08/08/2025

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FRIDAY | AUG 8, 2025

Malaysian Paper

‘City will put things right’ Stones fires warning to Premier League rivals Ű BY ANDY HAMPSON

expected, but the guys have come in for a reason. “With the quality that they’ve got, the aspects of the game are different from what we’ve had in the past. I’m excited to play with them and see what they do.” Guardiola said his players are “motivated” and are 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,” he said as per the club’s official website. “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 consistency.” Guardiola claimed that while he remains assured that the upcoming 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.”

J OHN STONES is convinced Manchester City have the “fire in our bellies” to regain their Premier League title. City surrendered the crown they won in the previous four seasons to Liverpool during an underwhelming 2024-25 campaign. Defender Stones believes lessons have been learned and has detected a strong desire to put things right since the players have reported for pre-season training. The England international said: “It was humbling for us after all the success that we’ve had. “It makes us realise what we’ve done, what we’ve achieved over the years and how proud we should be, but we’re obviously frustrated at what we did last season. It’s not what we want to replicate. “To finish third, three or four points behind Arsenal is – to our standards – not good, (nor) how we played through the season. “We’ve got to put that right and get back to our identity, get back to winning matches and

Malaysian time).

Entering the final year of

The side is taking on a different shape with new signings Rayan Cherki, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Tijjani Reijnders having been integrated during the Club World Cup, in which City reached the last 16. Their arrivals continued a squad refresh after the signings of Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis in January. Stones said: “Things evolve, football evolves, and the guys that have come in have been great. “It takes a bit of time, obviously, to get used to the style of play, w h a t ’ s

his contract, there had been speculation about his future but the former Everton player hopes that has now been shut down. He said: “It’s laughable to me. I understand why people do it but there’s nothing to comment on. “I love it here, nothing’s happening. I’m here to fight and play and hopefully win some trophies.” Stones was speaking as City held an open training session alongside the club’s women’s side at the Joie Stadium on the fringe of their training complex yesterday. City now have a friendly at Palermo tomorrow before facing Wolves in their opening Premier League game at Molineux on Aug 17 (12.30am

having that presence about us and believing in ourselves as a team. “I’m sure we’ll find that and bring it back because it was tough last season to go through what we did. We’ve definitely come back with that fire in our bellies to go and achieve.” Stones is now fit after an injury-hit past season but was not risked by manager Pep Guardiola during the Club World Cup in the summer. Despite not featuring, the 31-year-old made emphatically clear when speaking to media during that tournament that he would not be leaving the club.

When asked what a successful season would be, Guardiola replied: “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. I don’t know. “For the people

John Stones

sometimes it’s everything but it depends how we played and how we performed.” – The Independent/ Agencies

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