Mail Sport with the help of our readers is on a mission to find the greatest player of all-time at each of the 20 Premier League clubs.
Today it’s the turn to look at the legends of Manchester City from 1930s goal machine Erik Brook through Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell to present-day superstars like Kevin De Bruyne.
And once you’ve made up your mind who is all the best-ever, it’s time to vote..
Manchester City were always a big club but eight league titles in the last 13 seasons as well as outstanding success in knockout competitions including Champions League victors in 2023 have pushed them onto a new level.
For 78 years, Eric Brook was the club’s record scorer, netting 177 times between 1928 and 1939. He provided an assist in the 1934 FA Cup Final win was ever-present in their first championship season, 1936-37.
Peter Doherty was a brilliant goalscorer for Manchester City, pictured here in 1936
Goalkeeper Bert Trautmann had an important part to play in modern British history
Brook didn’t top score that year however – the honour went to Peter Doherty whose 32 goals made him the leading marksman in the First Division.
Fellow great Len Shackleton tagged Doherty ‘genius of geniuses’ and the Northern Ireland forward possessed an elegance that lifted City above the blood-and-thunder approach of most teams in the era.
City’s next glorious period came in the late 1960s when they won the league championship, FA Cup and European Cup-Winners’ Cup in a swashbuckling style under managerial duo Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison.
Goalkeeper Bert Trautmann had an important part to play in modern British history. A German prisoner-of-war, he stayed in this country after 1945 and became a popular figure, particularly after playing on with a broken neck to help Man City beat Birmingham to lift the FA Cup in 1956.
Goalkeeper
Francis Lee, who later became chairman after amassing a business fortune outside football, was a stocky and powerful striker whose £60,000 arrival from Bolton triggered City’s success.
He scored in City’s 4-3 win at Newcastle which saw them famously pip Manchester United to the 1968 championship. Renowned for winning and taking penalties, his most important penalty came in 1970 when City defeated Gornik Zabrze of Poland 2-1 to win their first European trophy.
Winger Mike Summerbee provided the glamour that his good friend George Best gave United across the road.
Mike Summerbee helped lead City to promotion and is regarded as a club legend
When ‘Buzzer’ arrived at Maine Road from Swindon in 1965, City were in the Second Division. Summerbee was ever-present as they won promotion in his debut season and two years after that they were champions of England. He is still a visible presence at the club as an ambassador.
Colin Bell won 48 caps and it would have been a lot more without a serious knee injury that effectively ended his career at 29.
Bell’s running power from midfield earned him the moniker ‘Nijinsky’ after the legendary racehorse and he was able to score all types of goals from poacher’s efforts to stunning strikes from outside the penalty area.
Bell passed away in 2021. As a sign of how respected he is at City, there is a stand named after him at The Etihad Stadium.
Colin Bell scored all kinds of goals and is remembered very fondly at the club
Providing dependability was defender Alan Oakes who has played for The Citizens more times, 680, than anyone else. Oakes was at the club from 1959 to 1976 and would have played for England had he not been competing with Bobby Moore for a place during his prime.
Just about the only mistake Oakes made came on his debut aged 17 when he gave away a penalty – saved by Trautmann.
The purchase of City by Abu Dhabi owners in 2008 revolutionised the club and was the dawning of a new era.
Vincent Kompany had actually signed just before the takeover and the Belgian centre-back went on to captain the club as they began to dominate the domestic game.
Overcoming a series of injuries, Kompany’s long-range strike against Leicester in 2019 was voted Goal of the Season as City pipped Liverpool in an epic title race.
A few weeks later, he then ended his career in England by lifting the FA Cup following a 6-0 romp against Watford at Wembley, completing a unique domestic clean sweep for City.
Vincent Kompany was the perfect leader for City and helped bring in the glory era
Sergio Aguero scored 260 goals for the club but none more important than this one against QPR to clinch the Premier League title
The most famous goal in City’s history was undoubtedly scored by Sergio Aguero in the dying seconds against QPR in 2012 that gave City their first Premier League title at rivals United’s expense.
It was one of a record 260 goals the Argentine scored for City – breaking Brooks’ 78-year run in 2017 – and he won a total of 15 trophies including five league titles.
If ‘Kun’ Aguero was the ultimate assassin, David Silva supplied the ammunition. The Spaniard debunked the theory that you had to be a physically imposing player to succeed in English football.
Dubbed ‘Merlin’ by team-mates because of his wizardry on the ball, the slightly-built Silva helped Pep Guardiola replicate the tiki-taka style from Barcelona and make it successful in England.
In 2018, they won the title with an unprecedented hundred points, winning 32 of 38 games with Silva as their conductor.
That was Guardiola’s first of six Premier League triumphs and goalkeeper Ederson and Kevin De Bruyne have been involved in all of them.
David Silva was a magician and made the team tick during his sensational time at City
Kevin de Bruyne is arguably the greatest midfielder of the last decade in the Premier League
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De Bruyne is regarded as one of the greatest – if not the very greatest – the Premier League has ever seen. Some of the passes he sees and delivers defy the laws of geometry and his record of 112 assists is second only to Ryan Giggs, who played in the division for two decades.
‘The presence, the consistency, the numbers, has been amazing,’ acknowledges an appreciative Guardiola.
Signing Ederson in 2017 allowed Guardiola’s City to play the way he wanted them to. Besides being brave and dynamic, the Brazilian possesses the best pair of feet ever seen in a ‘keeper and can dictate play from between the sticks.
He’s good at his day job as well – his instinctive save from Inter’s Robin Gosens in injury-time was as important to City winning the 2023 Champions League final as Rodri’s goal.
To select your greatest Manchester City player, click on the voting button or email [email protected] if you want to choose someone not on the shortlist.
We will reveal the results of the greatest all-time player for all 20 Premier League clubs before the start of the 2024/25 season.