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Manchester City defender John Stones could cap a remarkable turnaround from a virtual outcast to being at the cutting edge of Pep Guardiola’s masterplan with a Champions League victory. Three years ago the 29-year-old’s future was uncertain. He had made just 24 appearances in the 2019-20 season and the club had spent over £100million on centre-backs Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias. That summer Guardiola admitted there was a distinct possibility a player lacking confidence could leave and he did not play a minute in seven of the eight opening league games of the next season. But over the course of three seasons he has turned things around so much he is now seen as an integral part of his manager’s latest tactical tweak, with the current fashion for a defender to play as a midfielder when the side is in possession. “It was probably one of the hardest times in my career,” said Stones of that period in 2020. “I literally went back to firstly looking at myself, being super-critical of myself and what I could do better on the football pitch, and then looking into every fine detail, down to what food, what training, what extras. “That’s come down to doing stuff here and then going home and doing work, even late at night, or straight after the training, finding these small margins, putting them all together to kind of break where I was at after coming back to playing. “Yeah, (it was a) big learning curve for me and maybe who I am today.” In that time period a number of players have left, with Guardiola’s propensity for dispensing with full-backs a little too close for comfort at times for Stones. But the former Everton defender never considered seeking opportunities elsewhere. “I never thought about that. I think as soon as you accept that or have that mindset then you have killed yourself,” he added. “I always wanted to stay, I have stayed and I absolutely love it. I wanted to prove to myself. I didn’t say to anyone ‘It was because I want to prove to you’. “I think, if anything, you have to prove to yourself first and foremost that you deserve to be here, you are good enough to be here, and what you bring to the team.” The goals of Erling Haaland have helped propel City to a second Champions League final in three years where they start as strong favourites against Inter Milan in Istanbul. But Stones’ role and that, to a lesser extent, of Rico Lewis in stepping forward has added another dimension to an already multi-layered team. “People have always said from a young age that they can see me playing in there. I still do love playing as a centre-half and I’ve absolutely loved this role as well,” said the Barnsley-born defender. “I think I have showed myself that I’m able to do it, maybe showing some attributes that I didn’t know that I had. “But the manager has seen (something) in me and ultimately I think I’m just trying to show what I can do in there and be able to help the team ultimately win with my attributes.” City may be the favourites but Stones insists they will not be under-estimating Inter, a team who finished in third 18 points behind Serie A champions Napoli. “They’re in the Champions League final for a reason,” he added. “No matter who we’re playing, no matter what league they’re in, we give the team the respect that they deserve because even the FA Cup, let’s make an example of that, there’s giant-killers, smaller teams in League One and League Two that beat Premier League winners. “That’s where the respect (comes from) that every team deserves. “They’ve got incredible players. How they played in a big occasion, in a derby game in the Champions League semi-final (against AC Milan) is never easy. “We know what we’re up against, they are an incredible team.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live ‘This is not where we are going to stop’ – Michail Antonio on West Ham’s ECL win No complacency as Man City prepare for Champions League final – Kevin De Bruyne Shoulder injury rules Jack Draper out of Wimbledon

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Liverpool have bought back their former Melwood training ground for their women’s team to use. The men’s first team vacated the site in West Derby in the city in November 2020 for a new build at their existing academy base in Kirkby. Amid local protests, proposals were in place for the land to be turned into a modern, multi-generational housing complex by affordable housing group Torus but after the Robbie Fowler-Jamie Carragher academy moved in plans started to change, which has ultimately resulted in the club re-purchasing their former home. As part of the move, the crest of the LFC Women’s team, which has previously trained at Tranmere’s base on the Wirral, will move to the official club crest to closer align the two operations. “This is a truly historic moment for Liverpool Football Club and the continued desire of the LFC Women’s board to elevate and develop our women’s first team and category one professional game academy,” said Liverpool’s managing director Andy Hughes. “We also have an opportunity to further develop the use of the site to support the local community by using it as an additional base for LFC Foundation. “We are delighted that FEFA (Fowler Education and Football Academy) will continue to use the site for its college that provides sport and educational opportunities for young people. “We have always taken the views of the local community seriously and we look forward to re-engaging with them in the near future.” Torus will use the funds from the sale of Melwood to build much-needed homes across Merseyside. Developments also continue apace at Anfield where the 282-tonne roof of the old Anfield Road stand has been removed to make way for the completion of the new stand which is due to open for the start of next season and expand the ground’s capacity to 61,000. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

