Man City's 2025 summer transfer window priorities: Find the perfect Kevin De Bruyne replacement, buy some specialist full-backs and move Jack Grealish on

Guardiola convinced City to spend £130m ($175m) on three new full-backs in the summer of 2017, and he would have good reason to make a similar statement now as the club urgently need to strengthen both at right- and left-back.

Kyle Walker, who was one of the three to arrive eight years ago, had a nightmare first half of the campaign before being loaned out to AC Milan in January and will surely need to find a new permanent home. Rico Lewis, meanwhile, was expected to be Walker's long-term replacement at right-back, but he is still developing amid a growing belief that is a more natural midfielder. City, therefore, are crying out for a specialist right-back after Guardiola used makeshift Matheus Nunes there for many games in 2024-25.

The position of left-back is also up for grabs after Nathan Ake missed much of the season due to various injuries while Josko Gvardiol was moved into central defence for the final two months so as to make way for Nico O'Reilly. The youngster had a great impact when he broke into the team, but is too raw and inexperienced to lock down the position for next season. It is also not his natural position, which is midfield.

Ait-Nouri, who directly contributed to 11 Premier League goals last season for Wolves, is seen as the likely answer there, but City will then need to focus on getting a right-back in to complete their new-look backline.

Both of City's goalkeepers performed badly last season, and new blood is needed between the posts. Ederson actually wanted to leave last summer after receiving tempting offers from Saudi Arabia, only for Guardiola to convince him to stay. Yet despite assisting a remarkable four goals, the Brazil international endured one of his worst campaigns when it came to keeping the ball out of the net, above all in the Champions League.

Ederson lost his place to Stefan Ortega on a couple of occasions, but the Germany didn't prove as reliable as in the previous campaign, when he made the title-winning save to deny Tottenham's Son Heung-min in the season's penultimate game. Instead, the defining image of Ortega in 2024-25 was him being yelled at by Guardiola for conceding a sloppy late equaliser at Brentford.

With both shot-stoppers about to enter the final year of their respective contracts, the time is ripe for City to make a statement signing in goal. Diogo Costa of Porto would be the ideal choice, but he has a high price tag given he is the Portuguese side's club captain and one of their highest earners. Joan Garcia of Espanyol, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the most exciting young goalkeepers in Europe and City are among the many top clubs to have expressed interest in signing the 24-year-old, who has a €25m (£21m/$28m) release clause.

A lot has been said about the importance of De Bruyne, his legacy as City's best-ever player and the rights and wrongs of him being allowed to leave for free. But a lot less has been said, at least in public, about who will replace him. The Belgian became City's most expensive player when he signed from Wolfsburg in the summer of 2015, but the club have not shown the same ambition when it comes to finding his heir.

Florian Wirtz stuck out as the outstanding candidate to take the baton from De Bruyne, but City turned away from a potential deal for the Bayer Leverkusen schemer due to the soaring costs of a potential deal. Morgan Gibbs-White would be the next-best available option available, though City do look to be going down the Cherki route for now.

De Bruyne is truly irreplaceable, but City will at least need to make sure they have another match-winner to turn to with him now out of the picture.

One of the most memorable outbursts from a City player during the fraught campaign came after March's FA Cup quarter-final win at Bournemouth, when Bernardo Silva confronted journalists about the perception that the squad was getting on a bit. "Give me names," he demanded. "I'm 30, [Mateo] Kovacic is 30, you're not talking about guys that are 36. We had four bad months and out of nowhere we're old, we're not good enough? That’s people who don't understand the game, never played the game."

Bernardo made his point emphatically, but there was also an element of the midfielder protesting too much. City's squad had aged, and not like a fine wine. There had even been an admission from the club in January when they signed three players aged 23 or under, with Marmoush, who turned 26 in February, the oldest of the quartet of winter signings.

Midfield was the area with the most players on the wrong side of 30, given City also had Jack Grealish (30), Gundogan (34) and De Bruyne (33). The strain of playing twice a week got too much for the veteran grouo, and Kovacic could be the only player in that age bracket who survives the summer. Bernardo is thought to be on the brink of leaving while Guardiola questioned whether Gundgogan should stay and Grealish needs to leave for his own sake. Reijnder's presumed arrival might not be the last in terms of fresh midfield blood this summer.

If players being tired was a big concern for Guardiola this past season, then them being injured was an even bigger one. Towards the end of the campaign, the coach's frustration with the same players being ruled out spilled over when he said: "You cant perform if you aren't reliable can't play every three days. We need to build a squad for next season."

Guardiola even decided to name names, citing Ake and John Stones for being "injured all season". He could also have pointed to Kovacic, who missed three weeks in November as well as the FA Cup final, and has now been ruled out for the start of the next campaign after undergoing surgery on his heel. Grealish also picked up an injury at an inopportune moment in February while Manuel Akanji had three periods on the sidelines, the longest of which lasted two months.

Rodri, at least, should be back to his best after recovering from the ACL injury which kept him out for eight months, and players who suffered similar one-off injuries like his will be spared. But Guardiola has to be ruthless with the players who can no longer be relied upon to stay fit so he can build a resilient squad.

You might think that City have two fine, young wingers already in Jeremy Doku and Savinho, and you would be right. But while their two widemen get plenty of fans out of their seats with their thrilling pace and trickery, they rarely score goals. In fact, they managed just four Premier League strikes between them last season, with Savinho netting just once.

Marmoush's arrival has somewhat eased the goal-scoring burden on Erling Haaland and given the team another focal point in attack, but while the Egyptian can and does play in the wide positions, he often drops deeper and plays as a No.10, as he did in the FA Cup final. City's previous wide forwards, Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane ,would regularly chip in with at least 10 league goals a season if not more, and the team should be looking to get back to those levels of contributions from their other attackers.

That means finding a new winger who can tear into full-backs and find the net regularly. Rodrygo, the scourge of City in the 2022 Champions League semi-finals, would fit the bill given he has an uncertain future at Real Madrid.