Pep Guardiola reveals he blocked Manchester City from rebuilding his squad in the 2024 transfer market | OneFootball

Manchester City were blocked over conducting a rebuild of their first-team squad in 2024 by manager Pep Guardiola, the Catalan coach has revealed this week.

The latest comments from the legendary City head coach come amid ongoing work from his Etihad Stadium colleagues over a number of big-name arrivals into his first-team squad after a difficult first-half to the season.

Manchester City are expected to bring in as many as four names this month as they look to ensure that the club does not drop off too far below their exceptionally high standards, with a top-four place in the Premier League a minimum target for the rest of the campaign.

Central defensive duo Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis of Lens and Palmeiras respectively will join the club in the coming days, while there is an ongoing negotiation involving Eintracht Frankfurt over Omar Marmoush.

That recruitment drive is likely to be part of a wider squad overhaul and rebuild in 2025, with first-team exits also anticipated in addition to the arrivals that supporters are getting excited about at present.

Speaking during a recent press conference, Pep Guardiola was quizzed on the possibility of Manchester City losing numerous key players in the same summer, as opposed to their staggered approach to big-name exits in the past.

The 53-year-old responded by pointing towards the last summer market in 2024, when he personally blocked the club from conducting too much change at one go, particularly given his confidence in his current group of players.

“In the summer time, the club thought about doing it and I said, ‘No, I don’t want to make any signings. I want to rely on the team, and I want to stay with them’. And just Savio came, (Ilkay) Gundo back – it was unexpected at the end, but he came back,” said Guardiola.

“But just Savio came, because I said I rely a lot with these guys and I thought that still I can do it again, do it again with that guys and do it. But after the injuries, ‘WOW! Maybe we should have done it’, but you never know!

“But I think the team, the squad is really, really good. I had that feeling; central defenders are exceptional, full-backs are exceptional, all the players we had, otherwise we could not achieve what we achieved in RECENT years, not in the four or five or six years ago. Last season!”

But how could this summer differ from previous challenges in his last summer markets as Manchester City manager, given the potential for the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Kyle Walker, and Ilkay Gundogan all to leave the club in one go.

“I don’t know,” said Guardiola. “What is pretty sure right now who we are at the end of the season, maybe they continue all of them! Maybe we’ll stay with absolutely all the players here and add the players that we believe maybe we can do it.

“So at the end of the season is the end of the season. How are we going to decide; the performance of them. That will dictate what we have to do.”