On the upper tier of the huge stand opposite the dugouts at the Etihad Stadium hangs a banner thanking Manchester City’s owner Sheik Mansour of Abu Dhabi for a trophy-heavy first 10 years.
We are four years into the second decade of Middle East ownership now and watching this incredible game of European football it was hard not to wonder what further glories may lie ahead.
More particularly, it seemed increasingly strange — as City traded thunderous blows with the best team in Spain — why Pep Guardiola would even think about leaving when his current contract expires at the end of next season.
We have seen some quite remarkable things at this stadium in recent times. Some of them have involved games against Liverpool and against Manchester United and against Tottenham.
It is almost 10 years ago exactly since we sat spellbound as City tossed away their very first Premier League title against QPR and then, at the death, grabbed it back again.
This, though, was among the best of the lot. This was Real Madrid in attendance. The most successful club in the history of European football. Leaders of LaLiga by 15 points. And City beat them wonderfully and thrillingly.
It was only due to Real’s cussedness — and City’s wasteful finishing — that the margin of defeat was not greater. For City were better by a distance for huge swathes of this game.
This is the team that Guardiola built and it will only grow better, wiser and more talented when the Norwegian forward Erling Haaland arrives as expected ahead of next season.
So, yes, it seems strange that Guardiola would even think about leaving. The first 20 minutes of this game provided enough evidence by itself to persuade him to extend his stay.
City were two goals up in record time for a Champions League semi-final. The combination of punches landed first by Kevin De Bruyne and then Gabriel Jesus did not so much as set Real back on their heels but sit them on the seat of their pants.
As City celebrated their first goal in just the second minute, Real midfielder Toni Kroos stumbled back towards the centre circle with the look of a man who couldn’t quite catch his breath. Kroos is 32, by the way, and has seen a bit in his time.
But it was perhaps the sight of Phil Foden controlling a dropping ball on the end of his toe in the 15th minute that best summed up the way City played for a while on this electrifying night.
Foden was clear of the Real back four but wasn’t favourite to collect the ball.
But he did, and when he rolled it across the face of goal Carlo Ancelotti’s defenders wore the look of men who were simply expecting the worst by that point.
On that occasion the Spanish league leaders escaped but this was also the period of the game that found them at their most disorganised, their most bereft. A team that had only lost seven times all season before arriving in Manchester were finding out just how it can feel to walk into the teeth of the City threshing machine at full turbo.
As the minutes ticked by, so the City opportunities came and went. The speed at which Guardiola’s players moved the ball was just too quick for Madrid.
Every time a player in dark blue turned to face his own goal, it was to witness one in a lighter shade sprinting past him either with or in anticipation of receiving the ball.
Without doubt, City needed to be a more clinical in this period. Riyad Mahrez shot when he should have passed. Jesus passed when he should have shot.
Had Haaland or, say, Harry Kane been in this line-up, what kind of damage could Real have suffered by the time Karim Benzema dragged them so artfully and deftly back into the game?
And that is just the thing about this City side. Football teams do tend to exist in cycles. The wheel turns and periods of excellence — or otherwise — come to an end.
It does not feel like that at the Etihad. It feels as though this team — already free of the shadow of players like Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero and David Silva — is nearer the start of its road than the end.
It does feel as though it needs Guardiola to lead them, though. Some people say a Champions League success this season would fulfil him, but would it?
Great managers never settle when further glory is available. Nor do they particularly like handing over something they have worked so hard to create to somebody else.
Guardiola could find work anywhere he wants. He is only 51 and is arguably the greatest coach in the game.
But, for all its imperfections, this looks like the greatest City team he has assembled in his six years.
Why walk away?