The wingers need to strengthen & bear the pain and purge! Manchester City can only return to the championship ranks if they do these things

After a bad season, how should Manchester City use the summer window to make effective adjustments to get back to the championship ranks in the 25/26 season? Goal author Richard Martin talks about this topic.

The summer window of 2025 has come, and Manchester City coach Guardiola and the team's new sports director Viana are busy.

Last summer window, Manchester City's abnormal calmness finally made itself suffer a big loss in the 24/25 season and achieved its worst season in nearly nine years. At that time, they only spent £20 million to sign Savigno, and then welcomed Gundogan back with a visa-free manner. In the end, Manchester City ranked third in the league with 71 points (this is also the lowest league point in Guardiola's 16-year coaching career) and failed to advance to the Champions League round of 16 (this is also the first time Guardiola's coaching career). In addition, this is also the first time since Guardiola made his coach's debut in the 16/17 season, he has not led a team to win any important trophy in the season.

Later, Guardiola also admitted that the group of core players who helped the team win four consecutive Premier League championships made him "wrongly pay". Last week, the team chairman Mubarak also admitted: "Last summer, we should have been more aggressive in some necessary changes. We did not do it, which ultimately cost us this year." During the winter window, Manchester City began a belated reconstruction, and they spent 180 million pounds to sign Marmush, Niko Gonzalez, Husanov and Vitor Rez. Mubarak promised to continue the innovation in the same crazy way: "We have clearly identified the specific target candidates and the required positions, and we have clear first-choice goals and second-choice goals. We will start working, which will be very clear and very quickly." Now, Manchester City must act quickly and complete the work they expect before the start of the Club World Cup on June 10 and from June 1 to September 1. Of course, as Mubarak suggested, Manchester City has also started work non-stop, and Reindez, Cherki and Nouri have all joined.

However, this is far from enough, they need more big signings. Because they still have many tricky problems to solve: finding a successor for De Bruyne and solving other problems exposed by the aging of the lineup - this team seems to have lost the iconic, insatiable desire to win as it used to be.

Combining various factors, Guardiola and the new sports director Viana must make a difference in the following six aspects to ensure that the team regained its momentum in the new season.

1. Priority to strengthening the full-back

Guardiola persuaded Manchester City to spend 130 million pounds to sign three new full-backs in the summer of 2017. Now he has every reason to make another similar signing statement, because Manchester City urgently needs to strengthen the full-back position on the left and right wings.

Kyle Walker was one of three full-backs who joined Manchester City eight years ago and was loaned to AC Milan in January after a nightmare first half of the season, and this summer he certainly needs to find a permanent new owner. Meanwhile, Rico Lewis, who is highly anticipated, is still in his growth stage and is increasingly believed to be more like a natural midfielder. Therefore, Manchester City must find a reliable right-back to avoid the embarrassment of always having a guest appearance in the position. The left-back position was also pending, with Aker missing most of the season with various injuries, while Guvadior was moved to the centre-back position in the last two months to make way for Nico O'Reilly. The young man did have a huge influence on the field, but due to lack of experience, he obviously cannot be the top pick in this position next season. Secondly, perhaps the midfield is his best destination.

Ait Nuri, who directly participated in 11 Premier League goals in Wolves last season, will become a good answer to the left back after joining, but what about the right back position? Manchester City still needs to think carefully.

2. The two goalkeepers who signed long-term No. 1 goalkeepers

Manchester City performed poorly last season, and the goalkeeper position needed fresh blood. Ederson, after receiving a tempting offer from the Saudi team, was persuaded to stay at the team, but was still a little distracted - despite contributing a staggering four assists, the Brazilian goalkeeper experienced one of his worst seasons in stopping opponents from scoring, especially in the Champions League.

Ederson's position has been replaced by Ortega several times this season, but the German goalkeeper is not as reliable as the previous season - when he made a key save to stop Tottenham Son Heung-min's shot in the penultimate game of the season, making great contributions to the championship. But in the 24/25 season, his iconic image became a roar by Guardiola in the final moments of his goal against Brentford.

