Twenty years ago this was easy. You took most of Joe Mercer's side from the late sixties, found room for Trautmann and Kinkladze, and argued about the full backs. Then the money came in 2008. Mancini won the league in 2012, Pellegrini won another, and by the time Guardiola arrived in 2016, Kompany, Silva, Agüero and Yaya already had two titles each. He then won almost everything going, and half the old team is now fighting for its life.
How many of the Bell, Lee and Summerbee generation still get in? I've only counted what a player did for City, and the years in brackets are their time at the club.
The XI
4-3-3. Rodri sits, Bell and De Bruyne run, and Silva drifts in off the left like he did for ten years anyway.
Goalkeeper
Bert Trautmann (1949 to 1964). He's older than the rest of the old boys here, but you can't do a City XI without him. Over 500 league games, and the 1956 FA Cup final against Birmingham, which he finished with a broken neck. City won 3-1.
Ederson's case is real. Nobody kicked a ball like him, and the whole Guardiola build-up started at his feet. Joe Corrigan played 476 league games over sixteen years. I still go Trautmann.
Defence
Kyle Walker, right back (2017 to 2025). I wanted to give this to Pablo Zabaleta, and plenty of you will. Zabaleta scored the first goal against QPR on that afternoon in May 2012, and he was there for the lean bits before it. Tony Book has a case too. He joined from Plymouth at 31 and captained the side to the league, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup in three seasons. In the end I went with Walker because of what Guardiola asked of him. The back line pushed up to halfway, and his pace covered for all of it, right through the 2023 treble season. He won six league titles here.
Vincent Kompany, centre back (2008 to 2019). April 2012, United at the Etihad, a header from a corner. That goal swung the title City won on the last day. Seven years later, against Leicester in May 2019, he hit one from outside the box that more or less won another. He was captain for most of that decade and there's a statue of him outside the ground now.
Rúben Dias, centre back (2020 onwards). Football Writers' Footballer of the Year in his first season, which defenders hardly ever win. City let in 32 league goals in 2020-21, the fewest in the division.
Willie Donachie, left back (1968 to 1980). This is the shirt I'd expect most people to argue with. Is Donachie better than Cancelo in 2021-22, or Gvardiol now? On their best days, probably not. Cancelo had two brilliant seasons. Donachie played twelve, 351 league games, started the 1976 League Cup final win over Newcastle and was a Scotland regular for most of it. I'll take the twelve. Left back is also the one position the modern era never really settled, which helps him.
Midfield
Colin Bell (1966 to 1979). The real fight in this midfield is Yaya against Bell, and I've gone Bell. I'm not sure I'm right, and I change my mind about once a week. If you only know him as the name on a stand, look up the 1968 title side. He got from box to box all game and scored goals from midfield, and the fans called him Nijinsky after the racehorse. A knee injury in a League Cup tie against United in November 1975 took the best years off him, and he still played 394 league games.
Rodri (2019 onwards). He scored the only goal of the 2023 Champions League final in Istanbul and won the Ballon d'Or in 2024. When he did his knee in September 2024, City's season came apart without him, which is about the best case anyone could make for a holding midfielder.
Kevin De Bruyne (2015 to 2025). The best player I've watched in a City shirt. Two PFA Players' Player of the Year awards. That right foot could drop a cross on the penalty spot from anywhere on the pitch, and for ten years it usually did.
Attack
Mike Summerbee, right wing (1965 to 1975). Plenty of you would rather see Francis Lee in this side than Agüero, and I'll get to that. Summerbee came from Swindon. He won the league in 1968 and the FA Cup in 1969 and played 357 league games, and he was a proper winger who'd go through a full back as often as round him.
Sergio Agüero (2011 to 2021). 93:20.
You know the rest, and you probably know where you were sat. That goal against QPR is the reason Lee misses out, or part of it. Lee won the title in 1968 and scored in the 1970 Cup Winners' Cup final against Górnik Zabrze, and he was a brilliant striker. But Agüero left as the club's record goalscorer across all competitions, there's a statue of him outside the ground, and I can't put anyone ahead of him for the one striker's spot. Older fans will tell me I'm wrong. Erling Haaland may well take that record one day, and I'll come to him.
David Silva, left side (2010 to 2020). 309 league games and four league titles. He was the first of the big signings who made City nicer to watch. Starting him on the left is a cheat. He'd end up in the middle within ten minutes anyway.
Manager
Pep Guardiola (2016 onwards). Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison won four major trophies in three seasons, and nobody should pretend that's small. But Guardiola's side got 100 points in 2017-18, won four league titles in a row from 2021 and then the treble in 2023, so I've given it to him.
So how many survived?
Three from the sixties and seventies: Donachie, Bell and Summerbee. Four if you count Trautmann as an old boy, and most people over sixty would.
Close but not quite
- Yaya Touré (2010 to 2018). He scored the winner against United in the 2011 FA Cup semi, then the winner in the final against Stoke, and City had a trophy again after a long wait. Three years later he got 20 league goals from midfield in 2013-14. If you'd have him in for Bell, fair enough. I nearly did.
- Erling Haaland (2022 onwards). 36 league goals in his first season, a Premier League record. Give it a few more years and this argument might be over.
- Georgi Kinkladze (1995 to 1998). Only 106 league games, and City went down with him in the side. But if this was a team of players you'd have paid to watch, he'd be the first name on it.
- Bernardo Silva (2017 onwards). Played just about every position going for Guardiola, and played most of them well.
- Phil Foden (2016 onwards). Stockport lad, through the academy, Premier League Player of the Season in 2023-24.
- Alan Oakes (1959 to 1976). Over 560 league games, still the club record.
- Neil Young (1961 to 1972). Scored the only goal of the 1969 FA Cup final against Leicester.
Build your own
Plenty of City fans would rather have the 1968 champions or the 2023 treble side on the wall than any all-time XI. You can build either in our team builder, or your Sunday league team, or Kinkladze and ten mates. Pick the formation and kits, add a message, and we email a proof before anything's printed. If you'd rather start with a ready-made team, have a look at the Manchester City prints.