It was summer 2020, and John Stones’ Manchester City career was hanging by a thread.
The centre-back had started just two of the Blues’ 14 post-Covid games, had handed Aston Villa their goal in a surprise outing in the Carabao Cup final months prior, and Port Vale striker Tom Pope – then of League Two – had claimed that he would love to play against the ‘weak’ England international every week and ‘would score 40 a season’ if he did so – before duly bagging against Stones and City, despite a 4-1 FA Cup third-round defeat.
Mid-table Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers were understood to be interested in signing Stones, and it looked as though his time at the Etihad Stadium, which had promised much in the years prior, was fizzling out in disappointment.
It is now summer 2026. Stones didn’t leave in 2020. Instead, he made himself undroppable in the season which followed, blossoming into the player that City knew he could be when Pep Guardiola made him one of his first signings in 2016, and becoming one of the key contributors to some of the finest seasons in club history.
Now departing the Etihad Stadium after a glittering decade of service, John Stones goes down not only as one of the most complete defenders the Premier League has ever seen, but as arguably the biggest cult hero in this era for Manchester City, evidenced by the adoring send-off he was afforded after his final game and during the trophy parade.
We look back on the Barnsley Beckenbauer’s rollercoaster 10 years in Manchester, featuring Jamaican slang, the positional switch that changed everything, and some truly wicked dance moves…
As the aforementioned nickname would suggest – referring to German great Franz Beckenbauer, revered for popularising the role which influenced much of what Stones would go on to achieve with Manchester City – the Englishman started his career at his native Barnsley, quickly catching the eye and earning a move to the top flight with Everton.
After three impressive seasons at Goodison Park – with Chelsea routinely reported to be sniffing around – John Stones joined City for £47.5 million in 2016, the second-most expensive transfer fee for a defender in history at the time, behind only David Luiz’s move to PSG.
This, coupled with the fact that he would be pairing his renowned ball-playing skills with the best possible manager to utilise them in Pep Guardiola, meant expectations were high.
The pressure, perhaps, was too much initially for a player who had only turned 21 that summer.
Manchester City struggled more than expected in that first Guardiola season and Stones was often left exposed, with blunders against Southampton, AS Monaco and on a nightmare return to Everton in particular making him one of the media’s favourite talking points (or, if you prefer, scapegoats) in what was a first-ever trophyless campaign for his new boss.
Pep Guardiola never lost the faith though. 41 appearances that term were the most Stones ever managed in a season for City – in part due to injuries later down the line, but also because of the trust his manager had in both his abilities and in his mentality.
Guardiola lauded the latter commodity in one of his most famous press conferences soundbites, insisting after a 1-1 draw with Liverpool that Stones had ‘more personality, more balls’ than the entire assembled room of journalists, due to his willingness to keep playing the right way even after making mistakes.
A new-look Manchester City started the 2017/18 season in far finer fettle, and Stones was growing with the side, playing in each of the opening 12 Premier League matches.
In a sign of things to come though, an injury proved costly; a hamstring problem suffered against Leicester knocked him out from mid-November until the New Year.
By the time of his comeback, Aymeric Laporte was on the verge of being added to the ranks, and with captain Vincent Kompany returning to fitness himself and Nicolas Otamendi enjoying easily his best City campaign, John Stones went to the 2018 World Cup having played little in the climax to the Centurions season.
Starring in England’s run to the semi-finals in Russia rejuvenated the Three Lions man, and he returned to Manchester to play a big part as City’s title defence was put under major pressure by Jurgen Klopp’s relentless Liverpool.
His importance was never greater than when the top two went head-to-head at the Etihad Stadium in January 2019 – a mix-up with Ederson at 0-0 saw Stones’ attempted clearance bounce back towards his own goal, only for the defender to somehow extend his leg and hook it away, with just 11 millimetres of the ball staying the right side of the line.
City went on to win the match 2-1 and reign the Reds in, Stones coming in where injury and the unshakeable partnership of Kompany and Laporte permitted to contribute to the ridiculous 14-match winning run needed to win the title by a single point.
An unused substitute as the league was sealed on the final day at Brighton, Stones instead exerted his energy during the dressing room celebrations post-match, showing off some typically nifty footwork as he delighted teammates with his dancing to Robin S’ Show Me Love.
2019/20 was, as previously mentioned, the season where it threatened to come apart for Stones. More muscular problems disrupted any rhythm he attempted to build up, coming to a head in that League Cup final – a surprise starter for the first time in almost two months, his badly-timed slip allowed Aston Villa in to score and nearly mount an improbable comeback.
