Pep Guardiola - 2025/26

[Colin Bells Boots]

I’m not enjoying this season, especially recently, but absolutely no way should we get rid of Pep.

The issue isn’t him, it’s injuries and a lot of recent poor signings. Guehi and Semenyo are better, hopefully a few more like them and we’ll start to improve.

Players like Lewis need fucking off, and quite possibly Reijnders.

Hard to disagree with most of this.

 

[Lavinda Past]

You could get the impression that some on here celebrate poor results and form, NO, not the "jcl's, the entitled, the fanny wipes, the spoilt," ...... etc., but those who live under a delusional comfy blanket, where poor form and results are ticketyboo , it's like old times, and please don:t upset things besides, we used to be really shit, so it's all perfectly fine. Yeah, I imagine that's what the owners will be comforting themselves with. Gillingham!
I see some are even celebrating being 2nd in the league. Whilst better than 3rd, not something we set out the achieve. Maybe 20 yrs ago.

It wasn't that long ago that Arsenal fans joked about celebrating their annual 4th place trophy.

Some of our clappers on here have started doing the same about 2nd place, but they're not joking.

Heads in sand.

 

[Damanino]

Pep's own ego wont let this happen to be pushed around by former assistants Arteta, newcomers Slot etc and also stopped in early KO rounds of CL.

most importantly Khaldoon and Mansour need to look at this and thinking wtf is this. Khaldoon was very optimistic about CWC as I recall and the way we performed there while Chelsea won it all and raked i something like 100m for it we easily could have done that ourselves but we didnt. that probably set the tone towards exectations for the hierarchy for this season. Khaldoon said CWC will be the next season where we can show improvement and "put it right", I bet he was punched in the face with that result vs Saudi side.

 

[axlgod]

Definitely caught between two styles of play representing both Peps. We start off well in the first half because the tactics have been thought through and we do okay. Second half the opposing manager changes the team tactics, and we just don’t respond tactically. It’s the in game management second half when a team changes their tactics that is causing us problems. The late substitutions also play into in game management issues. Not sure why we don’t respond to the tactical changes in the second half, a puzzle for sure.

I think we play Pep 2’s football in the first half.
Then Pep’s football in the second half.

 

[Gabriel]

Still prepared to wait. We’ve a wealth of talent sidelined, some who have yet to reach full fitness, and some who are playing through injury. In the spring, we’ll have a better idea of how well the transition is going, and whether Guardiola has the ability to utilise and rotate a larger squad, or whether result pressure drives him back to using a trusted nucleus.

 

[BillyShears]

Definitely caught between two styles of play representing both Peps. We start off well in the first half because the tactics have been thought through and we do okay. Second half the opposing manager changes the team tactics, and we just don’t respond tactically. It’s the in game management second half when a team changes their tactics that is causing us problems. The late substitutions also play into in game management issues. Not sure why we don’t respond to the tactical changes in the second half, a puzzle for sure.

The players need to show more responsibility when they come under pressure. Currently, it feels like when an opposition team decide to press us high and man to man, there's a collective panic that sets in. We're missing cool heads. Just look at how many times we have the ball and give it back to Spurs in the six minutes before they score the first goal.

Look at how many times we have the opportunity to play exactly the sort of boring sideways passes that kill games dead and drop opposition teams into their shape, only or someone to blam a ball into a channel for Erling or Semenyo. The players aren't handling their emotions or game states well right now.

 

[bondsman]

You can spot the people who don't really understand what they're watching because they tend to fall back into cliches about the manager whenever the performance isn't to their liking.

Does the manager not impact performances?

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

Still prepared to wait. We’ve a wealth of talent sidelined, some who have yet to reach full fitness, and some who are playing through injury. In the spring, we’ll have a better idea of how well the transition is going, and whether Guardiola has the ability to utilise and rotate a larger squad, or whether result pressure drives him back to using a trusted nucleus.

Enough credit in the bank for me.

The club still has a number of injury issues / settling in / transfers out to be resolved

 

[argyle]

Comparisons to Wenger FFS.

Wenger went 14 years without winning. Pep has gone 1 year, probably 2.

He's in the first year of rebuilding the greatest ever Premier League side, his side by the way.

