On the left arm of Nico O’Reilly there is a tattoo with four important numbers: 0161, the telephone area code for Greater Manchester.
It is a tribute to growing up in Collyhurst, just a couple of miles from Etihad Stadium, and there is certainly no place like home for the Manchester City player whose season for club and country may end up becoming unforgettable. “It’s me, really. [It’s] how I became who I am today,” he says.
No other City player has grown up as close to the stadium as O’Reilly. Brian Kidd comes from the same part of inner-city Manchester but played at Maine Road, having previously won the European Cup across the city at Old Trafford.
Collyhurst historically has a strong Manchester United fanbase but not among O’Reilly’s family, who have supported City as he worked his way through their academy. Nobby Stiles went to the same primary school but O’Reilly’s nearest and dearest, who were United fans, are now supporting him.
“I recently moved away from Collyhurst but it is a great place,” O’Reilly says. “I loved living there. I’m a bit out of the way now but I’m still with my family, which is good. They’re there to look after me a bit and still support me.
“Growing up there, I really enjoyed it. I used to go out, play football every day with my friends. I’m still in touch with a lot of them and we still get along.”
O’Reilly has made the biggest impact by a local player attempting to follow Phil Foden’s path from academy to Pep Guardiola’s first team. Rico Lewis is also part of the squad but it has been a breakthrough season for O’Reilly, with Guardiola picking him in big games, using him in several positions and giving him a platform to stake a claim for the World Cup with England.
He also secured a new contract at City, committing him to the club until 2030, with his mother Holly giving him a surprise video when he signed his new terms, reward for his progress under Guardiola. “I’ve always been by her side my whole life,” O’Reilly says. “She’s brought me up by herself.”
O’Reilly also grew up with his younger sister, who now watches him play and will be at Wembley when City try to end Arsenal’s quadruple hopes. He was on the bench for the Champions League defeat by Real Madrid this week but may start the cup final to further his incredible win-ratio this season.
Guardiola has laughed off suggestions that he picked O’Reilly on superstition – but he does have an impressive record, losing just once in the Premier League in matches he has started. His ability to play in different positions was spotted by the City manager in 2025 and he decided to throw him in last season at left-back, where he is now playing for England.
“It was just one session before the Salford [FA Cup] game last season,” O’Reilly says. “He [Guardiola] said: ‘Right, you’re playing there tomorrow.’ Then I did well, gradually, and I started playing there more and more. This season I started to go back into midfield a bit.”
It will mean more to O’Reilly if he wins his first City final this weekend. After joining the club at eight years old, he was a City fan and watched them win trophies on television.
“Growing up watching City all my life, going to the games, seeing them playing these kind of competitions, winning finals and wanting to be in that position, so it’s very special,” he said. “I went to games when I could, when I got the tickets. I went quite a bit.”
O’Reilly is prepared for another battle with Arsenal’s set-piece specialists.
“It’s a strong point in their team,” he says. “They use them very well. We need to prepare for it. We did it in the game when we went to their place. I thought we were very good then. We just need to prepare for it well and stop them as much as possible.
“They’re very good at set-pieces, they’re aggressive. They have good takers. When it’s a corner, we don’t want to be in those situations because we know how good they are but we’ll need to deal with it and prepare well. We have some good people on the staff here who specialise in those situations.”
It could be the start of a huge few months for O’Reilly. City are still in the title race, the FA Cup and there is a World Cup place to fight for. “There’s pressure now on everything. On us, on them, on other teams,” he says. “It’s a good situation to be in. For me, last season we weren’t in the situation we are now, so it’s new to me, but I’m really enjoying it.”
Trafford to start in goal for City in cup final
James Trafford will be given the chance to push his World Cup claims this weekend when he starts in the Carabao Cup final for Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has confirmed.
Trafford was named in the extended 35-man England squad for the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan this month, but his place in the squad has been under threat as Gianluigi Donnarumma is Guardiola’s No 1.
But Guardiola has confirmed that Trafford will play at Wembley against Arsenal on Sunday. Trafford has played in every round of the Carabao Cup and in FA Cup matches, having started the season as first-choice before Donnarumma arrived from Paris St-Germain.
England manager Thomas Tuchel has selected him in previous squads but Trafford will be sweating on his place this summer as Aaron Ramsdale is playing regularly again, with goalkeepers battling to be Jordan Pickford’s back-up.
All eyes will be on Trafford at Wembley as Arsenal have been using set-pieces during their bid for the quadruple, crowding six-yard areas and putting pressure on goalkeepers. Peter Bankes will be the referee at Wembley and Guardiola says it will be down to the officials to make sure the dark arts are not used.
“When someone does these kind of things there are officials to do these kind of things,” he said. “I can do whatever I want and the officials have to do that – or the guys behind the scenes – have to do that, not the managers.”
Arsenal are still in the hunt for four major trophies, which Guardiola argues City managed in the 2018-19 when they secured a domestic treble plus the Community Shield. But he says the great teams are the ones that can compete each year for the big trophies, rather than one-season wonders.
“I know it’s not prestigious but we did it [the quadruple]. You just go game by game, winning helps to keep the confidence high that anything is possible,” Guardiola said.
“It’s really important to have that first [trophy of the season] Carabao Cup title here, but what is next after that is going better, going worse. You could win a trophy and disappear for the next four or five years. The main target is do what you have to do every three days. What has impressed me over many years is how consistent we have been every three days.”