Newcastle blow sparked my major Man City U-turn - now I'm undroppable

Trips to St James' Park are always memorable but Pep Guardiola and Txiki Begiristain may reflect on their 2022 visit more than most.

The season was just a few weeks old when Newcastle roared their team back from a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead, only to see some Kevin De Bruyne magic and an obligatory strike from new goal machine Erling Haaland earn a thrilling draw. Haaland was part of a fantastic summer of business for the Blues that had seen them acquire all their targets before the season started; the Norwegian, Kalvin Phillips, Stefan Ortega, and January buy Julian Alvarez were all presented in Manchester at the beginning of July.

An injury to Nathan Ake at Newcastle troubled Guardiola though. Aymeric Laporte was already out for a lengthy spell having sacrificed himself to get the team over the line in the Premier League the previous season.

READ MORE: 'Now we war' Guardiola calls out Arteta as Man City and Arsenal feud rages

READ MORE: Man City suffer fresh injury setback before Newcastle to compound Rodri blow

Guardiola felt so strongly he went back to sporting director Begiristain and his City bosses and told them they needed to get him another centre-back if they wanted to have the success they craved. With just a week to go in the window, Begiristain had to go back into the market and find somebody available, good enough and willing enough to take on the challenge of breaking into one of the best defences in Europe.

Nobody thought much of it when Manu Akanji was signed for £14m a few days later. Dortmund fans were a bit bemused that City had come in for a player who was no longer a regular for them, and the Swiss international wasn't recognised enough in Manchester to think he would be anything but cover.