Man City 2025-26 Season Preview: Pep Guardiola's side are desperate to take their title back but are they good enough any more?

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."

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.

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.

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 GQ 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.

Despite all the new faces at City this summer, the one everyone wanted to see the most was that of Rodri. City have still not lost a Premier League game in which the Spaniard has played since November 2022 and they have only lost twice in all competitions. But when they were shorn of their midfield lynchpin for the majority of last season they were beaten 16 times.

Little wonder, then, that Foden said about the Spaniard being back for the coming campaign: "That's the main thing. Obviously it is going to take him a bit of a while to get back to his full fitness and sharpness because it is such a long injury but we all know what Rodri can do. He's unstoppable. Playing alongside him is unbelievable. He just makes you feel secure. He doesn't lose the ball and he does everything."

Guardiola gave plenty of warnings last season of the danger of bringing his side's talisman back too early and him suffering a relapse so he must have been kicking himself when he injured his groin against Al-Hilal. The coach has hinted that Rodri will be able to play some minutes of City's first three games but does not think he will be "really fit" until after the September international break. 

City will need Rodri to be as fit as possible by then because they face Manchester United and Arsenal as well as beginning their Champions League campaign. And they must hope they have not already dropped priceless points against Wolves, Tottenham and Brighton without their do-it-all midfielder.

It might sound strange to describe a 27-year-old who had already made his name at AC Milan as a breakout star but there is so much so excitement about Reijnders and he looks set to have a massive impact. Midfield was a huge area of weakness for City last season because as well as missing Rodri for the whole season they had periods without Kovacic and they seriously lacked some energy. 

Ilkay Gundogan returned but he was not the same player who left two years earlier and who had dictated City's midfield for the seven previous years and chipped in with a considerable amount of goals. Reijnders looks like he can fill that hold and he has said he wants to "learn a lot" from Gundogan.

Reijnders scored 15 times for Milan last season and he showed off his eye for goal by bagging two in the friendly against Palermo. "We knew that he is a special player arriving into the box. He loves to do that," Guardiola said. "He scored two goals and he made a fantastic performance like the rest of his teammates. He can play as a holding midfielder but he loves to arrive to the box to help our strikers like Erling and Omar [Marmoush] and anyone who plays there. We are really pleased."

Guardiola added "people in Italy know him perfectly" and the Dutchman is set to become equally revered in England.

Given City's run of six titles in nine seasons under Guardiola and the fact that the Catalan has never gone two years without winning a league title in his entire coaching career, the reality is that anything less than wrestling back the title from Liverpool will be deemed a failure. The £330m spent on new signings since January, even though other clubs have also thrown money around of late, only adds to the pressure on City.

As far as Bernardo is concerned, it is not necessarily lifting trophies that matters, but making sure that City are in the fight in every competition: "We want things to go back to normality and normality at the club is fighting for every title." 

However, given that City were out of the two major competitions by February following their 6-3 aggregate thrashing by Real Madrid, the bar has dropped and there is a massive margin for improvement. They must make sure they do not fall into the same trap in the Champions League and get in a position where they are concerned of not even making the knockout play-offs. 

Finishing within the top eight in the league phase and securing a direct passage to the last 16 should be a priority and then they should be aiming to reach the last four of Europe's top competition at least.

If they can return to the top two in the Premier League and chase whoever does win the title until April or even May, the season will at least have been an improvement on the previous one.

Player of the Season: Rodri. As long as he stays fit the Spaniard will be the glue who holds City together.

Biggest disappointment: Rayan Cherki. The maverick Frenchman has incredible talent but his individualistic tendencies will make him a difficult fit within Guardiola's collective and, unlike at Lyon, he will no longer be a big fish in a small pond.

Best signing: Tijjani Reijnders. The energetic Dutchman will shake up City's stodgy midfield and give them added firepower in the box.

Top scorer: Erling Haaland. Who else? The Norwegian scored more than triple the goals of his closest challengers in the team and he will be filling his boots again, determined to reclaim the Golden Boot he surrendered to Mohamed Salah.

European fate: City will finish in the top eight in the League Phase of the Champions League before being knocked out in the semi-finals by Real Madrid.

League position: Fourth. City have not strengthened enough in the right areas and goalkeeper and right-back remain problem areas, while Liverpool and Arsenal will be too strong for them and Chelsea will also finish above them.