Mark Hughes. Paul ince. Jaap Stam. David Beckham. Dwight Yorke. Andy Cole. Ruud Van Nistelrooy. Roy Keane.

What do all these players have in common?

Well, lots of things. They’re all Premier League Champions with Manchester United for a start. They were all quality footballers and they all contributed hugely to the club’s success.

Most interestingly though, they were all controversially moved on when Sir Alex Ferguson decided their time was up.

Excluding Jaap Stam, who was the one player Ferguson would admit later he perhaps sold a little too soon, all of the players declined after leaving United, while United themselves continued to flourish.

What’s more, I could have picked several other players from Ferguson’s reign.

Now, let’s try some other names.

Kyle Walker. Kevin De Bruyne. Ilkay Gundogan.

In contrast, when these three players leave Manchester City, nobody will be in any doubt whether it was too soon – and they’d be proven right, no doubt.

Guardiola is the best manager in the world. He has revolutionised the game to the point that in many aspects it is unrecognisable from twenty years ago. He is a better tactician than Ferguson ever was and – when all is said and done – Guardiola may end up with more trophies, awards, wins (who knows). He will certainly leave a more cultural and tactical mark on the game, regardless.

But this underwhelming season with City has highlighted one area the great Spaniard falls short when compared to the greatest British manager ever: rebuilding a team.

Let’s go back a little bit, to 2012.

When Guardiola left Barcelona, he did so for many reasons.

Primarily, he was exhausted. Four seasons of relentless success at one of the most politically charged clubs in world football would do that to anyone. Adding in José Mourinho – and the constant mind-games – at Real Madrid, tipped Guardiola over the edge.

The reason Guardiola has survived (and thrived) for so long at City is in large part down to the fact that he is left to simply coach the team. The club tried for years to seduce him to the Etihad and laid the foundations to do that, including building a structure within which he could thrive. He has total support from the board (as this recent bad run has demonstrated) and has total control of the playing style, strategy and yes/no transfer decisions.

At Barca, where Guardiola was also a player, the emotional entanglement, politics and intensity took its toll. In the end, Guardiola quit because he had to – for himself, but also for his players.

As Barcelona approached the 2013/14 season, many of their best players were well into their 30s. Xavi, Iniesta, Abidal, (even Dani Alves was turning 30). Guardiola knew it was time for something to change.

In the end, he decided that change had to be a new Head Coach. His loyalty to that crop of players that had brought him and the club so much success, combined with his own fatigue and the politics of the board, meant Guardiola concluded it was easier to walk away at the peak than try and battle through and risk destroying his legacy.

On the whole, it was probably the right decision. Barcelona continued their success throughout the naughties, with domestic and European success, but without the groundbreaking cosmic football that Guardiola had nurtured, relying more on the individual genius of Neymar, Messi and Suarez – perhaps the greatest ever front 3 the game has seen.

Fast-forward to 2024.

City have won the treble in 2023 and managed to follow it up with a 4th straight league title. Everything seemed rosey.

However, look a bit closer and the cracks were starting to show.

De Bruyne missed a large part of the season through the injury he sustained in the Champions League final in June. Fortunately for City, Phil Foden fulfilled his promise and took up much of the slack.

John Stones and Aymeric Laporte also suffered.

Recent signings, Nunez, Phillips (replacement for Fernandinho) and Jack Grealish (replacement for Sane) had failed to bed in and lacked the trust of the manager.

Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker, De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and his replacement Kovacic were all into their 30s.

Elsewhere, it looked like City had made mistakes with their outgoings. Cole Palmer, frustrated with a lack of game time, had moved to Chelsea and was scoring goals for fun in an otherwise poor team.

There were bright spots of course.

For starters, City did win the league (never something to gloss over) – 91 points. They didn’t lose from December to the end of the season. Slowly, they reeled in Arsenal. This title, more than the others, was powered by a know-how, experience and an old-fashioned fortress home-record.

At the end of the 2023-24 season however, there was enough evidence to suggest that Guardiola should refresh the team, build on the success of the 2023-24 campaign and avoid at best a plateau, at worst a decline.

They were over reliant on Haaland to score goals (what if he went through a barren patch – as all strikers do)? The midfield was ageing. They had no cover for Rodri. Kyle Walker looked leggy with England at the Euros and (Phil Foden apart) they weren’t progressing enough young talent into the team from the best academy in the country.

City didn’t address these mistakes in the summer.

For starters, Alvarez (who amassed 53 appearances for the club – 2nd only to Phil Foden) was allowed to leave. There goes the alternative goal source. He was the 3rd highest goalscorer, behind Foden and Haaland.

Gundogan was brought back. Allowing Gundogan to leave the previous summer rather than splash out on a new contract, was the kind of rebuild move that Ferguson would have applauded.

At 33, Gundogan was well past his peak. A wonderful servant, captain and inspiration for the treble winning campaign, Gundogan was seen by many as a loss when he left. This is how it should be.

By bringing him back Guardiola demonstrated again an over-loyalty to his players that Ferguson would never have done – and with good reason.

By comparison, it would have been like Ferguson bringing back Beckham, Ronaldo or Mark Hughes.

The end of the 2024-25 season will give Guardiola and incoming Sporting Director, Hugo Viana, the chance to right some wrongs.

If they don’t get it right, Guardiola’s departure from City will look very different to the way Ferguson left United – as a champion.