City Are Back: Pep says squad have good vibe and spirit | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola says there is a lot of positivity in the squad as we count down to the start of the 2025/26 season.

The City boss took charge of an open training session at a sold-out Joie Stadium as fans got the chance to watch the men’s and women’s team ahead of the new campaign.

Players took part in a full session before signing autographs and posing for selfies with fans at the City Are Back event, presented by Etihad Airways.

Guardiola spoke to fans after training had finished and said the squad is highly motivated after a tough campaign following a record four title triumphs in a row.

“They love to play football so of course they’re motivated and want to compete with each other to be their best individually and collectively,” he said.

“The expectation at the beginning of the season is always, let’s go and try to do our best, win the first games, get confidence and move forward.

“Every season is the same but at the same time, it’s just continuing what we’ve done for the past decade.

“Of course, we want to try and do better than last season, especially with consistency.

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“You know whenever we start the season, we don’t think how many achievements are we going to get, it’s week by week month by month try to be better and improve our football, because at the beginning it’s always difficult.

“But if we’re in the vibe and spirit we started to create in America at the Club World Cup, hopefully our people will be proud.”

Guardiola is not expecting our rivals to roll over and says City will need to fight hard for any silverware.

“The positivity is there. I’m pretty sure it’ll be good, but it won’t be a red carpet season, there’ll always be problems, it’s how you overcome those situations.

“I would say this club grew up in the last 15, 20 years and are at the top of every competition we play, let’s continue to do it.”

The boss is not setting any targets other than to see his players giving everything and challenging themselves.

“I don’t know,” he said when asked what a successful season would be. “For the people sometimes it’s everything but it depends how we played and how we performed.

“And at the end when the people give good spirit and fight and run and give their best, and after the opponents are always involved, sometimes you can do your best and the opponents are just better.

“It depends on ourselves, this is what we have to try to do. We challenge against ourselves, this is the target for the season.”