The season of Stones: how Barnsley Beckenbauer sparked City’s surge

“T alk about John Stones. Please, before Haaland.” And Pep Guardiola banged his head on the press conference dais in mock exasperation. It was September last year, at the height of Erling-mania, and Manchester City had just beaten Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League with a goal from their big new striker. But Guardiola was keen to shift the conversation elsewhere.

And in hindsight, Guardiola was not really joking. Instead, he was trying to give us a clue. He was, as ever, urging us to look beyond the superficial and see what was happening under the bonnet. The season that may well be remembered as the greatest in City’s history has been built not merely on the goals of Haaland and the assists of Kevin De Bruyne, but on the subtle changes and innovations further back. It has been, above all, the season of Stones.

It’s worth zooming out at this point to get a sense of the transformation that has taken place here. Around the time Liverpool were marching towards the Premier League title in a pandemic-interrupted 2019-20 season, Stones found himself cut adrift. Rúben Dias and Aymeric Laporte were the first-choice centre-halves, with Nathan Aké and Eric García just behind them. Stones had lost his England place. He had split from his long-term partner and his personal life was in turmoil. One of English football’s most promising defensive prospects was drifting into irrelevance.

But Guardiola never quite lost faith. Perhaps there has always been a certain kinship between these two men who both landed in Manchester during the transitional summer of 2016. Like Guardiola, another sublime talent with a penchant for attractive passing football, Stones arrived with plenty of admirers but also a significant proportion of