Melbourne City players meet Manchester counterparts at Carrington training complex

MELBOURNE City players have met their Manchester counterparts for the first time since City’s purchase of the A-League club.

IT MIGHT not seem like much, but this was a big moment in the history of the Melbourne City and Manchester City football clubs.

The first time that the senior stars of each club had gotten together for one big “team” photo.

It was just another watershed event on what has been an historic month for Melbourne City.

Manchester City’s training facilities are unbelievable.

Melbourne City players - at the Carrington centre as part of an 18-day pre-season training camp - already feel like they are living as football royalty.

So you can’t begin to believe how Man City’s players are going to feel in about three months time when the City Football Academy opens up just a long goal kick away from its home ground, the Etihad Stadium.

Manchester City’s state of the art training facilities being put to use.

On Monday I had the privilege of being shown around all three facilities - the Etihad, the CFA and Carrington - and each are a sight for sore eyes.

You probably do lose some perspective as a sports journalist and take for granted the sights and sounds you see in the sport industry, but it was cool to take a tour of Etihad Stadium purely as a fan - and amongst fans - to see behind the scenes at a ground that is otherwise so far away from little old Australia.

It would be an incredible theatre to watch games at - I’m a stadium nerd so maybe I appreciate it more than most - and the atmosphere is set to only get better in the coming years as expansion at either end will see capacity rise from just shy of 50,000 to about 61,000.

The locker room.

You figured the change rooms would be awesome - the players’ shirts are still hanging up ready to go despite each being either on post-World Cup holiday or with the club in the United States - so too the warm-up area and tunnel which leads on to the field of play, but it’s the little things that take you by surprise.

Did you know that there’s a button at the bottom of the cushy seats the Manchester City substitutes sit on that if they press it instantly warms it up for them on cold days?

They’ve also got warmers in the concrete slabs beneath for their feet.

But on the opposite bench some 10m away there’s none of that. The seats are smaller too and less comfy - maybe that’s why City lost just once here last year.

The players of Manchester and Melbourne City mingle for the first time.

Photo opportunities at the City Football Academy were light on as it is still a construction zone.

Driving around it’s hard to imagine that in about 12 weeks it’s going to be ‘lights, camera, action’, but these guys don’t muck around - they’ll be good to go.

And what a facility it will be! More than a dozen pitches, including an indoor arena equipped to play FIFA matches and another that, with its giant wall around it, is totally sheltered from the elements.

Among other things there are state-of-the-art player facilities - including accommodation - all new media and administration areas and walkway connection to the Etihad. What more could you need?

Where the magic currently happens is out at Carrington, about a 20-minute drive from Manchester.

Samir Nasri and David Williams.

The facilities are nothing compared to where the players will be in a short amount of time, but would still be the envy of any sporting club in Australia, and the training pitches are immaculate - dubbed the best in the English Premier League - so it’s safe to say that Melbourne City players aren’t complaining.

This is day 15 in the United Kingdom for them, so they could be forgiven for starting to think about being back home in a few days time, but training is still sharp and no less intense than it was at the start of the tour.

Having not played since February because of injury, one of Melbourne City’s star recruits, Damien Duff, is still slowly regaining match fitness, but it’s clearly evident that the skills the 100-time Irish international and former Chelsea possess haven’t diminished.

Former Fulham star Damien Duff trains with his Melbourne City teammates.

The skills of the likes of Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Javi Garcia, Karim Rekik, Micah Richards and Scott Sinclair certainly aren’t diminishing either.

I say that, why? Because for a fleeting moment those players rubbed shoulders with their City Group brothers in the one and only Carrington interchange between the two sets of players.

Manchester City’s players, only just this weekend back from Scotland, were headed for the bus to the airport where they would be bound for that US tour, while Melbourne City’s players were getting ready to train.

But before heading on their separate ways both sets of players paused for a group photo - the first of its kind since Manchester City’s takeover of the club formerly known as Melbourne Heart.

Follow Melbourne City’s tour of Manchester in Matt Windley’s blog below.

Originally published as Melbourne City players meet Manchester counterparts at Carrington training complex