Zinchenko played under the Catalan at Manchester City before leaving to join Arsenal in 2022.

The Ukrainian was rarely a regular in the first team, but did make 128 appearances in all competitions for City and won four Premier League titles with the club.

He wasn’t always in Guardiola’s good books, though, with the iconic manager not impressed with how Zinchenko spoke back to him in training.

The versatile defender and midfielder remembers misplacing a pass and Guardiola criticising him for it, which he was not happy about, but quickly regretted his response.

‘Out loud I said: “Mister! Like, I just did one wrong pass, you know?” And his reaction was incredible,’ Zinchenko wrote in his new book Believe, via The Guardian.

‘”Oh, okay, sorry, sorry, Mr Zinchenko. Sorry,” said Pep. “Okay, guys, thank you, everyone inside.” And he went in, walked to the changing room. Training over, all because I talked back. I knew I was in trouble.’

Zinchenko was not in the starting XI for the next game and he adds: ‘Listen, first of all, I was not right. I understood straight away, but it would have been silly if I went right to his office and apologised. It was game day minus one and I knew his head was totally on the gameplan. But I did apologise after the game.’

After the Ukrainian swapped Manchester for north London his former club went on to win the treble in the 2022/23 season, landing the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.

In a sign of how their relationship vastly improved from that day in training, Guardiola called Zinchenko to thank him for his work at City despite leaving the club the summer before the treble.

‘I can only imagine how much they celebrated after the game, and I guess no one was sleeping that night, but to get a call from Pep? I couldn’t believe it,’ said Zinchenko.