Kyle Walker: Manchester City one step away from ‘invincibility’

LONDON: English football player Kyle Walker says Manchester City are a step away from invincibility and matching football’s greatest sides. Having won the Premier League and FA Cup, Pep Guardiola’s team will seal a treble if they beat Inter Milan in Saturday’s Champions League final. Only Manchester United, back in 1999 under Sir Alex Ferguson, have ever achieved that feat among English clubs.

Walker says United and Arsenal — who went through the entire 2003-04 Premier League season unbeaten and were known as the Invincibles — are the standard-bearers in the modern era for the best English clubs. Now, he hopes City will confirm their status among them with success in Istanbul. “I think that United team, along with the Invincibles, is probably up there with the best Premier League teams of all time,” said Walker, who joined City from Tottenham Hotspur in 2017 for £50 million ($62 million).

“(United) have got the big Champions League trophy that we can never say we have got.” Inter Milan, he added, also “need to be considered as a great team.” While City have enjoyed domestic success — they have now won five of the last six Premier League titles — they crave European glory. But Walker, 33, added: “It doesn’t define what this squad has achieved over the last six years. It doesn’t define us if we go on and win this or not.

“It helps massively to say that we can be put in that category of probably one of the best Premier League teams of all time, but we don’t win five Premier Leagues in six years if we are not a good team. “We … know we are a good team, but to be recognized globally as one of the best teams, you need to win the Champions League. “We are not beating around the bush with that; we know this is now a great