It will take time.

Unfortunately some of you want instant success. Don't reply saying no you don't. You do and you know you do as you wanted Pep gone last season - the year after winning 4 titles in a row.

So because he didn't win 5 you wanted him gone.

Some of you have strangely always wanted him gone. You can read the previous seasons Pep threads to see that.

Some since the year liverpool won during the COVID season and so a year before we won 4 in a row - a feat no other club has ever done.

And some bizarrely during the treble winning season and you've not changed your mind since.

 

[meeesh]

The players need to show more responsibility when they come under pressure. Currently, it feels like when an opposition team decide to press us high and man to man, there's a collective panic that sets in. We're missing cool heads. Just look at how many times we have the ball and give it back to Spurs in the six minutes before they score the first goal.

Look at how many times we have the opportunity to play exactly the sort of boring sideways passes that kill games dead and drop opposition teams into their shape, only or someone to blam a ball into a channel for Erling or Semenyo. The players aren't handling their emotions or game states well right now.

Yes, because in reality we were lucky not to end up getting beat yesterday, and I genuinely thought that was gonna happen in last 10 mins or so.

But that's what subs are for, making them a bit earlier can sometimes help, but that isn't in Peps thinking.......ever

 

[BillyShears]

Comparisons to Wenger FFS.

Wenger went 14 years without winning. Pep has gone 1 year, probably 2.

He's in the first year of rebuilding the greatest ever Premier League side, his side by the way.

It will take time.

Unfortunately some of you want instant success. Don't reply saying no you don't. You do and you know you do as you wanted Pep gone last season - the year after winning 4 titles in a row.

So because he didn't win 5 you wanted him gone.

Some of you have strangely always wanted him gone. You can read the previous seasons Pep threads to see that.

Some since the year liverpool won during the COVID season and so a year before we won 4 in a row - a feat no other club has ever done.

And some bizarrely during the treble winning season and you've not changed your mind since.

Same posters, every season, since 2020. Every title winning season saw the same usernames saying the same stuff they're saying today. Best to tune them out.

 

[Nickyweaver01]

Deserves another 12 months, I think. I'm worried we're in Wenger 2008 territory with him, but we're going okay during a period of great change and transition in the squad and we've improved on last season already. I'm hopeful that, if we can finish this season as strongly as we did 24/25, then we'll be very happy for Pep to continue come May. If we finish 2nd and win either of the domestic cups this season then that would be fantastic. A couple more additions (support at RB and CM) and I think we'll be ready to challenge for the title again next year. After everything Pep has done for us, he deserves more time to put this right - even if I am, as I said, concerned that we're past his peak now and just don't know it yet. When everyone's been fit, there have been flashes that we're getting back up there.

Plus, the manager market just isn't good right now. There's nobody available that you could point to that would instantly improve this team and then take it further in the long-term. Let's assess where we are with Pep when his contract's up for renewal in early 2027. Until then, there's no point speculating really. Maybe it would be best to do what we did under Pellegrini when Pep was on his way out of Bayern, which was hang onto him for one more year until our desired and ideal target became available. I think we would have sacked Pellegrini in the summer of 2015 and gone all in for Ancelotti in another universe, but Pep said yes to City so we hung on for 12 months instead. 15-16 wasn't fun but it was worth it in the end.

Maybe Pep should be on the way out this summer. Maybe he should have gone last summer. But if hanging onto him for 12-24 months means that we get Enrique at the end of his PSG contract in 2027, then that sounds like a great scenario to find ourselves in. Pep has a habit of getting things together between February and March and even a slight improvement on our season up to now would mean good things are coming our way. When everyone's fit, we're good enough to win the League Cup with the games we have left, good enough to reach Wembley at least in the FA Cup, good enough to make a go of it in Europe, and good enough to at least make Arsenal sweat on their way to the title.

