The trip over to Manchester’s east side is always the same for Kyle Walker, a white chocolate mocha from Café Nero resting in his cup holder. Ordered on his phone, ready for collection. It offers a sense of routine before work.
He’ll have a brief chat with the security guards at Manchester City‘s training base and head for his reserved space, right next to the entrance to a world where Pep Guardiola plots domination. A familiar feeling each time.
And that sense of deja vu is not just at the City Football Academy these days. Wembley is familiar, winning is familiar, Walker walking teams out with an armband on is familiar.
He points out that victory over Manchester United in Saturday’s FA Cup final would represent a fourth trophy as captain. At the moment, normality for City and for Walker is going up, medal around neck and lifting a big shiny thing with a little jig on a hastily assembled podium.
The only difference this weekend, if they do it against their embattled rivals, is that there are a few steps up to the Royal Box.
Kyle Walker lifted the Premier League trophy last weekend, his third piece of silverware as captain of Man City
But Walker almost left City last summer due to an extra-marital affair with Lauryn Goodman (pictured)
Walker publicly apologised to wife Annie after admitting to his affair with Goodman
‘Sunday was my Treble,’ Walker says, looking back on the Premier League title, added to the Super Cup and Club World Cup. ‘I want to add this for the real icing on the cake. Four in your first year as captain wouldn’t be bad.’
When will all of this end? It’s unlikely to while Guardiola remains in situ. And the right back has had so much to do with all of this.
City parted with £50million to sign him from Tottenham seven years ago, branded ‘crazy money’ by Jose Mourinho. Walker is now back in the capital hunting down a 16th major trophy.
He’s still close with the manager after all this time, the sounding board from the players’ side. He found his voice inside the dressing room once the gilded elders of yesteryear bid their farewells, one by one. To such an extent, in fact, that alongside Kevin De Bruyne, his eventual departure will be as keenly felt as any in the past. And not just for the lightning speed or the evolution of his game.
As we know, that could well have been last summer. Bayern Munich came knocking – Thomas Tuchel wanting a more Premier League feel to his team, landing Harry Kane as well – and Walker agonised over the decision.
At one point, he had a foot out of the door. He turns 34 on Tuesday, so it’s bound to happen sooner rather than later – but the flirtation with the Bundesliga crystalised what he actually had right here.
‘That was a moment in my personal life that I felt I wanted to move away from England and it was nothing to do with footballing reasons,’ he says. ‘It was something personal to me where I thought that taking a break from England might have been right for me.
‘But first and foremost I have to think about the football. It’s what I love doing and I felt that come the end of it I would be a lot happier at Manchester City than I would at Bayern Munich.’
Those personal things have been a constant source of front-page news for quite some time. Walker has fathered six children, four boys with wife Annie – all of whom were on the Etihad pitch with him last weekend – and two with model Lauryn Goodman during a prolonged extra-marital affair. Following MailOnline exclusively revealing in January that Walker is the father of Goodman’s daughter – born last August – an unedifying public back and forth has ensued.
Goodman was left ‘absolutely livid’ after Walker publicly apologised to his wife amid the cheating allegations.
Walker holds the Club World Cup in December with three of his sons and wife Annie
Walker brought his baby boy – born last month – on to the pitch ahead of City’s final league game against West Ham
Walker issued a public apology after his relationship with Goodman, with whom shares two children, came to light
The City full back responded by calling in lawyers to hit back at Goodman after accusing her of promoting ‘wild and untrue stories’ that they were in an ‘intimate and loving’ relationship.
Walker also claimed Goodman gave him a series of ‘unrealistic’ demands to keep the paternity of their baby daughter a secret, while Goodman has since taken a fresh swipe at Walker by revealing their four-year-old son, Kairo, has been asking: ‘where is my daddy?’
Walker’s form dipped earlier in the season, there is no doubt. Walker recaptured that after New Year and has continued to lead City, despite what is going on before he orders that mocha. He is talking as if he is about to spurn the advances of Saudi Arabia’s gold and do at least another season under Guardiola.
‘I’ll go as long as I can go,’ he says. ‘This is a job that I love, I never wake up and think I don’t want to go in. I love playing football, it makes me happy. It’s my happy place.
‘I’ve got two years and I still think I can give more to the team. Why can’t we do five titles in a row?’ Steady, now. There is a European Championship before all that and Saturday’s Cup final before that. Yet to hear Walker speak like that will be a sweet melody for Guardiola.
Walker is on record as claiming that City still have a bit of catching up to do with their crosstown rivals and Liverpool in the history books. He isn’t wrong, with City going for their 28th major trophy on Saturday and United their 44th. Liverpool remain on 46.
Yet in terms of a spell of dominance, this past four years cannot be matched, Guardiola’s City a standard bearer for future generations just as Sir Alex Ferguson had been. ‘When I first came here you saw a lot of United shirts and now you see a lot of kids wearing City shirts,’ Walker says.
‘We’re swinging the pendulum but we need to keep going because the United and Liverpool teams did it for years and years. We’re doing that now; long may it continue and we need to keep it going.
‘We’re building this dynasty and legacy that people will look on this team. We could be the first team to do the double Double. We’ve set the bar so high and I don’t think any of us will understand what we are achieving until we’ve finished football or it goes back to the norm, which I hope isn’t very soon and (not) while I’m at City.’
That level of self-awareness perhaps points to these players actually knowing exactly what they are achieving. Walker ran towards Mateo Kovacic when the final whistle blew on the final-day victory over West Ham as thousands swarmed the Etihad’s pitch.
He wanted to share the immediate gratification with somebody who – although a serial Champions League winner at Real Madrid – had never been part of a title-winning side in England.
Walker will be aiming to pick up another trophy this weekend in a repeat of last year’s FA Cup final against Man United, which City won 2-1 thanks to a brace from Ilkay Gundogan (left)
Walker is expecting a tough battle against United despite their struggles this season
That sort of stuff matters and that sort of stuff keeps this City squad fresh. ‘The first to win four in a row, the first since United to do the Treble – we keep knocking down these hurdles and the double Double is another that we need to knock down,’ Walker says. ‘But it’s against our rivals who live in the same city and are going to want to rain on our parade.’
United attempted that last year and failed, the week before City completed the Holy Grail in Istanbul. Walker wasn’t in the team that night, told by Guardiola 24 hours before kick-off, and took a few hours overnight to process the news before delivering the last speech before they went out and just about dealt with Inter.
He can reflect on all that now in a place of professional serenity and there comes an admission from the veteran that he might not play as much next year. Manuel Akanji is more than capable out on the right and the manager does like four centre halves at the back.
And yet he is peaceful about that prospect, with Rico Lewis deserving more minutes as well as it comes to the crunch on whether he is a full back or central midfielder. Walker’s always been a man who thrives off a bit of competition.
Walker insists he still has a ‘great relationship’ with Pep Guardiola despite not starting last season’s Champions League final
‘People look at the Champions League final as a disappointment for me but someone was going to miss out. You take it on the chin and you move on. I don’t sulk or drop my lip, Pep did it for the right reasons to win the game. We have a great relationship. I came on and played those few minutes. That was enough for me. I played in a Champions League final and helped the team get over the line.
‘This year has been hard and it’s been difficult. To come off such a high of winning the Treble is difficult but that’s where you look at the senior members – people that have been here a long time like me, Kevin, Bernardo Silva, John Stones and Ederson who have done it time and time again.
‘If something isn’t right there’s no superiority or no superstar that no-one can have a word with. We’re part of history and we want this to continue.’