With midfielder Fernandinho, inexperienced academy graduate Eric Garcia and the outgoing and declining Otamendi preferred in defence at various points as the Blues flailed behind runaway champions Liverpool, the writing seemed on the wall for either that touted move to Wolves or another Premier League outfit further down the ladder than City.
But Stones insisted on staying to fight for his place, and by a strange quirk of fate, started the opening game of the lockdown 2020/21 season at Molineux, home of the very club trying to bring him in.
New signing Ruben Dias soon took up the starting spot next to Aymeric Laporte, but when John Stones got his chance to partner the Portuguese after a few months, a pairing blossomed which would be vital to City retaking their title.
From a 5-0 win over Burnley in November, the duo started ten of the next 11 league games together, only beginning to sit out from February when they were rested domestically – with the title already looking a formality – in preparation to rejoin forces for big Champions League games. Indeed, they helped keep City in rock-solid shape right up until the final in Porto, when the Blues came unstuck against Chelsea.
That ‘bromance’ with Dias – the pair would often complete club media together and embrace after seemingly every successfully-defended scenario – wasn’t Stones’ only tight bond in Manchester.
Bernardo Silva revealed during the recent celebration of both departing legends’ City careers that their first interaction when playing against each other in the Champions League wasn’t of a savoury nature, but they’ve since become firm friends, with the Portuguese even naming his dog John in Stones’ honour (and, he has revealed, as a bit of a joke).
Raheem Sterling was always quick to encourage his England and City teammate to showcase his fledgling impression of a Jamaican accent, with Stones first announcing that he was from ‘central Kingston’ when asked to describe where in the island country his character was from during Sterling’s 25th birthday celebrations, then greeting the winger’s social media followers with “wagwan, generals” in a video posted during title celebrations in 2022.
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The league win that term was once more watched largely from the sidelines by Stones, with a combination of that troublesome hamstring and the resurgent form of Laporte limiting him to just 14 Premier League appearances; the previous year’s upturn in form had clearly marked a positive change in Stones’ dependability when on the pitch though, and the following season was his defining campaign at the Etihad.
It won’t come as a surprise at this point that two separate hamstring injuries either side of the winter 2022 World Cup had meant the season had been stop-start for Stones up to the end of February 2023.
What followed though was one of the most memorable stretches of form by any player in the Guardiola era, as the defender built on the inverted full-back position performed earlier in the season by Rico Lewis and remarkably fulfilled the role from CENTRE-back.
He transcended the norms of his natural position to roam freely over the pitch, one minute holding down the defence next to Dias, the next anchoring the engine room alongside Rodri, before gallivanting into attacking midfield, joining Bernardo Silva on the wing or even slotting in next to Erling Haaland as suited his fancy.
Opposing sides simply couldn’t deal with the numerical overloads Stones’ presence allowed City to form, and one after the other, big teams were blown away by Pep Guardiola’s rampant Blues.
In the space of two months, Liverpool and Arsenal had been thrashed en route to the Premier League title, Manchester United were put away in the FA Cup final, and RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Inter had all been dispatched in the UEFA Champions League as City roared to a legendary treble. John Stones started and bossed every match, and his performances in both finals in particular were mesmeric.
It was around this time that Stones’ now-iconic chant, to the tune of Boney M’s Daddy Cool, became a massive hit on the terraces. Scarcely has a player so appreciated being appreciated as much as Stones does; even mid-match in his final game against Villa at the weekend, he took a moment to hail the South Stand at the Etihad as they serenaded the man who gets the Blues excited and isn’t overly fond of United.
The final three seasons of Stones’ time at City weren’t without their high points – helping seal four Premier League titles in a row, saving City’s Champions League skins last term in the league phase win over Club Brugge and playing his part in the early rounds of both cups as City this year swooped a domestic double – but you won’t be shocked to hear that fitness has again been his biggest foe, with 72 games missed for club and country in that time.
So now, having just turned 32 years old, John Stones calls time on a Manchester City career which began when he was not long out of his teens.
Pep Guardiola saw something in that promising but unpolished talent at Everton and put faith in him – so much so that Stones is the only first-teamer to have been with the boss every step of the way in his management of Manchester City, starting both his first and last game in charge.
Even those most beloved by Guardiola – Kevin de Bruyne, who missed out on the final season of his reign, or Bernardo Silva, who arrived one year in – haven’t been as fixed an institution at the Etihad Stadium as John Stones.
There have been ups and downs in that decade, but you sense those have only deepened the bond between the Barnsley native and his supporters. The fans have taken him into their hearts, and he has reciprocated, never far from welling up at each rendition of ‘JOHNNY, JOHNNY STONES!’
So Manchester City thanks you, John. It seems at times you can’t believe you’re worthy of the adulation of the fans, but we assure you, you are. We might never see another player like you.
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