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While most Premier League clubs are running their players into the ground to get back in shape for the new season, Manchester City‘s squad are still on their holidays. Erling Haaland and Co. are trying to make the most of their time off after the Club World Cup before reporting for a delayed pre-season training campaign on July 28.
However, Pep Guardiola and new sporting director Hugo Viana cannot afford to rest as they continue work on assembling the best squad possible for next term.
The Cityzens made a frantic start to their transfer business in June, bringing in no fewer than five players before the Club World Cup at a cost of £111 million ($148m). The club were picking up where they left off in January, where they went on an unprecedented spending spree in the winter window, splashing £180m ($241m) on four new arrivals.
But despite a total spend north of £290m ($390m) in 2025 so far, City’s embarrassingly early exit from the Club World Cup to Al-Hilal demonstrated that there are still plenty of areas in the squad to address if they want to reclaim their Premier League crown.
Here are six things Guardiola and Viana need to do before City begin their season away to Wolves on August 16…
While most Premier League clubs are running their players into the ground to get back in shape for the new season, Manchester City’s squad are still on their holidays. Erling Haaland and Co. are trying to make the most of their time off after the Club World Cup before reporting for a delayed pre-season training campaign on July 28.
However, Pep Guardiola and new sporting director Hugo Viana cannot afford to rest as they continue work on assembling the best squad possible for next term.
The Cityzens made a frantic start to their transfer business in June, bringing in no fewer than five players before the Club World Cup at a cost of £111 million ($148m). The club were picking up where they left off in January, where they went on an unprecedented spending spree in the winter window, splashing £180m ($241m) on four new arrivals.
But despite a total spend north of £290m ($390m) in 2025 so far, City’s embarrassingly early exit from the Club World Cup to Al-Hilal demonstrated that there are still plenty of areas in the squad to address if they want to reclaim their Premier League crown.
Here are six things Guardiola and Viana need to do before City begin their season away to Wolves on August 16…
The signing of Rayan Ait-Nouri signalled an end towards Guardiola’s era of inverted full-backs and a move back towards a traditional back four with two wide men bombing forward. And the coach needs to complete that transition by signing a top-class right back to complement the Algeria international. Tino Livramento is the ideal target, although Newcastle seem unwilling to sell the England international this summer. City were also heavily linked with Flamengo‘s Wesley but the Brazilian looks set to join Roma.
City had three right-backs last season and none of them truly convinced in the role. Kyle Walker’s performances declined so sharply that he sought a quick exit on loan to AC Milan and he has since completed a permanent move to Burnley. Rico Lewis, who was supposed to be Walker’s heir, struggled playing the position regularly and his best performances – such as in the FA Cup semi-final win over Nottingham Forest – came in midfield.
Matheus Nunes took his time to adapt to the role after Guardiola deemed him not intelligent enough to be a midfielder and although he had his moments and notched 10 assists, he was found out against the biggest opponents.
The situation of City’s two goalkeepers is the elephant in the room. Both Ederson and Stefan Ortega performed badly last season and are both entering the last year of their contracts. Many supporters believe the time has come for City to sign a successor to Ederson, especially after a poor Club World Cup in which he gifted Juventus a goal with a misplaced pass and conceded four times in the last-16 defeat by Al-Hilal.
City have been looking at potential new goalkeepers, in addition to signing Marcus Bettinelli to replace Scott Carson as third-choice, but the lack of offers for Ederson and Ortega makes it difficult for them to go into the market for a new No. 1. Although there have been reports of interest in Ederson from Turkey and Napoli, بالجم understands that City have not received any bids. And Ederson has slammed speculation that he is leaving as “fake news” and declared his intention to stay.
If City see Ederson as remaining as their No. 1 for the next couple of seasons, then they should give him a new contract. Right now, the uncertainty is not helping anyone.
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It is an open secret that James McAtee will be leaving the club that he joined aged 11. With no fewer than seven players ahead of him in the pecking order in midfield and attack, he knows he must head elsewhere to kickstart his career.
From City’s point of view his stock is high after captaining England to glory at the U21 Euros and his potential sale can be banked as ‘pure profit’ to keep the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability enforcers at bay.
It is not a question of if McAtee will leave but instead it is which club he will go to and for how much. While reports have set his price at £25m ($34m), بالجم understands that City are hoping for a fee closer to £40m ($54m), which was the price Chelsea paid to sign Cole Palmer from City in 2023. McAtee has played more matches for City than Palmer at the time of his departure and also got an additional year of Premier League experience with Sheffield United.
McAtee is reported to have visited Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund, while Nottingham Forest have also expressed interest in him.
Late last season Guardiola dropped a big hint about which players he would be looking to move on. In fact he didn’t even hint, he named names. Specifically Nathan Ake and John Stones. He did not question their form, but instead mentioned their struggles to stay fit. “Ake and Stones have been injured all season,” the coach said in April. “You can’t perform if you aren’t reliable and cannot play every three days. We need to build a squad for next season.”
Stones made 11 Premier League appearances last season, of which just six were starts. Ake played in 10 league games, starting eight. The Dutchman suffered five setbacks during the campaign, missing a combined 166 days. While Guardiola is grateful to both players for their contributions in the treble-winning season, his patience with their run of injuries has worn thin.
And as Guardiola looks to trim down his squad, Ake and Stones are unlikely to make the cut. City would not need to replace either player as they have three reliable centre-backs in Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and Manuel Akanji plus two defenders for the future in Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis.
A viral video of Jack Grealish from one of Oasis’ concerts at Heaton Park managed to both sum everything City fans love about the midfielder and underline why he cannot remain at the club. He looked like he had enjoyed himself at the concert – which Guardiola had also attended – and declared his love for the club and their supporters in an amusing interaction with a couple of revellers of a blue persuasion.
But while the image was exactly what City fans wanted to see, it was clearly the last thing Guardiola would have wanted to have seen. His first act as Barcelona coach was to remove Ronaldinho and Deco because of the negative influence they were having on Lionel Messi by taking him out. And while he has tolerated instances of City overindulging after title wins, including “drinking all the alcohol in Manchester” after their 2023 title win, it is clear that he has not viewed Grealish’s excesses in a good light. He started him in just seven Premier League games last season despite the midfielder being relatively injury-free and at one stage he declared that Savinho was play ahead of Grealish because he was in “better shape and everything”.
Guardiola effectively confirmed in June that Grealish would be leaving after leaving him out of the Club World Cup squad, but there are still no takers for the man who became the Premier League’s first £100m ($134m) player in 2021. City will get nothing like that in a transfer fee for the 30-year-old but it is vital that Grealish finds a new club before the season starts, not least because he is still earning an estimated £300,000 ($400,000) per week, which would amount to a saving of £15m ($20m) per year.
City fans got their first real glimpse of Claudio Echeverri at the Club World Cup but their excitement at seeing him score his splendid free-kick against Al-Ain was soon extinguished by the news he had injured his ankle in training days later. It was a reminder of how young and inexperienced the 19-year-old is, and how new he is to senior football.
That is why City should find him a club to spend next season on loan where he can get to grips with the European game. Echeverri is not as experienced as Julian Alvarez was when he made the move to City in 2022. He played 48 matches for River and scored four goals, in contrast to Alvarez’s 122 matches and 54 goals.
City have a wealth of options in Echeverri’s position and they do not want to risk him stagnating due to a lack of opportunities. Far better to send him out to a club where he would play regularly and ensure he comes back ready to be a regular under Guardiola.
