If all the power was in Gundogan's hands in February, when Guardiola made that comment, then City will have had even less chance to persuade their influential captain to stay after his end to the season 12 months on.
Gundogan got City over the line with back-to-back braces to secure the Premier League title this season, scoring another two goals in the biggest FA Cup final in memory (against rivals United no less) and then led his side to the Champions League title in Istanbul for the first time.
Those goals against Aston Villa were enough to write Gundogan's name in the City history books, anyway, but his role in their first-ever Treble has underlined it and will earn him his own chapter.
Guardiola and City initially took the stance that Gundogan would choose to stay or not, but as the midfielder's performances grew and the important goals kept coming, those noises from the club turned into admissions that they wanted him to stay.
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