Manchester City concluded the season with a third-place finish in the Premier League and a loss in the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace. Despite early exits from the Champions League and Carabao Cup, the team rallied in the final weeks to secure a return to the Champions League for the next season. As the summer transfer window approaches, City is keen to bolster their squad for a successful campaign. Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has expressed his intent to conduct transfer business swiftly, ahead of the Club World Cup.
Khaldoon Al Mubarak said: “In a tough season like the one we’ve had, to end up where we’ve ended up, not at all anywhere near the aspirations that we’ve had and not anywhere near the high bar we’ve set upon ourselves. But listen, it’s okay. It’s a lot of lessons learned, a lot of experiences that we will never forget. And the culmination of that is an experience that I believe will be invaluable for us going forward. The beauty about football is there’s always a new season. And today we get to turn this page. The season that just passed, 24/25 is behind us. The records are there. What we have achieved and what we haven’t. And it’s basically black and white. What went into it, in terms of that journey, the emotions, from day one to yesterday is the experience that you learn from, and in life, particularly in the most challenging times, that’s really where you learn about yourself, how you handle that stress, that pressure, when things get thrown at you that you don’t expect, things from left field. Many circumstances just didn’t work our way. And by the way, that happens in life, it happens. You’re going to have injuries. You’re going to have things that don’t go your way. You’re going to win games that you don’t deserve, and you’re going to lose games that you deserve to win. It just happens. There’s just a lot of these things happened to us this season at the same time. And, we had to deal with it, and we had to stay strong. We had to stay focused. I’m particularly proud of how we didn’t overreact in the hardest times. So, dealing with that challenge was important for us to stay cool, understand the issues that we’re dealing with. And I think we managed that. We managed it and we handled it as a group. There was no finger pointing. There was no quitting. There was persistence and there was perseverance. And at the end of the day, achieving what we had set ourselves to achieve in the midst of the hardest times. And I think we achieved it, which was at the end of the day, we needed to finish as high as possible.”
City aims to reclaim the Premier League title next season, with manager Pep Guardiola set to enhance the squad. The club has shown interest in AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders, Nottingham Forest playmaker Morgan Gibbs-White, and Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa. Al Mubarak assured supporters that new signings are expected soon.
Khaldoon Al Mubarak said: “We have clearly identified who exactly are the targets, in what positions, and we have our clear number one option, our clear number two option. And we’ll go about our business, and it will be very clear, very swift. And our objective is to try to be ready with the new squad for the Club World Cup.”
With a strategic approach to the transfer market, Manchester City is poised to strengthen their squad and compete at the highest level in the upcoming season. The club’s focus on swift and decisive action in the transfer window reflects their commitment to success and ambition for the future.
