The Cityzens have refreshed their squad but doubts remain over their ability to finish top of an ever-more competitive pile
Manchester City fans used to sing "City are back, whoa, whoa" when the team's fortunes began to look up after a period in the doldrums but the chant has been heard less and less amid the seemingly never-ending cycle of success of the last 12 years. However, last year's disappointing season, which Erling Haaland called "horrific" and "boring", has seen the motto return.
It was how the club marketed their recent open training session, and if Pep Guardiola's side get off to a good start this season you can bet those three words will reverberate around the Etihad Stadium and in away sections. There is certainly a huge desire among City players to make a statement after last season, when they finished outside the top two for the first time since 2017 and also failed to win a trophy for the first time in eight years.
"Definitely, I think everyone wants to make up for last season, we all want to come to our best and winning titles," said Phil Foden. "We have got all the experience and we have done it before. That’s a positive when you have done it before, you know how to do it and what it takes so hopefully we can get back there."
But have City really strengthened enough to get back to what they used to be?
Getty Images SportMood around the Etihad
Despite all the success they have had over the last 12 years, City fans are naturally pessimistic and the general feeling is that regaining their title will be extremely difficult. The drop-off from last season is still fresh in the memory and the competition has never been more fierce.
Although some exciting new recruits have arrived, they pale in comparison to the scale of the influx of top talent at Liverpool, while Arsenal have been growing more consistent and have at last added a top striker to their ranks with Viktor Gyokeres. It is hard to imagine that City will not miss Kevin De Bruyne's ability to conjure something out of nothing and how well they do will also inevitably rest on whether Rodri returns to his best, which is far from guaranteed after suffering such a brutal injury last year and then hurting his groin in June.
The mood among players, though, is clear. They have not forgotten what happened last season and the only way to make things better is to stage a resurgence. "There's a lot of guilt among the players, in the manager, in everyone for not doing better last season," said new captain Bernardo Silva. "A team with our experience, with our quality, even with the injuries, we cannot go down as easily as we did. We should have done better to overcome this situation. About competing for the title, we didn't even give it a try."
But the Portuguese midfielder, who could be heading into the final stage of his nine-year career with City as he runs down his contract, also stressed that things will be different. "I think emotional-wise we're definitely back. In terms of being hungry again, we're back."
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City's new sporting director Hugo Viana has certainly not been shy about making his presence felt since switching over from Sporting CP to replace Txiki Begiristain. The Portuguese has made five signings in the summer to the tune of £153 million ($206m), after Begiristain bowed out of his final transfer window in January by splurging £180m.
Tijjani Reijnders, who joined from AC Milan for £46m, is an energetic box-to-box merchant who looks set to score many goals. Rayan Ait-Nouri, a smart £31m buy from Wolves, will make the team much more threatening out wide even if he might lead to them ceding possession more often.
Rayan Cherki has a licence to thrill but his uneven career progression since making his debut for Lyon aged 16 invites some caution. He felt like a slightly underwhelming successor to Kevin De Bruyne after he left following a golden decade at the club and later joined Napoli as a free agent. There is little risk with Cherki though as he only cost £30m.
City have bought two new goalkeepers in third-choice Marcus Bettinelli from Chelsea and James Trafford, who has rejoined the club from Burnley for £27m. Trafford has vowed to battle Ederson for the No. 1 jersey, although there is still a chance that the Brazilian departs for Galatasaray and talks taking place with Paris Saint-Germain over Gianluigi Donnarumma. Norwegian teenager Sverre Nypan's £12.5m switch from Rosenborg has flown under the radar, largely because he is expected to be sent out on loan right away.
As well as De Bruyne's departure, it has been something of the end of an era for City's treble winners as Jack Grealish has moved to Everton on loan while Kyle Walker has also departed, for Burnley after a mixed loan spell at AC Milan. James McAtee is expected to also leave permanently for Nottingham Forest, bringing in £30m in pure profit as an academy graduate.
Yan Couto and Maximo Perrone have made permanent moves to Borussia Dortmund and Como respectively after spending last season on loan. January arrival Vitor Reis has gone on loan to Girona while Juma Bah, who is yet to play for City, has gone out on loan to Nice after previously playing for Lens. Goalkeeper Scott Carson has left City after four years in which he made just two appearances. Savinho could yet join the exodus after Tottenham opened talks with City over the Brazilian winger.
Getty ImagesPre-season performances
City have had highly unusual preparations for the coming season due to their participation in the Club World Cup in June. They treated the rebooted tournament a bit like a pre-season tour, with Guardiola rotating his side between matches and still seeing City top their group by winning three games. But their campaign came crashing down in the last 16 when Joao Cancelo's Al-Hilal beat them 4-3 in an extra-time thriller.
City's early exit to the SPL side was embarrassing given they were one of the favourites to win the competition while Rodri picking up a groin injury – which derailed his progress after missing almost the entire season with a torn cruciate ligament – rubbed salt into the wounds. The silver lining was that they got to take their break earlier and had an extra two weeks to prepare for the campaign than if they had reached the final.
Guardiola's side only returned to training on July 28 and the only glimpse fans have had of them was in their opening training session and in their friendly against Serie B side Palermo, who also belong to the CFC stable. They easily beat the Italians 3-0, with Reijnders playing a starring role and netting twice after a first-half strike from Erling Haaland. The Norwegian scored in four of the five matches, firing another ominous warning to defences ahead of the new campaign.
Jeremy Doku looked lethal during the Club World Cup while Ait-Nouri impressed too. Foden also took a step back towards his best in the U.S., scoring three times and getting an assist despite only starting one match. But an ankle knock in training prevented him from facing Palermo and could lead to him missing the opener at Wolves along with Rodri and Mateo Kovacic.
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Guardiola admitted last season that he had delayed overhauling his squad out of loyalty to the players who had won so much with him only to admit the error of his ways. He has also revealed that feeling a sense of responsibility for the team's problems last years is what motivated him to sign a two-year contract last November, explaining: "I didn't want to let the club down."
There is not a single City fan who does not believe Guardiola is still the right man for the job and it is worth remembering that the year after that drab 2016-17 campaign, the Catalan's first in England, City swept to the title by amassing 100 points. And the last time they surrendered their Premier League crown, in 2020, they ended up going on a historical winning streak of four consecutive titles.
And yet there is also a sense that Guardiola is exhausted and on the brink of burn out. Remember how he scratched his head so hard that it left him with scars during the 3-3 draw with Feyenoord. He underwent surgery in 2023 to treat a back problem that he had suffered from for 12 years although he stressed in a recent eye-opening interview with that the most important thing is his mentality, saying "the mind is everything".
It was a little bit concerning, then, to hear him also say: "The job of a coach, and I'm not just talking about myself, but all my colleagues, is a 24/7 one. Otherwise, you can't do it. The weight on your shoulders is enormous. You have a responsibility to a lot of people who put their trust in you: the players, the president, the sporting director. It's that fear of letting them down that drives me."
Guardiola is constantly evolving and it will be intriguing to see whether the arrival of Ait-Nouri makes him embrace high-flying full-backs again after moving towards inverted, more narrow full-backs. How he seeks to get the best out of Haaland will be another fascinating subplot, particularly with a new cast of players brought in to help feed the Norwegian goal machine.
The head coach has freshened up his team of support staff, recruiting Jurgen Klopp's former number two Pep Lijnders and another former Liverpool employee in set-piece specialist James French. Former City defender Kolo Toure has also joined as an assistant coach.