“That ended up costing us” – Khaldoon Al Mubarak admits major regret over Manchester City transfer business | OneFootball

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has conceded that the club should have made a greater effort to overhaul Pep Guardiola’s squad last summer.

City are eyeing four to five first-team signings in the summer after a disappointing 2024-25 campaign that saw the club fail to challenge for the Premier League and UEFA Champions League titles – whilst also losing to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final.

Kevin De Bruyne has been the first major departure from the Etihad Stadium and is set to sign a two-year deal with Napoli after being told he has no future at Manchester City beyond the expiration of his current contract, which expires at the end of June.

Kyle Walker will leave on a permanent basis as he returns from AC Milan and many more outgoings could follow as uncertainty looms over the future(s) of Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Jack Grealish, Ederson and Stefan Ortega Moreno.

Kalvin Phillips is also almost certain to leave permanently after a difficult loan spell at Ipswich Town, who signed the England international for the 2024-25 season last summer and suffered relegation to the EFL Championship.

Manchester City suffered an uncharacteristic, injury-riddled season that saw Pep Guardiola’s hands tied owing to a combination of various factors – major players collectively losing form, recurring injuries to crucial figures across the board and a significant drop off in both boxes.

Reflecting on a difficult 2024-25 campaign in his annual, end-of-season review, Manchester City president Khaldoon Al Mubarak has admitted there are regrets in the boardroom over their failure in addressing certain areas of the pitch last summer.

“When I look back, last summer, we probably should’ve been more aggressive in some of the changes we needed to do. We didn’t do that and that ended up costing us this year,” Al Mubarak said.

Al Mubarak went on to say that Manchester City intend to complete all summer signings ahead of the 2025-26 season in time for the FIFA Club World Cup, where Guardiola’s side will compete in the United States between June and July before beginning their preparations for the 2025-26 campaign.

After withdrawing interest in Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz, Manchester City are stepping up their interest in Lyon’s Rayan Cherki whilst pursuing the signatures of Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White and AC Milan’s Tijjani Reijnders.

Guardiola is also understood to be eyeing a new full-back to replace Walker on the right side of his backline, with Newcastle’s Valentino Livramento and Southampton’s Rayan Ait-Nouri highly rated at the Etihad Stadium.