An hour or so after the end of the opening game of the World Cup in Mexico City, I bumped into Jurgen Klopp as he was leaving the media centre at the Azteca. He was working for German television at the tournament and I told him that English football missed him. ‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone,’ he said.I think we knew what we had with Klopp. We knew we had one of the most charismatic, populist, animated and talented managers in the game in charge at Anfield. We knew that the force of his personality dominated his club and shone through into the style his team played. We knew our game would be poorer without him.I think we knew what we had with Pep Guardiola, too. Most of us, anyway. We knew we had the greatest football manager of his generation – perhaps the greatest ever – in charge at Manchester City for a decade. We knew he had a formidable football brain. We knew he possessed the kind of hunger for repeated success we had never seen before.We knew everything at City was built around him and his presence at the helm. We knew there was a faintly eccentric genius in our midst who had built the best club side in history at Barcelona and led City to four straight top-flight league titles, an achievement unprecedented in the English game. We knew our game would be poorer without him, too.But maybe Klopp was still right. Maybe we didn’t quite realise what we had with Guardiola. Maybe that realisation only really came in the sunshine in Cardiff on Sunday afternoon when we saw City taken apart by Arsenal in the Community Shield and sensed that, even in a glorified friendly, City had been diminished in a way we had not quite imagined.In many ways, the whole history of the modern Manchester City was built around Guardiola. Hiring him to lead their project was the end-game of Abu Dhabi when they bought the club in 2008. Four years later, they put the scaffolding in place by recruiting Guardiola lieutenants, Ferran Soriano as chief executive and Txiki Begiristain as director of football. In many ways, the whole history of the modern Manchester City was built around Pep Guardiola It is hard not to feel some sympathy for Enzo Maresca. Never be the man that follows the man, people say, and Maresca has an infernally difficult job on his hands at the EtihadEven when they won their first top-flight title for 44 years in 2012, they were still waiting for Guardiola. He took over in the summer of 2016 and his influence spread not just across the club but right through English football. There was a sense of mission about his time at the club that City never lost.And then suddenly on Sunday, he wasn’t there. And City seemed vastly diminished. Sure, they played badly sometimes when Guardiola was in charge, too. And, yes, this was just the Community Shield. And, yes, some of their players are still recovering from the World Cup but it was something more than that.There was something strange about it. It felt as if City had lost their raison d’etre. Guardiola isn’t there any more and these players who have grown up in his religion have lost their god. And a club that has been predicated around him, that has bought players for him and to please him, does not quite know how things will work now.Even in a match such as the Community Shield, one thing was obvious: City have lost their aura. Guardiola gave them that. When he was there, prowling the touchline, it was a reminder that City were a fighter with the best cornerman in the game just outside the ropes. When Guardiola was there, he was like a 12th man.When Guardiola was there, it was as if sides were sometimes afraid to go to war with City because they were afraid of the consequences. They knew that Guardiola would, almost always, have an answer. They knew that Guardiola would, almost always, find a way to outsmart them. Now, City have lost that. They have lost their fear factor.They looked like any other team as they were swept aside by Arsenal. They looked reduced. In the circumstances, the timing of the news that one of their best players, Rodri, is leaving to join Barcelona could hardly have been worse. Rodri was the best player at the World Cup and now City are losing him, too.It is hard not to feel some sympathy for Enzo Maresca. Never be the man that follows the man, people say, and Maresca has an infernally difficult job on his hands at the Etihad, trying to follow Guardiola. Maresca is not a big character, either. City seem somehow smaller with him on the touchline.Maresca is a bit-part player in a bigger picture. He is a bystander caught up in a football club’s existential crisis. Manchester City have lost their reason for being. They, and their rivals, are beginning to realise the extent of what they have lost now that it has gone. Enzo Maresca is a bit-part player in a bigger picture. He is a bystander caught up in a football club’s existential crisisArsenal look like they’ve shed their mental block If City were a team full of travails on Sunday, Arsenal looked like a team that had been liberated. They looked lighter. In the post-match press conference, their manager, Mikel Arteta, looked lighter, too. Gone was the side that crawled over the line to win their first league title for 22 years last season and in its stead were players who have rediscovered their joie de vivre and their confidence to express themselves. The most notable of all of them was Martin Odegaard. Odegaard shrunk a little at the end of last season but he had a superb World Cup and now he looks rejuvenated. Everything seems to be pointing in the right direction for Arteta and his side. Now that they have proved to themselves that they can win the big prize, they look like a team that has shed its mental block. They will be hard to beat this season.Joyful Hunt shows us athletics at its bestFrom the depths of the cynicism that surrounds athletics and the loss of trust in the feats of its stars, the performance of Amy Hunt at the European Championships in Birmingham felt like a starburst of beauty in the night. Amy Hunt won four gold medals as she lit up the European ChampionshipsThe post-race interview with Hunt, who made history by winning four gold medals at the Alexander Stadium, and her team-mates, Dina Asher-Smith, Success Eduan and Imani-Lara Lansiquot was full of the joys of camaraderie, elation, dedication and mutual respect. The whole week was a joyful reminder that at its heart, the pure excitement of a running race, and the characters it showcases, is hard to beat.