Fabian Delph cut out red meat, took up meditation and had Pep Guardiola’s staff transform him body, mind and soul as he has become a key England star
The Spaniard's vast backroom team has helped turn the Man City midfielder into a left-back and an indispensable player for club and country
FABIAN DELPH revealed how Pep Guardiola transformed his mind, body and soul to reinvent him as a World Cup player and Premier League champion.
Delph played a major role in Manchester City’s title triumph, chiefly in a previously unfamiliar left-back role.
He was still a surprise late entry in Gareth Southgate’s England squad in his customary midfield position.
And Delph says working under Guardiola and his vast backroom team has led to him learning meditation techniques to calm him down, cut out red meat to help avoid injuries — and made him see football in a completely different light.
Delph said: “Pep is dedicated, he is relentless in terms of his work ethic.
“I respond to him because of the way I am. He has opened my eyes to so much.
“Before, I didn’t picture football like Pep. He’s painted the pictures for me.
“I’m a very traditional English guy who believes in hard work and dedication and giving it absolutely everything.
“I’m there to fight and pick up second balls to be that old English type of player. But he has re-invented me.
“Now it’s all about being calm and collected on the ball, being sensible in positional play. It’s phenomenal stuff but it is very simple at the same time.
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“For me, he is a genius. What he does is absolutely phenomenal. He smells the danger. We’ve got so many systems the way we play is actually very simple.
“Everybody seems to think ‘wow, what are they doing?!’
“But basically we move the ball very fast, we take as few touches as possible and we stay in the positions. We utilise the spaces and distances perfectly and have the courage to play out and build up from the back. And we work on it daily.
“Every session we do there is always an aim to it. Not just having a five-a-side for the sake of it and fitness work.
“Everything is geared towards the team we are playing next.
“Now at the World Cup, if it’s left-back, central midfield, defensive or attacking, I’ll give 100 per cent.
“If it’s in goal I’ll play there... but I will be rubbish!”
Delph, 28, reckons there are many similarities between Southgate’s England set-up and Guardiola’s Etihad regime.
The former Leeds starlet — who won his 11th cap in last week’s friendly against Costa Rica — added: “The City boys are here and we’re loving it with England. It’s been like leaving City and then coming and playing for City again.
“There’s not any real difference... other than there’s no Vincent Kompany lifting people up in the air every ten seconds!”
Delph joined City from Aston Villa for £8million in 2015 but his injury-ravaged first season at the Etihad led to him changing his lifestyle once Guardiola arrived in 2016.
He said: “I meditate and cut out red meat. I’ve changed my diet in terms of getting it more balanced, healthier by eating more vegetables — and I’ve cut out sugar. It has helped tremendously.
“I first signed for City in difficult circumstances. There was a lot going on — we had just had our second child. I turned City down and then changed my mind.
“I picked up a lot of niggles. I got a hamstring in my first game in Australia. I shouldn’t have played because I’d not had a pre-season and I had flown all that way and I was very de-hydrated.
“Mentally, I wasn’t there either. I was on an all-time high from having a baby and then you come crashing down after that.
“I picked up that muscle injury and then I kept picking up muscle injuries. I was obviously getting older.
“I have always trained with crazy intensity, I work very hard in the gym and on the pitch. And it was all about trying to find a balance — not go into it as crazily as I did.
“Off the pitch it was a case of finding the right nutrition. We’ve got a fantastic nutritionist at City, Tom Parry. And Pep introduced Sylvia, a Spanish lady, who has been absolutely fantastic as well.
“The club is full of these amazing people who give absolutely everything. It worked. I only had a couple of niggles all season which is fantastic for me.”
Delph explained that he has learned to meditate because he was hyperactive and needed to learn to relax.
He said: “For me it is just breathing techniques, learning to be still, to control your thought processes, it calms you down. It wasn’t about dealing with the pressure of games — I’ve always been all right in matches — but I’m an intense guy, I want to do more and my mind is racing at 100mph.
“Gael Clichy does a lot of meditation and he recommended it to me because I was such an all-action guy.
“I do it in numerous ways. You can do a guided meditation, depending on how you are feeling.
“You can get these things on YouTube or get apps on your phone, or you can literally just be still and work on your breathing techniques. It has helped me, it’s calmed me down.”
Delph, who plans to fly home from Russia for the birth of his third child which is due on June 30 — two days after the final group game against Belgium — says Southgate’s squad have had no trouble keeping occupied at their St George’s Park base in the build-up.
England head to Russia today but Delph added: “We played rounders, volleyball, basketball, had barbecues.
“It’s such a good environment, it gets competitive but we’ve bonded really well.
“We watch movies together, the lads play cards, there’s a ping-pong table and I own the pool table — I’m the man there.
“It’s a chilled environment, if you could spend the day with us you’d have the time of your life.”
