Manchester City are as good as a lucid dream – but they're winning ugly too

Now I may be as misguided as the Manchester City fan who’s already had ‘Treble Winners 2023’ tattooed on his left calf, but for me it is beyond doubt that the moment has arrived. City will win their first Champions League tomorrow night.

Yes, Pep Guardiola might have one of those aberrations of genius that saw him start neither Rodri nor Fernandinho in their losing final to Chelsea, and put John Stones up top. And true, with 11 wins from 12, opponents Inter Milan are peaking at the perfect moment. And at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium, the atmosphere will be wild.

It might just suit the Nerazzurri better. And let’s not forget this is football: anything can happen. That’s why we like it.

But this year, at last, everything has seemed finally to go City’s way. At the Bernabeu, where last year it all came crashing down, Kevin de Bruyne secured an equaliser that sent Carlo Ancelotti apoplectic. They didn’t even need that 4-0 second-leg win against the holders to assert what we all knew: they are the best in Europe.

They have been that before, of course. And despite Pep Guardiola’s five domestic titles in six seasons, the Champions League has remained out of reach. In his first season, 2016/17, they produced magic in a first leg 5-3 win against Monaco but went out to them on away goals.

Then, progress the next year – the quarter-finals – but a humbling by Liverpool who would win it in 2019, a year that saw another away-goals knockout – this time in the quarters – to Tottenham.

The real suffering would come two years later with a final against fourth-placed Chelsea that looked theirs to lose. Guardiola had innovated without a focal point – as Harry Kane stayed at Spurs – chaining together passes that frustrated and awed in equal measure. Then came Erling Haaland to make the Premier League look like the Farmers, making only marginally more touches than he scored goals.

So tomorrow they will match the 1999 Manchester United team and win the Treble. The day 24 years ago United were beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, City were preparing for a third-tier play-off final against Gillingham.

City’s advance is one of the great stories and if you are a fan of the club – and particularly, forgive me, a fan back then – I am happy for you. Week in, week out you get to watch a team so good it’s like lucid dreaming. But beauty can be hacked out using ugly tools.

And when City lift the Champions League, when their owner Sheikh Mansour comes out to caress the cup’s shiny ears, the moment will represent something less pure: the pinnacle of the Abu Dhabi PR plan.

More subtle than Lionel Messi lifting the World Cup in a thawb, and more instructive for authoritarian states. City have provided a template for others to copy.

The 18 non-state-owned Premier League clubs are pushing back against state interference in their league, with the seriousness of those who appreciate it may be too late. City have 115 Financial Fair Play violations alleged against them, charges they deny.

With unlimited spending power and a networked range of companies, it is possible to funnel in funds from anywhere you fancy in your Emirate or Kingdom. Newcastle’s latest shirt sponsorship proposal from Saudi state-owned Sela appears to be the next example.

The problem is it creates a landscape where only state-owned clubs can compete, slugging it out as others go after sponsorship deals in the open market. Good luck Brentford and Brighton, or even Chelsea.

But it’s football, anything can happen. Or, as we head deeper into English football’s state-owned era, perhaps not.

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