Kyle Walker recalls ‘tough’ memory and reveals three teams Man City want to emulate

The England defender is relishing a second chance against Inter Milan on Saturday after defeat to Chelsea in the final two years ago

Kyle Walker was considering Manchester City’s place in the pantheon. He was thinking about Manchester United; not the United group he and his teammates beat in the FA Cup final a few days ago, either. Pep Guardiola’s City are taking on the Internazionale side of 2023 and the great Premier League sides of the past alike. Walker has his eye on a place in history, a status among the greats. Which, he feels, their achievements in England have earned them. But there is a conspicuous absence from their trophy cabinet, the Champions League that United’s treble winners claimed in 1999, that has eluded City so far.

And that, Walker believes, will elevate them in the eyes of many. “It doesn’t define what this squad has achieved over the last six years, it doesn’t define us if we go on and win this or not,” the right-back reflected.

“It helps massively to say that we can be put in that category of probably one of the best Premier League teams of all time. We don’t win five Premier Leagues in six years if we are not a good team. We know we are a good team but to be recognised globally as one of the best you need to win the Champions League.”

Which City could have done in 2021, but they were beaten in the final by Chelsea. They were below their best that day; two years on, they are again the favourites. “We are not beating around the bush with that, we know this is now a great opportunity, we have a second chance definitely with Pep and the group of players who have stayed around,” added Walker. “We need to put right the wrongs we did against Chelsea.”

There is little doubt that, domestically, City are the best team of their era. Liverpool proved valiant opponents in an epic duel but the trophy count can look one-sided: Guardiola has five Premier Leagues, Jurgen Klopp one. Yet in Europe, the scoreline is very different: City 0, the modern-day Liverpool 1. Greatness comes in different guises, of course, and Walker bracketed the Arsenal team of 2004 alongside United’s class of 1999: Arsene Wenger’s team never conquered Europe but have the unique feat of completing an English top-flight season in the 20^th or 21^st centuries unbeaten. City, meanwhile, have set points records and equalled Sir Alex Ferguson’s return of five titles in six seasons.

“Of course, I think that United team, along with the Invincibles, is probably up there with the best Premier League teams of all time,” Walker said. “What us and Liverpool, to a certain extent, have done where we have been battling for the last number of years, I think we should be in consideration - both teams as we both have fantastic players – but they have silverware and they have got the big Champions League trophy that we can never say we have got. For us to be in contention of that, we need to go and pick up this.”

For Walker, there was a particularly painful coda to City’s failure to perform in the 2021 final. There are times when he has been pleased to see Mason Mount, Reece James and Ben Chilwell. When the England squad met up for Euro 2020, however, it was not one of them. They had shared a pitch a few days earlier, but their emotions were very different: James, not Walker, was the Champions League-winning right-back, Mount the man who set up the only goal in the final. The Chelsea trio emerged triumphant and Walker soon had to see them again.

“I didn’t really have much time to get over it as I had to tune back into England and go and compete in a tournament for my country,” Walker recalled. “It was hard seeing all the Chelsea boys there. You say congratulations to them because they are your teammates now but it was tough.” If Walker’s powers of recovery were such that he was named in the team of the tournament for Euro 2020. And yet it was a summer of disappointment. “Then I experienced a loss against Italy in the final and then I had to pick myself up again and get ready for the season. That’s football, it’s part of your career that everything is not going to go swimmingly well.”

Kyle Walker has dismissed concerns about his fitness (PA Wire)

It was a reminder that even the most successful can miss out on more trophies than they win. For club, as well as country, he hopes for a case of second time lucky. “I don’t think any great team goes straight to the final and wins it,” he said. “I think you always have to go through setbacks, those nearly games, those losses.”

Claim the Champions League and Walker and his friend John Stones will be arguably the most decorated English players of their generation, though the right-back did not get a first major trophy until he was almost 28. A wait for glory has been a theme: for him, for City, 12 years into their Champions League adventure, and on Saturday.

“I’m 33 now so I wouldn’t say I get nervous,” said Walker. “I hate eight o’clock games because it is the wait of all day to go to the game. I’d rather it kicked off at three o’clock and then it is done then.” Instead, it begins at 10pm Turkish time, leaving Walker contemplating a sleepless afternoon.

“You can’t bring the game forward. I just have to deal with it and have a little nap in the afternoon,” he said. “Then I don’t sleep after the game. It’s Sod’s law, isn’t it?” Sod’s law may appear to be a theme of City’s last few years in the Champions League: if something could go wrong, it often did, sometimes in strange circumstances. But if it goes right on Saturday, City will have emulated United and with a stronger case for greatness.