With both goalkeepers entering the final year of their respective contracts, it is time for Manchester City to make a major signing in the goalkeeper position. Porto's Diogo Costa will be the ideal candidate, but to sign him not only requires a high transfer fee, but also a considerable salary. Meanwhile, Espanyol's Juan Garcia has become one of Europe's most promising young goalkeepers, and Manchester City is one of many top clubs to express interest in it. The 24-year-old has a severance fee of £21 million.

3. Looking for De Bruyne's successor

There have been many discussions about the importance of De Bruyne, his legacy as the best player in Manchester City's history and the right or wrong of allowing him to leave the team freely. But there is much less discussion about who will replace him, at least on the public level. In the summer of 2015, the Belgian midfielder was the most valuable player in the team when he joined Manchester City from Wolfburg, but the team has not shown the same ambitions in finding its successor..

Wilz was a prominent candidate to take over De Bruyne's baton, but Manchester City gave up the Leverkusen organizer's deal as potential transactions soared and signed Cherkie in favor.

Of course, no matter what, De Bruyne is irreplaceable. But for Manchester City today, they must try to ensure that after De Bruyne leaves the team, there is still a player who can decide the game to rely on.

4. Optimizing the team's midfield age structure

24/25 season, Manchester City players are also under tremendous pressure. After defeating Bournemouth in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup away, Bernardo Silva questioned reporters about his opinion that the team's lineup was aging: "I'm 30 years old, Kovacic is 30 years old, you are not talking about 36 years old. We were in poor form for four months, and then suddenly we got old. We are not good enough? That's the opinion of people who don't understand the ball and have never played the ball."

Bernardo Silva strongly expressed his point of view, but it also had a bit of "no silver here without silver". Manchester City's lineup has indeed aged, and it has not become more and more fragrant as it is as good as wine. Manchester City even admitted this in January when they signed three players aged 23 or under, while Marmush, who just turned 26 in February, was the oldest of four new players in the winter window.

Considering that Manchester City's midfielder has the most players over the age of 30, the pressure of a week's doubles is too great for this group of veterans. Kovacic may be the only player of this age who can survive the summer. Bernardo Silva is considered to be on the verge of leaving the team, and there are also questions about whether Gundogan should stay. As for Galish, he also needs to leave for his own development.

Because of this, Reindes' joining may not be the last step in Manchester City's midfield innovation this summer.

5. Clean up vulnerable players

If player fatigue is Guardiola's main concern in the past season, then player injuries are even worse. As the season approached the end of the season, he was extremely anxious about the players' repeated absences: "If you are unreliable and cannot play every three days, you will not be able to perform. We need to build a lineup for next season."

Guardiola even criticized Acker and Stones, who "had been injured all season." He could have mentioned Kovacic, who missed the FA Cup final for three weeks in November and will miss the game early next season due to heel surgery. Gralish was also injured in an inappropriate time in February, while Akanji went through three truces, the longest lasting for two months.

Authentic, players like Rodri who are injured for eight months should still be retained, but Guardiola must be tough on players who can no longer be expected to stay healthy, so that Manchester City can create a more resilient lineup.

6. Looking for wingers who can keep scoring goals

Maybe you will feel that Manchester City already has excellent young wingers like Doku and Savigno, and no longer need to strengthen this position, but these two players with outstanding speed and skills rarely score goals for the team. In fact, they only scored 4 goals in the Premier League last season - Savignho scored only 1 goal.

Malmush's arrival has eased Haaland's goal burden to a certain extent and provided the team with another offensive fulcrum. Although the Egyptian player is also able to move on the wing position, he often pulls back deeper and plays the No. 10 role, just like he did in the FA Cup final. Manchester City's past wingers, such as Mahrez, Sterling and Sane, usually contribute at least 10 league goals per season (and more), so Manchester City should seek to get other attackers back to that level of contribution.

This means that Manchester City needs to find a new winger who can tear the opponent's defense and score goals frequently. Rodrigo, who gave Manchester City a headache in the 2022 Champions League semi-finals, meets the team's requirements, and his future at Real Madrid is not clear at the moment.

(Armour)