There was hardly a soul knocking around the building. Pep Guardiola however, it was clear and relatively early. It was the morning after Manchester city's staff Christmas party five years ago and the atmosphere remained festive.
The year had brought an unprecedented domestic Treble and the element of back-slapping lingered. Sources said the players still had the urge to do more for their manager and Guardiola felt performance levels had remained high, although results had slumped. Liverpool threatened to run away Premier League.
What greeted Guardiola on the training ground hours later, and his reaction to it, tells all about what City will miss when he finally bids adieu.
“Back-to-back Premier League titles and nobody working,” he said as he flew through the offices. 'What the…?' It doesn't take any great cleverness to figure out how that sentence ended.
City have won every Premier League title since that season. No one has been allowed to settle in and it is a standard that Guardiola has set, from boot space to kitchen, boardroom to hot desk offices.
Pep Guardiola is expected to leave Manchester City at the end of the 2024-2025 season
Guardiola has set the standard for the entire club and has proven to be a visionary
If he leaves, this force of nature will disappear, this leader who drags everything and everyone with him, someone who has become an honorary Mancunian and – somewhat against his better judgment – a supporter of Manchester City.
This is what City got from him. That drive, the kind that can initially unnerve people, and the absolute emphasis that what happens on the grass is a reflection of the organization as a whole, for better or for worse.
That 2019/20 was their worst season since his first – winning just one Carabao Cup, the horror – proves this belief.
“Pep loves carbonara,” said a source. 'He wants that every day, ideally. He doesn't want fried rice then.'
We can talk about how he reshaped English football and changed it beyond recognition so that Hackney Marshes – or, closer to home, Hough End Fields – is now full of amateur teams trying to 'beat the press' and tinker with inverted full-backs .
A manager is a visionary when his jargon becomes mainstream and that certainly applies to Guardiola.
We can talk about that and the fact that he is a serial winner despite the surprise defeat to Manchester United at Wembley in the FA Cup final.
Even if it is proven that City have made cuts, their dominance is not possible without Guardiola
Khaldoon Al-Mubarak is believed to be desperate for Guardiola to extend his spell at City
We know that no one holds a candle to him here and that only Carlo Ancelotti has more Champions Leagues in his trophy cabinet.
We know that even if City are proven to have taken illegal measures in accelerating their rise, this scale of domination is still not possible without Guardiola's contribution.
We know what Jurgen Klopp thinks of him and in what terms Mikel Arteta speaks about his master. Or how coaches in the lower leagues openly discuss him as a point of reference. Ian Evatt from Bolton has mentioned you again, Pep, how does that feel? Probably quite nice, actually, and he really notices these things.
He notices a lot and there is no hiding place for those who work under him. He notices how his team plays for him and has based his decisions on that in the past based on his three contract extensions.
But this time it's a little different in the sense that, if he's really honest with himself, there isn't much else to do in this part of the Northwest he's called home for eight years.
It was only supposed to be three seasons, four at a time. What Guardiola has delivered is beyond City's wildest dreams, but so is his commitment, which was further indoctrinated after the 115 charges in the Premier League. They provided extra fuel, which kept him going.
What Guardiola has delivered is beyond City's wildest dreams, and so is his effort
Only Carlo Ancelotti has more Champions Leagues in his trophy cabinet than Guardiola
It's all quite tiring though and next summer feels like a natural conclusion. It's tiring to protest the world, to rouse twenty footballers to convince them that this one could mean more than the last. As Jurgen Klopp openly admitted during his farewell season at Liverpool, there comes a time when you can't keep going to the well.
The idea of Guardiola coaching in France has always been derided – he has dismissed Paris Saint-Germain's continued progress in the past – but the re-emergence of Serie A could well make Italy more favorable than before.
It's no secret that international football is attractive. He has taken a sabbatical before and a chance for that would seem logical if the dates worked.
Even his last contract, signed in 2022, which lasted two years instead of one, caused surprise within the club. But in an institution that gave him the conditions to succeed, he felt he could provide the longevity that Barcelona and Bayern Munich would have craved. Manchester, the place and the politics, never exhausted him in the same way.
All this is what chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is likely to tell Guardiola when they discuss his future.
The two are close, have spent holidays together and agreed that last deal while in the Maldives during an international break in November. What Al Mubarak says to Guardiola is important for the Spaniard and there will be a big move to stay a little longer.
Guardiola and Al-Mubarak are close and what the chairman says to the manager matters
The mood music surrounding the Catalan and what he could do has remained consistent over the past four months. Multiple sources, within the game and within City, have long believed that next season is the last dance for the best that has ever been.
City fear that the end is near – some have been talking openly about it since the New Year – and that Al Mubarak's powers of persuasion will be tested.
There was a lot of noise about Guardiola not signing his second extension in 2020, but this has been a bit louder for some time now. It creates the need for Manchester City's next phase under the current regime, the planning required not to slide too far back with a 115-charge cloud hovering above.
What Guardiola will not do is abandon his employers and that is a matter of respect, for Al Mubarak, for CEO Ferran Soriano and for owner Sheikh Mansour.
Sporting director Txiki Begiristain is expected to leave around the same time – before or after, rather than simultaneously – and it will be a real changing of the guard at the Etihad Stadium. This will be an important moment in City's history and managing the post-Pep and Txiki era will not be for the faint of heart.
There is immediate interest in the consequences of this for next summer. The expanded Club World Cup with 32 teams, to be held in America for a month from June 15, overlaps with the expiry of Guardiola's contract.
Sporting director Txiki Begiristain is expected to leave around the same time as Guardiola
Out of respect, Guardiola would not want to let City's hierarchy down next season
If he does what almost all the key players expect of him, how do they negotiate that tournament?
Guardiola will rightly want to lead the team. If they reached the finals, the new guy would only have a matter of weeks to prepare for the next season. That adds another fascinating dimension to Guardiola's final decision.
Perhaps the successor is there in the United States for a transfer, which may sound strange, but then it would be exceptional circumstances.
Michel, Girona's highly regarded coach, is being talked out in some quarters after guiding City's sister club to the Champions League.
Julian Nagelsmann, who has been high on the list in recent years, has a contract with Germany until 2026, while the careers of some others previously discussed internally – Brendan Rodgers and Mauricio Pochettino – have taken different routes.
Guardiola himself believes Roberto De Zerbi has the ability to take control, but he is on Chelsea's radar. It raised eyebrows that Xabi Alonso opted to stay at Bayer Leverkusen for another year when Liverpool came calling.
Michel, the highly regarded head coach at Girona in LaLiga, is being talked out in some quarters
Whoever it is, what a void they have to step into. “He has taken me to a level I didn't know I could reach,” midfielder Rodri said. “He gives you a toolbox and you have more tools than the rest.”
Other players, such as Kyle Walker, talk of boundless energy, the kind that Guardiola once feared would burn them out. It's not. “I can assure you that whatever he is like on game day, he is like every day in training,” Walker said.
'He doesn't put it on for documentaries or anything, that's who he is and it dawns on you. You are like a sponge and you feed off it because its energy radiates off of you.”
Beyond the training pitches, his twist on killer ball and the short, sharp tactical encounters, Guardiola has understood the area. He has identified with the city and its inhabitants.
This aura is as difficult to replace as any tactical ingenuity.
City will be hoping they come across something that resembles him in some way. Or better yet, that he changes his mind to postpone the headache for a while.