Days after stating that his team will remain the way they are going into the 2024/25 season after the signing of Savinho, Pep Guardiola has offered another hint about potential changes to the squad.
Manchester City have been particularly quiet this summer despite being linked to Real Madrid’s Rodrygo, Dani Olmo and Bruno Guimarães in the last few months. The club, who are dealing with the Premier League’s accusation of breaching financial fair play rules, have made more sales this summer than they have signings. The Spaniard at the helm looks like he will keep the same team that he used to etch his name into English football history as he looks to further extend his record and win a fifth straight Premier League title.
He is currently overseeing the club’s pre-season preparations in the USA and after one of their matches – a 3 – 2 loss to AC Milan – Guardiola interacted with US football fans in a bid to spread the gospel of Manchester City.
One of the fans challenged him with the popular social media opinion that his obsession with systems has cost the world the flair of wingers from eras past as the successes he enjoyed with his “different” wingers have forced many teams to want to replicate it.
Guardiola did not defend himself but instead spoke about two youth players, Oscar Bobb and Hamilton, who have been on the fringes of the City first team. Both are attacking midfielders in the mould of Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva, who Guardiola used as his main wingers in their treble-winning season.
The former Bayern Munich coach hinted that both players could be officially promoted to the City first team ahead of the season, meaning that the club intend to look inward this season for new talent instead of splashing the cash as they are wont to do.
“With Jack and Bernardo they’re different types of wingers, for sure,” said Guardiola. “But if we need another type, of course look at Micah, look at the action he’s done. He arrived, byline, perfect cross and [James McAtee] header.
“Wingers are there to make the process with the ball and dribble one vs one and two vs one, they have to compete with each other. The guys who produce, the more chances they have to play.”
Guardiola is no stranger to using academy youth to strengthen his teams. However, he has not relied much on the academy youths at Manchester City, so his comments suggest a change in the direction of the club amidst what could be a record-breaking season.
