So here we are at the end of the European football season.
A quick look back to the start of the campaign and I see that I was horribly wrong about one prediction I made.
With a World Cup thrown smack-bang in the middle of the season, I just could not see how a club would be in the running to win alles like Liverpool last time out.
If you can remember some 12 months ago, Jürgen Klopp's manne were incredibly close to winning an unprecedented quadruple.
All that stopped us from hearing about it forever was a final-day Premier League Ilkay Gundogan brace and Thibaut Courtois having his best ever day tussen die pale in the Champions League final.
In the end, the Reds just ran out of steam, having to come back from behind in most of their games and an astonishing quadruple wasn't to be.
A campaign like that, in a World Cup year, was just beyond the realms of what I thought was possible.
With that as my thought process, I wrote confidently in this column that there would be no trebles or quadruples.
But here we are 10 months later. With Manchester City one win away from a treble.
And now I can say with 100 percent certainty that Pep Guardiola's manne will do it in on Saturday night’s 9pm Champions League final against Inter Milan in Istanbul.
Here's how...
City aren't a grand old club like Liverpool or Manchester United. They lack that great European pedigree.
But since they've been rolling in Sheikh Mansour's billions, the club have made it their mission to get their hands on the Champions League trophy.
I'm sure that had Pep and his manne brought home the bacon against Chelsea in Porto two years ago, they would be going for a hattrick of European Cups.
Instead they still go to Istanbul still looking for their first.
For the Nerazzurri ⚫🔵#UCLfinal x @Dan_Draws pic.twitter.com/XJECTqWaKg
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) June 9, 2023
And if they should come back with the trophy, United fans would be able to brag about being the only English club to win the treble anyway.
This is the motivation - to have a history like their rivals.
The Cityzens went into the final against Chelsea as heavy favourites.
They had ran away with the Premier League title and they were coming up against a Thomas Tuchel side that they had some history against.
Tuchel’s Blues, in April, had knocked them out of the FA Cup semifinals and, in May, delayed their league title celebrations when Pep decided to make eight changes to the team after beating Paris St-Germain to a place in the Champions League final four days before.
Famously, Pep would decide to bench his captain Fernandinho or Rodri in defensive midfield for the decider, as well as changing to a back four when he had played most of that season with a back three.
It was an inexplicable call and left me scratching my end when I saw the lineups.
Chelsea overran them in the central areas, with N’Golo Kante enjoying the freedom of the park, and Guardiola came away empty handed.
That, no doubt, has left the Catalan more wary to fix something that ain’t broke.
But there is always a snake in the grass.
Of all of Europe’s mighty clubs, Inter Milan probably gets the least props.
They have the exact same record in the Champions League as Manchester United (three wins from five finals) and only Real Madrid, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Barcelona and Ajax Amsterdam can say they are greater.
But Il Grande Inter are back in the final for the first time since Jose Mourinho’s treble winners of 2009/10 need I remind you that they won the tournament in a World Cup year?
Simone Inzaghi’s manne have come alive in the biggest games of their season - beating derby rivals AC in the semifinals, while also winning the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana this season.
With the likes of Alessandro Bastoni, a hulking old-school Italian centreback, and Milan Skriniar, Inter have the backline to nullify Erling Haaland’s physicality.
Simone also boasts a tireless midfield that will put in the hard yards to close down the likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva.
Then of course up front they have Lautaro Martinez, Romelu Lukaku and the ex-City man Edin Dzeko.
In fact, they have all the attributes to live up to the Nerazzurri’s lesser-known nickname, Il Biscione - the big grass snake.
⏯️ Rodri's semi-final masterclass 🪄#UCLfinal pic.twitter.com/EFSIduD7Yj
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) June 9, 2023
On the other side of Saturday night’s final, one team will come out with a treble. And with history against them and calling them at the same time, I think City will finally come out on top.