High praise for Pep Guardiola and David Silva, as well as news of some incredible commitment to the cause from some American City fans…It’s time for this morning’s roundup of the back pages.

Let’s start with an interview with former Barcelona and Spain striker David Villa, who says he isn’t surprised by the outstanding form of Silva, who he believes is thriving under Guardiola’s watch.


The New York City talisman played alongside Silva at Valencia and together the pair helped Spain with the 2008 European Championships and the 2010 World Cup.

He also worked under Guardiola at Barcelona and says the City boss is the best in the business when it comes to improving players.

In an interview with ESPN’s Jonathan Smith, Villa said: “I’m not surprised because Pep has the capacity to improve every player that he trains.

“This is the best way, you play for Manchester City so you are a good player anyway but you can improve with Pep.

“I went to Barcelona and I remember my first day I saw another part of [football]. I’d played for Spain, I’d played for Valencia in the Champions League and won many trophies but Pep took me to another level. He saw that he can improve me.
“I know David from when he started his career in Valenica, he’s an amazing player and with Pep he can improve as well.”

And Villa’s praise for Guardiola continues in an interview with the Sun’s Martin Blackburn, in which he says Guardiola is not only capable of winning silverware but changing the way football is played in the countries he works in.
“Pep is one of the great coaches of all time in this sport, not only for his success,” he says.

“He’s changed the way of playing. When you talk about coaches in history, you try to look at their success in winning trophies.


“He changed the way of soccer in Spain, in Germany and now he’s changing it in Manchester.

“He is one of the greats, not only in terms of his success but also the things he’s done in every country that he’s worked in.”

Simon Bajkowski, writing in the Manchester Evening News, travelled to the US to watch City up close in all three tour matches.


And he says the performance against Liverpool, in particular, bodes well for the future – and underlines Guardiola’s qualities as a manager.

“If it showed the potential of some of the academy players at the club , the game also highlighted the coaching brilliance of Pep Guardiola,” he writes.

“The manager’s critics like to put all of his success down to spending but you could clearly see that the youngsters were already understanding and learning more with every day spent on the training pitch.

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“While it was first-teamers Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane who combined for the goal it was a wonderful team move started from the goalkeeper and involved eight players, bearing all the wonderful hallmarks of Guardiola’s team last season.”
And, finally, how about this for commitment.

An article by Carly Stern on Mail Online has highlighted the unbelievable commitment shown by some stateside City fans over the past two weeks during the Blues’ US Tour.

“American Man City fans certainly made the effort to be there, including several who aren’t even from the Miami area,” she writes.

“Chris Shea, 24, travelled all the way from Durango, Colorado with his girlfriend Jessica for the match, driving a whopping 2,287 miles — over 500 miles of which they had a dog in the car with them.

‘’We travelled from Durango down to Hobbs, New Mexico, which was a nine-hour drive, to drop off my dog so she would be safe,’ he told DailyMail.com.

“’And then we drove from Hobbs all the way down to Miami, which was another 2,000 miles, almost.’

“All in all, they spent about 35 hours in a car for the match, and splashed around $1,500 on the trip and tickets.”

Thank for your loyal support!

That’s all for this morning’s media roundup. Stay with us throughout the day here on mancity.com as we continue our buildup to Sunday’s Community Shield game against Chelsea.