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It’s set to be a summer of seismic change at Manchester City . A new manager, coaching team and club crest will be unveiled this weekend and new players are already being signed. It’s very much a fresh beginning after Manuel Pellegrini ’s tenure faltered badly during the Chilean's final 18 months in charge.

But that change will come at a cost. The nucleus of players who brought City their recent success are nearing their end. City need younger, fitter options to push on and realise new manager Pep Guardiola ’s vision. There will be casualties and it won’t always be pretty.

And it looks as though the first to exit could be the most painful for the club’s supporters. Pablo Zabaleta is reportedly on the verge of a move to Roma in a cut-price deal, bringing to an end his eight-year association with the club.

Has a player ever had such a close bond with the City supporters? Certainly not at post-takeover City and perhaps not ever before. Zabaleta’s full-blooded style of play and his attempts to immerse himself into the Manchester way of life have endeared him to every single City fan. He’s no longer an honorary Mancunian. He is a Mancunian and always will be.

He signed in 2008 prior to Mansour’s money changing the face of the club and has played a key role in the club’s recent success, making 300 appearances and scoring nine goals. His rise from a wide-eyed utility player to one of the best attacking full-backs in the game means his place in the pantheon of City greats is secure.

But last season, injuries and age restricted him. He played just 12 league games and rarely looked at his best - shorn of pace and unable to get forward with the same brilliance that made him one of Europe’s very best. His decline was swift and depressing and a summer move always felt like the next logical step.

City were attacked from all angles after Mansour’s takeover for handing out contracts to mercenaries with no interest in the club’s long-term future. Zabaleta was the man who embodied this great club in its new guise: brilliant and successful, yet hard-working and humble.

His clash with Paul Scholes at Wembley, his winner at Stoke City in the FA Cup, his opener in the win over QPR that secured the club’s first league title in 44 years, his goal away at Roma – these are moments burned into the minds of the City fans.

When an icon departs a football club it draws a surge of emotion from those who watched him closely. There’s now an online campaign to secure Zabaleta a testimonial should he leave this summer, despite him falling two years short of a decade, the length of time usually needed to trigger one. The petition has been set up with the very best of intentions – but Zabaleta, a man known for his humility, is unlikely to want a testimonial in false circumstances.

He will leave as the club’s biggest cult hero since Shaun Goater helped deliver back-to-back promotions and save City from oblivion in the late 90s-early 00s, with every single City fan recognising and appreciating his role over the last eight years - a period which has seen City win five trophies and establish themselves as a regular Champions League side.

For a man like Zabaleta, who is likely to return to the club after his playing days are over, that is more than enough.

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