“Failure is not to lose the league” – Manchester City’s ‘target’ for the new season revealed by journalist | OneFootball

Manchester City hold a very clear target ahead of the new season when compared to how their last campaign panned out, a journalist has claimed.

The 2025-26 Premier League campaign begins on Saturday evening as Pep Guardiola and Manchester City make the trip to the Molineux Stadium to face Wolves, with new signings Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders and James Trafford all set to start.

City finished third in the Premier League last season with 71 points, crashed out of the UEFA Champions League at the Round of 16 stage owing to a 6-2 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid and lost the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace.

After a busy transfer window, Guardiola and co are ready to challenge for a fifth Premier League title in six seasons after failing to mount a genuine fight for the title last term, when they effectively ruled themselves out of the title race in the fall of 2024 owing to their worst spell of league form for 15 years.

A Round of 16 finish at the FIFA Club World Cup does not scream of evident improvement but Manchester City have looked the part since the closing months of the previous campaign, revitalised particularly by the midfield signing of Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan.

Reijnders has been the name of everyone’s lips since his arrival to City, impressing at the Club World Cup in June before netting a brace in a 45 minute cameo in a 3-0 pre-season victory against Palermo in Sicily last week.

The 26-year-old is set to make his first Premier League start against Wolves, with the likes of Cherki, Ait-Nouri and Trafford also in line to play as City search for a strong start to the 2025-26 campaign.

After years of unparalleled success under Guardiola, Manchester City were nowhere to be seen in the title race in the closing months of the previous campaign and after a premature exit from the UEFA Champions League as well, the 54-year-old manager is hopeful of his side staying alive in all competitions come the end of the 2025-26 season.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5Live this week, journalist Guillem Balague revealed of Manchester City, “The target is to compete, to not be dead by January, like last season. ‘To be alive in March,’ they say.”

“Failure is not to lose the league in the last game, but not to compete for it in the last couple of months of the campaign.”

Having parted ways with Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Scott Carson and Jack Grealish (loan) this summer, Manchester City are expected to confirm the departure of James McAtee to Nottingham Forest in the coming days for a deal understood to be worth £30 million.

Guardiola could also witness the departure of 20-year-old academy graduate Rico Lewis, who is also believed to be open to joining forces with McAtee at Forest, who are open to doubling the Englishman’s Manchester City wages as they negotiate a deal with the Blues.