Given his past history – four seasons in charge of his beloved Barcelona, and three years in Germany with Bayern Munich – few would have predicted that Pep Guardiola would stay at Manchester City long enough to require a second rebuild. His great rival, Jurgen Klopp, left Liverpool more than a year ago, while two other adversaries – Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho – are off the main European radar.
The titans of Guardiola’s first great City side – Vincent Kompany, David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho – left long ago, and he renewed the team well enough to clinch the treble in 2022-23. A period that included an unprecedented four straight league titles also featured a first Champions League triumph, and no one would have been surprised had Guardiola walked away after that.
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But while Klopp departed, Guardiola stayed. No one, however, was prepared for last season’s implosion when a dramatic mid-winter slump saw City fall out of the title race and exit meekly in Europe. Guardiola, though, wasn’t about to sit still, and the statement signing of Omar Marmoush in January played a big part in City finishing the season strongly.
This summer, they built on that momentum. The Club World Cup may not have gone according to plan, with a shock exit against Al-Hilal, but the new signings have already started making a mark. City had a creative void to fill after Kevin De Bruyne departed for Napoli, and Jack Grealish – relegated to the fringes the last two seasons – left on loan to Everton. But in the hugely exciting Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders – signed from Lyon and AC Milan – Guardiola has brought in two players who could light up the league for seasons to come. The combined outlay of €91.5m is less than what some clubs have spent on a single player.
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With the experienced Kyle Walker also moving on, Rayan Ait-Nouri, at right-back, brings plenty of EPL experience from this time at Wolves. The influence of the new guard was very much on view in City’s opening game of the season, with Reijnders helping to set up two goals for Erling Haaland and scoring one himself with a sublime, first-time finish.
Cherki didn’t start, but needed only eight minutes to make his mark, with a low, driven finish completing an emphatic 4-0 win for Guardiola’s side. So much of the focus in the off-season was on how well Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea have strengthened their squads, but City haven’t been slouches either. What they did to Wolves, even with Rodri and Phil Foden just watching from the stands, should be an ominous warning to the rest of the league.
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