Manchester City toast treble but fans suffer another Uefa Big Cup shambles

Watching the players and staff disembark from the plane carrying Manchester City’s squad home from Big Cup final on Sunday, it was hard not to sympathise with Jack Grealish. Having spent the previous night wandering the bars and foyer of an Istanbul hotel in full kit looking for his clothes, it seemed the 27-year-old had finally found some civvies but was clearly suffering from the effects of what must have been extreme turbulence on the flight home.

Unsteady on his feet as he descended the steps, Grealish’s attempt to walk from the plane to the airport terminal resembled a cross between Neil Armstrong’s moon walk, the video for Jamiroquai’s Virtual Insanity and a slow-motion replay of Jack Grealish attempting to walk from a plane to an airport terminal while all those around him were perambulating in real time. It is to be hoped that somebody sat the poor fella down once he reached the baggage carousel and administered a stiff drink. Ideally a mug or two of strong coffee.

There will be plenty more roistering to be done in the coming days ahead, as Jack and his teammates celebrate their Big Cup triumph over Inter in Istanbul on Saturday night. While the final was no classic and it could be argued that the Italians were the better team on the evening, City did what needed to be done and finally harpooned that elusive white whale. “The greatest story in club history has an ending,” exclaimed BT Sport’s commentator in the game’s aftermath, his words almost drowned out by the loud trumpeting of 115 elephants. “It’s the stuff you dream of,” blubbed a tearful Jack into Jake Humphrey’s microphone, only to tweet later that it was “the stuff I couldn’t even dream of”. Make your mind up, Jack!

Having wrapped up the treble, City’s