Manchester City have made a host of new signings ahead of the 2025/26 season.
Pep Guardiola’s squad were not left with much to celebrate at the conclusion of the 2024/25 campaign, where they only managed a fourth-place finish in the Premier League and were unable to claim any major trophies.
Due to their participation in the FIFA Club World Cup, City have only one preseason friendly game scheduled, up against Italian side Palermo on August 9.
Guardiola recently took charge of an open training session at Joie Stadium, where fans watched the men’s and women’s teams ahead of the upcoming campaign.
Speaking after the session, Guardiola mentioned his players are ‘motivated’ and looking forward to doing ‘better than last season.’
“They love to play football so of course they’re motivated and want to compete with each other to be their best individually and collectively. The expectation at the beginning of the season is always, let’s go and try to do our best, win the first games, get confidence and move forward,” as per the club’s official website.
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“Every season is the same, but at the same time, it’s just continuing what we’ve done for the past decade. Of course, we want to try and do better than last season, especially with our consistency.”
Guardiola also spoke about the ‘spirit’ that City showed in the Club World Cup, where they were eliminated in the Round of 16 after bagging three consecutive wins.
“You know whenever we start the season, we don’t think how many achievements are we going to get, it’s week by week month by month try to be better and improve our football, because at the beginning it’s always difficult. But if we’re in the vibe and spirit we started to create in America at the Club World Cup, hopefully our people will be proud.”
The Catalan also made clear he does not expect the upcoming campaign to be a cakewalk for City to return to their winning ways.
What are Pep Guardiola’s expectations for Man City in 2025/26 ?
Guardiola claimed while he is assured the campaign will be ‘good,’ he also believes it won’t be a ‘red carpet season.’
“The positivity is there. I’m pretty sure it’ll be good, but it won’t be a red carpet season, there’ll always be problems, it’s how you overcome those situations.”
“I would say this club grew up in the last 15, 20 years and are at the top of every competition we play, let’s continue to do it. For the people sometimes it’s everything, but it depends how we play, and how we perform.”
“And at the end when the people give good spirit and fight and run and give their best, and after the opponents are always involved, sometimes you can do your best and the opponents are just better.
“It depends on ourselves, this is what we have to try to do. We challenge ourselves, this is the target for the season.”
City kick off their 2025/26 season with an opening match against Wolves on August 16 at Molineux.
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