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Pep Guardiola was back in an old haunt and he wanted a picture to mark the occasion. He roped in an old friend. It was in the Allianz Arena in Munich and he had Manchester City’s CEO Ferran Soriano alongside him. City’s run of nine consecutive victories had actually ended but a 1-1 draw against Bayern Munich had clinched a 4-1 aggregate triumph. Even for a man who has achieved as much as Guardiola, it was worth getting a memento. Guardiola had three seasons with Bayern, reaching the Champions League semi-finals in each. He has spent much of his seven years at City arguing that the aristocracy of European football have an inherent advantage in the Champions League, some kind of institutional memory that clicks in. City’s possible route to glory now is paved with the past: Bayern in the last eight, the 14-time winners Real Madrid in the last four, Inter Milan in the final. Whether Helenio Herrera, Sandro Mazzola and Giacinto Facchetti will prove much of an advantage in Istanbul remains to be seen. Study the last 12 years, after all, and Inter, with a solitary previous quarter-final appearance, are the rank outsiders on Saturday. But perhaps City have always seen themselves as the outsiders who are desperate to be part of the club: the club of European Cup winners. When Guardiola has said he would rather win the Premier League than the Champions League, or that it is harder to – and he has made both claims over the years – it has scarcely rung true. There are many City supporters who would rather get the better of Manchester United than clubs from Milan, Munich or Madrid, but for manager and hierarchy alike, it has felt like the holy grail. It has been 15 years since Sheikh Mansour’s takeover, 12 since the modern City made their Champions League bow. There are two pertinent comparisons among suddenly moneyed clubs: Chelsea who – unlike the City of 2008 – were already in Europe’s elite competition when bought and who, after a similar assortment of agonising near-misses, won the Champions League nine years into a new regime; and Paris Saint-Germain, who reached the final the year before City but have otherwise been the wrong sort of role models. The serial French champions have five last-16 exits in the last seven seasons; since signing Lionel Messi, they have not reached the quarter-finals. Their emphasis on superstars, on buying success, has been thoroughly discredited. City have taken another approach. Indeed, an examination of its pillars – hiring and supporting a world-class manager, having a defined style of play with a clear commitment to teamwork, astute recruitment over several seasons and an environment where footballers improve – would seem the basis of a Champions League-winning campaign; it was for Liverpool in 2019, after all. And yet recent years have seen other methods prevail, whether mid-season managerial appointments like Roberto Di Matteo, Hansi Flick and Thomas Tuchel having an immediate impact or Real’s innate Realness, their preternatural sense of purpose that Guardiola feared, and amiable man-managers in Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane taking the trophy back to the Bernabeu. City, in contrast, accumulated years of hard-luck stories, near-misses and missteps under Guardiola, a strange combination of the away-goals rule, VAR, cruel late drama and “overthinking”, a narrative so established the Catalan references it, costing them. For City, 12 years of the Champions League divides into three phases and three reigns. There was the underachievement under Roberto Mancini, with two tough group-stage draws and a disappointing campaign followed by a disastrous one; in 2011-12, the Italian alleged Carlos Tevez refused to come off the bench in Munich, but the real nadir was a winless 2012-13; along with fraying relations with his players and employers, Mancini’s wretched record in Europe helped seal his fate. Manuel Pellegrini started the run of 10 successive appearances in the knockout stages. He twice beat Bayern in the group, twice lost to Barcelona in the last 16, when a flurry of City red cards hinted at defensive struggles amid over-attacking tactics and an inability to cope with the best, and once ended up apologising to the people of Sweden after an intemperate criticism of referee Jonas Eriksson. The first time City drew Barcelona it was in part because of an embarrassing miscalculation by Pellegrini: leading 3-2 at Bayern in the last group game, he took off Sergio Aguero without realising an extra goal would have seen City top the pool and avoid the favourites. Pellegrini later steered City to the previously uncharted waters of the semi-finals in 2016, only to go out with a whimper to Real; after being outclassed by Barcelona, it felt like a sign that an inferiority complex