David Seaman says he was forewarned by ex-pros he respected that when it was time to retire he’d get a sign.
He shrugged off those suggestions until 4 October 2003, two months into his spell at City.
Seaman was in goal as City faced Wolves at Molineux and Kevin Keegan’s men, who’d made a strong start to the 2003/04 season, were on the attack.
“I’d never had any feeling at all until I was at Molineux,” Seaman said.
“I spoke to some guys who I knew and they said ‘you’ll get a sign’. I thought: ‘what do you mean a sign?’ Because I was really enjoying training, playing, being in the dressing room.
“But then it was that game against Wolves. The ball was down the other end of the pitch and I thought: ‘what am I doing here, this doesn’t feel right’. That was it.
“It wasn’t one thing that made me think that way. It was partly about my body. You know your body is not what it used to be when you get to the age I was. You’d get little knocks and it’d take you longer than before to recover.
“But then mentally, I realised the edge wasn’t there for me anymore.”
Seaman, ever the professional, wasted no time in addressing his feelings, telling Kevin Keegan the following day that he would be retiring in the summer.
His approach was for the good of the club as he wanted his new employers to have enough time to find a suitable replacement.
In a twist of fate, his playing exit was brought forward just three months later as City travelled to Portsmouth in January 2004.
Seaman was injured in a challenge with Pompey forward Yakubu and replaced by Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard in an eventual 4-2 defeat.
Following detailed investigations, the diagnosis was not good.
“I got smacked on my shoulder by Yakubu,” Seaman continued.
“I had scans and it showed I had quite a bit of damage as well as wear and tear from previous years and it was going to take me quite a lot of time to get back.
“At this point, Kevin told me he had a chance to potentially sign David James.
“Then it was simple. I told him: ‘you get him and I will retire’.
“That’s as quick as it happened. It was over just like that. It was a strange feeling.”
The word retirement is a heavy one for any professional footballer and brings up different emotions for different players.
For Seaman, the key feeling was relief.
“I was ready for it when it arrived. I didn’t think it would happen when it did. But there are obvious benefits when you do quit.
“You get a different life back. When it’s the weekend, it’s two days off not one. No more training on Christmas Day. No more spending your time in hotel after hotel.
“I’m not knocking the life because I loved it while I was doing it. But I knew it was always going to finish.
“This is where a lot of players go wrong. You have to know that it won’t go on forever. You are going to retire – and at quite an early age in your life.
“And you have to be able to do something else.
“I was 40 when I retired so I’d given it a good go.”
If it was a sad and abrupt ending to his time at City, there were certainly no warning signs as he arrived in Manchester excited, committed and determined with the 2003/04 campaign firmly on the horizon.
Despite his advancing years, it was quite a coup to bring in the Arsenal legend.
While at Highbury, he’d won two Premier Leagues, one First Division title, one League Cup, one European Cup Winners Cup and four FA Cups, the last of which he’d been captain for.
His final game for the Gunners before his transfer to City saw him lift the prestigious trophy at the Millennium Stadium, following a 38th minute Robert Pires winner against Southampton.
Seaman headed off on holiday after that showpiece game and was expecting to be offered his usual one-year contact by Arsene Wenger that summer.
But when the deal was delivered on the phone, it wasn’t what he was anticipating.
“It was weird. That last game for Arsenal was the FA Cup final against Southampton. I was captain. We won. I lifted the trophy.
“I’d been signing a year-to-year contract for the past five years and it suited me and it suited the club because I didn’t know when I was going to retire.
“Then I got the offer from Arsene. He wanted me to be his No.3 goalkeeper but he also wanted me to be his goalkeeping coach, which was something at the time that I was really interested in.
“And then he told me there was a 75% wage cut!
“I still felt I could play for another year, in all honesty. I had several clubs in for me at the time and I knew I could continue playing. I felt I still had something left to offer as a player.
“Manchester City were one of the clubs in for me and that really, really appealed. It was a great club, a respected club in English football and I had worked with Kevin Keegan before for England and I really liked him.
“When the deal was done to join City, I was really looking forward to it. I was excited.
“It was the chance to work with Kevin again, who I admired greatly, it was another big club, it was the first season in the new ground - the City of Manchester Stadium - and it was something I was looking forward to.