Looking back at other seasons that didn't end with a Premier League title - 16-17, Pep's first season (which this one basically is all over again), things only really started to click in February and they only fully clicked in April, once the league was gone. We finished 3rd and reached the FA Cup semi-final. In 19-20, we didn't win five consecutive league games until the last five games of the season, playing in empty stadiums because of Covid-19. We still won the League Cup and finished 2nd on 81 points. In 24-25, our longest unbeaten came between March and May, and we managed to somehow make the FA Cup final despite everything (a game we should have won as well). This season, I think we're capable of finishing 2nd on 75-78 points, finishing well with an unbeaten run, and getting our hands on a pot. We just need the majority of players to stay fit, which is turning out to be a big challenge in of itself.

As always, young Bob is on the money

 

[Gabriel]

Enough credit in the bank for me.

The club still has a number of injury issues / settling in / transfers out to be resolved

He has credit in abundance, but the whole point of developing a larger, younger squad was presumably to give us depth to compete across multiple fronts and across multiple seasons. Of course, such depth means noses will be put out of joint when players are dropped, a task Guardiola dislikes. That’s why I want to see how flexible he is in the spring.
I’ve always said next season would be when to expect a harvest, though early fruit this year in the shape of any trophy would help the team grow.

 

[youngbob]

It wasn't that long ago that Arsenal fans joked about celebrating their annual 4th place trophy.

Some of our clappers on here have started doing the same about 2nd place, but they're not joking.

Heads in sand.

I think you're being a bit disingenuous here.

I wouldn't be happy with 2nd place in the league. I doubt anyone on here would be. We all want to win titles and it's disappointing when we don't. The feeling of winning is special and addictive. But relative to the current quality of our squad and the quality of the opposition in this title race, and considering what's happened in the past (both the glory years of 2018 to 2024 and the dismal periods of last season) 2nd place would be more than acceptable right now. If we can finish 2nd in the league and complement that with a bit of cup silverware, that would be a wonderful bonus.

Sometimes it's enough for some people to support a football team that simply wins most of its games. After all the major trophies we've won in the last 15 years, a period of transition and change like this is frustrating but also completely acceptable. It requires a bit of patience, sure, but that's all. Being on the fringes of a title race, going deep into the cup competitions, and playing in the knockout stages of the European Cup - if we can keep these things up while preparing the squad to challenge at the very top again (probably from next season), then that's not much to complain about, is it?

I'm not saying this because "we used to get beat by York City and Stockport County so be grateful", I'm saying this because literally every top team has to go through fallow periods and transitional phases like this in order to come back better. Barcelona won nothing between 1999 & 2004; Ferguson's United went three years without a Premier League title between 2004 & 2007; Liverpool won nothing between 1995 & 2000 and won one League Cup between 2007 & 2018; Bayern won nothing between 2010 & 2012 and finished the 23-24 season potless; Madrid won virtually nothing in the Galacticos era between 2003 & 2007; Arsenal won nothing between 2005 & 2014. Heck even City wasted the immediate post-Ferguson years by winning just the one League Cup between 2014 & 2018.

The point is, all of those teams came back.

My other point is that we'd gone for so long winning title after title between 2021 and 2024 that we'd forgotten how it would feel to finish 2nd or 3rd. Turns out, life just carries on, football carries on, and City are still winning the majority of their matches. If we don't win anything this year, life and football will just carry on and City will remain in the mix for major trophies next year. There's no way our current squad is worse than the one we had under Pellegrini at the end, with Fernando, Bony, and Mangala starting almost every week, a broken Demichelis hoping to keep people out at one end and a toothless Navas firing crosses into the first defender at the other end, an ageing Sagna and an overweight Nasri for support. We came back from that pretty quickly and we'll probably come back from this.

Or we won't. Maybe this is the beginning of the end after all. If so, okay. We've had 15 years of dominance and glory. If this is to be the end, we've had a lifetime of memories worth savouring already. On the day of the takeover, if you'd been sat down and told that, before 2025 we'd win 8x Premier League titles (including four in a row), 3x FA Cups, 6x League Cups, 4x Community Shields, 1x Super Cup, 1x Club World Cup, and the fucking European Cup as part of a treble, would you be worrying about the seasons where it didn't quite come together or would you be focusing on celebrating the big wins as much as you could? Point is, we've had more than our share of good days, we'll likely have more good days again, and if we don't have any more good days then you can walk away any time you like, knowing that what you've already witnessed can't be taken away from you.

