Manchester City’s full 22-man travelling squad to face Palermo in pre-season friendly | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has issued a clear indication as to which players feature in his plans for the season, as he named a squad list for the club’s only public pre-season friendly of the summer.

Manchester City are headed to Italy this weekend as they take on fellow City Football Group outfit Palermo in a solitary publicly-streamed pre-season friendly ahead of the brand new competitive season.

The outing against the Serie B side comes off the back of City’s narrow 1-0 win over Championship side Preston North End, played behind-closed-doors at the City Football Academy last weekend, with Rico Lewis scoring the winning goal.

Since then, Pep Guardiola and his coaching staff have put the squad through further paces across the week, including an open training session played at the club’s Joie Stadium in front of a packed house.

Now, with the start of the new Premier League season exactly a week away, and City preparing for their campaign opener away to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux, the clash with Palermo is currently scheduled to be their last run-out of the summer.

As Manchester City jetted out of England on Friday afternoon, the club also confirmed a full squad list for the pre-season friendly fixture against Palermo, issuing a clear indication as to who is being considered by Pep Guardiola as a leading member of his 2025/26 plans.

Goalkeepers: Ederson, James Trafford.

Defenders: Rico Lewis, Abdukodir Khusanov, Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Manuel Akanji, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Nico O’Reilly.

Midfielders: Nico, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Tijjani Reijnders, Divine Mukasa, Rayan Cherki.

Forwards: Oscar Bobb, Savinho, Omar Marmoush, Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku.

Following confirmation of the official squad list for the trip to Italy, it has come to light that 10 first-team players are absent from Pep Guardiola’s selection, with official reasoning for particular absences coming to light.

The official line from the club is that a trio of James McAtee, Jack Grealish, and Stefan Ortega have simply been left out, with the assumption being that all three are being allowed to seek out moves away from the Etihad Stadium.

Among those deemed not fully-fit for the game are a quartet of Josko Gvardiol, Rodri, Phil Foden, and Claudio Echeverri, while Mateo Kovacic, Kalvin Phillips, and Marcus Bettinelli are all labelled as injured.