Lionel Messi shows how John Stones might be biggest Man City triumph for Pep Guardiola

Manchester City's Champions League win on Saturday night could be seen as a culmination of various things.

The most obvious was to see it as everything the ownership group have been looking for since taking over the club in 2008, a European triumph to complete their gatecrashing of the traditional elite and catapult their status even further in the world to further grow the club. Sheikh Mansour's presence at only his second City match in 15 years and first since 2010 certainly cemented the open secret that this was the trophy most desired by the hierarchy.

It was also a redemptive night for Pep Guardiola, so often the brunt of criticism during City's many painful exits in this competition over the last six years. The best coach in the world ensured that his career would be defined by the Champions League when he won two in his first three years of coaching, yet each subsequent exit had left his critics with a growing amount of ammunition; hopefully, they have now been neutralised.

If it was fitting that it was his first signing at the Etihad who lifted the trophy in Istanbul - Ilkay Gundogan in the homeland of his parents - the night belonged to another revelation: John Stones. We simply have to talk about Stones.

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Guardiola flatly refutes the idea that he has influenced English football despite the evidence all around, but Stones could be his biggest triumph as a manager and the greatest gift given to the England national team. It wasn't that the former Everton defender was bad before, but there were serious questions when City paid £47m to sign him from Everton in 2016 and he became the poster boy for the tiki-taka nonsense that many decided in