 

[Gumzy97]

The players need to show more responsibility when they come under pressure. Currently, it feels like when an opposition team decide to press us high and man to man, there's a collective panic that sets in. We're missing cool heads. Just look at how many times we have the ball and give it back to Spurs in the six minutes before they score the first goal.

Look at how many times we have the opportunity to play exactly the sort of boring sideways passes that kill games dead and drop opposition teams into their shape, only or someone to blam a ball into a channel for Erling or Semenyo. The players aren't handling their emotions or game states well right now.

Haven’t been on here in a while but watching us compared to a Bayern , Barca and PSG is we lack a tempo setter. Barca have Frenkie De Jong , PSG have Vitinha , Bayern have Kimmich. Players that don’t do anything fancy but control the tempo of the game , orchestrate others around them that’s the difference. When they have leads those players kill the game and keep everyone calm

We haven’t replaced prime Gundo. Gundo scored goals but what he did was set the tempo kept things calm and cool. Madrid have the exact same problem they’ve failed to replace Toni Kroos.

I think a few players are trying to do it but none have been effective as Gundo was.

 

[meeesh]

He has credit in abundance, but the whole point of developing a larger, younger squad was presumably to give us depth to compete across multiple fronts and across multiple seasons. Of course, such depth means noses will be put out of joint when players are dropped, a task Guardiola dislikes. That’s why I want to see how flexible he is in the spring.
I’ve always said next season would be when to expect a harvest, though early fruit this year in the shape of any trophy would help the team grow.

But does it make us as fans entitled, match going fan I may add, because you don't win the league 4 years on the trot then turn into Stalybridge Celtic, it doesn't happen like that, surely?

I am not saying we should win it every season, it's impossible, but we should still be a proper force, by adding better replacements each summer, I am amazed we are where we are this moment in time, 2nd in a weird league, half a foot in Carabao Final, 4th round of FA Cup, and scraped through to top 8 in CL, remarkable really as to how this team is compared to ones 3/4 years ago, where it would be a given.

Unless we get to the realism that is of course, shite recruitment, and a manager whose been found out (to a degree) and can't find a solution yet- he has stayed a lot longer than anyone, and I don't just mean City supporters, would have ever thought, along with the troubles he has had off the pitch (family etc) - but why go to a political forum in Barcelona when he is currently having the roughest time he has ever had in his managerial career to date?

Strange times, and a strange season this one is

 

[Gabriel]

But does it make us as fans entitled, match going fan I may add, because you don't win the league 4 years on the trot then turn into Stalybridge Celtic, it doesn't happen like that, surely?

I am not saying we should win it every season, it's impossible, but we should still be a proper force, by adding better replacements each summer, I am amazed we are where we are this moment in time, 2nd in a weird league, half a foot in Carabao Final, 4th round of FA Cup, and scraped through to top 8 in CL, remarkable really as to how this team is compared to ones 3/4 years ago, where it would be a given.

Unless we get to the realism that is of course, shite recruitment, and a manager whose been found out (to a degree) and can't find a solution yet- he has stayed a lot longer than anyone, and I don't just mean City supporters, would have ever thought, along with the troubles he has had off the pitch (family etc) - but why go to a political forum in Barcelona when he is currently having the roughest time he has ever had in his managerial career to date?

Strange times, and a strange season this one is

We decided, and Guardiola was instrumental in it, to run a small squad across multiple fronts. They climbed Everest but fell off the top and that necessitated a complete rebuild. The build is very much a work in progress, which the winter additions have accelerated, but it was unrealistic to think we could re-ascend the pinnacle so quickly.

If the plan is to dominate for multiple seasons again, and not just domestically, then we need patience and flexibility, from the club, from the fans, and from Guardiola.

 

[Lavinda Past]

I think you're being a bit disingenuous here.

I wouldn't be happy with 2nd place in the league. I doubt anyone on here would be. We all want to win titles and it's disappointing when we don't. The feeling of winning is special and addictive. But relative to the current quality of our squad and the quality of the opposition in this title race, and considering what's happened in the past (both the glory years of 2018 to 2024 and the dismal periods of last season) 2nd place would be more than acceptable right now. If we can finish 2nd in the league and complement that with a bit of cup silverware, that would be a wonderful bonus.

