Manchester City rebuild the foundations but questions remain about next season | OneFootball

As every Manchester City fan knows, the 2024/25 Premier League campaign was disappointing for Pep Guardiola, continuing to bat away off pitch problems but also a loss of player form significantly driven by a spate of key injuries during the season.

2025/26 promised much more, but the caveat was always going to be how long it would take new faces and Guardiola’s next generation of hopeful serial winners to bed in at the club and learn his wants and desires.

Adjusting to a new country, new league, and expectations on the blue side of Manchester was always going to be the big challenge given the first team shake up that was seen over the summer.

In March, the wider world of football are now well into the business end of the campaign and as Manchester City reflect on their season of transition, in many ways the vast majority should be pretty happy and content with how things have gone.

City fans who like a flutter may have held their predictions this year and avoided the odds knowing that data from Casinos.com – the independent first deposit bonus offer review platform – indicated that potential returns were better from online gaming given the squad changes at play at this time of asking.

Had Erling Haaland’s incredible early season scoring form continued, Manchester City could have been looking at a very different end to the year. But as it is, given all the changes and distractions, a likely runner-up position in the league is not too shabby.

Defeat to Real Madrid in the Last 16 stage of the Champions League could be somewhat offset by domestic Cup success when Arsenal are faced once more at Wembley, and more is on offer with Liverpool awaiting in the quarter finals of the FA Cup.

As transition years go it has not been a bad one, and Pep Guardiola will be confident that he again has good foundations in place when he looks at the 2026/27 battles that lie ahead.

The only question is whether the serial-winning manager remains to see that foundation grow, or will his final act of success at the club be putting those building blocks in place for the future?

Every Manchester City fan knew that last summer was the start of a process, and further small changes were seen in the January transfer window, and you can bet your bottom dollar that there will again be a raft of changes ahead of the players returning for the pre-season.

Further arrivals will be likely – whoever is then sitting in the dug out and calling the shots – but fans already know that departures will likely create the majority of the headlines.

There are a few players who will undoubtedly go out on loan and not return, others where any price is likely to be considered good enough to help grease moves through, and then we have those who remain in the group who could find themselves moved on as well next summer.

One such player is Savinho – the 21-year-old, Brazilian still being a personal Guardiola favourite and one he has worked hard to keep in recent windows following on from his 2024 arrival.

Game time has again been decent this season for the winger despite some injury problems during the middle-phase of the campaign, albeit there has been a slight drop off since the turn of the year.

Speculation continues that he is set for pastures new, especially if Pep Guardiola moves on, and Antoine Semenyo’s arrival from Bournemouth complicated things. Further attacking signings could just push him further down the pecking order, although his new contract serves in is favour.