Which former Barcelona head coach said it? The first quote is from August 2016.
"I know his values, I know his talent. I have a lot of respect for him. But I was clear what I was looking for. I try to play the way I like, the way I grew up, and I am here to try to convince the players.
"He knows from the beginning, what I feel, what the situation is. I want happiness for the players. I try to be clear. The first thing I am looking for from the goalkeeper is to save. After that, he has to be able to play with the ball. He has to help us to create a good build-up. That is why I am here."
Now take this one, from August 2025.
"I am supported by my club and we are trying to find the best solution. It is a difficult decision. He is one of the very best goalkeepers out there and an even better man.
"But we were looking for a different profile. It's very difficult to take these types of decisions."
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Those Catalan principles, enshrined by the great Dutchman Johan Cruyff, laid deep roots. The first quote is from Pep Guardiola, a couple of months after taking over at Manchester City. Guardiola was explaining why fan favourite Joe Hart was being jettisoned. He needed a goalkeeper that was proficient with his feet as well as his hands.
The second quote is from Luis Enrique, Guardiola's most decorated successor at Barca who led Paris Saint-Germain to a sparkling treble last season. Gianluigi Donnarumma was a key part of their success, a penalty-shootout hero at Anfield and the maker of several crucial saves in the knockout wins over Aston Villa and Arsenal.
Nevertheless, Luis Enrique wants to go in a new direction, hoping new recruit Lucas Chevalier can operate more in line with his ideals. Here's the twist, though, as you're probably aware: Guardiola is signing Donnarumma to play for Manchester City.
It's been a busy deadline day in terms of outgoings at the Etihad Stadium. Ilkay Gundogan's ultimately ill-advised encore in east Manchester will wrap up with a move to Galatasaray. The man who lifted a treble-completing Champions League trophy for City in 2023 will return to Istanbul, where Guardiola's men beat Inter Milan in the final. Manuel Akanji, a dependable and adaptable performer in the backline that season, will join the Nerazzurri on an initial loan.
The Istanbul theme continued with the man who made the trophy-clinching saves at the Ataturk Stadium. Ederson is joining Fenerbahce, the Brazil international's desire for a new challenge persuading City to enter the market for Donnarumma.
The Italy goalkeeper is undoubtedly a world-class performer, but he's hardly got Fred Astaire's feet. Guardiola is bringing in the man who ultimately become Luis Enrique's Joe Hart. After two busy windows and the departure of arguably the club's greatest ever player in Kevin De Bruyne, Donnarumma's arrival underscores the sense of a new era at City, one that back-to-back defeats to Tottenham and Brighton & Hove Albion demonstrate has begun on unsteady legs.
But the era passed — that of the treble, a record-breaking four titles in a row and six Premier Leagues in seven seasons — would not have been possible without Ederson.
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De Bruyne's enduring excellence means it's hard to argue against him as Guardiola's greatest ever City player, but the Belgium playmaker was already in the building when Guardiola arrived. After the misstep of bringing in Claudio Bravo as Hart's initial replacement in 2016, purchasing Ederson from Benfica in summer 2017 stands as Guardiola and former director of football Txiki Begiristain's best buy in Manchester.
Even now, placing too much emphasis on what a goalkeeper can do with the ball at their feet draws scorn from traditionalists. Give me a guy who saves shots, that sort of thing. It's true Ederson might have done a little bit more of that.
But with his rapier left foot, he was a game-changer. Short passes, perfectly picked and weighted, happy to take the ball under pressure with an almost sociopathic calm. Ederson could also go long. Really long. He holds the Guinness World Record for the longest football drop kick. He could also hammer them flat. Erling Haaland took a particular liking to that, and Ederson's seven assists are the most for a keeper in Premier League history.
Ederson did things differently and, in doing so, he allowed Guardiola to do things differently. The coach's vision for high-pressing, high-possession positional play was fully realised and became dominant in England.
"He is the calmest keeper I have seen," said Sean Dyche after his Burnley side burgled a 1-1 draw at Turf Moor against a City team on their way to a record 100-point haul in 2017/18.
"It's like having Ronald Koeman in goal. He gets [the ball] and spins it around the pitch, all over the place, and that adds to their gameplan massively because he defuses the game.
"They give it back to him, he's nice and calm and then he'll clip one into midfield or clip it wide. There's not that many keepers I know who can do that and it's a massive weapon for them in the style they play."
While teams had pressed the skittish Bravo effectively, if they charged at Ederson with his Koemanesque poise, he would blast through the lines to find the City players who would tear the opposition apart.
Haaland might lay waste to every page of the goal-scoring record books by the time he's done in Manchester. Gundogan and Bernardo Silva have been their manager's eyes and ears on the field. Kyle Walker's pace and indomitable spirit helped him to become one of the best full-backs in Premier League history, as did the reassuring presence of Ruben Dias and John Stones inside him, not to mention Rodri en route to a Ballon d'Or as he protected that high-end defence.
Guardiola has signed a few good ones but Ederson unlocked the door to everything. Donnarumma's arrival confirms this rebuild is happening from the foundations up.