Sometimes it's enough for some people to support a football team that simply wins most of its games. After all the major trophies we've won in the last 15 years, a period of transition and change like this is frustrating but also completely acceptable. It requires a bit of patience, sure, but that's all. Being on the fringes of a title race, going deep into the cup competitions, and playing in the knockout stages of the European Cup - if we can keep these things up while preparing the squad to challenge at the very top again (probably from next season), then that's not much to complain about, is it?

I'm not saying this because "we used to get beat by York City and Stockport County so be grateful", I'm saying this because literally every top team has to go through fallow periods and transitional phases like this in order to come back better. Barcelona won nothing between 1999 & 2004; Ferguson's United went three years without a Premier League title between 2004 & 2007; Liverpool won nothing between 1995 & 2000 and won one League Cup between 2007 & 2018; Bayern won nothing between 2010 & 2012 and finished the 23-24 season potless; Madrid won virtually nothing in the Galacticos era between 2003 & 2007; Arsenal won nothing between 2005 & 2014. Heck even City wasted the immediate post-Ferguson years by winning just the one League Cup between 2014 & 2018.

The point is, all of those teams came back.

My other point is that we'd gone for so long winning title after title between 2021 and 2024 that we'd forgotten how it would feel to finish 2nd or 3rd. Turns out, life just carries on, football carries on, and City are still winning the majority of their matches. If we don't win anything this year, life and football will just carry on and City will remain in the mix for major trophies next year. There's no way our current squad is worse than the one we had under Pellegrini at the end, with Fernando, Bony, and Mangala starting almost every week, a broken Demichelis hoping to keep people out at one end and a toothless Navas firing crosses into the first defender at the other end, an ageing Sagna and an overweight Nasri for support. We came back from that pretty quickly and we'll probably come back from this.

Or we won't. Maybe this is the beginning of the end after all. If so, okay. We've had 15 years of dominance and glory. If this is to be the end, we've had a lifetime of memories worth savouring already. On the day of the takeover, if you'd been sat down and told that, before 2025 we'd win 8x Premier League titles (including four in a row), 3x FA Cups, 6x League Cups, 4x Community Shields, 1x Super Cup, 1x Club World Cup, and the fucking European Cup as part of a treble, would you be worrying about the seasons where it didn't quite come together or would you be focusing on celebrating the big wins as much as you could? Point is, we've had more than our share of good days, we'll likely have more good days again, and if we don't have any more good days then you can walk away any time you like, knowing that what you've already witnessed can't be taken away from you.

Very fair comments there mate. The most important thing for me is the level of team performance. It's been a long way from entertaining for at least 18 months, and has, more often than not, been boring.

Pep's whole approach to the game is risk averse, possession based. That's all very well with top quality players, but they're something we are very short of nowadays.

The football is dull, the lack of atmosphere in the ground reflects that. Pep 2026 is a long way off the Pep of 2023. He looks tired and stressed. Yesterday, he looked beaten and disinterested in the second half.

I just think it's well past the time for change.

 

[youngbob]

Haven’t been on here in a while but watching us compared to a Bayern , Barca and PSG is we lack a tempo setter. Barca have Frenkie De Jong , PSG have Vitinha , Bayern have Kimmich. Players that don’t do anything fancy but control the tempo of the game , orchestrate others around them that’s the difference. When they have leads those players kill the game and keep everyone calm

We haven’t replaced prime Gundo. Gundo scored goals but what he did was set the tempo kept things calm and cool. Madrid have the exact same problem they’ve failed to replace Toni Kroos.

I think a few players are trying to do it but none have been effective as Gundo was.

Post more. Think this is something that's being overlooked.

Our tempo setters this season have been Dias, Bernardo, Gvardiol, and Gonzalez. Doku and Cherki are getting there too. Four of them have been injured lately, Cherki is still learning, and Bernardo is being run into the ground. We had absolutely loads of them during the treble run - Ederson, Stones, Rodri, Gundogan, Bernardo, and Grealish - and they were all firing, but all six of them are either gone or injured or much older in the body now.

