Men’s team in 2025: A rebuild with promise | OneFootball

While it’s been trophyless, City have enjoyed a 2025 that points to a potential return to the silverware laden days we’ve seen so many of under Pep Guardiola.

No team has amassed more Premier League points than the Blues across the calendar year, with City claiming 80 from our 37 league outings in total.

Outside of that, we’re through to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup for the first time since 2021 and are handily placed in the gargantuan Champions League league phase table.

That’s all while balancing a new look, energetic squad and the departures of some club legends.

As we head into 2026, there’s plenty for City fans to be hopeful about over the next 12 months.

Before all of that, we reflect on what we’ve seen since we last heard Auld Lang Syne.

Second half of 2024/25

The year began with Pep Guardiola stating clearly that City were looking for several additions who would suit the long-term ambitions of the Club as much as the short-term threat of missing out on European qualification.

The boss got his wish with Abdukodir Khusanov, Omar Marmoush and Nico brought in to strengthen every line of City’s formation, while Vitor Reis was seen as a future prospect.

Marmoush and Nico in particular made a difference in the 4-0 home thrashing of Newcastle United in the middle of February, with Marmoush scoring a memorable hat-trick and Nico adding steel to the midfield.

That wasn’t quite the all clear for City in terms of recovering from the pain of November and December, with Champions League exit and defeats to Liverpool and Nottingham Forest to follow shortly afterwards.

However, the Blues then went unbeaten in the final 10 games of the Premier League, winning seven and drawing three to secure a 15th successive season in the Champions League.

We also made it all the way to Wembley for a third successive FA Cup final in a run that marked the emergence of Academy graduate Nico O’Reilly as an explosive left-back.

We fell to defeat to Crystal Palace in a controversial showpiece at the national stadium, with the Eagles goalkeeper Dean Henderson unbelievably fortunate to avoid a red card for an obvious handball outside the box.

Even with that pain, the key focus in our final home game of the season just three days later was to say farewell to a player considered by some as the best to ever represent Manchester City.

King Kevin De Bruyne had confirmed in April that 2024/25 would be his final campaign at City, ending with a remarkable tally of 19 major honours.

And in the late spring evening at home against Bournemouth, we got the result – thanks in part to the Goal of the Season winner from Omar Marmoush – before the celebrations of the magnificent Belgian began.

In a post-match presentation that lasted half an hour, De Bruyne looked visibly emotional as he spoke directly to the crowd before hearing from City legends past and present about what he has meant to them.

FIFA Club World Cup and summer activity

With one of our biggest legends saying farewell, the race was now on to begin the rebuild of a new squad before the FIFA Club World Cup.

In a brief window opened before the summer tournament in the USA, City acted quickly to add Rayan Ait-Nouri, Marcus Bettinelli, Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders.

And so, City set off for sunny Boca Raton. The seaside resort would act as our base in a tournament that was still very much an unknown.

Guardiola took the summer as a chance to bond the squad he’d built, with frequent barbeques on the beach and days out around Florida in between intense physical and tactical training sessions.

It paid off in the group stage, with City easing past Moroccan club Wydad in Philadelphia, thrashing UAW’s Al Ain in Atlanta and overwhelming Juventus in Orlando.

While a chaotic Round of 16 tie against Al Hilal didn’t go our way, Guardiola made it clear that the experience had been a pivotal one for the development of his team.

“It’s a pity. We were in such a good place and I cannot say thank you enough to the staff, how they train and prepare, they have given everything.

“I have the feeling that the team is doing well but we go home and now time to rest and refresh our mind and come back next season.

“I saw many good things that I didn’t see in the past, especially how we were, the relations between the players and the staff.”

Back home, preparations began for 2025/26 with the departures of yet more legends who had been pivotal to so much of our historic success.

Ederson, a goalkeeper who has redefined the position in his eight years in Manchester, went to Fenerbahce. He was joined in Istanbul by Ilkay Gundogan, who went to Galatasaray, while Kyle Walker signed for newly promoted Burnley.

With Ederson heading out, the final pieces in the jigsaw – for the first half of the season at least – was goalkeepers.

James Trafford returned after two years making a name himself at Burnley before the opportunity presented itself to sign Paris Saint-Germain and Italy No.1 Gianluigi Donnarumma – a man who had just won a Treble and even at just 26, was vastly experienced in club and international football.

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First half of 2025/26

By that point, the 2025/26 season was already under way.

With limited preparation time, City nipped over to Sicily to play CFG sister club Palermo the week before the Premier League’s return.

There, City received a hero’s welcome from a revitalised club aiming for Serie A and ran out 3-0 winners.

Between that and the season opener against Wolves, Guardiola reiterated the positive attitude and atmosphere amongst his squad.

“We are ready,” he said.

“We are ready to enjoy the good moments and bounce back as soon as possible from the bad ones.

“I can’t assure you but the signs are that we will be better.”

And the initial signs were extraordinary, with City thrashing Wolves 4-0 on that opening weekend with Cherki, Reijnders and the fit again Oscar Bobb playing pivotal roles.

That bubble was burst before the first international break of the season, with losses at Brighton and at home against Spurs.

As Pep had intimated earlier though, City bounced back speedily with wins over Manchester United and Serie A champions Napoli immediately upon the return from those internationals.

In total, five wins from seven games came before the October break and then another five from six ahead of the final national team window in November.

Defeats to Newcastle and Bayer Leverkusen threatened to upturn that momentum in late November but now City approach the new year off the back of eight successive victories and well in contention at the top of the Premier League.

Since the start of the 2025/26 campaign, Pep has hit his 250th Premier League win in record time and celebrated a landmark 1,000th game in management, truly crystalising the achievements of our manager.

The boss, nor any of his players, have entertained talk of what may come in the spring, simply focusing on each challenge as it comes.

But with City still alive in every competition, the foundations have been laid since the summer.

As always in football, the biggest prizes are not handed out over Christmas.

All we can do is watch to see where Pep’s latest iteration of City goes from here.