A funeral at the Etihad: City wake up to the terrifying nightmare of Manchester United
The fall in the first real test after the Guardiola era
In a single evening, and after a heavy defeat to Arsenal in the Charity Shield, the Etihad Stadium seemed to be bidding a silent farewell to its golden era. That 0-3 loss in the English Community Shield was no fleeting result in a friendly-natured fixture. It was the first clear sign that the project built over more than a decade has begun to crack at its roots.
Txiki Begiristain, Manchester City's director of football, has gone. So too the brilliant Spanish coach Pep Guardiola. With Rodri's farewell drawing near, the Sky Blues are turning from an unbeatable machine of domination into a team searching for a new identity on unfamiliar ground.
One fateful question now echoes through the corridors of English football. Can the Citizens avoid the fate that befell their rivals Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson left? Or will losing three pillars all at once force them to start almost from scratch, amid the pressure of results and rising expectations? The answer is no longer theoretical. It has begun to take shape on the pitch.
Anyone who inherits the leadership of City after the heroes who created the golden era, the players, the management and the coaching staff, faces an enormous challenge. Enzo Maresca, who succeeded Pep Guardiola, realised this quickly.
Here is a capable manager who won titles with Leicester City and Chelsea, yet he ran into the Arsenal wall in his first official test. The team came away with a resounding defeat and a sense that the difficult days have truly begun at the Etihad Stadium.
The collapse of the pillars that built the legend changes the compass
The ownership is stable, and Ferran Soriano remains in place as the financial and operational mastermind. Yet in under a year, Manchester City lost the first pillar that turned them into a legendary club: Txiki Begiristain, the finest sporting director of the modern era, who quietly decided to step down more than a year ago.
Begiristain oversaw the transition and advised his successor Hugo Viana through those first months, but the difference showed over time. This was the man who signed Haaland for 60 million and Rodri for 70 million, building a hugely expensive squad that he offset with clever sales. Viana, by contrast, has already blown past 130 million on just two deals this summer.
That shift in recruitment approach is no administrative detail. It signals that the long-term vision behind City's rise has started to change, exactly as it did at Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson walked away.
Pep Guardiola: the irreplaceable legend
Guardiola is the second pillar to fall from City's system. His tactical genius and knack for repeated success came with something else: absolute influence within the club.
Pep was "untouchable", whether he won or lost. No other manager, Maresca included, could reach that status.
Results and performance flow directly from that gap between the man who knows he is immortal and everyone else. When Guardiola leaves, the style goes with him, but so does the certainty and the psychological dominance he imposed on opponents for years.
Look at what Manchester United went through after Ferguson. One managerial venture followed another, and the club spent many long years failing to recover its former prestige. City now stare down the same void.
Rodri: the backbone whose absence threatens City's collapse
The third and most dangerous pillar, Rodri, is on the verge of leaving the club. Few midfielders have ever been able to transform an entire side from one level to another. With Rodri, City were champions. Without him, they were a completely different team.
His previous injury spell exposed a clear fragility in midfield. The team lacked the balance and discipline their Spanish captain provided, and his imminent departure looks like a harsh blow that will be difficult to make up for in the short term.
Football history is littered with clubs that lost their pivotal player and watched their levels collapse. City are unlikely to prove the exception.
Is Manchester City starting a project from scratch?
The answer is not simple. On one hand, the club still possesses vast financial resources, modern infrastructure and stable ownership. On the other, losing the three minds that built the project pushes the team into a phase of genuine rebuilding.
Maresca must now forge a new identity under the pressure of immediate results, a challenge he has never faced at a club the size of City. That defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield settles nothing, but it laid bare a lack of the balance and solidity that defined the team in years gone by.
Should the disappointing results roll on at the start of the season, the club could find itself forced into an almost complete rebuild. Exactly what happened to United after the Ferguson era ended.
Manchester United's ghost looms on the horizon
What happened to Manchester United after 2013 stands as a harsh lesson for any club that loses its core pillars all at once. Years of managerial, coaching and financial turmoil followed, with enormous spending and no real return. City have a chance to dodge that fate, thanks to the continuity of ownership and their financial planning.
The first warning came yesterday. Now the fear of repeating that experience feels legitimate. A team built on the foundations of Cech, Pep and Rodri may never be rebuilt with the same strength.
Whether Manchester City can navigate this phase with minimal losses, or whether they slide into a long tunnel of rebuilding like the one their eternal rivals endured for years, the coming months will decide.
