2018/19 was Zinchenko’s breakout year, but it so nearly didn’t happen.

With Mendy fit again, it was unclear what the new campaign would hold for the Ukrainian and several clubs were linked with him. Wolves came closest, agreeing a deal with City, but Zinchenko chose to stay in Manchester and fight for his place.

It was a brave decision.

Again, he was made to wait to play and didn’t feature until the end of September, but he bided his time, remained focused and took his opportunity when it arose.

It came in the midst of the Premier League’s most exciting title race.

Having been left out of the squad for five consecutive games, Zinchenko produced a fine display on his return in February, providing two assists as City swept Chelsea aside with a 6-0 victory.

It was the catalyst for his best run in the side to date, missing only one game due to injury during the run in and playing the whole match in both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup final wins.

In the former, Zinchenko was magnificent as City eclipsed Chelsea on penalties and afterwards Guardiola was effusive with his praise for a player he knew had not featured as much as he would have liked.

"Incredible is the only thing I can say," said the Catalan.

"Oleks has showed me again what I thought before; the importance and the value of being a good guy, a good lad.

"And the fact he's a guy who was making a transfer - at the beginning of the season was close to going… there was six, seven or eight fixtures he didn't play one minute.

"But I never saw him in the period we were together with one bad face, one bad training session. I can only say thank you. More than the way he plays, it's his approach. Everybody can learn from Oleks. Everybody."

To borrow an old cliché, nice guys are supposed to finish last.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth were Zinchenko is concerned. The good guy who never gave up and to which good things came.

He is living his dream and while there may have been frustrations, he exuded positivity with his comments ahead of the FA Cup final, when he signalled his appreciation for the position he found himself in.

He told The Guardian: “I don’t know how other players think about it but for me it’s like this…

“I would dream of playing at a high level, I didn’t realise that I would be here and getting ready for an FA Cup final.

“It’s a dream.”