Manchester City have recruited Barcelona’s greatest manager, hired their most successful Director of Football and have 13 former Barcelona coaches involved in their academy as they try desperately to replicate the Catalan model; but the one man they couldn’t buy proved Sheikh Mansour’s project is still some way from completion.

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Tonight’s Champions League final is a stage for extravagant attacking talents — but for this netminder, the real storyline is between the posts for the Old Lady of Turin, writes Dónal Óg Cusack.