Revealed: One European giant is inspiring Pep Guardiola’s latest Manchester City squad | OneFootball

Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola is taking significant inspiration from the performance of PSG in last season’s UEFA Champions League final, according to reports.

The recently-dethroned Premier League champions are gearing up for a summer of relentless action as they compete in the FIFA Club World Cup in the build-up to the new European schedule and English top-flight football once more.

It comes off the back of a hugely difficult last campaign in which Pep Guardiola ended a season at Manchester City without any major silverware to his name for the first time since his debut season at the club ending in 2017.

Hugo Viana – Manchester City’s brand new director of football – is leading the charge for fresh energy through an intense recruitment drive and reshuffle of first-team options, investing in three new outfield names before the tournament in the United States.

The swift completion of business has enabled Pep Guardiola and his coaching staff to have their squad list complete Stateside and as such begin work on the vision for the new season almost right away.

While there has been some doubts over how serious Manchester City will take the United States-hosted tournament, a new report has detailed the clear message issued by the club’s manager and the work being undertaken across the next few weeks.

As revealed by ESPN’s Rob Dawson, Pep Guardiola gathered everyone together after arriving in Boca Raton ahead of the Club World Cup last week and told them the tournament was not the end of the 2024/25 season, but the start of 2025/26 and it should be treated as such.

The report quotes sources who have stated that one of Guardiola’s aims is to get his players to move the ball more quickly, part inspired by PSG’s Champions League Final performance against Inter, with it noticeable in training that assistant Pep Lijnders was constantly shouting “speed, speed.”

It is further detailed that Manchester City’s training session on Saturday started at 10AM with quick passing drills, and ended almost two hours later with shape work.

The arrival of Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, and Marcus Bettinelli have not been the only changes within the first-team set-up over the course of the last few weeks, as Manchester City also took the decision to shake up their backroom staff.

Working closely alongside Pep Guardiola, and triple of departures in Juanma Lillo, Carlos Vicens, and Inigo Dominguez were confirmed upon the end of last season, with the aforementioned assistant to Jurgen Klopp, Pep Lijnders leading the arrivals.

Long-standing Liverpool opposition analyst James French has also swapped life with Arne Slot at Anfield for the Etihad Stadium, taking on the role of set-piece coach, while Under-18s assistant Kolo Toure has stepped up into the first-team at the FIFA Club World Cup.