I mean, what makes it so bad? [laughs] Why is it so contagious?

Absolutely.

I appreciate your question.

Uh, uh, I think this is a, this is a really challenging, you know, virus.

Let, let me just, uh, step back and, you know, talk about how, uh, we discovered this virus.

It's actually, this virus was, you know, discovered in United States back in 1968.

It was a small town.

Mm-hmm.

In a time where players are so well media-trained and, and some of them are pretty boring, he, he really stands out, doesn't he?

Yeah, he does.

And for me, it's the things like going to fans' houses to surprise kids and things like that.

Because you could do, like, the video blogs from the World Cup just for kind of PR purposes.

You know, here's a bit of a glimpse behind the curtain.

It improves my reputation, this kind of thing.

But I think those extra ones where he's out with the public and he's enjoying it, like the way we saw him in the tunnel before the Brazil game speaking to the mascots.

If you were Thomas Tuchel, what, what would you do? Obviously, John Stones and Marc Guéhi, albeit he's got a little bit of a doubt against his name now, they've had to deal with him in training, haven't they?

[laughs]

It's, it's very sleepy.

But, um, so was raised there.

Lot of, you know, bucolic imagery in my youth, a lot of love for the outdoors.

Um, and then I went downstate to Syracuse University and I studied at the communication school there.

I studied photography, um, got a really wonderful education in, like, studio, lighting, that kind of, like, side of photography, which was very exciting and something I always kind of was curious about by way of, like, wanting to create the world.

Like, I grew up loving old Hollywood and things like that-

Mm-hmm.

He's also the founder of Singing with Nightingales, a work of immersive theater staged by nature, told by humans, and outshone by a very special bird.

12 years ago, I came here to do the, a little Radio 4 documentary, um, honoring the 90th anniversary of Beatrice Harrison in 1924 and the BBC doing a duet with a nightingale.

And in honoring of that historic moment, brought my musicians from my band and we started playing with the nightingale in the dark, uh, a little bit like the way she had.

But I wasn't prepared for the, the response, the way the nightingale started to sing in, uh, accordance, within key, in this kind of co-responsive, um, playful way.

And I knew instantly this was an extraordinary phenomenon, and I needed to bring people to come and experience this.

My passion for nature and my passion for music suddenly came into beautiful synergy.

So for 11 years since, I've been welcoming participants into these woods here in Barkham, in Sussex.

Because of this steep decline, Nightingales are now on the UK red list, a stark reminder of just how fragile our bird populations really are.

oh

man whatever you do work at it with all your heart somebody say all your heart as working for the lord not for human masters since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the lord as a reward it is the lord christ you are serving god speak to us tonight Remind us that our work and our toil is not in vain.

Remind us that there's an inheritance.

Remind us that there's abundant life here on earth and in eternity.

Remind us that you reward your faithful servants.

Remind us, God, that what we do is not purposeless.

It has all the meaning in the world.

care.

He told the BBC's Anna Foster how they do it.

Very sensitively, because this is their mating song, after 11:00 PM, myself, a guest musician, and a small audience will very sensitively go and sit right at, at the feet under the blackthorn bush of a, of a wild bird.

And, and there we, we begin to make a, a musical conversation a little bit like that recording there made over 100 years ago.

And an exquisite sort of meditation occurs as the nightingale starts to sing with us and incorporate our human music into their avian song.

they clearly get something from it, otherwise they, they could quite happily fly away if they wanted to.

I still disbelieve myself sometimes when I say it, but I'm, I'm just a few hours after last night's concert, and there we sat under the stars.

And as the musicians sang and played, we just experienced this way that the bird starts to adapt his voice and come into tune with us and rhythm and really starts to, to listen deeply to what we're playing and find that harmony, that unison, and the voice amplifies.

It grows, and he starts to really come into some sort of rhythm and play with us.

Otherwise, they, they could quite happily fly away if they wanted to.

Mm.

Well, I'm...

I, I still disbelieve myself sometimes when I say it, but, um, just a few hours after last night's concert, and there we sat under the stars, and as the musicians sang and played, we, uh, we just experienced this way that the bird, um, it starts to, uh, adapt his voice and come into tune with us and rhythm and really starts to, to listen deeply to what we're playing and find that harmony and that, that unison, and the v- the voice amplifies.

It grows, and, and he starts to really, um, come into some sort of rhythm and play with us.

It's, it, it does beggar belief, I must admit.

But actually you've got a real range of different artists, different music who are doing this, and it, it works every time.

It really does.

