When Manchester City constructed a new circular dressing-room at the Etihad last summer, a line from Mancunian poet Tony Walsh was inscribed around the wall above the players’ heads.
‘Some were born here, others drawn here but we all call it home.’ The words from the poem This is the Place, that Walsh read out at a vigil for the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing last May, struck a chord with Pep Guardiola.
The Manchester City manager’s wife Cristina Serra and their two daughters, Valentina and Maria, were caught up in the atrocity at the Ariana Grande concert close to their city centre apartment.