European bridesmaids Manchester City at last became the bride in June to secure the Treble, completing both their journey from the third tier and maybe even football itself
Words Ed McCambridge Additional reporting Chris Flanagan
Sometimes, the biggest goals come from unexpected sources. It isn’t a superstar striker, but a more unlikely figure who finds a breakthrough at the crucial moment.
The goal that sealed a long-awaited Champions League title for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and, with it, a sensational Treble was proof of that. Yet there’s a case to be made that Rodri’s winner against Inter in Istanbul on June 10, 2023, might never have happened, were it not for a similar strike from a fellow understated midfield man, 24 years previously.
Former City striker Paul Dickov remembers the 1999 Second Division Play-off Final as if it were yesterday. “I was down on my haunches in the 87th minute, just after Gillingham went 2-0 up, looking up at the anguished faces of our supporters,” he tells FourFourTwo now. “I thought, ‘We’ve blown this. Another season in the third tier. All our hard work for nothing’. And then, well… it was Kevin to the rescue.”
Midfielder battler Kevin Horlock’s strike – rifled low into the net from the edge of the box, through a crowded area, just like Rodri nearly a quarter of a century later – preceded Dickov’s famous 95th-minute equaliser. City then won the ensuing shootout and returned to the second tier. “I’m just a jammy little f**ker,” grins Dickov, acknowledging his goal’s status as the more well-known of the two. “It wouldn’t have happened without Kevin.”
Without that Wembley turnaround, the club’s rise back to the Premier League would have stalled. Without six seasons’ top-flight consolidation under their belt by 2008, the Abu Dhabi United Group may well have looked elsewhere when buying a football club that summer. Without that Horlock strike, there would have been no Sheikh Mansour, Robinho, Roberto Mancini, Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli or David Silva. No Aguerooooooooo. No Guardiola. No Rodri. And certainly no Treble.
I, ROBOT
Excitement for the 2022-23 season hit fever pitch seven weeks before a ball was kicked, when Erling Haaland signed from Borussia Dortmund for £51 million. In the modern market of spiralling fees, that was quite the deal, one helped by a manageable release clause. The Norwegian had his pick of clubs after plundering 86 goals in 89 games for BVB but felt working under Guardiola, at the c