remained. But at least Pellegrini’s three Champions League exits were to La Liga’s duopoly. Guardiola’s first five were either to Ligue Un sides (Monaco in 2017 and Lyon three years later) or clubs who finished 25, 27 and 19 points below them in the Premier League in the respective seasons (Liverpool in 2018, Tottenham in 2019 and Chelsea in the 2021 final). Indeed, when comparatively unfancied sides overachieved in the Champions League, there was often a common denominator: they eliminated City en route. The “City-itis” former manager Joe Royle diagnosed in the 1990s – the sense that anything that could go wrong, would, and often in tragicomic circumstances – felt eradicated in the Premier League, but not the Champions League. There was the infamously disallowed Raheem Sterling “winner” against Tottenham – as Fernando Llorente’s hip-goal, with the suspicion the ball had brushed his hand, instead proved decisive; it also followed an Aguero penalty miss in the first leg. There were the two-goal leads City had and lost, to Monaco and then to Real last season. There was the Rodrygo double in the Bernabeu last term, with two goals in as many minutes. There was Liverpool’s destructive blitz of three goals in 19 minutes at Anfield and Guardiola’s self-destructive exit in the second leg, sent off for protesting about a Leroy Sane goal that was chalked off. There were more contentious calls: perhaps Moussa Dembele fouled Aymeric Laporte before he put Lyon 2-1 up. There was Kevin de Bruyne’s fractured nose and eye socket after Antonio Rudiger’s bloodcurdling challenge in Porto. There were the misses: Sterling against Lyon and against Chelsea, Jack Grealish against Real. There was the recurring theme of City getting caught on the counterattack: by Monaco, then Liverpool, then Spurs. There were the ever-present issues of Guardiola’s choices backfiring: Laporte at left-back and Ilkay Gundogan off the right wing at Anfield, De Bruyne on the bench away at Tottenham, no defensive midfielder versus Chelsea and, the worst of the lot, three centre-backs in an overly defensive team who faced Lyon. That was a one-off game and City have lost a lone two-legged tie in four seasons; even then, they were leading after 180 minutes – if not injury time – against Real. But Lyon can assume an almost disproportionate importance. City are unbeaten in 26 home Champions League games, scoring 85 goals; their last defeat was to Lyon. Otherwise, they have turned their groups into processions, topping the pool in their last six seasons. They have often been prolific: sometimes even in ties that brought their elimination. Arguably, over Guardiola’s seven seasons, they have had only had two remotely emphatic exits: to Lyon and Liverpool. Tales of what might have been have abounded. Yet, as rivals could point out, there is a still greater one. City were given a two-year Champions League ban by Uefa in February 2020, it was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport five months later because many of their alleged breaches of financial fair play were not established or time-barred; they had been previously sanctioned. The competition’s anthem has tended to be booed at the Etihad but an essential allegation – that funding from the club’s owners came disguised in inflated sponsorship deals – forms part of the case in the Premier League’s 115 charges against them. It is part of the backdrop. For some, theirs would be a tarnished triumph if they beat Inter. For others, it would be the culmination of an epic quest. There have been cases for arguing that City have been the best team in Europe at various points in recent years. They have never had that official status, however. Guardiola noted recently that, in the last three seasons, City have reached two finals and one semi-final; he could have added that they led for 178 minutes of that semi-final against Real. It is an admirable record, rendering them the most consistent side in continental competition in that time, but it will count for little without the ultimate prize. Now, for the second time, they are 90 minutes away. Now the survivor from their first Champions League game of the 21st century is not Aguero or David Silva but Edin Dzeko, a 37-year-old opponent on Saturday and a throwback to their past. Compared to their last final, they have gone from false nine – in De Bruyne – to genuine No 9, in Haaland, from the far west of Europe, in Porto, to the brink of Asia, in Istanbul. It is a curiously fitting venue. When City’s greatest team of the 20th century won the title in 1968, the charismatic, quotable assistant manager Malcolm Allison said they would “terrify the cowards of Europe”. City duly drew Fenerbahce in the first round of the European Cup, and went out. But perhaps, more than half a century later, Allison’s bravado will find a form of justification and, finally, City will be champions of Europe. Read More This FA Cup was more important than most – but Man City still need more Why has Saudi Arabia become big player in world sport and what does future hold? 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The Buffalo Bills have been a playoff club for four straight seasons, but the team hasn’t been to the Super Bowl in three decades. Who needs to step up?Under head coach Sean McDermott, the Buffalo Bills have been a playoff team in five of the past six seasons. They have won the AFC East th...