There's potential for Donnarumma, Gvardiol, Gonzalez, Cherki, and Haaland to be an excellent spine. But I think adding a couple more players who are confident in possession and want the ball, like for instance Anderson at Forest, is necessary to make it click better. Players like Reijnders and Semenyo have the ingredients but maybe don't have the seniority or City experience or aura yet. It might come for them, it might not.

What we lack is a steady head at the base of the team and a bit of composure in our half. Dias and Gvardiol brought that and we're really missing them. Until they're back, I'm really, really curious to see how we play with Trafford in net again on Wednesday for this reason, because part of me does wonder whether Donnarumma - fantastic as he is - might be hurting us a bit now that Dias and Gvardiol aren't there to share the build-up load.

We basically just need to learn to calm down. Pep's antidote to this problem last season was to pack the middle of the pitch with Kovacic, Gundogan, and Bernardo, with Nunes and O'Reilly tucking in, De Bruyne dropping deeper, and Marmoush playing a sort of false nine position. It was stodgy as fuck but it got us over the line in the league and almost got us a trophy. Hopefully he can come up with something similar this year that's better suited to this squad.

 

[eastmanc]

I think you're being a bit disingenuous here.

I wouldn't be happy with 2nd place in the league. I doubt anyone on here would be. We all want to win titles and it's disappointing when we don't. The feeling of winning is special and addictive. But relative to the current quality of our squad and the quality of the opposition in this title race, and considering what's happened in the past (both the glory years of 2018 to 2024 and the dismal periods of last season) 2nd place would be more than acceptable right now. If we can finish 2nd in the league and complement that with a bit of cup silverware, that would be a wonderful bonus.

Sometimes it's enough for some people to support a football team that simply wins most of its games. After all the major trophies we've won in the last 15 years, a period of transition and change like this is frustrating but also completely acceptable. It requires a bit of patience, sure, but that's all. Being on the fringes of a title race, going deep into the cup competitions, and playing in the knockout stages of the European Cup - if we can keep these things up while preparing the squad to challenge at the very top again (probably from next season), then that's not much to complain about, is it?

I'm not saying this because "we used to get beat by York City and Stockport County so be grateful", I'm saying this because literally every top team has to go through fallow periods and transitional phases like this in order to come back better. Barcelona won nothing between 1999 & 2004; Ferguson's United went three years without a Premier League title between 2004 & 2007; Liverpool won nothing between 1995 & 2000 and won one League Cup between 2007 & 2018; Bayern won nothing between 2010 & 2012 and finished the 23-24 season potless; Madrid won virtually nothing in the Galacticos era between 2003 & 2007; Arsenal won nothing between 2005 & 2014. Heck even City wasted the immediate post-Ferguson years by winning just the one League Cup between 2014 & 2018.

The point is, all of those teams came back.

My other point is that we'd gone for so long winning title after title between 2021 and 2024 that we'd forgotten how it would feel to finish 2nd or 3rd. Turns out, life just carries on, football carries on, and City are still winning the majority of their matches. If we don't win anything this year, life and football will just carry on and City will remain in the mix for major trophies next year. There's no way our current squad is worse than the one we had under Pellegrini at the end, with Fernando, Bony, and Mangala starting almost every week, a broken Demichelis hoping to keep people out at one end and a toothless Navas firing crosses into the first defender at the other end, an ageing Sagna and an overweight Nasri for support. We came back from that pretty quickly and we'll probably come back from this.

Or we won't. Maybe this is the beginning of the end after all. If so, okay. We've had 15 years of dominance and glory. If this is to be the end, we've had a lifetime of memories worth savouring already. On the day of the takeover, if you'd been sat down and told that, before 2025 we'd win 8x Premier League titles (including four in a row), 3x FA Cups, 6x League Cups, 4x Community Shields, 1x Super Cup, 1x Club World Cup, and the fucking European Cup as part of a treble, would you be worrying about the seasons where it didn't quite come together or would you be focusing on celebrating the big wins as much as you could? Point is, we've had more than our share of good days, we'll likely have more good days again, and if we don't have any more good days then you can walk away any time you like, knowing that what you've already witnessed can't be taken away from you.

Great post.