By Staff Reporter
MANCHESTER: Manchester City Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is confident the football team will be back competing for the game’s biggest prizes next season after a challenging 2024/25 campaign.
Having enjoyed unprecedented success in recent years, with a glorious Treble in 2022/23 followed up with the completion of a record four Premier League titles in a row, this season City finished with just the Community Shield.
In an interview published by the club’s website, Al Mubarak admitted City slipped below “our usual standards” – but is confident City will be back challenging for silverware next term. He said Manchester City are targeting several new signings this summer – with the aim of revamping Pep Guardiola’s squad before the start of the FIFA Club World Cup on 14 June.
“We will be back,” he said. “This season is a season that’s now behind us. Today is a new day. We start working and preparing for next season.
“And by the way, we’ve been doing that since January. And we will take all the good things and the not so good things from this season and learn from it and improve from it and get better.
“And I can assure you, this Club will do everything possible to come back to the standards that we know we all can achieve and that we know, we will achieve.
“Because really, if there’s one thing I’d like right now, it’s to turn that page from last season and just immediately start focusing on next season.”
The Chairman was in attendance for City’s final game of the season at Fulham, a game that saw City end on a high note with a dominant performance and a 2-0 win.
After the game, the Chairman found time to talk to some of the players, before a meeting with the Club’s directors the following morning to continue their summer transfer planning. And he said he sensed a determination among the players to come back stronger after the short post-season break.
“Everyone I saw after the Fulham game, all the players, they’re excited, they’re excited about coming back,” he said. “Nobody feels good about how we finished the season. They want to come back, and they want to come back hungry. And I can see the hunger. And these players, they want to come back to pre-season. Normally these players are off and they’re starting to think about vacation time. Honestly, every player I spoke to was telling me, you know, we’re coming back. We’re ready to come back in three weeks’ time. I was speaking to Rodri as an example, he’s looking for games. Erling didn’t want to go on vacation. He wanted to stay with the physios and prepare for next season. And that’s the attitude you want. And that’s exactly why you see me so positive.
“We’re going to come back strong, with a lot of positivity. I just got off the phone right now with Ferran [Soriano]. He spent the day with Txiki [Begiristain], Pep [Guardiola] and Hugo [Viana] today, this morning. We finished yesterday evening, our last game. And today, we’re working. Nobody’s going on vacation yet.”
