• Player Rating: 7.4
• Stream: Netflix
• Running Time: 6 episodes, 43 to 50 minutes each
• Audience: Ages 10 and Older
Manchester City's incredible accomplishment of wining the treble in the 2022/23 season was documented by a camera crew who embedded with the team. They give us a locker-room view of an organization that might be impressive but that's hard to like — except for Jack Grealish, who is as lovable as they come. Treble Winners is a study in excellence, but because it was an in-house production by Manchester City, it's never as hard-hitting as it could be. Still, it's worth watching simply as a document of a time, a place, and a team.
History is written by the victors, or so the saying goes. In this case, history is filmed, edited, and packaged by Manchester City, winners of the treble in 2023.
This six-part docuseries on that triumphant season might be streaming on Netflix in the United States, but it is wholly a Manchester City production. It was made by City Football Group staff so fully a part of the organization that they wore training gear while gathering footage — they weren't embedded with Manchester City, they were Manchester City.
That kind of closeness cuts two ways. Most obviously, you aren't going to see any of the protagonists cast in an unflattering light. To go by the series, the flaws of these players and staff are along the lines of "I care too much" or "we try too hard."
But it also means that the players and coaches are genuinely relaxed around the production crew, and ththereey are enough candid moments to give some real insight into a few of the personalities who made this one of the most successful teams in the history of football.
Jack Grealish really is an overgrown kid, Kevin De Bruyne really is a good dude, Erling Harland really is a Viking, and Ederson really is that painfully shy.
As for Pep Guardiola, he really is that driven. And he really is that standoffish when it comes to the media, even when the cameras and footage belong to Manchester City.
In the locker room
Really, Guardiola is the enigma at the heart of this docuseries.
We see him on the training pitch, showering his players with praise. We also see him in the locker room in Episode 2, castigating the team after going up 4-0 over Manchester United. His intensity filled the room after what he thought was a soft first-half performance, never mind the score. He wasn't wrong: Manchester United clawed three goals back, but Manchester City found two goals themselves, and the game ended 6-3.
That halftime speech was just a warm-up for the talk he gave after his team went up 1-0 over Bayern Munich in the first tie of the Champions League Quarterfinal. Guardiola was apoplectic, and he spoke to his players with a quiet fury.
"The meeting, I have to do it, because they pay me a lot of money, guys, to do something," Guardiola told the room. "But I couldn't say anything because you know exactly what you have to do. Be smart. Don't let them breathe. From minute one, until the end."
Manchester City won that game 3-0, finished the tie 4-1 on aggregate, and went on to lift the trophy.
Moments like these are incredible to watch. Only a Manchester City-branded crew could be in those locker rooms, and have access to those talks.
But Guardiola sits down with the camera crew only once, and the footage is held until the very end of the series. He's professional and thoughtful in the interview, but he's also withholding — we don't get much of a sense of him as a person.
It's a shame. Viewers didn't learn where the bodies are buried in either Beckham or Sir Alex Ferguson: Never give in, but in those subject-approved documentaries we gained some insight into the wounded humanity of David Beckham and the grudge-holding drive of Sir Alex Ferguson. Guardiola feels as distant in Episode 6 of Treble Winners as he did in Episode 1.
Bovril, Skye
If the series has a breakout star, it's Grealish. Get somebody to look at you the way that Grealish looks at his cockapoo Skye, or a cup of Bovril broth — or a soccer ball.
The England international has a genuine love of the sport, and you get the sense he would still be playing even if football paid as poorly as writing about it. You see him kicking around with Riyad Mahrez in a game that they invented that involves bouncing the ball off the wall of the training facility. It's the kind of activity you expect from a 14-year-old, and Grealish explains the made-up game with such joy and enthusiasm he feels more like a teenager than one of the most famous players on the planet.
Haaland is just as guileless, but in a different way. The Norwegian is so confident – and so relentlessly competitive – that he doesn't bother with the niceties that compel others to say kind things about their friends and colleagues. Even by the abrasive standards of the Nordic countries, Haaland's straight talk is aggressively direct. He's all id and muscle, a Wreck-It Ralph in Golden Boots.
The docuseries is at its best when it comes to these unvarnished moments. It's not just the footage of Grealish and Haaland. It's the interviews with Mahrez, De Bruyne, and Phil Foden.
The camera crew tags along with Ederson as he gets ready for an awards ceremony, and when the goalkeeper seems completely lost when it come to knotting his tie, it's the documentary's producer who gives him a hand. Ederson is winningly vulnerable: The 30-year-old might be completely at ease playing in front of 81,000 rabid Madrid fans at the Santiago Bernabeu, but he needs help getting through the ritual of dressing up for an event.
Together: Treble Winners | Official Trailer
It's all in the timing
Ultimately, this series is worthwhile because it documents Manchester City's historic season. Had the team come up short in the Premier League or the Champions League, it would have just been another hit-or-miss documentary in the vein of the All or Nothing franchise.
In fact, the All or Nothing series has been something of a curse for the teams that agreed to be filmed. Most of the organizations that took part, from Tottenham Hotspur in 2020 (when they hired - and fired - Jose Mourinho), to the German national team in 2024 (when they exited the FIFA World Cup in Qatar early), didn't meet the expectations of a fly-on-the-wall documentary.
All or Nothing: Manchester City covered the team's 2017/18 season, when they won the Premier League. You can't help but think that the germ for Treble Winners was planted then: What if we All or Nothing ourselves, and both control the narrative and keep the revenue?
It was a savvy move. And while viewers don't get to watch something as penetrating as Beckham or Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, never mind something as entertaining as Coleen Rooney: The real Wagatha story or as critical as FIFA Uncovered, there's enough to be found in Treble Winners to make it worth your time.
The family-friendly series steers clear of adult language and situations while leaning heavily on exciting matchday footage. It's a winning formula, especially if you want to watch winners win.
