Manchester City defender full of praise for Pep Guardiola who ‘completely changed’ his game | OneFootball

Marc Guehi was the final signing of Pep Guardiola’s tenure as Manchester City manager, and, despite only spending six months together, the centre-back was in awe of the impact that working with the Catalan had on his performances.

The 2025-26 season has been somewhat of a whirlwind for Guehi, who started the season as Crystal Palace’s captain. His team beat Liverpool in the Community Shield to kickstart the footballing season, and he looked set to move to Anfield before his move collapsed in the final moments of the transfer window.

Following his failed move to Merseyside, it seemed as though Guehi would see out the final year of his contract at Selhurst Park before leaving on a free transfer in the summer, but this all changed in January.

After Guardiola’s first-choice centre-back pairing, Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias, both picked up fairly significant injuries in the same game, Hugo Viana was forced into action in the winter window.

Viana made what still seems to be an excellent deal, bringing Guehi to Manchester for a cut price whilst also scuppering the transfer plans of a rival in Liverpool.

Guehi cemented himself as a regular starter at the Etihad Stadium alongside Abdukodir Khusanov, both of them keeping the returning Dias out of the team in the final weeks of the campaign.

During this time, the centre-back scored two goals and helped City to win the FA Cup, looking as defensively solid as ever (barring one error against Everton).

Speaking to John Cross of the Daily Mirror, Guehi credited Guardiola for the seamlessness of his transition from the red and blue of Palace to the sky blue of City:

“It wasn’t just the first week”, Guehi said, “my head’s still spinning! Honestly, I could go into a lot of detail, but you only realise when you look back on games how well thought out and how well planned the process towards those games.

“Even then you are learning but I’ve been thrown into the deep end and I’ve had to adapt on how to do things and it has been a big change.

My game has changed, I don’t know if it’s obvious to everyone watching, but it’s obvious to me how much my game has completely changed.

“Things I used to do I’ve stopped doing because of the way that he wants us to play but also how effective that is. I think I’ve improved. I hope so!

“I’ll only found out the longer I go in my career and I’ll only find out if I’ve truly improved when I look back because it’s such a short space of time to know if I’ve improved.”

Guardiola is now back in Barcelona, having said his final goodbyes to the City faithful at the Co-op Live earlier this week, and Guehi’s immediate focus will be on representing England at the upcoming World Cup, before then looking to impress his new boss in Manchester.