“Going somewhere different after 13 years at Arsenal was also exciting because that was a long time at one club.
“I was an experienced goalkeeper, I’d been in a game a long time and won several trophies, but it was still daunting joining a new football club.
“I wanted to impress. I wanted to show what I was about. I didn’t want to come to City and be rubbish. I wanted to try and impress the City fans. I was always keen to showcase my high standards.
“I thought City was the perfect fit. I knew I was coming towards the end, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t realise it was going to happen that quick. I still wanted to play.
“I had listened to a lot of ex-pros and they said ‘keep playing if your body is able’ because when it’s over, it’s over. It’s done. You can’t go back.
“I wanted to keep playing and see how long I could last but unfortunately it was only a short time at City.
“My one regret is I didn’t spend longer at City. I wish I’d had more time at City. I wasn’t there long enough.
“I really wanted to finish the season. I’d have loved to have had a full season. It felt unfinished when I did call it a day.
“I loved the Manchester City fans. They were fantastic.
“I think the quality of the Manchester City fans is summed up the fact that they clapped Thierry Henry off the pitch when Arsenal beat City the season before I joined in a 5-1 win.
“They like good football. They appreciate good football. And they recognise good footballers. They treated me with respect. They were great. They were proper supporters.”
If playing for City, then a sleeping giant who had last dominated English football in the late 1960s and early 1970s was a big attraction for Seaman, so was playing for the man affectionately known as ‘King Kev’.
His former manager with England, Seaman had been gutted and, in fact, tried to change Keegan’s mind when he quit the Three Lions after a frustrating 1-0 loss to Germany in the final game at the old Wembley.
But the opportunity to link up with him again was too good to turn down.
“I loved playing for Kevin. He was a man manager and a man motivator. He got the best out of you.
“He was brilliant at making you want to get the best out of yourself but also for him, too. You’d go through brick walls for him.
“You liked the guy that much that you’d want to give everything for him.
“In fact, I lived next door to him in Hale. I rented one of his apartments that was right next door to his home. So it wasn’t too far to walk if I wanted to ask him something – and vice versa!
“He was brilliant – a brilliant boss and a brilliant guy.
“I really enjoyed it when he was manager of England. I remember when he quit and called it a day and I walked past him in the dressing room at Wembley and he’d just let the lads know that he felt he’d taken it as far as he can and I told him: ‘You’ve made the wrong decision, mate!’
“I really enjoyed it when he was there. I had fond memories of Kevin. He was clearly one of the big reasons for me coming to City.
“But as I’ve said, yes Kevin was a big draw but so was the club with the fanbase, the history.
“I loved the ‘noisy neighbours’ tag that we had.
“We felt we were starting to bubble. We were getting ready. We could feel it.
“There was a feeling that the club was on the up, especially when you consider the new stadium we were moving into too.
“The City of Manchester – now the Etihad - was brilliant. Obviously, it was a lot different to Maine Road. I felt the City of Manchester had more of a stadium feel. It didn’t feel like a ground to start with but then changes were made to things like the dressing room and it got better and better.
“I’ve been back since and it’s immaculate, a proper, proper football ground.
“It’s got history there now too – with winning the Premier League there thanks to Sergio Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan – two amazing moments that’ll never be forgotten.
“When your club is winning trophies at your home ground, especially like that, then that’s when it truly becomes home.”
As Seaman settled into the dressing room, he looked around and saw talent, mixing both respected experience and youthful exuberance.
One name stood out – Nicolas Anelka, who Seaman had played with at Highbury.
Arsenal had signed the 17-year-old from Paris Saint-Germain as a long-term replacement for the aging Ian Wright.
The precocious talent certainly delivered as he fired the Gunners to their first League and FA Cup Double in almost 30 years.
The following campaign, 1998/99 proved fruitless for Wenger’s men but Anelka did win PFA Young Player of the Year.
Seaman remained but Anelka then departed for spells at Real Madrid, PSG and Liverpool before joining City in May 2002, with the £13 million transfer fee paid by Keegan then a club record high.
Seaman was certainly excited to reunite with Anelka.
