The highly anticipated documentary detailing Manchester City's Premier League title win last season is just days away and it looks fantastic.
Produced by Amazon Prime, Manchester City: All Or Nothing offered unlimited access to the Pep Guardiola's team from the training ground to the dressing room.
Similar documentaries have been produced by the same team focusing on American Football and most recently the All Blacks. Whether you are a fan of the team involved or not, the films make fascinating viewing as they make the most of the fly on the wall footage and give us an insight into how the minds of coaches and players work. That said, I imagine the series won't be added to many Manchester United fans' watchlists.
Guardiola is revered all over the world as one of sport's most forward-thinking and innovative coaches and he proves to be the star of this documentary. Of course, this was a pretty good season to focus on given that City ran away with the title in a record-breaking campaign and played some sumptuous football along the way.
Since the first trailer for the film was released, excitement has been building about its release and it has actually been brought forward from October. While not giving too much away, the teaser shows the normally calm Guardiola laying into his team during a shock FA Cup defeat at Wigan, blazing: "Today I didn't see the desire to win, today I didn't see it. Some of you play better when you're angry with me so if you hate me, hate me, guys, no problem at all."
Some have suggested that this 'Access All Areas' footage will anger the likes of Sky Sports who are not allowed to film in dressing rooms despite paying millions of pounds to cover the Premier League. However, there will be no chance to get a look at what happened in the Old Trafford tunnel when United boss Jose Mourinho reportedly threw a bottle during the Manchester derby. United refused the Amazon film crews permission to film inside the stadium's 'inner sanctum'.
Another trailer clip shows Guardiola telling his team: "Of course I'm going to defend you until the last day of our lives in the press conferences, but here I am going to tell you the truth."
When other clubs see what the film does for Manchester City's image, it's likely the documentary makers will not be short of other clubs wanting to be subject of the series and give their PR a serious boost.
The series is narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley and as a piece of sports film-making, this really does take the genre to another level.
