PEP GUARDIOLA does not miss a trick.
Back on the grass at Manchester City’s training ground yesterday morning, Guardiola was picking over the performances of his players during the international break.
They were late starting, with Pep delaying the session by more than an hour at the Etihad Campus so that he could pass on some observations to his returning stars.
Raheem Sterling, reinvented and reinvigorated by Guardiola’s quest for perfection, was one of English football’s biggest wins during the friendlies with Holland and Italy.
As ever, City’s super coach took a particular interest in the progress of one of his favourite players.
He wanted to know everything, eager to soak up information from the English contingent — John Stones, Kyle Walker and Sterling — about their time away with the national team.
Sterling, the talk of the players’ lounge at Wembley after another impressive performance in the 1-1 draw with Italy on Tuesday, is learning fast.
He was easy on the eye during those two internationals, responding to a slight rejig of his position by England head coach Gareth Southgate.
Yesterday, Guardiola wanted to know all about it.
He has impressed the City manager with his application, taking full responsibility for his playing career after some major arrivals at the Etihad last summer.
When Sterling looked around the dressing room — with Bernardo Silva beefing up a squad that already included David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan — the odds were stacked against him.
The quality of players raised the bar.
Standards are exceptionally high at City, with a firm belief around the place that international football does not compare to the vigorous demands of a training session at the Etihad Campus.
Sterling is one of the biggest beneficiaries.
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He is ironing out the flaws, learning to quicken the tempo under Guardiola’s guidance and transferring it to his international performances.
Eager to learn, Sterling spoke about Pep’s influence earlier in the week.
Picking the ball out of the sky with the outside of his boot sure looks good — but Guardiola has explained it speeds up his game if he simply opens up his body.
When Sterling did precisely that in the first half against Italy, it led to goalscorer Jamie Vardy’s first chance of the game at Wembley.
This is the best season of Sterling’s career, adding goals to his game after responding to the threat of losing his place at the start of the season.
He surprised a few people at City when he turned down a move to Arsenal last summer at the height of the Manchester club’s pursuit of Alexis Sanchez.
They thought he would take the easy option, a return to London and the guarantee of a first-choice starting spot at the Emirates.
Instead the young forward, 23, was fired up by the fierce competition and took the challenge to keep his place in the City side.
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He has done that, returning from a short spell on the sidelines through injury to regain his spot before the international break when City won 2-0 at Stoke to move just two wins away from the Premier League title.
He is maturing fast, with those eye-catching, energetic bursts up the field adding another element to City’s relentless attacks.
Southgate tapped into that over the international break, immediately spotting a player ready for the challenge of a World Cup in Russia.
When he gets there, Pep will be monitoring every move.
GARETH SOUTHGATE has done well to avoid the sort of muddled thinking that scrambles even the sharpest managerial minds before tournaments.
In the ten days Southgate spent with his players for the friendlies with Holland and Italy, his fixed principles and his defined way of playing impressed the squad.
Although Southgate is always willing to listen to players about their misgivings or doubts about a particular thing, he has made it clear that he is set on his system.
When it comes to the World Cup, there is no time for a wobble.
AFTER the shameful scenes before England’s friendly with Holland in Amsterdam, at least the matchday experience at Wembley has a very different feel to it.
At a time when trust, faith and belief in the national side is at an all-time low, more than 82,000 still turned out to watch Gareth Southgate’s side draw 1-1 with Italy.
Compare that to, say, the build-up to the most successful tournament in recent memory, when the Three Lions reached the Euro 96 semi-final.
In March that year, Terry Venables’ men beat Bulgaria in front of 29,708 fans, then could only muster 33,650 for the 0-0 with Croatia in April and 34,184 against Hungary in May.
These are giddy times for the FA, with the pull of the England side still drawing in huge audiences ahead of the World Cup this summer.
They even managed to outstrip the 70,000 in Berlin to watch Germany’s rematch with Brazil and the 60,000 who were inside the Estadio Metropolitano for Spain’s 6-1 thrashing of Argentina.
England’s final game at Wembley before the World Cup, against Nigeria on June 2, is expected to be played in front of a sell-out crowd. For that, the FA deserve recognition.
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