Pep Guardiola credits Jurgen Klopp with key role in Manchester City summer signing | OneFootball

Manchester City’s new-look backroom staff are offering fresh learning to Pep Guardiola already this season, as the quartet looks to guide the club back to silverware glory.

Guardiola signed a new two-year deal in the midst of a turbulent 2024-25 campaign that will keep him at the Etihad Stadium till the end of the 2026-27 campaign, which will take his Manchester City tenure to over 10 years.

The 54-year-old endured his most challenging season as Manchester City manager last term aa side failed to mount a challenge for the Premier League, crashed out of the UEFA Champions League at the Round of 16 stage and lost the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace.

Former captain Kyle Walker left City to join AC Milan on loan midway through the previous campaign, with injuries across the backline further forcing the club’s hand to spend £181.5 million on Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, Omar Marmoush and Nico Gonzalez in January.

However, Hugo Viana has spearheaded a major summer of changes at the Etihad Stadium after taking the role of director of football, with six first-team signings injecting a veil of much-needed fresh blood into a side that looked desperately short of inspiration last term.

Guardiola would argue however, that change begins on the sidelines, having overhauled his coaching staff following the respective departures(s) of Juanma Lillo, Carlos Vicens and Íñigo Domínguez at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.

Pepijn Lijnders, who previously served as Jurgen Klopp’s right-hand man at Liverpool, has been recruited as Manchester City assistant manager, with Kolo Toure also given a position in the coaching staff after a brief spell managing alongside Guardiola at the FIFA Club World Cup. James French has stepped in as set-piece coach.

Speaking in a new episode of Sky Sports’ ‘One on One’ podcast, Guardiola shed some light on Manchester City’s backroom staff alterations that took place over the summer – and the importance of those changes to him personally.

“Pep (Pepijn) Lijnders, or James (French), or Kolo Toure, they have knowledge that I don’t have, I didn’t have! And they hand it to me and maybe it can help in other things, and all together we can make the team better,” the Manchester City head coach insisted.

Continuing specifically on the former Liverpool assistant manager, Guardiola added: “With Pep (Pepijn) Lijnders, I thought ‘If he’s been many, many years with Jurgen (Klopp), this guy must be good!’.

“Since day one, we (Guardiola and Lijnders) were incredibly connected. I think it’s so easy to work with me, because I give incredible space to do what they believe, and we needed one phone call and I said, ‘Let’s do it! Let’s go together!'”

After making a strong start to their 2025-26 Premier League campaign with a dominant 4-0 victory away at Wolves last week, Manchester City welcome Tottenham to the Etihad Stadium this weekend in much-awaited a return of Premier League action to the blue side of Manchester.