16/08/2025

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Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak (left) with manager Pep Guardiola, chief executive Ferran Soriano and

director of football Txiki Begiristain. – REUTERSPIC

Age of uncertainty Legacies on the line as City look to reclaim lost territory Ű BY RICHARD JOLLY

Gundogan and De Bruyne: they could be very fine players and yet still a downgrade. Another issue is that, despite all the arrivals, there is no clear successor to Walker yet. Two players pick themselves. Erling Haaland was absent for 40 days last season, played for an underachieving side and still got 34 goals. Rodri missed most of last season and City’s title defence collapsed as a result. The midfielder returned at the Club World Cup this summer, but an injury in City’s last-16 defeat to Al Hilal has put his fitness in doubt. Guardiola admitted he does not expect his star midfielder to be “really, really fit” until September. City could do with seeing Phil Foden back, the 2024 Footballer of the Year was actually available for much of last season but rarely resembled the Foden of the previous campaign. Guardiola, Foden, Haaland, Rodri: they could be the building blocks of another title. Or a side in a mixture of decline and transition, this could be another mixed season for a side lacking the chemistry that propelled their predecessors to glory. Because, for City, after the guarantees of the past, this feels like an age of uncertainty. – The Independent

broken up. Kevin de Bruyne was not offered a new contract, Kyle Walker was sold to Burnley, Jack Grealish was rendered an outcast. That is two captains and a £100 million (RM580m) buy. A third past skipper, Ilkay Gundogan, may not be in the starting 11. The revolutionary of a goalkeeper, Ederson, is in the final year of his contract and faces competition from the returning James Trafford. City have undergone a £300 million (RM1.74b) refit, with 10 signings in 2025. Each of those numbers is significant. It shows the scale of the rebuild, and chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak admitted City were not “aggressive” enough in the market last summer as they underestimated the need to rejuvenate as their squad aged. But their budget had to be split plenty of ways: while Liverpool spent £100 million on Florian Wirtz, only one of the City 10 – Omar Marmoush – cost more than £50 million (RM290m). Of the four winter arrivals, only Marmoush may figure in the first-choice XI, and even that isn’t certain. Of the summer six, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki look to offer both quality and value for money. Yet they may be judged against peak

contract: despite the defeats and the sight of a great side crumbling, despite the knowledge his great ally Txiki Begiristain would step down as director of football and the shadow cast by the hearing into the 115 (or, more accurately, 130) charges the Premier League levelled. It was a remarkable display of loyalty. Or, perhaps, stubbornness. Guardiola has confirmed he will take a break when he leaves City but a man who could have nothing to prove seems to have unfinished business. Some of it was created by City’s collapse last year. Now Liverpool rank as both favourites and big spenders. City’s era of dominance could be over, or last season may rank as the exception. Guardiola, the great empire builder, has territory to reclaim. He is the longest-serving manager in the Football League and there are pertinent comparisons with two of the great constants before him. Sir Alex Ferguson managed to build three great Manchester United teams. Arsene Wenger had two at Arsenal; their successors were good but not great and tended to finish third or fourth. And now, definitively, this is the third City team Guardiola has built. His second side has

P EP GUARDIOLA’S words can be deliv ered with exaggeration, sarcasm or, at times, a combination of the two, so his rhetoric can lend itself to different expla nations. But as he assessed his worst season in management, he declared: “I’m delighted to have failed.” If it was failure in the context of 12 League titles in his previous 15 seasons in the dugouts, different types of trebles, three Champions Leagues and an assortment of records, those are the standards Guardiola has set. Go back a year and the assumption was that Manchester City would win a record fifth consecutive English League title. Instead, City limped in third. They came 22nd in the Champions League group stage. They exited the Club World Cup to Al Hilal and lost the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace. They suffered five successive defeats in a run of nine losses in 12. In one of the other three games, they drew with Feyenoord after leading 3 0. Like their campaign, it was far worse than any realistic expectation. In the midst of it all, Guardiola extended his

Hungry Spurs

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