Didn't it happen in the Forest and West Ham games as well in March? They were leading in both those games and ended up drawing.

Yeah, exactly.

So like it's, it's something that they...

It, it is something that they've kind of phased out.

But where I was going with this is like this is where they are as a team.

You know, when, you know, what- whatever the, the title comes down to, whoever wins it by how many points, there'll always be games like the, the Everton one last night, oh, drop points there.

But there's, there's so many that City could look at.

To your average casual football fan who's maybe not watching City week in, week out, you'd look at those numbers and say, "Oh, Foden's having a reasonably good season." So what is it about the, the lack of influence that he's having on games these days, which is, is a cause for concern, I guess, and has even led to a situation where some people are unsure of whether he should get a contract extension or not?

Net positive or net negative.

Obviously, I can't work it out.

I can't even work out what I'm saying.

Because you just take away a lot in terms of the Ederson stuff, and you go, "Oh, well, no one's Ederson." Yeah, but, you know, you don't have to be Ederson, but you can pass a ball.

You can receive a ball under pressure if you'd like.

And to be fair, I've got no complaints with him yesterday, because he was an option.

But for two months, when Dias and Gvardiol were the starting partnership at center-back, they didn't give him the ball.

[laughing] Clenched.

They'll very much be aware of the situation, so they'll either say, "Right, Marc Guehi's not going anywhere now, you know, until the summer unless it's a ridiculous deal, so we have to leave that alone, fight it out with other clubs." But regards to that, Savinho, was, you know, what's gonna happen with him? Is that sort of some financials that can come back and then you can go and get some sort of defensive recruitment?

In terms of like Viana and Pep, I'm not suggesting they're on different pages or anything like that, but like, obviously everything's very collaborative at City, but, and like, I'm sure Pep has probably accepted that challenge.

Like, yes, let's get these players to adapt to the, how the Premier League is, to take us forward, to give us energy, and I'll, I'll do the rest kind of thing.

That's how it kind of seems to me, and that's why there's these kind of teething problems when some, some weeks they look great and thrilling.

They've got less possession, but they're scoring on the counterattack.

Some games they can't control a match at all.

It's like, well, it's always the same, it just depends on whether they're scoring or not.

You're listening to The Athletic FC Podcast with Ayewake and Welere.

A few extra doubts, but it has been a decent turnaround, hasn't it, since the, um, the crisis period of the campaign and, and it's pretty typical, isn't it, for City t- to finish the season as strongly as they are here?

Yeah, it is typical.

Obviously in a, in a different way to now with much more up for grabs because obv- normally it would be a, a Premier League title.

Now they still need to get that top five place because that Southampton draw did dent those hopes a bit.

But yeah, obviously the cup final, th- this is kind of familiar territory, three years in a row that they've been in the final.

But yeah, in terms of that turnaround, it started in the, that quarterfinal weekend at Bournemouth.

I think because the Bournemouth game was the first Premier League game they'd lost in November at th- right at the start of the run, and when it came to facing them again, they all looked at the, the tape and the analysis and Guardiola and the coaches were like, "We were miles off it then.

What, w- what have they done to, to change things around at the back and be more effective?

But not just the signings necessarily as we, we've just mentioned, but what, what else has Guardiola tweaked? What, what else has he added to his team that we probably haven't seen before? Because this isn't the same Man City that we're used to, as we know.

Not in some respects.

Not in a lot of respects.

But that's the thing about the, the impact of the, the January signings.

There was that kind of middle period from like start of February until that international break.

So after that Forest game you mentioned, it is part of the unbeaten run, but they drew two-all with Brighton and it wasn't a good performance really.

Brighton were really good.

Li- wha- what would we be looking at?

(laughs)

I don't know like, well we'll see on Sunday I guess.

Um, see how, see how many goals are scored for the home team.

But the Real Madrid game recently there was, and people expected it, I expected it because it happened last season, loads and loads of like Real Madrid fans in the home end.

And like there was a clip of like a guy getting his hair cut on the concourse and everyone's just like, "You're taking the mick." Like what, what's going on? Like we can't get in with bottle tops, this guys bringing in like hair clippers.

Like the, all these stories about you know Real Madrid fans celebrating goals, um, I think like nearly 100 got ejected apparently.

There was even, a picture of a kid holding up one of those cardboard signs saying, "Can I have your shirt?" But it was for Vinicius Junior and it's like whoa, okay what's going on? And then it happened against Liverpool as well and there was a video on social media of like a Liverpool fan getting absolutely battered in the City end and it's like right, like this is obviously an issue.

Yeah.