I was going to post a new thread on this topic but then I remembered this current one already existed and that I'd already posted in it, so I'll just post an update instead.
That itch - the feeling that something was missing - just hasn't come back. I was waiting for our first defeat of the season, just to see how I felt in the aftermath, but nothing's changed since that night in Istanbul. Obviously I still care about City and I was a bit disappointed in the moment after the Newcastle and Wolves games - but the horrid aftertaste that hits the following day when you wake up and remember City lost the previous day, it just didn't arrive on either occasion. Even when we lost at Arsenal it washed over me and then it was out of my system by the time I'd started cooking my tea on that Sunday night.
Don't get me wrong, after seeing us beat Stoke at Wembley in 2011, I would have been completely fine with City never winning another trophy. After the QPR game I really thought I'd seen it all. I could have died happy with City never winning anything else in my lifetime, never mind the European Cup. But there was still the lingering feeling that there was just a little piece missing, one more mountain left to climb even after all the peaks we'd reached beforehand. Since the full-time whistle went in Istanbul it feels like that feeling has gone. There's nothing to really want for anymore. We reached the pinnacle.
The enormity of what we achieved last season still hasn't quite sunk in. Just as an example, I've recently been watching the Beckham documentary on Netflix with my fiancée who's not really into football. I was explaining to her what the Treble means to football fans and in particular to United fans. And then I finished the sentence with "We're the only other team in English football to have done it as well". It was one of those moments where I was briefly taken out of the conversation I was having and just smiled contentedly to myself. Two clubs in the entire history of English football have won the Treble and City - Shitty City - are one of them.
And this week we've obviously said goodbye to a club legend in Franny Lee. He won (the equivalent of, in the modern day) the Premier League, the FA Cup, the League Cup, and the Europa League. The adulation and respect he's received this week, and the fondness City fans of old for that period between 1968 and 1976, and the stories people have been telling about him - it's had me thinking about just how lucky we are to have witnessed the last decade and to have lived through last season. It's made me wonder how my generation will remember Kevin De Bruyne or David Silva or Ruben Dias when their days are over.
I don't think I'll ever really get my head around just what we've just done. Another title, a third in a row. Beating United in the FA Cup final while scoring the fastest ever goal in the most famous game in the English football calendar. Then finally, finally reaching the promised land and winning the European Cup final. The actual European Cup. That's on top of the Aguero goal against QPR, the 100 points season, and the rest. It does not get better than this as a football fan. And I think Rodri's goal, plus the final whistle, was the moment where a switch just flicked. There's just nothing to complain about anymore.
