These are the moments you may have missed when Manchester City spent two-and-a-half weeks in the USA during their pre-season tour.
On the eve of Manchester City’s pre-season friendly with Barcelona, Pep Guardiola rang a friend from the team’s hotel at the Four Seasons resort in Disneyworld.
On the face of it, that’s not a remarkable revelation. However that friend is now a rival Premier League manager, and the coach he would come up against a few days later in Columbus. Enzo Maresca.
The new Chelsea manager has spent his pre-season trying to distance himself from being a Guardiola disciple, and Guardiola was even asked about Maresca being nicknamed ‘Diet Pep’. Maybe that came up as they compared tour notes of their respective trips to the USA.
When Guardiola and Maresca were reunited at the Ohio Stadium, the City boss launched a passionate defence of Maresca’s tactics after Chelsea’s attempts to play out from the back gifted the Blues three goals.
“I want to tell you something,” he told reporters – often a precursor to an interesting answer from Guardiola. He blamed the pitch for Chelsea’s mistakes, and insisted that Maresca’s men would not do the same at Stamford Bridge on August 18.
Guardiola and Maresca may now be rivals, but the City coach put his friendship first in Ohio and their calls on tour suggest they won’t allow Maresca’s new job to get in the way.
As City finish their four-game tour of the USA, Man City reporter Joe Bray takes you behind-the-scenes of 17-days in and around the Blues camp, and some moments you may have missed.
Going viral in North Carolina
Starting in the sleepy town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the streets came alive when City rolled into town (along with some late evening storms that earlier threatened kick-off vs Celtic). Oscar Bobb had elicited laughter in his press conference when he namechecked Michael Jordan as a former student at Chapel Hill’s University of North Carolina.
It was a knowing laugh from local journalists familiar with Jordan’s fame in the area, and used to him being the only thing people know about the town. But when Guardiola spoke about Jordan’s time at UNC – the boss named Jordan as his inspiration last season – he said he had been told that the basketball legend hadn’t actually been at Chapel Hill. He had, but the journalists who had laughed at Bobb ten minutes earlier were suddenly quiet, not daring to combat Guardiola.
TikTok stars the Hulett Brothers had been to the team hotel in Raleigh for some social media content that proved particularly popular with both players and staff, with staff noting how much the visit raised morale at the start of the tour. Maybe the players were throwing frisbees onto sticks long after the cameras were switched off.
Haaland and Phillips were also praised by staff for getting stuck into a visit to the local children’s hospital, while Micah Hamilton and Luke Mbete visited a session of young fans with learning disabilities and threw themselves into the opportunity.
As the squad left the Kenan Stadium following the Celtic clash, Haaland tried to get midfielder Maximo Perrone to conduct an interview, playfully telling reporters that he speaks perfect English, before laughing to himself on the way to the team bus.
Famous faces in New York
Onto New York, and a completely difference pace of life. City stayed at Columbus Circle, on the corner of Central Park and they shut down a block just off Fifth Avenue where Jack Grealish even prompted some female fans to tears as he posed for photographs. Ilkay Gundogan and Andre Agassi were guests at the hotel during the four-night stay.
After an impromptu session in the middle of central park, City conducted their more formal open training session away from the fans, however, over an hour away and out of the city in Orangeburg. You can understand why, given this was the New York City Football Academy – a near-identical replica of their training base at the CFA in Manchester.
Admittedly, the scale of the New York CFA is a lot smaller, but it boasts the same silver rings on the outside and will have the same standard of facilities inside.
Haaland took on the role of pantomime joker when he asked reporters to repeat themselves when he said ‘hello’ on his way into a rare press conference, while Guardiola opened his conference with a joke about how expensive New York is – going down a treat with local media. A man of the people, is Pep.
At the iconic Yankee Stadium, the subway thronged with City and New York fans, while Zlatan Ibrahmovic was among those present with AC Milan. A reunion with Guardiola looked a little frosty, but he happily exchanged shirts with Haaland in the tunnel afterwards. Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic spent time with Christian Pulisic – who has Croatian heritage – while Milan’s English pair Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Fikayo Tomori were seen chatting with Kalvin Phillips.
Haaland politely declined a mixed zone interview, saying ‘I spoke to you yesterday!’, while Bobb played down his latest goal by reminding us that he can still improve and that City still lost again. Grealish headed up to the posh boxes to get a selfie with Rihanna.
Reunions in Orlando
By the time City landed in Orlando and checked into the Four Seasons at Disney, the club had squeezed every possible commercial and content opportunity from their time in the Big Apple. Same in Florida, with Haaland and Grealish venturing round Universal Studios.
While the pair may have avoided some of the park’s bigger rides – probably to avoid a chance of injury – pictures of the pair on Pop-Eye’s Bilge Rat Barge’s ride showed they still got a taste of park life. They will have departed the ride utterly drenched.
Phillips joined some youngsters on a trip to try out some wrestling moves to build on the club’s partnership with WWE, while Guardiola used his day off to enjoy a round of golf at the pristine course of the team hotel.
Grealish faced the media for the first time since his Euros snub, and after a handful of questions from English journalists, he looked a little surprised when the press conference ended earlier than he expected and his grilling wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The Spanish outlets present were only concerned with speaking to Guardiola – who caught up with some old faces in the media after both his pre- and post-match media duties.
There was an embrace and conversation in the tunnel of the Camping World Stadium with Barcelona president Joan Laporta, too, while new Barca manager Hansi Flick said he wants to model his reign at the Nou Camp on Guardiola’s impact at City.
During an earlier 80 minute rain delay in Orlando, Guardiola caught up with ex-captain Ilkay Gundogan, joking that the German hasn’t called him since leaving City. Gundogan had spoken to Scott Carson, however, who offered him another of his famous wrestles.
City could be back in Orlando next year if the city gets a Club World Cup match or two (and City are drawn to play here). A decision on the venues for that tournament is expected in the next six weeks, so City may have the chance to break their own record set on Tuesday for the highest-grossing soccer match at the Camping World Stadium. You’ll never sing that.
Lucky escape in Columbus
When the final leg of the tour arrived in Columbus, Guardiola was getting a little more eager to return home and have more players back. He was patient with some foreign journalists – and avoided an awkward moment when a local reporter promised a ‘fun’ question at the end of the conference but we never got to hear it.