moment and just try to do your best.
City returned from the international break to beat Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League and then Wolves 3-0.
Jack Grealish scored his first goal of the season in that game and was then the recipient of a high boot that saw Nathan Collins sent off.
Jack Grealish: I was getting a fair bit of stick because I played in midweek and I was rubbish in the game. It was a Champions League game against Dortmund, I didn’t play well in it. I was just getting like a fair bit of stick, obviously when going to Wolves and I knew I was going to be getting in this game. I needed to perform, need to score and to score so quick, it was just perfect. For the rest of that game I felt like I played well.
The rest of the Oral Histories are available to read here.
You can watch all six episodes of Together: Treble Winners on Netflix now.
