'Erling Haaland didn't want to go on vacation!' - Man City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak fires warning to rivals as he insists Pep Guardiola's side will 'come back strong' after worst season in nine years

City finished third in the Premier League for the first time since Guardiola's debut campaign in 2016-17 and achieved their lowest points total in nine years. They were knocked out of the Champions League before the last-16 stage for the first time since 2012. And they ended without a major trophy for the first time in eight years, losing the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace. But Khaldoon has pledged that the team will not stand for another poor season when they come back after the summer.

Khaldoon told Man City's website: "They want to come back, and they want to come back hungry. And I can see the hunger and these players, they want to come back to pre-season. Normally these players are off and they're starting to think about vacation time etc. Honestly, every player I spoke to was telling me, we’re coming back. We’re ready to come back in three weeks’ time. I was speaking to Rodri as an example, he's looking for games. Erling didn't want to go on vacation. He wanted to stay with the physios and prepare for next season. That's the attitude you want and that's exactly why you see me so positive. We're going to come back strong, with a lot of positivity."

Khaldoon also admitted that the club should have been more ruthless last summer in overhauling their squad. City only signed Savinho and Ilkay Gundogan last year but they splashed £180 million ($242m) in January on four new signings after their difficult run of results in November and December. He said: "This club has gone through, as always, a regeneration. This year is another year where I think when I look back, last summer, we probably should have been more aggressive in some of the changes we needed to do. We didn't do that and that ended up costing us this year. We already started that rebuild of this team in January. Normally we like to do our business in the summer and only in case of emergency, a special need that comes up, do we actually go and do business in January. That's been our MO at least for the last seven or eight years. But this January, we had to act."

Khaldoon said that Ballon d'Or winner Rodri being sidelined for almost the whole season with an ACL injury was "a massive miss" and he is delighted the Spaniard is fit again. "He trained hard, recovered hard, was very disciplined. He wanted to be on the pitch as soon as physically possible. But we have to also be careful, the doctors and the physios, they have to be comfortable, for him. We're thinking of Rodri for the long term. We're thinking of Rodri for his career and we wanted to make sure that we play it safe. This season is this season, it is what it is. There’s nothing you're going to change about it. He's now fully fit and he's ready. I have no doubt Rodri is going to come back to the heights of the Ballon d'Or year and more. I'm so excited about him coming back."

City are enjoying a brief break before heading off to play in the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States. They have been placed in Group G along with Juventus and their opening game is against Moroccan side Wydad on June 18.