{"id":199023,"date":"2026-05-21T17:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/199023\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T17:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:09:09","slug":"john-stones-pep-guardiola-helped-me-understand-football-as-man-city-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/199023\/","title":{"rendered":"John Stones: Pep Guardiola helped me understand football as Man City boss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sunday\u2019s final Premier League game of the season marks the end of an era at City, with defender Stones and captain Bernardo Silva to make their farewell appearances.<\/p>\n<p>There are also strong reports Guardiola will stand down after a decade at the Etihad Stadium, bringing one of the most successful managerial reigns in English football history to an end.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2.84606918.jpg\" alt=\"Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola embraces John Stones\" data-title=\"Manchester City v Crystal Palace \u2013 Premier League \u2013 Etihad Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Martin Rickett\" data-usage-terms=\"EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club\/league logos or \u201clive\u201d services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club\/league\/player publications.\"  \/>Stones felt Guardiola\u2019s system suited his game perfectly (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Stones and Guardiola both arrived in the summer of 2016 and the centre-back, who has played 294 times for the club, thrived under Guardiola\u2019s possession-based philosophy.<\/p>\n<p>Stones, 31, told the club\u2019s media channels: \u201cI think when I look back at when I first came, I wasn\u2019t a player that was a typical kind of centre-half.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was maybe built for how football is now, but 10 years ago Pep saw that and everyone kind of got behind me, and I felt it was the right way to play football.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the word genius comes about, but how he sees the game is totally different. That was one of the things when I came. I thought I knew football but I realised quickly I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>City have won 20 trophies under Guardiola, including six Premier League titles and the Champions League, and those achievements will be celebrated as the campaign ends with a visit from Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p>One of the obvious highlights of Stones\u2019 time at City was the treble-winning campaign of 2022-23, which they completed with victory over Inter Milan in the Champions League final in Istanbul.<\/p>\n<p>Stones excelled in a defensive midfield role and the freedom Guardiola gave him made it one of the most enjoyable periods of his career.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2.72559576.jpg\" alt=\"John Stones lifts the Champions League trophy\" data-title=\"Manchester City v Inter Milan \u2013 UEFA Champions League \u2013 Final \u2013 Ataturk Olympic Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Archive\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Archive\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Martin Rickett\" data-usage-terms=\"Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.\"  \/>Winning the Champions League was a career highlight (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cI was just loving it. I love that role, I wish I could play it every week, a new role that was almost created and the freedom that I had, the space to go and express myself in a different way, the different outlook it brought on our team, the different ways to beat teams. I honestly loved it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo have the impact that I did, especially in the final, was something that I\u2019m so proud of and I\u2019d love to relive it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stones began his career at Barnsley before moving to Everton and then joining City in a \u00a347.5million deal.<\/p>\n<p>His future remains unclear but City will always hold a special place in his heart.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cI don\u2019t know how to put it into words but just the love that I have for the place and everyone, how happy I am here. I\u2019ve said it before but it\u2019s my home and home\u2019s always the best place, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday\u2019s final Premier League game of the season marks the end of an era at City, with defender&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-199023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}