In Pics: Manchester City Fans’ Stunning Tifo For Pep Guardiola, Bernardo Silva And John Stones On Farewell Day

There are days at football grounds that feel bigger than the result. Sunday at the Etihad Stadium was one of them. Before a ball had been kicked against Aston Villa, the stands told the whole story. A tifo stretched across the lower tier, three faces looking down over the pitch, and 55,000 people who understood exactly what they were watching the end of.

Pep Guardiola. Bernardo Silva. John Stones. Ten years, six Premier League titles, one treble, and a complete rewriting of what this club is capable of. All of it ending on the same afternoon.

What Supporters Put Together

The display, captured in photographs shared widely on social media including by Fabrizio Romano from inside the stadium, showed large-scale portraits of all three men arranged across the stands with tributes woven into the fabric of the tifo. Bernardo Silva was photographed in tears ahead of his last City game, the emotion visible even from the stands. Guardiola was described in multiple reports as feeling the occasion deeply, telling the media in the days prior that saying goodbye would not be easy.

The club itself had planned a full post-match presentation, encouraging supporters to stay in their seats after the final whistle for a ceremony in which Stones and Silva would walk out individually to a guard of honour, be interviewed on the pitch, and given the chance to address the Etihad one final time.

In the days leading up to the match, City also opened a pop-up pub in the heart of Manchester named The Stones and Silva, taking over a venue on Fairfield Street for four days from May 21 to 24, filled with memorabilia and themed décor celebrating the pair’s careers at the club.

The End of Something That Cannot Be Replicated

Bernardo Silva joined from Monaco in 2017 and leaves having won 19 trophies, including the 2023 Champions League and six Premier League titles. He was handed the captaincy this season and lifted his first silverware as skipper when City won the Carabao Cup.

John Stones was one of Guardiola’s first signings when he arrived at the Etihad in 2016, and the pair’s relationship was built across a decade of tactical reinvention, title races and European nights that changed the club’s standing on the continent entirely.