“He was still a maverick at City. When he came to Arsenal, it was really tough for him because he was still very young at 17.
“He didn’t speak much English so it was difficult for him to mix. But he was brilliant. He was so, so good when he came to Arsenal.
“I remember Tony Adams and Steve Bould trying to kick lumps out of him in training and they couldn’t catch him. He was that good.
“The Nicolas I saw when I joined Manchester City? He’d learnt the language and he seemed a much more chilled out person and player – but the talent was the same.
“He was effortless. He was just fantastic.
“That talent gets forgotten about sometimes because of the way he moved around the pitch and maybe the moods that sometimes follow him. But his talent was there for all to see.
“We had Shaun Wright-Phillips, too. He had raw talent that needed honing. But he was so fast and explosive. We also had the likes of Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Sylvain Distin. I arrived into a good dressing room.”
It was a fine start to the 2003/04 campaign for Seaman, too.
After a 5-0 win over Total Network Solutions in the UEFA Cup, the Premier League campaign began with a 3-0 away victory at Charlton, a 1-1 home draw against Portsmouth and a 3-2 success at Blackburn.
Up next? Arsenal at home.
Seaman was determined to see off his former employers although his thoughts were dominated by just one thing!
“I was in the tunnel and I remember looking over at Patrick Vieira and thinking ‘don’t throw it to an Arsenal player, don’t throw it to an Arsenal player, don’t throw it to an Arsenal player.’
“I’d been doing that for 13 years so it was second nature.
“In the game itself, we went 1-0 down and then we equalised. And when we scored, I started celebrating properly. I was running around screaming ‘yeah!’.
“All I remember is Thierry Henry looking at me as if to say ‘what do you think you’re doing, David?’ All those players who don’t celebrate after goals against their former clubs? No, that’s not for me! I still wanted to prove people wrong.”
Arsenal went on to win the match 2-1 and eventually secured the crown on their way to being dubbed the ‘Invincibles’ - not losing a single game all season!
As Vieira – another future Blue – lifted the trophy at the end of the campaign following 26 wins and 12 draws from 38 games, City concluded the campaign in 16th, the season finale at the City of Manchester seeing a 5-1 win against Everton.
By this point, Seaman had retired and been replaced by David James, an energetic, effervescent and electrifying keeper who had joined us from West Ham.
Seaman had no hesitation in giving his seal of approval when the move was mooted by Keegan.
“David was one of my No.2s when I was playing for England so I’d seen him in training and knew exactly what he was capable of.
“I always used to say that Jamo could make saves that I knew I couldn’t. Because of his reach and his athleticism.
“He’d do it in England training and I’d be thinking ‘wow’. But I was more consistent overall.
“We were two different characters, too. He was on my podcast the other week ‘Seaman Says’ and he told me that when he was a keeper, he’d get really furious if he didn’t have anything to do in a game. I told him I’d be ecstatic if that was the case. That’s the difference in how we kept goal.”
The following campaign, 2004/05, saw City finish eighth under Stuart Pearce, the former City skipper having replaced the retiring Keegan as boss in the closing weeks of the season.
James famously went up front in the final game of the season, with City searching for a winner against Middlesbrough to secure European qualification.
Seaman lets out a huge laugh as the idea of an alternative timeline with him playing outfield is put to him.
“I never went up for a corner, never mind playing up front.
“I remember watching Peter Schmeichel sprinting back and pulling up in a game when he’d gone venturing forward and it was like someone had shot him.
“I was watching that laughing my head off thinking ‘there you go, that’s why I don’t go up for corners!’.
“It wouldn’t have been good for me and would probably have messed the ponytail up a bit, too!”
But what of City now?
Seaman is certainly impressed with Pep Guardiola's side who won the ‘Big Five’ across 2023 – the Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
“City are, no doubt, one of the greatest Premier League sides of all-time. No question about that.
“To win the Premier League three times on the trot and to be in with the chance of making it four, they’re up there almost head and shoulders above everyone else.
“They can still do more! I have no doubt about that. That’s what I’m loving about them – their relentlessness.
“They always seem to have an above average start to the season and then they really kick into gear when it matters most. It’s frightening.
Words by Paul Brown. Design by Izzy Rendell
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