Aymeric Laporte: ‘Manchester City winning can annoy people, like our neighbours’

It might not be the line you expect halfway through a conversation with a footballer, not when the tape is running at least, and it’s probably not exactly the line you want to hear either, but there it is. Aymeric Laporte is sitting at Spain’s Las Rozas training camp, surrounded by photos of the men who, like him, have represented the national team and talking about his famously forthright coach Luis Enrique – “the best there is answering questions” – when he drops it. “Footballers,” he says, “almost never tell the truth.”

Oh. And what about you? Are you telling the truth now? There’s a smile. “Yes,” he replies. If that is a relief, it has already been amply revealed. Laporte talks about players being conscious of getting “laid into for everything”, “controlling themselves” and only saying “the right thing”, “what people want to hear”, but there’s little sign of him doing the same; instead, there’s an unexpected honesty, a directness about him, an edge even. An assuredness, a willingness to say “actually, no”, kick back and point out what’s wrong, to apply a little perspective.

Time, then, to defend Manchester City. It’s his job after all, one he does well – even if he’s not sure everyone else sees it that way. These are quiet days, the calm before the storm, an opportunity it turns out to address not just the way the game is played but the way it’s perceived. He is in Spain for two friendlies before returning to two meetings with Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final and the league, another chapter in a very modern rivalry, and the Champions League quarter-final against Atlético Madrid.

There is much at stake; more than seemed likely not long ago, the threat of “failure” reappearing. A league that seemed done is now one