Manchester City fans should be excited. Very excited. Even half as excited as the media will be excited enough.

Yes, Pep Guardiola will arrive at the Etihad Stadium in the summer, completely and utterly transforming big-spending, quadruple-chasing Manchester City into, er, big-spending, quadruple-chasing Manchester City.

And the media loves it so much more than the fans do. Let’s face it, the fans are excited for the style of play, that elegance coupled with intensity and, of course, they’re excited for silverware.

But the media are excited for so much more. They’re excited for the narrative, the hype, the speculation. Mostly the speculation. So much so, that there seems to be a growing school of thought that Pep Guardiola should raid Everton for John Stones and… Seamus Coleman.

Yes, if I were an all-conquering manager about to ride triumphantly into the richest club in the world, I’d definitely raid Everton’s defence. After all, it’s not as if Everton’s defence isn’t so fragile that it takes their Champions League-calibre attacking potency and turns it into the attack of a midtable team. Oh, wait, it is.

That usually sedate and understated behemoth of measured sports reporting Sky Sports have weighed into the Guardiola-to-City hype today. Irish-as-green-Guinness pundit Tony Cascarino and Manchester City ‘club legend’ Steve Howey have shared with us their thoughts on Manchester City’s starting XI next season, and here’s what they’ve come up with.

Both men think that Manchester City should be getting rid of half of their starting XI in order to roid-up with the superstars of world football as though Pep Guardiola was taking over a FIFA 16 Career Mode.

But the main thing is the inclusion of Seamus Coleman in both cases. Really, lads? Coleman is a great little player, but if you’re going to go all-out to bring in the likes of Pogba and Griezmann, surely you can do a little better than Coleman?

The hype will continue until the slamming-shut of the summer transfer window, you can bet on that. It’s just the kind of media circus that surrounds Pep Guardiola.

So be excited, City fans. Just don’t be quite that excited!

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